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How JRPGs Waste Players' Time – A Take on Random Encounters

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No matter what you say, modern life is filled with too many worries and too little free time. Some are busy advancing their careers, some with studies, and others are drowning in children and daily life. There is little time for gaming, which means free time needs to be used as productively as possible. However, not all developers agree with this. In an attempt to stretch gameplay time, some developers fill their games with gameplay clutter. By gameplay clutter, I mean a set of mechanics that waste the player’s time unnecessarily. I discussed one such mechanic in the post “How bots cheat in racing games - opinion on the Rubber Banding system”. Then it was about a racing ailment, and today I will tell you about a plague that actively affects JRPGs. Its name is Random encounters.

Random encounters are the most reliable way to squander the player’s time wastefully. Random encounters are skirmishes imposed by the game. You cannot evade them, as such a fight always catches the gamer by surprise. Simply put, the enemy is not visible before the attack, as the attack itself is initiated on an empty location by a script. The abruptness and frequency of such encounters make one ponder the audacity of the developers. The most shameless of developers can force the poor player to engage in random skirmishes almost every ten seconds of gameplay. Each such battle can take several minutes of gameplay time, as the aforementioned battles are turn-based. This grind carries no narrative weight or enjoyment. I do not exclude that the first ten skirmishes might be somewhat interesting, but thereafter follows routine and endless monotony. It has become customary that in Japanese role-playing games, grind is the main source of experience.

However, there are alternative approaches to leveling up. For example, in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, experience is awarded only for completing quests. Moreover, a bloodless method of completing missions earns more experience points. Hence, one of the main distinctions between Eastern (Japanese) role-playing games and Western ones: Westerners treat the player’s time with more respect. While there can be grind in Western RPGs too, it is often optional. There are no forced skirmishes or hidden enemies, allowing you the freedom to decide whether to engage in battle, bypass the enemy, or simply run away. And I believe that is right. Players should have the choice on how to manage their time within the game. After all, not everyone has time for long grinding. Often, it is preferable to choose a shorter game that is filled with a variety of events than to engage in the routine of a JRPG. Yes, yes, in an attempt to escape from the routine of reality, a player may encounter it in the virtual world.

One of the reasons for this is described above — the desire to extend the game’s completion time. The second reason is children. These are the ones with an abyss of free time, and for whom Japanese role-playing games were made for so long. A child does not understand the value of time and willingly spends it on grinding. Only they can find charm in such a silly and time-consuming activity. But games that aspire to be more than just entertainment for children should primarily be attractive to a mature audience. And when it comes to games as a new form of art, they should especially rid themselves of harmful mechanics as atavisms. Fortunately, Japanese role-playing games have made progress in this area.

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I have only played one 'JRPG' (and didn't finish it) — Earthlock. Published and developed by independent Norwegians from Snowcastle Games.

No, I don't play tabletop RPGs on principle.

In Dragon Quest 8, there is a potion that prevents any random encounters for a few minutes, but that's not enough. You have to stock up on these potions on an industrial scale, so I don't consider this a solution to the problem.

>>Reason number two - children. They are the ones with an abyss of free time

I don't see this as a reason. It's more a consequence of the first reason - random battles take time, and children have plenty of it, so they don't particularly mind grinding.

If we're talking specifically about the reasons - why periodic battles are needed, it's a resource management mechanic. During a dungeon crawl, players learn to wisely manage potions and mana for healing spells. Accordingly, they make the decision to push further or turn back, if they feel that the healing won't be enough to reach the end of the dungeon.

However, I do not deny that there is a certain threshold when random battles turn from an additional challenge that enhances gameplay depth into a routine that is rather annoying.

In Dragon Quest 8, there are no interesting events among the random encounters. Although sometimes a unique opponent appears that provides a lot of experience, that’s about it.

I like how this issue was resolved in Fallout 2. There is a naturalist skill that allows you to skip random encounters.
Also, among the random encounters, there are lore-related, unique events.

Have you played something like Dragon Quest 8 or similar? It feels like the game is 95% encounters.
I've never experienced such a level of encounter density in any Western RPG.
Encounters every few seconds. And it seems like enemies just pop out of the ground, as the locations themselves are empty.

Come on, any Western party RPG will have random encounters, though some, like the Obsidian games in Tyranny, have become so greedy that they charge for it (paid DLC with random events, Carl!)!
Maybe it's the difference in the number of encounters?
In Western RPGs, you also don't know who you'll run into when you head into another dungeon - I really don't understand the complaint.