Level Grinding, What do you think? Options

[rewells]

I'm thinking of writing a post on games that require level grinding v.s. games that don't. When playing rpgs, do you like having to just fight a bunch of battles to continue? I never grind unless I have to because I think it's fun to try to beat the game at the lowest possible level - it makes it more challenging. But I don't mind level grinding if the game is fun. I really like rpgs with difficulty levels (like *cough* Persona 4), but it's kind of hard to adjust the math to change the character's growth curves and enemy hp and such in RM.

[Ndoelicious]

Hahaha, well, it always better to spend time on online-games than solo RPG since it's more rewarding
But yeah...if it's rewarding enough, why not?
There's always a Youtube to brag~ xD

[ninjaluc79]

Went back to playing solo RPG after nightmarish experiences with online games.

Anyways, back to the topic, I used to be a type B, because I assume that the boss has a much higher level than my current party. However, that has become a problem when more and more RPGs have monsters give the player ridiculously low amounts of EXP for some parts of the game, usually mid-game. So I told myself, "Ah, screw this, I'm going to look for solo RPGs where you don't need to grind."

And surprisingly, I did. There was a game series where you get EXP proportional to the difference between your level and the enemy's level. If the monster is much more powerful than you, you get massive EXP; otherwise, you get insignificant EXP. No need to worry about being too underleveled or overleveled because you now know whether you're strong enough to beat the boss or not. One problem with the system though, grinding to level 99 is VERY tedious unless you exploit a loophole to let you gain enough EXP to shoot up from say, 39 to 99. So what they did is to give horrendously low EXP if you defeat an enemy which is 15+ levels higher than you or so.

As a result, I became a type A without even trying to. Most RPGs that I know of nowadays only offer the player the ability to grind to level 99, and the story mode can now be finished at around level 50-60, unlike before when you're almost always guaranteed to hit whatever the max level is by the time you get to the final boss.

[rewells]

There was a game series where you get EXP proportional to the difference between your level and the enemy's level. If the monster is much more powerful than you, you get massive EXP; otherwise, you get insignificant EXP.

Which series is that? Sounds like a logical concept, as in reality you wouldn't become equally more experienced by doing the same thing over and other again - you'd usually master the task after the first couple of times.

And yeah, Final Fantasy I-IV pretty much require you to get all the skills and do all the side-quest to be strong enough to beat the game, whereas the others 100% completion is optional and requires an ass-load of playtime. I was really proud of myself for beating the Emerald Weapon in 7 (granted it does require skill), but to even get strong enough to have a chance I know I poured at least 20 hours or so in chocobo racing and level grinding. Since then I've yet to 100% complete an FF game because I lose interest once the story is over. At least in 7 the Emerald Weapon plays a role in the main story, so there's some emotional reward for killing it. I don't really see the pleasure in doing hundreds of fetch quest to be rewarded with a fight with a giant sand lizard with 50 million HP (Yiazmat from FFXII)