Post

shweep
@shweep.dev

The pain points of random battles are less about the random battles themselves and moreso ps1 rpgs shifting away from exploration/survival and expecting you to fight trivial battles inbetween solving a puzzle that requires looking at the dungeon layout for more than 5 sec-*random battle flash*-

Sgt M@sgtm.bsky.social

Game design meme for me and maybe three other people on this site.

5 reposts16 likes

DVD Player
@dvd-player.bsky.social

The major pain point for me always has had to do with the unexpected interruption. So often it’s just a combat jumpscare that yanks you away from what you were otherwise doing, and I’ve never enjoyed that.

shweep
@shweep.dev

In dragon quest 1 every battle costs you something youll eventually have to turn back, but the question is when? and can you squeeze out just enough exp before going back? A lot of RPGs just don't actually do this lol and theres sometimes a disconnect when people blame them

shweep
@shweep.dev

I dont think the average gen x annoyed gamer channel is completely lying when they say "random battles are annoying" as an end user experience data point but most design problems are an enigma of scaffolding than any one mechanic.

shweep
@shweep.dev

Touch encounters are usually worse because they are very hard to do right. If ambushing is too important than the whole game revolves around character hitbox tag than the battles themselves. If they are easy to avoid than that can lead to hard boss fights OR it wont matter and its all pointless

nion✨
@nion.moe

(Re)playing earthbound lately has me thinking about this. I quite like the ambush encounter system in it since it synergises with weaker enemies running away. The ability to avoid a lot of encounters by exploiting offscreen despawning at least makes it a conscious effort to avoid encounters.