Why I like To Grind, My Obsession With RPGS


  

70 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you like to grind in RPGs?

    • Yes, love it!
      10
    • No, hate it!
      28
    • Depends on the game...
      32


Recommended Posts

Starting off, has everyone placed their pre-orders for Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City? I?ve placed mine with Amazon so hopefully that means I am getting the art book with it, I better, damn it. My excitement is beyond measurable about the announcement of the North American release when it was announced. I love the Etrian Odyssey series as it has everything I love about RPG?s.

My first foray into RPG?s was with Final Fantasy VII. That was my gateway game. But even after that I never stuck with anything for too long. Then Final Fantasy X came out, and with it, the sphere grid. I love being able to customize and micro manage so this was more in line with what I loved. But it wasn?t quite there yet.

Then we got a DS, and one of the first games I tried was Etrian Odyssey. I was hooked from day one. There were quests, there were a variety of classes and then there was the skill list. When I see something like the licensing board from Final Fantasy XII or the crystarium in FF XIII, I see a challenge. And that?s how I view Etrian Odyssey. Complete all the quests and side quests? Hellz yeah I did. The only bad thing I have to say about the Etrian Odyssey series is that there is a level cap. That?s just a personal pet peeve of mine, I like to be able to max things out, not get cut off and not be able to. But it forces you to decide what you really need and that?s also fun.

I really don?t have a lot of compulsive behaviors, but I think when I play something like Etrian Odyssey, an obsessive compulsive attitude comes out. I have to get the best armor and best weapon for each character, character specific abilities get maxed out first, then everything else. Side quests for an area get completed first before moving on. Though I will admit, I don?t think I got all of the side quests before moving on to Eden. I just think ?I will beat you damn it! Don?t think I can fill out that board/sphere thing? I can and will!? There seems to be a little bit of unnecessary competitive rage behind my game playing, ha.

Playing the first two games and seeing screenshots from the latest one, the progression of graphics is notable. I?m geekily excited about the new games, there?s more detail in the graphics, there are going to be a couple of new classes. Everything I?ve read about it is from intothelabyrinth.net which has gotten all their information from playing the Japanese version, so its hard to say if they?ll keep it all or not for the US release, such as the wireless multi-player option.

For every RPG I?ve played, I?ve put in at least 70 hours in each one. Some people might say that?s a waste, I say hardly. Though I admit putting over 65 hours into a handheld game might be obsessive but I?d have to care. So I?ve pre-ordered my copy of Etrian Odyssey III which comes out September 21. I?ll be away on training that week, but I?ll be able to get it for the end of the week, so I can have it to play during the last two weeks of training I have after that. It?ll save my evenings and I?ll be able to clock in some serious game time. Work is seriously cutting into my gaming and my reading, ha.

Source

Personally, I hate grinding. I feel it is unnecessary but at the same time that's about the only way you're going to beat a lot of RPGs these days (mainly JRPGs).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Grinding can be a drag, fighting the same group of baddies over and over etc. However, there was no better feeling for me in Final Fantasy X where I took my beefed up party and fought I believe it was Ultima Weapon in one of the hidden dungeons. I was reading the strategy guide and it had some tips on beating him and I was kind of worried. Much to my surprise, I killed it in 2 attacks (no magic just physical attacks). I was laughing so hard after that, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Grinding can be a drag, fighting the same group of baddies over and over etc. However, there was no better feeling for me in Final Fantasy X where I took my beefed up party and fought I believe it was Ultima Weapon in one of the hidden dungeons. I was reading the strategy guide and it had some tips on beating him and I was kind of worried. Much to my surprise, I killed it in 2 attacks (no magic just physical attacks). I was laughing so hard after that, but I enjoyed it a lot.

I remember putting in a good 5-10 hours grinding in The Legend of Dragoon, one of my first RPGs and I loved it, it was a fun game. Same can't be said with RPGs like Demon's Souls. Great game, but the constant grinding to get to certain places just killed it for me. A game like Fallout 3 however is completely different. You have a heavily focus shooter game with RPG elements and in the end I was fully leveled at about 65 hours in. Not once did I have to 'grind', I simply played the game.

That's how I feel most games should be, especially RPGs. I shouldn't have to do every sidequest and 5+ hours of grinding to beat the final boss...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I enjoy RPGs, but hate the grinding..! Specially when I played WoW, it was all the same..."Go here, kill that" it got boring fast. Other RPGs like the Final Fantasy series (from 7 onwards) I enjoyed much better, there was no real need to grind I thought and completed them fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i hate grinding

like i won't sit there and try to get all the stats to max or like level 99 or whatever

but i'll go out of my way to get a cool weapon or something like that

or i'll grind out levels to get a specific ability if i need to

and i'll also skip most of the side quests as well. my brother always criticized me for doing that

he'd always go and search like every house and talk to every NPC etc lol

but i haven't played a good single player RPG in a long time

especially JRPGS. seems like i don't have the patience for them anymore. i'm trying to get through Dragon Quest IX but i just can't sit there and grind out levels

i don't know why i don't seem to be able to do it anymore. i loved FF VI, FF VII, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and Xenogears when i was a kid.

but i can't even get through Star Ocean, FF XIII or any of the news RPGs

the last single player RPG i cleared was Oblivion

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not a fan of having to grind too hard. I LOVE rpgs (mostly old school rpgs) and I want a challenge (and grinding kinda takes that away).

Well said. The 'challenge' should be the game itself, not having to grind for hours in order to beat certain enemies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never liked grinding in RPGS or MMOs. It's always boring; killing the same enemies with the same abilities in the same rotations. And, I've always felt that grinding was an artificial way for the developer to lengthen the game without actually adding any content. There are other ways to give that sense of progression and accomplishment to players, but putting in a grind is easier and cheaper so it probably won't ever go away.

A little bit off topic:

For as much as I hate grinding, I hate games that auto-level enemies based on your character level more. RPGS, on some level, are about character progression in terms of stats, gear, and abilities. Nothing kills the sense of progression more than always fighting enemies that are your level. You never get that sense of "oh these guys used to be instant-death for me, but now I can take on 2 or 3 at a time."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never liked grinding in RPGS or MMOs. It's always boring; killing the same enemies with the same abilities in the same rotations. And, I've always felt that grinding was an artificial way for the developer to lengthen the game without actually adding any content. There are other ways to give that sense of progression and accomplishment to players, but putting in a grind is easier and cheaper so it probably won't ever go away.

A little bit off topic:

For as much as I hate grinding, I hate games that auto-level enemies based on your character level more. RPGS, on some level, are about character progression in terms of stats, gear, and abilities. Nothing kills the sense of progression more than always fighting enemies that are your level. You never get that sense of "oh these guys used to be instant-death for me, but now I can take on 2 or 3 at a time."

See, I grinded for about 3-5 hours immediately after starting Oblivion only to discover the enemies were leveling (to a certain point) with me. I was very disappointed :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Grinding is a really boring way to level.

Agreed, and if it's the only wait to beat a boss/enemy, it really kills the game for me. There aren't very many RPGs I'm looking forward to these days sadly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It depends on how the grinding is handled. I hate grinding mobs to level (that is, there are not enough quests to level you and keep you going, so you are forced to grind mobs to level), but I do not mind grinding quests to level as long as the quests are handled properly. I do not mind doing 15 quests to level, the trips to town and back help break up the monotony, but for quests to collect items off mobs they need to handle it properly. If you need to collect 15 items off a mob, you should not be punished by joining a party. Instead, use a system like Runes of Magic, allow EVERY person in the party a chance to get that item off EVERY mob killed, instead of increasing the amount of required mob kills for each person in the party (like WoW and every other MMO does).

That being said, Runes of Magic does a few things very right. Quest item drops from mobs allows EVERY person a chance to get that quest item off every mob that dies, not just 1 item per mob period. On top of that, if you die (due to say a boss) and you leave your body there (do not res) and your party kills the boss, you still get credit for the kill (no more dying 2 seconds before the boss dies and loosing out on the credit). Kill quests also count over a very large distance, past where you can normally see a player on-screen, and certain quests count party-wide (like quests to discover an area and what not), making it easier to search for and do in a party.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like the only reason for grinding is to extend the length of gameplay, which is a pretty bad excuse IMO

Pretty much. I see games that require the player to grind in order to win as an unbalanced game, aka, lazy developers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I assume that the definition of "grind" would be to prolong one's play in lower level dungeons to beef up your characters enough to make the final battle easier? The idea that all of those low experience monsters add up and can allow you to gain a few levels of additional experience.

Assuming that is the correct context, I don't bother with grinding but then again, I don't usually finish the game either. I'm usually perfectly happy with starting the game over with better optimized characters (based on what I have learned so far). Still, if I never "finish" a game then I won't be sad. I just play with it until it gets boring.

Edit:

Since nobody definitively answered my question then I'll answer it myself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grinding_(video_gaming)

Edited by Fred Derf
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In general, I cannot stand grinding! It's just padding a game.

I loved games like Chrono Trigger, where you dont have random battles, and you can decide to grind or not. FF series and its random battles always irritated me, for one thing, when grinding, you walk around for what seems forever to trigger an encounter, but when you just trying to get from A to B, you cannot take a few steps without a battle.

Lol, back on topic...I think the Dragon Quest games are the worse when it comes to grinding, since the metal slimes give you a HUGE incentive to grind!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ugh, don't even get me started about random encounters. Exactly as you wrote it above, every time I wanted to 'grind' it would take forever to fine enemies. Yet when I'm trying to get somewhere it seems like very F-ing second there's a random encounter!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dont play RPG's but i did this on Road Rash on the Mega drive, keep'd racing the first races over and over till i got enough money to buy the top bike :) .

Not to go off-topic but I loved that game and did the same thing :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with Nagisan - as long as the "grind" is attached to quests, I don't mind as it gives you a concrete goal for killing those mobs and allows you to break the monotony by doing turn-ins, etc.

If there aren't enough quests to level, then there's a problem with the game's design. A game shouldn't have pointless grinding in it at any point - there should be enough quests and other ways to gain XP in order to progress all the way to the max level (that may mean you have to do every single quest and some people may not find them all or want to do them, or wind up grinding on their own and pass them up so they are no longer level-appropriate, but at least enough quests are there).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only hate it if it feels unnecessary and isn't contributing to other factors. Considering the game that I play most that revolves around a level up system is Pokemon, let's use that as an example.

Up to the Elite 4, around 5 levels under, grind in Victory Road until ready. This is what I hate, feels slow and sluggish and makes me bored very quickly.

Up to 6th Gym, can take another route and come back to it, level up and complete areas that are a part of the story. This is fine, as it contributes to the game's progression AND it helps with levelling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I understand what Grinding is and why grinding is actually liked. It extends gameplay and while others call it "padding" some players feel it is the equivalent of the effort needed to complete the task.

For example, EVE Online's version of a grind is my favorite. You are earning a living. Without grinding you cannot support the skills you have been learning, but that skill system gives you the time needed to work up that amount of money in-game. One of the biggest RPG/JRPG guys I know loves to grind. His new favorite game is Monster Hunter which is VERY grind heavy. His explanation, if I can recall correctly, was that without the grind he feels that he got there too easily and that his character's potential is limited by the missions available. He enjoys being able to go get that much more powerful by training in a random area against X number of enemies, etc. It also correlates into the value a player puts into their character. Grinding and grinding for days, weeks, months etc. makes the player value the character and game far more. The more effort they put into the game, the less likely they'll stop playing it.

Still, grinding should have a dual purpose. Experience should be a part of grinding, not the reason to do it. Grindable missions should earn you money, minerals, items and possibly even influence in the game. While much of that is reflected in player leveling systems the game needs to start being more unique and dynamic. Actually, this discussion has made me want to design a dynamic item generation system... Grrr damn the thinking mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with Nagisan - as long as the "grind" is attached to quests, I don't mind as it gives you a concrete goal for killing those mobs and allows you to break the monotony by doing turn-ins, etc.

If there aren't enough quests to level, then there's a problem with the game's design. A game shouldn't have pointless grinding in it at any point - there should be enough quests and other ways to gain XP in order to progress all the way to the max level (that may mean you have to do every single quest and some people may not find them all or want to do them, or wind up grinding on their own and pass them up so they are no longer level-appropriate, but at least enough quests are there).

The only exception to that is Silk Road, they gave you a quest to kill 500 of one mob, then the followup was to kill 1000 of the same mob.

Runes of Magic (my current MMO) does much better in this aspect. The dual class system requires you to level up each of your two classes from 1, but they give you enough quests to do so, my main class is lvl 20, secondary class is lvl 18, I just finally ran out of quests in the zone I have been working in, but I have quests opened up in the next zone already and I haven't been doing the 10 daily quests a day like you can do, which would be enough to level my secondary to 20 in only 2 days worth of daily quests (instead of turning the quests in the new zone in on my secondary).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, one of the few games where grinding was fun was actually Phantasy Star Universe. But, then again, I've realized MMO's as a whole are only really fun with friends.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.