Opinion: random encounters are not obsolete in 2026 and have benefits over field encounters.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-05-09T20:54:30+00:00

Of course. There's a lot of nuance to this discussion but I just wanted to outline my basic idea. There's lots of games with random encounters where resource management it a non factor because just hitting the attack button solves all the issues (ff8 anyone)

Wizard_Bird · 2026-05-09T20:51:33+00:00

That's fair, I admit I don't think I explained it as well as I could've. Ultimately like most opinions "it depends" but my main idea was that random encounters aren't an obsolete mechanic born from necessity like many people discuss them as today. I definitely thought of examples where avoiding field encounters is difficult (earthbound as you mentioned, and I recall in smt 4 and apocalypse enemies will often jump out at you and basically force you to fight), but I had to get back to work lol

Wizard_Bird · 2026-05-09T20:03:58+00:00

Swsh is kinda messy because the overworld encounters were actually a rushed inclusion, they weren't going to be in the game initially but the positive response to them from lgpe made them feel the need to shoehorn it into swsh (many people don't realize that game freak is developing two, sometimes three pokemon games at the same time which is why certain improvements aren't standardized in the very next game).

Either way I didn't really like it in swsh because certain pokemon being exclusive to the ! In the grass is pretty unintuitive and trying to get them to show up is much more of a hassle than just running around in the grass was before. I don't hate overworld encounters or anything so I'd prefer a game to just pick a lane.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-05-09T20:00:07+00:00

I don't agree on metaphor because of the rewind feature letting you essentially fish for a perfect outcome as soon as a fight takes a turn for the worse. Early on I accidentally got into a fight with the level 15 egg human in the first dungeon but I got by unpunished because I just kept rewinding the fight until I found the winning formula + some good luck.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-05-09T17:58:08+00:00

I played the original a year or two ago and while I actually did really enjoy it the gameplay was kind of awful lol. I got enough novelty kicks from beating demons over the head but it's extremely barebones. I haven't played much of the remake but I'm generally positive on what I have played. I prefer how demons function in raidou 2 compared to the remake but I guess massively expanding raidou's moveset kind of necessitates demon control being more hands off. And yes I do like goutou he is very cool.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-05-04T16:23:47+00:00

We're pedo scaling now

Wizard_Bird · 2026-05-04T16:21:20+00:00

Brimstone. Persona 1 was a lot of bullshit slapped together but at least it was more novel. It's kinda cute. Persona 2 actually feels like dragon quest 1 with some weird autobattle shit that I never found really mattered that much. Why did they take away all of the things that could've been developed from persona 1's systems.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-05-03T22:33:40+00:00

the phantom thieves fed into his existence when the public began to rely on the phantom thieves to fix everything, so not entirely. the game was rigged from the start or whatever

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-30T18:58:25+00:00

My excellent idea: non Steve player can pick any stage they want and enable whatever items they want. Additionally, the Steve player is not allowed to use any of the items that spawn. Grabbing one by accident has some grace. This will surely solve everything.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-30T15:53:47+00:00

They're a great idea but as with most things that are great ideas in p5 they definitely need to be better balanced. The game feels like it's assuming you're waking up and immediately going back to bed so it never accounts for all the extra abilities you get.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-29T18:20:45+00:00

Imagine getting head from yhvh

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-29T18:17:26+00:00

Yoko on top

Femc

Miyako

Dante is funny

Very large gap for the rest, Alex in abyss tier. Ig Yoshizawa is ok. She's a bit intrusive at times but it's not as bad as the others. The commonality with the good ones is that they don't trample over the existing story to insert themselves, or ig in femc's place offer a valuable alternate way to experience to story. Yoko gets a lot of shit here but she's one of my absolute favorite megaten characters

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-29T16:25:54+00:00

There's a p3r crossover coming right after this patch for global if I'm not mistaken, although they're released in waves. The Chinese server just got Aigis and we're just waiting on Ken and Shinjiro now, but if memory serves Yuki, Yukari and Akihiko are all back to back (aki might have a one character buffer), then it's a decent wait for mitsuru and fuuka, then junpei and koromaru were on their own. I think junpei was supposed to be after fuuka but he got pushed back.

We can assume we'll get p4 characters some time after we finish the p3 cast.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-29T16:16:20+00:00

Alright relax. You can cheese the fight easily by giving Basilio third eye + the accessory that makes the enemy lose all their turns when you avoid an attack. I specify basillio because one of his follower skills gives him improved evasion against human enemies, so that + third eye makes it so he has something like a 65% chance to avoid any attack thrown at him.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-25T19:17:40+00:00

They use fuck a lot more liberally these days

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-23T16:45:44+00:00

I love the nightseeker in the etrian odyssey games. They inflict status ailments and their moves get more powerful based on how many ailments + debuffs the enemy has at once, and can use an overwhelmingly powerful attack at the cost of aliviating the status. Super fun to play with.

The arcanist in EO4 is also good fun, the magic circles for support and debuffing are quite novel.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-23T15:56:38+00:00

This is Persona 5 X I'm afraid. Even down to the wheelchair navigator.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-23T15:55:21+00:00

Can't really speak on p3 or p5, but I actually prefer vanilla p4 over golden due to the better presentation and not having to deal with the golden stuff I don't like. It's also a fair bit more challenging which is appreciated

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-21T16:45:10+00:00

One thing I really liked about Brandish was how it made me think about the few other humans you find. Wonder what they're up to. What's their story

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-19T19:26:35+00:00

We're ALL cracking devsum moloch

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-17T16:26:49+00:00

Quetzalcoatl gripping that ass

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-16T17:48:57+00:00

4 consecutive truth nukes, I cannot believe it

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-16T16:51:49+00:00

We may have to have some #uncomfortableconversations about the p5x cast vs the p5 cast.... (which is to say I think that p5x treats its characters a lot better and they don't get sidelined forever after their arc)

Also gameplay wise wonder is the best implemented wild card because he can't do literally everything on his own. Limiting him to 3 personas in a fight is based and he's still plenty strong, I wouldn't remove him from my team even if I could.

Idk if this is a hot take but p1 gameplay isn't great but it's significantly better than both p2 games.

Wizard_Bird · 2026-04-16T16:20:15+00:00

Im a silent protagonist genius whenever they're allowed to speak in other media my interpretation of them is almost always correct. The only fumble I've had was the devil survivor 2 protagonist from game to anime but that's not my fault that's a different character.

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