When you're stuck in an RPG...

Icalasari

^^ Regular playing says that you do as well

...Or that could be OCD

Malkavian

Grinding in Pokemon can make the game significantly easier (as I've said a problematic mechanic in and of itself) but I've never found it necessary.

Codename_M308

I wonder how you guys have to grind in JRPGs, yet I barely do (and sometimes I wonder if my grinding was really necessary, like for Zeromus, or FF1's final dungeon, or WA3's prologues).

Maybe it's because I fight almost every encounter that gives me good enough EXP for my current levels.

Bee

FF1 was more on the "you're potentially so fragile at basically any level that you can win any one fight but will probably have to make several trips into a dungeon to actually finish it before you run out of steam."

What little I remember of FF4 wasn't all that bad, really.  FF3 DS is fucking awful about it though.  There are several places where you have to grind for hours to survive a single attack from a boss that decided to break the difficulty curve.

DonZabu

This is why I stopped playing Alter AILA and Alter AILA Genesis, two games that, in all other respects, rank high on the list of "greatest RPG Maker games of all time".

RedEyedAbyss

"What little I remember of FF4 wasn't all that bad, really."

That's because they started to implement bosses that were more sophisticated than Attack/Big Attack. And equipment was more important anyway.

Magus

^^ Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden, for an intentionally poorly-made RPG about basketball, actually has a really good leveling curve (until the end-game, where everything becomes very easy).

Icalasari

Don: I've been tinkering with an RPGMaker game myself. I play through it as I make it to make it just challenging enough if you face every encounter on your way, with plans for puzzle bosses (for example, a squid boss with armour. If you use fire and ice attacks one after another for two to three turns in a row, the armour shatters and exposes the boss' fleshy interior, ripe for kicking the ass of)

RedEyedAbyss

"If you use fire and ice attacks one after another for two to three turns in a row, the armour shatters and exposes the boss' fleshy interior, ripe for kicking the ass of"

So what's the hint for that?

Icalasari

^ It will be in the dungeon. Haven't decided what the hint will be. Perhaps colour puzzles that require you to, say, use fire on a red block, and have the bosses armour start out red, then turn white after hit with fire, and so on

Issue is that it is a water dungeon, so I need to make it seem reasonable to use fire on the boss

MoeDantes

So what's the hint for that?

Basic science.

Icalasari

^ That was the original hint (or reason for lack of one) but the whole water dungeon part made me consider other hints (once again, how many people would seriously consider a fire attack on the boss of a water dungeon?)

CommandoDude

"Well, they tried that in Final Fantasy VIII. Many people complained the game was easier if you didn't level up"

I hate when players bitch about this when its THEIR fault for trying to metagame.

The game would be fun if players stopped trying to exploit the mechanics.

Chagen

But ass-raping the physics/mechanics of the game is ridiculously fun!

CommandoDude

If so, then why do people complain that the game is too easy and boring when they do?



You can't explain that.

Bee

Basic science.

RPG

/headasplode

MoeDantes

I hate when players bitch about this when its THEIR fault for trying to metagame.

Yes, god forbid they try to do something that decades of game-playing has taught them to do. That's like saying if I smell a fart, its my fault for breathing.

CommandoDude

Doesn't change the blame.

How come then, I was able to play Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion perfectly fine WITHOUT trying to game the system and overly frustrate myself trying NOT to level up?

If they actually tried to play as intended, they might like the game.

Nova

Yes, god forbid they try to do something that decades of game-playing has taught them to do. That's like saying if I smell a fart, its my fault for breathing.

People have been taught to do something for a long time now?

Obviously that makes them good behaviour!

Bee

There's a big difference between gaming the system and applying basic sense and/or tactics.  The former usually involves manipulation of AI into doing stupid things or cascading stat bonuses that the developers didn't think of.

Intelligence potions in Morrowind, or D&D Arseplomancer.  That's gaming the system.  Holding back leveling up is more "wait, leveling gives me almost nothing and makes the game harder.  Fuck that" and falls more into strategy.

CommandoDude

Basic sense/tactics doesn't include trying not to level up in a game where you're suppose to.

Bee

It does when leveling up makes the game harder while producing few if any clear benefits.

CommandoDude

Uhh, you mean, besides getting stronger yourself, right? Learning new spells, getting better armor.

If you don't want the game to be harder, pussy out and set the difficulty slider to max low.

Bee

The problem being that in scaling games (at least the poorly-tuned ones we're talking about), those things already happen to a not much lesser degree through gear/buffs.

Look, I played Oblivion taking every level I got too, but I still considered it a self-imposed challenge.