Do you like level grinding in RPGs?

[Savarak]

You forgot Oblivion

Thats one major reason I stopped playing oblivion... unless you make some one-hit uber weapon, pretty much all enemies are always just about your level. enemies from early on, those that should be a cakewalk when you're about to finish the game, a pain and annoyance

 

[Azeroth101]

My only question is why this is on console gaming, you know nothing of grinding until you meet a game named World of Warcraft.

 

[meltdown75]

My only question is why this is on console gaming, you know nothing of grinding until you meet a game named World of Warcraft.

I can't meet that game... I would probably cease to exist otherwise... Other than in that world. Of course, I might not even like it... but chances are, based on its popularity, i would.

 

[Imported]

Don't mind grinding at all.. then again, I've played Korean MMOs for a while.. lol

 

[Rage187]

love grinding. whether its level or crafting.

 

[Locut0s]

IMHO, level grinding on the main quest is generally a sign of inadequate balancing or a misguided attempt to force more hours out of content.

Of course, the only thing worse than grinding are badly-balanced "enemies level with you" systems, where grinding actually makes things worse because you didn't know to pick a certain set of skills and classes. LOOKING AT YOU LAST REMNANT!

This is why ES:Oblivion fails too.

 

[Kromis]

I like the Diablo type of grinding!

 

[Aikouka]

In Chrono Trigger, I recall bringing all my characters through the Robot Factory's initial conveyor belt just to get them to level "star star".

 

[BassBomb]

i love questing, i used to like farming but when i stopped devoting as much time to WoW i stopped farming and would just buy

i do not like the level grind however

 

[erwos]

This is why ES:Oblivion fails too.

At least with Oblivion, the griding can be made optional by just turning the difficulty down a bit...

 

[Ancalagon44]

It sounds like you may just be bad at pokemon....

What level is your team, and what pokemon does it consist of?

I can't remember ever grinding in pokemon. I do fight all the trainers, do sidequests, and never use repels, but I don't run back and forth waiting to fight someone (unless I'm trying to catch a certain pokemon).

The only time I've grinded was when trying to raise a new, low level pokemon to the same level of my team.

As for Emerald, that game was pretty easy. Catch Rayquaza, and he'll own the elite 4 for. I remember catching him with pokemon ranging from 30-39, which shouldn't be too much higher than yours once he becomes available.

Yeah, just because I and everyone else I've spoken to agrees that Pokemon requires grind, I'm obviously crap at the game. Please....

What difference does the level of my time make? I mean, that depends on where are you are in the game. A level 20 team is high for the first gym but no use for the 4th.

My most recent team, before my platinum got stolen (along with my DSi and about 6 other games) was Garchomp, Electrivire, Milotic, Exeggcutor, Infernape and... I cant remember the name of the last pokemon. it was the 4th gen with very high special attack, normal/flying, cynthia has one on her team in platinum but not diamond. Was a mission to breed it with the right ability. Anyway, they were all 60-70. But it took a lot of grind to get them there, and that was with about 4 lucky eggs, and they were all traded from my Diamond, in my DS Lite. With that setup, I didnt have to do any grind for the gyms, but you notice I was getting double the exp for most of them. Without that, when I finished Diamond, I had to grind tons.

 

[DivideBYZero]

It feels like I'm 'Grinding' in MW2. I'm going through prestige and when I get the lvl70 I may just do it again. My next door neighbour is going through it all for the fourth time and I know you can do it TEN times. Bump and grind.

 

[Sahakiel]

I could be wrong, but I think grinding originally came from the idea that your character or party is not simply walking through a large empty hallway. Once it became par for course to keep running into random trash mobs, the level progression through killing them became incorporated into whatever balancing was done.
That being said, there's a difference between grinding through hundreds of mobs to reach the boss and grinding through hundreds of mobs just to have a chance to reach the boss. Some games are built around the former, some around the latter, and everything else has balance issues.
IMO, the grinding obsession with JRPG's is cultural, stemming from a habit of giving your all when doing anything. A short RPG of 10-20 hours would simply leave a sense of cheapness. Therefore, grinding arose as a way to extend play hours in the confines of limited hardware. It stuck around after hardware caught up due to player demand (elitists) and simple cost reduction either to maximize profit or focus on other aspects of the game (graphics? FMV?).
Personally, I avoid grinding for the sake of grinding. I dislike games that essentially force random grinding simply to progress. However, I will grind for attainable goals such as sidequests, rare equipment, and, recently, trophies. However, there's a limit (difficult to express) where the grind becomes too much and I'll continue the storyline or quit the game. I think my limit is whether or not the goal is attainable within a couple hours.
Of note, I'm partway through Star Ocean: The Last Hope. So far, I haven't required grinding because of my obsession with getting 100&#37; monster data as I go along. (Oh, and buying everything when I get to a shop ><). However, that may change when I go back through a second time.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

It totally depends. I enjoyed levelling up in Disgaea after the main story but that's about it.

 

[Dumac]

Yeah, just because I and everyone else I've spoken to agrees that Pokemon requires grind, I'm obviously crap at the game. Please....

Well I've never had to grind in a pokemon game, and neither have all my friends. Even my SO, who isn't a hardcore gamer, didn't have to grind while playing through pokemon.

Our anecdotal evidence isn't worth squat.

What difference does the level of my time make? I mean, that depends on where are you are in the game. A level 20 team is high for the first gym but no use for the 4th.

Well, I assumed from...

Try going through a Pokemon game without doing any grind. Its impossible. You'll get to the later gyms being 10 levels below the gym leaders, or even worse the elite 4.

I do all of the trainers, and still grind is required. A few hours of it later in the game, especially the elite 4. I've finished FireRed, Diamond and Platinum, and gave up on Emerald after beating the gyms because of the grinding required (and I only started playing FireRed and Emerald to access more pokemon).

That you were at the elite 4. Which gives me a standing point against which I can judge the levels of your pokemon.

My most recent team, before my platinum got stolen (along with my DSi and about 6 other games) was Garchomp, Electrivire, Milotic, Exeggcutor, Infernape and... I cant remember the name of the last pokemon. it was the 4th gen with very high special attack, normal/flying, cynthia has one on her team in platinum but not diamond. Was a mission to breed it with the right ability. Anyway, they were all 60-70. But it took a lot of grind to get them there, and that was with about 4 lucky eggs, and they were all traded from my Diamond, in my DS Lite. With that setup, I didnt have to do any grind for the gyms, but you notice I was getting double the exp for most of them. Without that, when I finished Diamond, I had to grind tons.

First of all, 60-70 is really high. I mean, the champion doesn't even have pokemon past level 66. You are supposed be ~10 levels lower than the champion. That is what makes it a tactical challenge rather than a simple brute force battle of stats. Usually, my pokemon are level 45-55. These levels are easily reachable just going through the normal passages, fighting the trainers, and doing any sidequests. It sounds like you are just bad at the battling, and have to put in some extra grind to compensate.

Secondly, I was talking about Emerald, since that is the one you didn't finish. If you are past all the gyms, you should be able to get Rayquaza, which, at level 70, can wipe the floor of all the elite 4.

 

[kalrith]

I don't mind level grinding to get special, extra stuff that's not part of the main story line. I do mind a lot of level grinding if it's necessary to get through the normal story line.

I usually explore all areas of RPGs as I go along, so level grinding isn't necessary for me in most games. When exploring the entire map isn't enough, that's when I get annoyed.

 

[Ancalagon44]

That you were at the elite 4. Which gives me a standing point against which I can judge the levels of your pokemon.

You werent specific about which game. I assumed you meant my most recent game, which was platinum.

First of all, 60-70 is really high. I mean, the champion doesn't even have pokemon past level 66. You are supposed be ~10 levels lower than the champion. That is what makes it a tactical challenge rather than a simple brute force battle of stats. Usually, my pokemon are level 45-55. These levels are easily reachable just going through the normal passages, fighting the trainers, and doing any sidequests. It sounds like you are just bad at the battling, and have to put in some extra grind to compensate.

I'm well aware of that, and yes at those levels the champion wasnt hard. This was in fact not the team I beat the elite 4 with the first time - I cant remember what that consisted of, I think it had 3 starter pokemon from the various games. Not a 2nd gen one though. Probably Blastoise, Sceptile, Infernape and 3 others. Not sure. I think I was 50-60 (in platinum) when I beat the elite 4. I got to 60-70 after raising the second team in the hopes of doing that mountain quest, whatever it is, end goal was to eventually do the gym leader rematches. As far as I remember, those were pretty high.

No I'm not bad at battling, and thanks for jumping to conclusions when you in fact know absolutely nothing. I tend to play on the cautious side of things in Pokemon, so I make heavy use of STAB and type advantages, generally going for one hit KOs if at all possible. However, while thats true, just to get to a high enough level to even beat the last gym leader or elite 4 required me to do a lot of grinding in diamond. First tried (in diamond, NOT PLATINUM) when my lowest level poke was probably 46, highest probably 55. Remember, elite 4 in diamond are at a higher level in diamond than platinum, by 5 levels. Was eventually beaten by Cynthia after scraping through Lucian.

Platinum didnt require any grind, because as I said by that time I had my second DS and Diamond, so I could breed in Diamond and trade them over to Platinum. And I had a number of lucky eggs due to farming at this point (and getting the lucky eggs in itself was a lot of grind, to minimize later grind).

Secondly, I was talking about Emerald, since that is the one you didn't finish. If you are past all the gyms, you should be able to get Rayquaza, which, at level 70, can wipe the floor of all the elite 4.

I dont think my highest level pokemon in emerald was above level 40. 42 maybe. I had beaten all of the gym leaders, as I said. Team consisted of vileplume, Swampert, Heracross, Manectric, Swellow and someone else, might have been a dark pokemon (not mightyena though).

It would have taken me a lot of grind to get them to a high enough level to beat the elite 4. As a rule, I dont use legendaries in battle.

 

[BW86]

Feels like I'm grinding in Demon's Souls, I'm only at lvl 85 so far.

 

[mmntech]

I personally don't like it because it holds up the story. Pokemon was bad for this. Especially since higher level wild pokemon don't always come with the best move sets. I've been doing the grinding in Disgaea too.

 

[Wardawg1001]

I used to love grinding back in the day, when I had more free time. I'm fairly sure I reached level 99 for every character in every FF game before FF8 (where I kind of stopped playing FF until FFX came out). I would grind for hours and make sure I got all the best items and whatever else you could collect.

These days, I cant stand it. I don't mind the random battles that you run into all throughout the game, but if I have to run around every new area for 2 hours leveling up just so I can get through it or beat the boss without dying 12 times, it drives me nuts. In games where you can see and avoid the battles on the world map, I often will avoid as many as possible while still remaining high enough level to keep going. I rarely go out of my way to obtain special weapons or other items unless its a really good game. If I know a grind will be necessary in the game but still want to play, I will usually look up the very best places to grind quickly so I can minimize the amount of time I spend on it.

 

[fr]

It's a complete waste of time.

 

[Sadaiyappan]

I like to grind on the dance floor -- not sure if you older dudes know what dancefloor grinding is . And if I like the combat system in a game then I LOVE to grind. It's only frustrating if you are losing and dying. If you are winning (but it's still a little bit challenging) then grinding can be a lot of fun. And becoming stronger and getting better powers and money to get better powers makes grinding even more fun. It also helps to have cool enemies to grind against. A lot of games give the shit enemies at the beginning, like the game I am playing now, Star Ocean the Last Hope. The bugs on the first planet were shit and boring, but on the second planet inside the snow castle there are huge stone golem monsters which look really cool and are like bosses.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Hate it. Archaic, cheap way of extending the length of the game that is no fun at all. The only motivation for going forward is the story.

 

[Spydermag68]

In most FF game I will spend time grinding. I really liked FF12 where I could "Set it and forget it" with auto-grinding, or FF8 where I could gain levels really quickly with "The island closest to Hell". I also liked FF-X monster lab. FF-X2 sucked with the 100 repeating levels.

 

[SandEagle]

NES - Dragon Warrior, oh the memories and time wasted leveling up.

heh. i grinded my ass off when that one came out. a few others:
-ffx
-dragon quest viii
-phantasy star III (sega sms)