Do you guys also feel like random encounters in wizardries (only played the first 4, Gaiden, and Renaissance) and wizclones/likes in general are far less grating than in most other games? Regardless of frequency, I can't stand them in, say, SMT, other crawlers in general, Pokémon, Atelier (to a lesser extent), FF, and even sublime doujin games, but don't mind them at all in wiz-style DRPGs. Is this just a me thing? And if not, is it a matter of immersion, enjoyment, expectation, or how much I'm accustomed to a certain formula or aesthetic? Or maybe all of the manual mapping ends up making me play at a much slower pace, to the point I end up not noticing them as much? Just a chill Saturday thought.
>>3878514I was trying to pinpoint myself why I hate random encounters in some games but don't mind or even like them in others. I think it's a combination of factors. First, speed. Depending on which version of Wizardry you're playing, encounters barely even have a transition animation, you're walking, suddenly there's an enemy in front of you, and with little or no animations you finish fast if it's a weak encounter. Compare with something like FF9 where every few steps you might get a whole camera pan animation after the transition to the battle screen, magic animations etc. Another factor is how meaningful the encounters are. If you have resources to manage, if random encounters require you to use spells or do something other than just attack, if you have to decide whether to risk running away or fight a monster that can poison you when you're out of antidotes and so on, I like it. If I'm just mindlessly attacking and occasionally using some sort of cure spell or potion, I hate it, because it feels like a nuisance, like an annoying mosquito instead of actual danger or something to engage with. Lastly, it's about what the game is. If it's something where I'm dying to know what happens next in the plot, or I'm being entertained by dungeon puzzles, it's annoying to have to fight in the middle of it all. But in something like Wizardry, you're there at least partially for the fights in the first place.
>>3878514>maybe all of the manual mapping ends up making me play at a much slower paceThis is probably a significant part of it. I didn't mind random encounters at all while mapping the game out, but if I'm grinding/farming, it gets annoying. It also matters a lot how trivial the fights are, as they other anon mentioned. A random encounter that can drain resources or potentially wipe your party adds to the tension of exploring, which is a lot of what makes Wizardry good. And, importantly, random encounters mean there's some risk to heading back up through an explored area when you're low on spells/HP. If you only got encounters while kicking in doors to guarded rooms, then once you were ready to head back to town, there'd be no risk of encountering any more enemies while backtracking, and all the tension would dissipate. That chance of running into something on the way back through the area you've already cleared is important for the game's exploration loop.It also helps that random encounters are like 1 or 2% per step and otherwise limited to kicking in doors. You're not constantly flooded with them.
Its just how comfortable you are with resources. Lack of mana/SP will make fights dangerous
>>3878531This is pretty close to my take as well. Music and animations are enjoyable sometimes but incur a time cost and that time cost can become a drag.Personally I find the risk/cost to battles can work both ways.Too many meaningless battles turns into a slog.But too high a frequency of punishing, high-risk encounters can also wear on me, especially in an exploration scenario with backtracking.
>>3878514Other question, can you make them not suck?
