14 'Genius' Video Game Features That Were Total Accidents

6. Final Fantasy's High-Level Random Encounters

What you think: Thanks to continually extended project deadlines and budgetary restraints, Hironobu Sakaguchi's first Final Fantasy was actually intended to be his last, an all-eggs-in-the-basket gamble to create something that would almost definitely never receive a sequel. Its gameplay was incredibly diverse and in-depth, but it was the game's random encounters that really established a sense of peril when you were out grinding, alongside making your character progression completely unique and addictive.

What actually happened: Although the majority of Final Fantasy is one hell of a statement of intent from the studio, thanks to it all being designed on a huge 8x8 grid - each section comprised of 1024 pixels - there became one section that overlapped, meaning you could get access to some top-level monsters hours before you were supposed to.

North of second town Provoka, there was one upper-tier segment of the larger map's landmass that crossed over into its neighbouring quadrant, meaning all the high-level beasties from that entire section were accessible from this tiny outcrop of land - lovingly nicknamed the 'Peninsula of Power'.

From then on out the random encounter system would be built upon, expanded and refined in every possible way, occasionally throwing more high level enemies your way as a reward for exploring for increased lengths of time in the first place - all because of the accidental crossover of enemy pools way back in 1987.