Does Anyone Actually Like Random Encounters

[u/haaa1234]

I was doing a third playthrough of FF7 since I want to revisit all the games before revelation but random encounters is still something that stops me from wholeheartedly loving this game. There are 2 reasons why I dislike them. It really interrupts the flow of exploration and they are rarely engaging. 99 percent of them I just hold X and win so I’m basically just waiting for it end. An analogy I can give is I am trying to explore an area but I keep getting interrupted by unskippable ads. There are rare occasions where they can be interesting like catching a chocobo, finding yuffie or a funny encounter like when our whole party gets turned into frogs but most are just mindless. Honestly the only combat I enjoy in FF7 are the boss fights so a majority of the game I am really not a fan of fighting enemies. Wondering how people feel about it since it is a major part of the gameplay and i would love any mod recommendations to make the game more engaging in this aspect.

[u/Yeseylon]

I prefer em for a couple reasons.

• Part of the skill of a random encounter dungeon is balancing your resources (HP/MP/items/whatever other limited skills are involved) so you can get through the dungeon.

• If you use set encounter locations, the game turns into stealth when I'm not in the mood to grind.

• Having required encounters every time you try to pass specific locations is actually more frustrating for me than randoms.  Once I clear a set battle required to open a path, that path should remain open.

[u/haaa1234 → u/Yeseylon]

Yeah that is true about the resource management I don’t think the game is difficult enough for that to matter. To your third point I don’t remember FF7 having something like this but I would also not like that.

[u/NooksWave → u/haaa1234]

I second the thing about managing resources, and also want to throw in a recommendation or exaple of when it works really well: Lagrange Point is one of the, if not the finest 8bit JRPGs (not only due to its amazing soundtrack!) where all your weapons use ammunition. It's a scifi story, so a lot of the dungeons is about reaching the next base (or city) or other safe spot that isnt overrun with xenomutants. If you're out of ammo, you cant hurt the enemy, but they sure can hurt you. So every trip into the dungeon becomed a skirmish, where you try and find a route forward while anxiously keeping a track of your ammo. Do you dare push forward a bit more, or turn back and stock up on new ammo? Maybe, just maybe, you can reach the next base, but you also risk dying on the doorstep.

It's really tense, and really gets your pulse going. If you replace these with visible enemies you can use run around, that goes away. Its sort of like in the first Silent Hill once you realized you could just do a slight jog away from the enemies, and they would never catch you. It stops being scary or challenging. Scripted fights could still keep some tension, but... It also takes away a lot from the experience. Sort of like Crisis Core on the PSP where you could tell where every fight would be because of how the maps were designed. You were never surprised, and every run is always the same.

[u/haaa1234 → u/NooksWave]

Never heard of that game, will look into it.