I don't have an issue with random battles as such, more the way they're implemented in rpg video games. It's one thing to come across a monster randomly, it's quite another to be forced into a battle scene every other step. I prefer a bit of strategy to the encounter, like in FFXII NWN or Warriors of the Eternal Sun, where the encounter is random, but whether it becomes a battle is entirely up to you.
Ambushes would be fine, of course, because if you're not careful, you deserve to be jumped. But that's not how they're implemented in games as yet. I don't think it's a matter of technology being up to it either; it's just that the random battle has become such a staple of the genre that few developers have thought of doing it any other way. |