/v/ - Video Games

Nope. Not even close.

Phantasy Star 2

Lufia 2 was much better for that in that once you were in dungeons you could actually see the enemies and avoid fights if you really wanted to.

>>16430319

Which is worse?

>>16430348

I've played that and this has it beat. Average fight is every 4 steps in this game.

Is it as bad as Tales of Phantasia (SFC)?

I'd say the worst is the first Shin Megami Tensei. You can get multiple encounters on a single step. Still the best game in the series though.

>>16430497

Tales of Phantasia's encounter rate isn't that bad. A little higher than average but nowhere near something like Breath of Fire 2.

>>16430382

The first Legend of Heroes game did this too. Technically there weren't any random encounters in the over world either but they could seem random since the only way to see the enemies roaming around the over world was if you used a special item. Otherwise you'd just run into them randomly.

>>16430382

More than that, you could stun them and actually get initiative by running into them from the side or the back. It's a pretty great game

>>16430639

Plus all the movement followed simple rules. So once you knew how certain enemies moved you could manipulate and even solve puzzles with them. One of my favourite games. I went back to it a couple years ago and played through it all in the original moon to see how it compared to childhood memories of the English one. Holds up pretty well.

>>16430532

>The first Legend of Heroes game did this too.

Seems to carry over all the way up to Trails in the Sky and so on. Visible enemies in the world really is the best way, I reckon. Fuck random encounters.

>>16430659

> I went back to it a couple years ago and played through it all in the original moon to see how it compared to childhood memories of the English one.

Been meaning to do that for some time now. If only I could cure my fucking burnout

>>16430675

Still better than FF6

>>16430675

That's not event the right game .

>>16433319

I never finished it. I actually contemplated cheating my way to the end but even that seemed like a chore.

I got to the part where the world had gone to shit, your party got split and I was forced to use Kairu (now with magic™) and Isa.

The one party that could cheese every encounter was Nephi + Aurora + whoever thanks to Nephi+Aurora's HP/MP sucking AoE

>>16433504

>I never finished it. I actually contemplated cheating my way to the end but even that seemed like a chore.

You had more sense than me,

Long story short they win, Kairu gets together with Isa, and Aurora gets together with Nephi.

Thats literally the end.

Every battle is an opportunity to get stronger, gain new skills and items, and be more experienced and more efficient for future battles. Unless of course you play a SaGa game, where getting your unprepared shit handed to you is a right of passage. Yes, I am a recent adventurer, and I believe this singular Dullahan fella should cause no worry.

>>16433229

You could avoid most fights, you could even jump over most enemies.

>>16430492

Ten steps, not four. And the average fight in PS2 can kill your whole crew. Lufia seldom boasts pain like that.

>>16430659

>>16430639

>Reminder that Squeenix took one of the best RPGs to grace console, labotomized the story, pumped it full of shitty cutscenes, raped the battle system into a hand-me-down of KH bullshit, and had the guts to act surprise when it tanked at home as well as across the pond

>Reminder that Squeenix is never to be trusted.

>>16433319

I think the encounter rate was what did that game in for me. I don't recall fellow DS throwback JRPG Nostalgia having that issue (though it instead had harsh difficulty spikes at every change in elevation, but those eventually got manageable with better ship parts and abilities), so I suppose at least some people in Japan figure that imbalanced encounter rates are something that can be culled, but the Fucking Leaves that made Black Sigil must have thought it a key feature of the era being hearkened back to. I am fucking shocked at how much Black Sigil goes for these days; that game is not an experience worth $85+ complete. Fuck, if I remember correctly, whoever did the box art and manual apparently didn't have high res image files to use; character art and such looked upscaled and blurry.

Oh well, BS killed Studio Archcraft to my knowledge, while Matrix Software and Red Entertainment are alive and kicking (and the former making ratings boards and SCEA screech).

>>16430532

>>16430497

Worth noting that the PS1 remake of Tales of Phantasia took the encounter rate into consideration and reduced it, almost too much if you ask me since there were points I was actively having to hunt for shit to fight, be it to get stronger or even progress (fucking basilisks). Eternia seemed to take that into consideration too, and has a middle ground between the two, which is nice because the combat is also a lot more fast paced and fun.

>>16430659

>I went back to it a couple years ago and played through it all in the original moon to see how it compared to childhood memories of the English one. Holds up pretty well.

How accurate would you say Natsume's English script was in comparison?

>>16430675

But anon FFII on SNES was notoriously easy.

>>16430027

>Lufia high encounter rate.

That is what sweet water is for. Dragon Quest had a similar item called Holy water and Shin Megami Tensei had a Sealing Bell to avoid lower level enemies. Most old JRPG's have an item to avoid encounters. IIRC Breath of Fire 1 had a pretty bad encounter rate but didn't have any consumables to avoid fights.

>you will never be there with Lufia eating cinnamon pie

Why even live?

>>16437396

According to what I'm seeing in the accrediting listed on mobygames, Curse of the Sinistrals was still Neverland co-developed, with Square's involvement seeming to be more in the way of QA, character design, marketing, community, etc, as opposed to much actual gameplay or writing. I wouldn't put it past Square-Enix to have been exerting sway as the one funding the game to make changes to appeal to a "modern audience" though. It would seem the guy responsible for the scenario writing itself was still the same as with the SNES and GBC Lufia games. Checking his page though, it also lists that he was later a planner for fucking Sticker Star as well, so maybe that says something of its own.

>>16437786

>Most old JRPG's have an item to avoid encounters.

Or an outright mechanic, like the Encounter Skip in Wild Arms 2, 3, and ACF, or earning the ability to disable further encounters in a dungeon or even overworld continent in 4 and 5 once you got far enough to beat an optional tough encounter within. Personally I preferred the incarnation in 3 and ACF, where there was a clear cost to skipping, which could be reduced as you acquired a higher migrant level through progression. Said cost allowing for scouting the area you were in as to if the enemies were apt to be out of your current league without actually fighting them, and eventually low level areas would get a zero cost, letting you backtrack through them battle free.

it

>>16437786

Sweet water barely has an affect in the places where encounters are really overboard (towers/caves.) Since the game is 99% fetch quests within fetch quests within fetch quests all going to towers and caves that makes sweet water basically useless.

>>16437841

I wouldn't know; BoF II's still on my backlog.

>>16437841

Never heard of being able to manipulate the encounter rate with it. To my knowledge all it does is say if there are enemies or not in an area.

All I know about Lufia is that the intro is extremely long. I was switching off with friends and we played for 30 minutes apiece, and by the end of the intro my turn was halfway done. Maybe I am remembering wrong, it has been awhile.

This hack doesn't address encounter rates but at least it makes you almost invincible

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/834/

>>16437841

Never used it to skip encournters. There wasn't a mechanic for that. But then, even item names were hastily and badly translated, so there's no telling if there was a Drop Encounter item. The enemy doll pointed to, as i recall, was entirely useless. And then there was the utter misery of farming certain groups of enemies toward endgame if you wanted the really, really good weapons. Fuck the Goo King Sword.

>>16437836

It's not like I'll ever forgive Neverland either for allowing that trash fire of a hipster sequel that shat all over the best game in the franchise. That was the first RPG I ever returned to the store, I was so pissed off at what it became. EVERYTHING about that game sucked.

JRPGs aren't RPGs.

>>16438323

Why aren't they?

>>16437786

BoF 1 did have an item to avoid encounters (the "Mrbl3" on that disgusting translation) and it 100% avoided any encounter for 127 steps so you would just stockpile half your inventory with those. Was annoying having to open the inventory all the time to renew it though

>>16438272

There was an accessory in Bof2 (HolySF) that is said to reduce encounter rate, but I never saw much of a difference with it. The little monster in the menu does indeed tell you the encounter rate of the area with his movements, but I don't think you can manipulate it. Also farming for unnecessary rare drops is always miserable in any game so that doesn't count.

>>16438542

No transsexual romance options. No cuckolding with a strong black bull. No hamfisted Trump metaphors.

>>16438542

No choices that matter, PC isn't an avatar, can't kill anyone in the game. Leveling up doesn't make a game an RPG.

>>16438876

>no choices that matter

This disqualifies the majority of WRPGs, and isn't true for every JRPG.

>PC isn't an avatar

This disqualifies the majority of WRPGs, and isn't true for every JRPG.

>can't kill anyone in the game.

Blatantly false.

>Leveling up doesn't make a game an RPG

No, but neither does having a handful of dialogue choices and a handful of endings. No video game is a true RPG by the strictest definition and none of them come even close. This attitude against JRPGs is the highest of hypocrisy.

>>16438323

No one cares, queerhole.

When people complain about random encounters what they are really complaining about is not enjoying battles. IE they do not enjoy the game to begin with.

These are the 'storyfags' that ruined gaming and they can fuck right off.

>>16438323

JRPGs are the only RPGs.

>>16439020

This.

>>16439020

But what if you're trying to solve puzzle gameplay in a dungeon and the fights interrupt/don't mesh with it?

>>16439020

Absurd. Fighting the same trash enemies 100 times while on your way somewhere and being pissed about it doesn't mean you didn't enjoy any of the battles before or after. Stop making excuses for excessive encounters.

>>16439020

I can kind of see where they're coming from. Even the best battle system can become tiresome after awhile. Eventually you figure out the best way to beat every type of enemy and most fights just turn into repeating the same patterns over and over again. A good way to get past this is to keep introducing new enemy types before the player gets too used to the previous ones, but the point where that happens is different for each player. No matter what though, having a high encounter rate is going to speed up the process.

>>16439124

It's almost like random encounters with non-threatening enemies are a fundamentally flawed gameplay mechanic.

>skies of arcadia

>great travel music

>encounter every 30 seconds

Just

At least you could avoid them at some point by flying above the clouds. Fuck I should play that game again.

>>16438963

Videogames are just RPG themed videogames, not actual RPGs. We don't have perfect AI. A true RPG vidya is a pipedream.

>>16439214

Skies of Arcadia is odd in that the encounter rate in the over world is much higher than in dungeons. It's usually the other way around.

I use Sweet Water to repel monsters and the encounter rate isn't that bad to my memory.

>>16433779

Yeah, that was pretty much what I expected. I would have finished it if they didn't force me not to use the OP Nephi+Aurora combo. The part that made me suffer the most was having to use only Rogurd and Nym in that one dungeon.

>>16437754

Black Sigil was supposed to be a GBA game. They made a half-ass job with the NDS port and tried to add as much fluff as they could to cover the top screen so no one would notice. The problem is, most of it was useless or didn't work (like that monster appraisal meter)

>>16438963

>This disqualifies the majority of WRPGs

No shit. RPGs have been extremely rare since the early 2000s.

>>16437841

I did like the one dungeon where you could kill off enemies in an area and the encounter rate would drop down to zero.

>>16437841

There was items that increased/lowered encounter rate. sleeping means 0% chance, the speed and colour would let you know how high the rate is. There's also fused Stens ability to just change the battle into a different mob if you just want to avoid a particular mob too.

>>16437754

>I am fucking shocked at how much Black Sigil goes for these days; that game is not an experience worth $85+ complete

Thats $85 bucks too many, you can't pay me to play this game again

>>16439727

You didnt miss anything it ended as it began a complete disappoint.

>>16440283

See, what I really don't get is, even disregarding the game's outright quality, I've heard Black Sigil sold better than Nostalgia, and Nostalgia is considered the better of the two but goes for a lot less, so who in the fuck is dropping that much money on a LeafRPG?

>>16439952

>since the early 2000s

Morrowind doesn't qualify either.

>>16431809

hipster contrarian faggot detected. FF6 is the best FF of the SNES era and the best ATB gameplay of all FF if you don't count FFX-2

>>16440107

but those systems wheren't in BOF1 irrc?

>>16441849

>best

<schizophrenic pacing due to how many times it switches focus between characters

<most of the characters are lame

<the villain is incredibly lame

<aside from the main theme most of the music ranges from mediocre to bland

<gameplay has terrible balance

<esper gimmick introduced too late

<early half of the game plods along barely getting anywhere

<game is mostly shades of brown with occasional green

<lacks a real main character

<half the characters work in retarded ways like with swordtech's wait for turn and to use swordtech and then wait longer for the swordtech to fill up before you can use it using two turns to do one character's attack

No, it is extremely overrated. FFIV and V are way better in every department except graphics.

>>16442365

FFV isn't the best and VI isn't even above III. VI is the definitive hipster choice almost entirely due to its overrated villain a nihilistic clown that gets god powers because everyone else was more retarded than him. The main cast had dozens of chances to kill him off.

The gameplay aspect of VI is even worse than the plot.

>>16442377

>FFV isn't the best

objectively false

>>16442388

It isn't Tactics, so it can't be the best.

>>16442388

FFV's only redeeming factor is the job class system. The plot and characters are stupid. Job classes almost make that irrelevant, but the plot impedes the ability to enjoy those job classes. FFVI suffers from a similar thing due to plot where in it often you are stuck playing three different parties in entirely different areas forcing you to use character classes you do not like. FFV instead just limits you on available classes or makes most of the classes available irrelevant. FFV is still way way better than VI though.

>>16442395

This anon got the correct answer.

>>16442557

>your opinion doesn't align with my shit taste so its wrong

>>16442406

FFV may not be the very best FF for you but it's the most replayable one, specially if you roll random classes. Who the fuck cares about plot beyond the first playthrough anyway, it's just wacky shit and does its job as an excuse plot, at least it has less cringe than FF4.

I wonder if we'll ever have a randomizer for it.

>>16442344

Son of a submariner, you'll pay for this!

The only FF that's overrated is VIII. Wat a steaming pile of manure.

>>16444124

I don't think you know what the term overrated means.

>>16444124

VIII was shit, imagine binging 1-7 then having to play through that garbage. Kept an open mind till i got the airship then I stopped.