@bj We have the gamecube version, where they fixed the encounter rate
-F
It's better than it was, but I still find it annoyingly high. Getting a White Map to lower it further seems about right.
@bj It'd be nice if they had done the Tales or Dragon Quest thing and had the enemies appear on the overworld, making it possible to dodge them or at least so it doesn't feel so random when they run into you.
-F
I have my own answer to this design problem, but Prism of Dreams is far enough away that I don't know if/when I'll get a chance to use it. What if encounters were voluntary? The idea is that you could just rush through a dungeon and face its boss right away, but if you did that you'd probably be vastly underprepared. If you want to be ready for what the game throws at you, you'll need to hunt down monsters, gather materials, and upgrade your skills and equipment to match.
@Felthry
Do - it's great. I won't defend the weirdly high encounter rate, but there's a lot there to like. There's a lot of its spirit in Delyria too (four of its six colors of magic even match up pretty well).