Current Events > ITT: RPGs that subvert the need for/effects of grinding

(+) Yeah! (+)

Chrono Cross
Final Fantasy VIII
Paper Mario
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario: Sticker Star

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SaGa series

DQ11, somehow.

Trails in ths Sky apparently

bump

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I think Color Splash also does it actually

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Shadow Madness (PS1)

The game is piss easy and battling is the worst part of the game (odd for an RPG). Luckily, the game lets you skip most of the battles from the field by crouching or something when you hear a certain SFX. It makes the game about twenty times more tolerable.

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Shotgunnova posted...

Shadow Madness (PS1)

The game is piss easy and battling is the worst part of the game (odd for an RPG). Luckily, the game lets you skip most of the battles from the field by crouching or something when you hear a certain SFX. It makes the game about twenty times more tolerable.

This games really bad. Cant you like max levels really fast. I like the scythe barrel farm robot though...
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The souls/borne series.

They can all be beaten at level 1.
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Doesnt everyone draw constantly at the start of ff8? never played it, but thats the impression I got

Undertale

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Lairen posted...

This games really bad. Cant you like max levels really fast. I like the scythe barrel farm robot though...

I wouldn't call Shadow Madness bad -- its characters, dialogue and music are great. It's only the fighting aspect that feels like an afterthought, and since you can avoid it 90% of the time, it's easier to rec the game to others. Definitely worth playing through at least once, if you like PS1 RPGs, anyway.

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Doesnt everyone draw constantly at the start of ff8? never played it, but thats the impression I got

nope, i use the magic refine abilities. much faster and easier.
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Guide posted...

Undertale

Beat me to it.
This guy has a lowest level playthrough of bravely default (you can turn off exp) which shows it can be done too. Youll need job levels though.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7X5ZBz-9h-1NUbaYjFcDprxousSxlOpr
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grinding is the most fun part of RPGs
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GiftedACIII posted...

Beat me to it.
This guy has a lowest level playthrough of bravely default (you can turn off exp) which shows it can be done too. Youll need job levels though.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7X5ZBz-9h-1NUbaYjFcDprxousSxlOpr

I did not know you could turn off xp in that game. That's appealing.

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FFXIII because of the combat math. The impact of grinding is linear whereas the impact of better strategies is multiplicative.

Many SMT games effectively cap grinding by rapidly diminishing the XP you get from killing lower level enemies.

Guide posted...

GiftedACIII posted...

Beat me to it.
This guy has a lowest level playthrough of bravely default (you can turn off exp) which shows it can be done too. Youll need job levels though.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7X5ZBz-9h-1NUbaYjFcDprxousSxlOpr

I did not know you could turn off xp in that game. That's appealing.

You can also just turn off encounters entirely.
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tiornys posted...

FFXIII because of the combat math. The impact of grinding is linear whereas the impact of better strategies is multiplicative.

Many SMT games effectively cap grinding by rapidly diminishing the XP you get from killing lower level enemies.

Yeah, you really don't need to grind in most SMTs anyways. Really just stop building a team of glass canons. Fuse some demons with buffs, debuffs, and ailments.

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Chrono Cross. You can't grind levels because you only gain levels from beating bosses.

Guide posted...

GiftedACIII posted...

Beat me to it.
This guy has a lowest level playthrough of bravely default (you can turn off exp) which shows it can be done too. Youll need job levels though.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7X5ZBz-9h-1NUbaYjFcDprxousSxlOpr

I did not know you could turn off xp in that game. That's appealing.

You can also adjust encounter rates up to 2x more often or none at all.

The Legend of Dragoon does this by making the majority of exp come from bosses, rather than enemy encounters, so it's difficult to be very much above whatever level the game wants you to be at. It's a 4 disc game and even disc 1 bosses give more exp than final dungeon enemies.

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Shotgunnova posted...

The game is piss easy and battling is the worst part of the game (odd for an RPG)

being piss-easy with encounters that are annoying wastes of time is far from unusual for an rpg
the grand majority of them are like that

being piss-easy with encounters that are annoying wastes of time is far from unusual for an rpg

i had this idea. i think the perfect encounter rate has players thinking they can get from the start to the finish of a room without encountering anything if they take the fastest possible route.

of course, you play with this a little. some rooms - or some areas of rooms, like maybe a darkened or rougher hallway - should have higher rates. and some rooms need to be slogs so the player misses the lower rate for a minute and appreciates getting it back.

but the low rate thing -- that's a mechanic unto itself. you could make puzzle rooms that punish you with extra steps that may or may not trigger a fight.

naturally with fewer fights damage can be more meaningful on a fight-to-fight basis. there's a reason why they're called trash in MMOs.
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TreyFlowers posted...

grinding is the most fun part of RPGs

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