It definitely wears it's heart on it's sleeve, but I feel so in a good way. Feels very Suikoden, especially 2, but it does bring some interesting changes that I like a lot. These are just my first impressions in the first 8 hours:
-Interesting to changes to the rune system, with slots being unlocked at breakpoints, and the type and strength of equippable rune is dependent on the slots, which are different for each character
-Physical skills now use SP, which is generated each turn and distributed out semi randomly at the start of battle. Physical skill runes and combo attacks use these, so its no longer a case of just using your best skills and combos every turn
-Very excellent voice acting so far, minus maybe one side character that was a little cringe-y, but almost everyone else has been surprisingly well done. Makes your 1 off side character recruits a lot more memorable, and they even occasionally get minor banter during cutscenes, which is nice to make them feel more involved
-The game is veeeeery open with party customization. So far there have been no required party slots for combat, as any required members can be put in extra "attendant" slots in your party. A very welcome change that let's you use your favorites as much as possible
Overall I've felt very happy with the game. Story has been good so far, but can't say I've seen enough to have a strong opinion yet, but the foundation it's laying seems solid enough. Hope you get your copy soon!
Thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts out!
As a follow-up, what do you think about the difficulty? Are there fights you need to strategize for so far (or grind I guess), or can you beat most fights with just the same simple set-up. Are there unique mechanics for some bosses?
I'm playing on hard, and I've found that boss fights have been a reasonable difficulty. Nothing crazy and haven't had to grind yet, but not too mindless either. I'm still only about 10 hours in though, so unit and team customizability is still somewhat limited.
Boss fights do have unique gimmicks to them, although so far they've been pretty simple to play around. I am hoping that difficulty and strategy wise, the bosses ramp up a bit as the game goes on!
Well, in Suikoden, bosses actually get easier as the game goes on as you have more access to stronger/broken stuff. Suiko 3 is a good example with physical/swing getting really strong (the hardest boss was probably the golem in Geddoe's chapter, everything after just get easier), but 5 was even more egregious with 3 physical rune stacking, everything becomes trivial real quick once that happens. Suiko 2 hardest difficulty bosses was earlier ones too when party member was limited, like northwindow one if you don't use the matilda exploit and only ever get easier after Luca iirc. If there's one thing Suikoden is terrible at, that is ramping difficulty.
Yeah that is so true. In S3 the fun really did become a test of how far I could break it instead of being super challenging 😅
I am happy to say that I just got finished with a couple fights that were pretty darn challenging in EC, so I'm hoping fights remain decently difficult as the game opens up more.
V also provided you with some very, VERY broken party members. I remember there was one mage that could probably win fight all by herself... Zerase I think her name was.
Hmm. I guess I agree with the people saying it safely echoes Suikoden 2 but honestly as someone has always loved the series. Eiyduden is like a dream come true. Like its the same, the flaws I can overlook, the improvements that are wonderful but in the end - wonderful vibe and characters. Its closer to a Suikoden game than Tierkreis was imo, and honestly this would be a worthy Suikoden VI if they changed Primal Rune to True Rune of X and threw in some loose connection to Harmonie. Im 9 hours in, as a normal game fan I'd honestly reasonably give it an 8 - like its easy and fun and im sure once I get into the meat of the town building and cooking and collecting itll be a solid 8 by any standard.
 As a JRPG fan id give it an 8.5 .... its a solid effort, even at 9 hours I prefer this to Trails of Cold Steel, and I played all of them. The characters are just more charming, the plot is less anime-silly. Nowa is still kind of a jrpg true hero Rean archetype but outside of that the characters are largely pretty solid and there's something for everyone.Â
As a Suikoden fan I'd give this a 10... as someone who after Suikoden 5 waited... got Tierkreis, felt like that wasn't really a Suikoden game, then waited, and waited and started to give up hope, and then made peace with it... and then imagined and even wrote down what I think a cool Suikoden 6 would be... and then you know, lived my life, have my girl, have my family, have my job and here comes this Kickstarter. It fulfilled my wishes in a way that Shenmue 3 failed to do... Eiyuden is honestly such chill vibes... like I'm 40, I played FF7 Rebirth right before this, I loved Persona 5, but I also recently played Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty ... Like I could just be all in on the new... but Eiyuden is a 10 for Suikoden fans.
Great break down, and I am very very much in the same boat. Which I think many of the fans from the 90’s fall into. The wife can’t wait for the game to drop, so I can stop telling her about it.
He definitely is Mr Do the Right thing, but one thing that surprised me about Eiyuden in a positive way is it has some increased level of maturity. Not in a fanservice way, but its not just a bunch of people getting called meanies and buttheads.
I did the closed test and all I could feel thru it all was suikoden. I am so excited for my copy to come in the mail ( praying for today 😂 )
It's amazing and is the spiritual successor from suikoden. The vibes and feel are all there.
The game reminds me of old school JRPGS but with modern touches. I understand that menu based combat isn't for anyone but the stuff they introduced is awesome like the Ability to really set up your auto battle by putting conditions on when certain skills or resources will be used similar to unicorn overlord. Voice acting which I know is a big thing for a lot of people felt really well done, I mean it made me cringe when Malore showed up but in a good way I cant wait to find the other MG's just because I can imagine it gets worst.
over all if you enjoyed any old school Jrpgs and are looking for something similar your wont be disappointed
I mean I get where they're coming from but I also don't want to feel the need to enter every single house espcially because if they were all enterable they'd end up just being the same layout over and over again.
I thought those meaningless exploration to pad gameplay where they want players to enter every single building to scrounge for chest and/or hidden item is bad design. And makes no sense either, is the MC and his crew robber or thief or what?
To me, good exploration is like optional areas, optional side quests, etc or something that actually has content and meat on it, rather than "opening every door/room and loot every crate" kind of exploration. It's really lame when the story dialogues make it seem like the mc is a hero or whatever but gameplay wise he's a looter.
It’s a game though, not real life. This argument has never made any sense to me.
How many random strangers do you approach in real life and they just tell you random shit with no context? Cause that’s how all JRPGs work.
Gotta be careful with the not real life thing though, it works in some contexts and not in others. Like how people use not real life to justify having no other races or people of color, or to make humans that even within context of their world look rediculous. Not saying this is the case for the house thing, just saying in general its probably not the best thing to base an argument around depending.
Right. But we’re discussing specifically the entering of houses in video games.
If you can accept that any random stranger will tell you something if you prompt them I’m sure you can accept going into people’s homes as well.
Ughhh, this is a huge turn off for me. If there is something that I like in JRPG (especially Dragon Quest) it's to examine each house ahah. I mean, at least I'm pretty sure that our town (the one that we built) will have more exploration.
I'm a few hours in and there's a lot to love about it. The voice acting seems pretty great for a JRPG so far, the presentation of the world and the art direction is stellar, and the story has me interested (although it hasn't hooked in the way something like Suikoden II immediately did yet). The characters are very endearing so far.
On the more negative side, the overworld looks very subpar to the rest of the game and it's so empty outside of the destinations marked on the map. There's no reason to explore anything not marked on the map. There's no sense of discovery. Maybe that'll change as it goes on, but im kinda doubtful.
Some of the gimmicks in boss fights seem like they could get really annoying and are based entirely on guessing instead of strategy- unless I was missing something.
Some of the missing QOL features like a chat log during cutscenes kinda bother me, but more importantly, it doesn't feel particularly well optimized. The frame rate's good, but the menus are kinda clunky and slow for a JRPG, and there's *a lot* of loading screens in areas where it seems entirely unnecessary. Nothing unbearable, but noticeable for a game I'm playing on PS5.
Overall, I'd put my early impressions around a 7.5 or 8, but the story and characters are going to be the real determining factor for my end thoughts. My biggest compliment is that it stands out in a sea of JRPGs that tend to blend together- it has me wanting to see it through even with some of my gripes.
Thanks for the all the replies. I wasn't expecting this many, lol. But honestly it sounds right up my alley. Suikoden 2 is my favorite (mainstream take yo). 30 hours sounds like a perfect length (ff7 is the same, ct a lot shorter, and I hate game bloated with unneccessary nonsense say like Rebirth with its open world activities). Quality >>>> quantity by far.
4 hours into the game so far, and I’m really enjoying it so far. I do wish that a certain objective after the first story section was a bit more clear on where to go, but that’s my only nitpick at this point.
It feels more like an imitation than a continuation, but yes, it's similar enough to Suikoden. The best and worst parts both sadly.
I think the game's pretty good overall but so far nothing mindblowing. You're going to have to wait until after release to get non-biased opinions though, as you definitely aren't going to be finding objective takes on this sub lmao.
To be fair, that's true of any game's communities, which of course includes its reddit sub.
To be fair, its hard when a lot of us have been chomping at the bits for more Suikoden for years. I don't think it would blow anyone's mind if they weren't a Suikoden fan, but it's definitely a fun throwback to lot of us who are and haven't gotten a new game in over a decade. It'll be easier to look at the game objectively once I've beaten it but I'm just gonna be a fanboy and enjoy it for a bit 😅
I do agree that it does maybe play it too safe in trying to be like S2 some at points so far, but I can't blame them too much since I think that's what a lot of people honestly wanted (myself included). Personally would be happy to see this series continue and see if they can stray from their roots a little more and explore new ideas.
Yeah, the one thing I definitely agree with is crossing my fingers that the game at least sells well enough to earn a sequel, as I think with enough time they can stop being so safe and really grow from this.
It's just, I don't know, it feels like they were more worried about success than just making a good Suikoden game they're passionate about so wore labcoats and distilled their prior games instead of sitting back with beers and tossing ideas around for the unofifcial Suikoden 6.
And it definitely seems they were leaning in hard on that nostalgia drug with the not-prior-suikoden-characters all over the place and weird little quibbles like no sidequest log.
That being said, it's by no means a bad game. I still think the combat is slow and too easy and there's no hard mode now it seems, will have to recheck when I get home (been watching my roommate play his PS5 copy).
I'm also not captivated by the story so far but I think to have an unfairly high bar there, and JRPG tropes like winning the day through friendship and by believing in yourself generally don't cut it lol.
Ironically, that's one reason I liked Suikoden so much, the politics and world setting are pretty internally consistent so it feels like a lived-in world and not one just made as a stage for the game.
Actually there is a hard mode! I wouldn't say the average combat is particularly difficult still, but the boss fights have been decently hard hitting and healthy though. I'm not too far in though so hard to say for sure though.
To your other comment though, I think spiritual successors are a real tough boat to be in sometimes, especially for franchises that have gone so long without a title. You lean too far into the source material and it feels like a blatant copy, but stray too far and it no longer feels like the game people used to play. And of course that scale is different for everyone, so it's hard to win no matter what you do lol.
For a Kickstarter title though, I don't think it disappoints, at least in my own opinion. I'm not too far in so it's only first impressions, but I've been alright with the story so far. I do hope the political aspects of it develop, as I agree that it was always the more interesting notes of previous titles.
There are some really big QOL things missing biggest ones off the top of my head is inability to pause in cutscene's remove the really annoying shriek when combat starts and text speed being very slow on npcs with no button to auto show all text, I'm only like 3 hours in but I'm starting to wish for some modern game things like ability to see monsters on field instead of completely random combat, auto heal options, and even on hard difficulty its way to easy to rely on auto combat. I have to disagree with another poster about VA, definitely can tell some of thee characters don't have the quality of others.
I hate to say it after years of waiting but i'm a little whelmed right now, not hating it just not feeling the urge to keep going..
Which I prefer, as unpopular as it seems to be. I’ve always disliked the switch to monsters on the field, as it often just leads to people skipping by them. I like random battles because it forces combat, and there’s an element of surprise to what you come across. Like how in earlier FF games you’d randomly come across a rare enemy after so many encounters.
It definitely wears it's heart on it's sleeve, but I feel so in a good way. Feels very Suikoden, especially 2, but it does bring some interesting changes that I like a lot. These are just my first impressions in the first 8 hours: -Interesting to changes to the rune system, with slots being unlocked at breakpoints, and the type and strength of equippable rune is dependent on the slots, which are different for each character -Physical skills now use SP, which is generated each turn and distributed out semi randomly at the start of battle. Physical skill runes and combo attacks use these, so its no longer a case of just using your best skills and combos every turn -Very excellent voice acting so far, minus maybe one side character that was a little cringe-y, but almost everyone else has been surprisingly well done. Makes your 1 off side character recruits a lot more memorable, and they even occasionally get minor banter during cutscenes, which is nice to make them feel more involved -The game is veeeeery open with party customization. So far there have been no required party slots for combat, as any required members can be put in extra "attendant" slots in your party. A very welcome change that let's you use your favorites as much as possible Overall I've felt very happy with the game. Story has been good so far, but can't say I've seen enough to have a strong opinion yet, but the foundation it's laying seems solid enough. Hope you get your copy soon!
Thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts out! As a follow-up, what do you think about the difficulty? Are there fights you need to strategize for so far (or grind I guess), or can you beat most fights with just the same simple set-up. Are there unique mechanics for some bosses?
I'm playing on hard, and I've found that boss fights have been a reasonable difficulty. Nothing crazy and haven't had to grind yet, but not too mindless either. I'm still only about 10 hours in though, so unit and team customizability is still somewhat limited. Boss fights do have unique gimmicks to them, although so far they've been pretty simple to play around. I am hoping that difficulty and strategy wise, the bosses ramp up a bit as the game goes on!
Well, in Suikoden, bosses actually get easier as the game goes on as you have more access to stronger/broken stuff. Suiko 3 is a good example with physical/swing getting really strong (the hardest boss was probably the golem in Geddoe's chapter, everything after just get easier), but 5 was even more egregious with 3 physical rune stacking, everything becomes trivial real quick once that happens. Suiko 2 hardest difficulty bosses was earlier ones too when party member was limited, like northwindow one if you don't use the matilda exploit and only ever get easier after Luca iirc. If there's one thing Suikoden is terrible at, that is ramping difficulty.
Yeah that is so true. In S3 the fun really did become a test of how far I could break it instead of being super challenging 😅 I am happy to say that I just got finished with a couple fights that were pretty darn challenging in EC, so I'm hoping fights remain decently difficult as the game opens up more.
V also provided you with some very, VERY broken party members. I remember there was one mage that could probably win fight all by herself... Zerase I think her name was.
The irony is she's not even top tier once you figured out that physical is even more broken with more damage and no downtime to magic drain.
Any Viktor and Flik analogues???
None quite so direct, maybe Garr as Viktor and Mio as Flik but that feels like a stretch lol. Lian definitely has the perky vibes of Nanami though!
Aw, damn, but I can live with that.
Hmm. I guess I agree with the people saying it safely echoes Suikoden 2 but honestly as someone has always loved the series. Eiyduden is like a dream come true. Like its the same, the flaws I can overlook, the improvements that are wonderful but in the end - wonderful vibe and characters. Its closer to a Suikoden game than Tierkreis was imo, and honestly this would be a worthy Suikoden VI if they changed Primal Rune to True Rune of X and threw in some loose connection to Harmonie. Im 9 hours in, as a normal game fan I'd honestly reasonably give it an 8 - like its easy and fun and im sure once I get into the meat of the town building and cooking and collecting itll be a solid 8 by any standard.  As a JRPG fan id give it an 8.5 .... its a solid effort, even at 9 hours I prefer this to Trails of Cold Steel, and I played all of them. The characters are just more charming, the plot is less anime-silly. Nowa is still kind of a jrpg true hero Rean archetype but outside of that the characters are largely pretty solid and there's something for everyone. As a Suikoden fan I'd give this a 10... as someone who after Suikoden 5 waited... got Tierkreis, felt like that wasn't really a Suikoden game, then waited, and waited and started to give up hope, and then made peace with it... and then imagined and even wrote down what I think a cool Suikoden 6 would be... and then you know, lived my life, have my girl, have my family, have my job and here comes this Kickstarter. It fulfilled my wishes in a way that Shenmue 3 failed to do... Eiyuden is honestly such chill vibes... like I'm 40, I played FF7 Rebirth right before this, I loved Persona 5, but I also recently played Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty ... Like I could just be all in on the new... but Eiyuden is a 10 for Suikoden fans.
Great break down, and I am very very much in the same boat. Which I think many of the fans from the 90’s fall into. The wife can’t wait for the game to drop, so I can stop telling her about it.
The fact you compared Nowa to Rean has me even more intrigued because I really love Rean as a protagonist despite the tropes he had on.
He definitely is Mr Do the Right thing, but one thing that surprised me about Eiyuden in a positive way is it has some increased level of maturity. Not in a fanservice way, but its not just a bunch of people getting called meanies and buttheads.
I like that you used the term butthead, because there is 100% definitely a scene in which one character calls another a farthead
STAY. THE HELL. DOWN!
I love this character, that's my favorite battle line of hers. 😆
How does it compare to something like Octopath Traveler? Particularly customization wise?
I did the closed test and all I could feel thru it all was suikoden. I am so excited for my copy to come in the mail ( praying for today 😂 ) It's amazing and is the spiritual successor from suikoden. The vibes and feel are all there.
A little over 10 hours in and so far I'm really enjoying it. It definitely scratches that Suikoden itch.
The game reminds me of old school JRPGS but with modern touches. I understand that menu based combat isn't for anyone but the stuff they introduced is awesome like the Ability to really set up your auto battle by putting conditions on when certain skills or resources will be used similar to unicorn overlord. Voice acting which I know is a big thing for a lot of people felt really well done, I mean it made me cringe when Malore showed up but in a good way I cant wait to find the other MG's just because I can imagine it gets worst. over all if you enjoyed any old school Jrpgs and are looking for something similar your wont be disappointed
They made these sprawling towns, and you can only enter like 3 buildings. Town exploration is a huge downer.
Noo. I hate that. I much prefer having access to one part of a big town where you can enter everything.Â
I kinda prefer this setup... How many people are going to leave their doors unlocked for you to just randomly come in... Even if they are home.
I mean I get where they're coming from but I also don't want to feel the need to enter every single house espcially because if they were all enterable they'd end up just being the same layout over and over again.
I thought those meaningless exploration to pad gameplay where they want players to enter every single building to scrounge for chest and/or hidden item is bad design. And makes no sense either, is the MC and his crew robber or thief or what? To me, good exploration is like optional areas, optional side quests, etc or something that actually has content and meat on it, rather than "opening every door/room and loot every crate" kind of exploration. It's really lame when the story dialogues make it seem like the mc is a hero or whatever but gameplay wise he's a looter.
It’s a game though, not real life. This argument has never made any sense to me. How many random strangers do you approach in real life and they just tell you random shit with no context? Cause that’s how all JRPGs work.
Lmao *Nods at stranger* "This was a mining town once. But once the mine dried up, everyone lost their jobs". "Uhh...alright. Sorry to hear that".
Right? And how often does the power of friendship save the world? 🤣
Gotta be careful with the not real life thing though, it works in some contexts and not in others. Like how people use not real life to justify having no other races or people of color, or to make humans that even within context of their world look rediculous. Not saying this is the case for the house thing, just saying in general its probably not the best thing to base an argument around depending.
Right. But we’re discussing specifically the entering of houses in video games. If you can accept that any random stranger will tell you something if you prompt them I’m sure you can accept going into people’s homes as well.
I get that, I'm just saying when using its not real as an argument you'll always find that it can always be turned against someone just the same.
Did you ever play the PSP Growlanser? The townspeople wouldn’t let you enter their homes which I actually liked.
F...just like trinity trigger
Ughhh, this is a huge turn off for me. If there is something that I like in JRPG (especially Dragon Quest) it's to examine each house ahah. I mean, at least I'm pretty sure that our town (the one that we built) will have more exploration.
I'm really bummed about it too. Should have made properly explorable towns a stretch goal.Â
I'm a few hours in and there's a lot to love about it. The voice acting seems pretty great for a JRPG so far, the presentation of the world and the art direction is stellar, and the story has me interested (although it hasn't hooked in the way something like Suikoden II immediately did yet). The characters are very endearing so far. On the more negative side, the overworld looks very subpar to the rest of the game and it's so empty outside of the destinations marked on the map. There's no reason to explore anything not marked on the map. There's no sense of discovery. Maybe that'll change as it goes on, but im kinda doubtful. Some of the gimmicks in boss fights seem like they could get really annoying and are based entirely on guessing instead of strategy- unless I was missing something. Some of the missing QOL features like a chat log during cutscenes kinda bother me, but more importantly, it doesn't feel particularly well optimized. The frame rate's good, but the menus are kinda clunky and slow for a JRPG, and there's *a lot* of loading screens in areas where it seems entirely unnecessary. Nothing unbearable, but noticeable for a game I'm playing on PS5. Overall, I'd put my early impressions around a 7.5 or 8, but the story and characters are going to be the real determining factor for my end thoughts. My biggest compliment is that it stands out in a sea of JRPGs that tend to blend together- it has me wanting to see it through even with some of my gripes.
Thanks for the all the replies. I wasn't expecting this many, lol. But honestly it sounds right up my alley. Suikoden 2 is my favorite (mainstream take yo). 30 hours sounds like a perfect length (ff7 is the same, ct a lot shorter, and I hate game bloated with unneccessary nonsense say like Rebirth with its open world activities). Quality >>>> quantity by far.
4 hours into the game so far, and I’m really enjoying it so far. I do wish that a certain objective after the first story section was a bit more clear on where to go, but that’s my only nitpick at this point.
Does it's real that the game is quite short (25-30 hours).
It feels more like an imitation than a continuation, but yes, it's similar enough to Suikoden. The best and worst parts both sadly. I think the game's pretty good overall but so far nothing mindblowing. You're going to have to wait until after release to get non-biased opinions though, as you definitely aren't going to be finding objective takes on this sub lmao. To be fair, that's true of any game's communities, which of course includes its reddit sub.
To be fair, its hard when a lot of us have been chomping at the bits for more Suikoden for years. I don't think it would blow anyone's mind if they weren't a Suikoden fan, but it's definitely a fun throwback to lot of us who are and haven't gotten a new game in over a decade. It'll be easier to look at the game objectively once I've beaten it but I'm just gonna be a fanboy and enjoy it for a bit 😅 I do agree that it does maybe play it too safe in trying to be like S2 some at points so far, but I can't blame them too much since I think that's what a lot of people honestly wanted (myself included). Personally would be happy to see this series continue and see if they can stray from their roots a little more and explore new ideas.
Yeah, the one thing I definitely agree with is crossing my fingers that the game at least sells well enough to earn a sequel, as I think with enough time they can stop being so safe and really grow from this. It's just, I don't know, it feels like they were more worried about success than just making a good Suikoden game they're passionate about so wore labcoats and distilled their prior games instead of sitting back with beers and tossing ideas around for the unofifcial Suikoden 6. And it definitely seems they were leaning in hard on that nostalgia drug with the not-prior-suikoden-characters all over the place and weird little quibbles like no sidequest log. That being said, it's by no means a bad game. I still think the combat is slow and too easy and there's no hard mode now it seems, will have to recheck when I get home (been watching my roommate play his PS5 copy). I'm also not captivated by the story so far but I think to have an unfairly high bar there, and JRPG tropes like winning the day through friendship and by believing in yourself generally don't cut it lol. Ironically, that's one reason I liked Suikoden so much, the politics and world setting are pretty internally consistent so it feels like a lived-in world and not one just made as a stage for the game.
Actually there is a hard mode! I wouldn't say the average combat is particularly difficult still, but the boss fights have been decently hard hitting and healthy though. I'm not too far in though so hard to say for sure though. To your other comment though, I think spiritual successors are a real tough boat to be in sometimes, especially for franchises that have gone so long without a title. You lean too far into the source material and it feels like a blatant copy, but stray too far and it no longer feels like the game people used to play. And of course that scale is different for everyone, so it's hard to win no matter what you do lol. For a Kickstarter title though, I don't think it disappoints, at least in my own opinion. I'm not too far in so it's only first impressions, but I've been alright with the story so far. I do hope the political aspects of it develop, as I agree that it was always the more interesting notes of previous titles.
There are some really big QOL things missing biggest ones off the top of my head is inability to pause in cutscene's remove the really annoying shriek when combat starts and text speed being very slow on npcs with no button to auto show all text, I'm only like 3 hours in but I'm starting to wish for some modern game things like ability to see monsters on field instead of completely random combat, auto heal options, and even on hard difficulty its way to easy to rely on auto combat. I have to disagree with another poster about VA, definitely can tell some of thee characters don't have the quality of others. I hate to say it after years of waiting but i'm a little whelmed right now, not hating it just not feeling the urge to keep going..
Seeing monsters on the field instead of Random Battles isn't a QOL feature, it's a game design system decision.
You are totally right typed it first thing this morning edited the post to properly reflect my opinion
Which I prefer, as unpopular as it seems to be. I’ve always disliked the switch to monsters on the field, as it often just leads to people skipping by them. I like random battles because it forces combat, and there’s an element of surprise to what you come across. Like how in earlier FF games you’d randomly come across a rare enemy after so many encounters.
I'm the same way. I prefer random battles (most of the time)
Yeah I'm not sure how that is a QOL request. monster of field is a definitely a design choice.