Level Grinding

I just got the new Kingdom Hearts game and got to a part where the monsters were a little hard to beat. So I’m now going back to the other worlds that I have beaten and fighting easier “Dream Eaters” to build my character.
And it got me curious about what the other RPG and action RPG players thought about level grinding?
Do you like it or hate it?
For Me I hate it because when I play a game I want to know what happens next in the story and level grinding makes it longer for me to find out. Plus the process just bores me.

Yeah, I'm not a fan, unless the combat system is really rockin'. Can't think of an example of that, though.

I've been playing RPGs since the japan-imported,turn-based, nes days. And these days I'm playing those types again on my DS (Dragon Quest 5 currently). In general, I just try to take my time with objectives, exploring longer, indirect routes, making enough money to buy the best equipment for all party members and generally getting the most out of each location/segment of the game before moving on. I find that in general this spreads out the grind to be less noticeable.

Good luck!

The Kingdom Hearts games are awesome, by the way. I've played through both KH 1 and 2 and hope for a sequel (non-portable system based) sometime in the near future.

As far as level grinding, I get frustrated if the level grinding doesn't produce any good loot. I am a lootaholic and in games like Fallout 3 or Skyrim, I check every pot, every drawer, every nook and cranny for goodies and I horde everything. If enemies are dropping goodies with every kill as well - and they are goodies that are worth anything like cool armor or weapons - then I don't mind level grinding a bit.

The level grinding in Kingdom Hearts began to irritate me a bit - same with KH2 - only because it started to get really repetitious, especially since I was aiming for the level 99 cap. But the game itself was well worth the grinding and you'll need to grind and get the higher levels if you want to defeat some of the bosses later in the game.

Love looting, too! (Though I don't bother with anything worth less than 10 times it's weight in coin. Fewer interrupted dungeon crawls that way.)

For you KH fans, do you find the combat to be tedious? I gave the first game a try a long time ago, but it seemed like there was only one kind of enemy in the whole game. Black shadow-thingies. Did this effect your enjoyment of the combat?

Paeter, in much of the beginning of Kingdom Hearts, a lot of the enemies are Heartless (the black shadow-thingies), but as you progress through the games and the different worlds, they begin to vary enough. The combat gets more fun as you go along because you get new swords and new battle moves, along with the use of more powerful magic. There were times I got frustrated with both games because the battles got tedious when I was trying to level up, but the other elements of the game more than make up for it. There is PLENTY of exploration in the game, and I found the storyline extremely intriguing. I mean, who would have thought you could merge Disney characters with Final Fantasy? But it works on such a great scale.

I don't like grinding much at all. That was a huge wall I hit with Diablo 3. I realized that I really had finished the story of the game in not-that-many-hours of gameplay. There were still many levels to go, but it was just going over the same story again (Nightmare difficulty). Then again (Hell difficulty)! Then AGAIN (Inferno difficutly)!! Seriously?!!

So I thought, well, maybe I'll play through as a different character. Same story...more grind. Ugh! Sorry...that might have worked at some point in my gaming past, but I'm beyond that kind of game now. I was sorely disappointed in Diablo 3...the king of level grinding, IMHO.

I was able to beat this game at level 41 and only had to stop to level grind the one time.
The level grinding in this game wasn't as bad as it had been with other KH games. Mainly because of the Drop system which basicly means your switiching between two characters as you play (i'm working on a review of the game and will go into how it works in more detail there but it's not as annoying as it sounds) so i was challenging my self to level up at least once before i had to drop again. which made it fun and not as repetive as the other games

I 2nd what David N Alderman said about the heartless but this game was kind of weird because there these creatures called dream eaters (colorful animals instead of dark shodwy heartless) but they're the enemies that you fight but they are also your sidekicks and a few times i found myself attacking the dream eaters that were helping me. Again I'll go in more details about this in the review I'm writting

WhiteBoy wrote:I don't like grinding much at all. That was a huge wall I hit with Diablo 3. I realized that I really had finished the story of the game in not-that-many-hours of gameplay. There were still many levels to go, but it was just going over the same story again (Nightmare difficulty). Then again (Hell difficulty)! Then AGAIN (Inferno difficutly)!! Seriously?!!

So I thought, well, maybe I'll play through as a different character. Same story...more grind. Ugh! Sorry...that might have worked at some point in my gaming past, but I'm beyond that kind of game now. I was sorely disappointed in Diablo 3...the king of level grinding, IMHO.

Feel like doing a review for the podcast? Especially given your interest in the story, it might be interesting to hear your thoughts on "Relevance" type elements in addition to the gameplay.

I played and enjoyed the first one and a half Diablo games, but hit the level grind wall before even finishing the second act of Diablo 2.

You know what games I absolutely hate to level grind in? The Xenosaga trilogy. Anyone here played them? I've played through the first, refuse to finish the second, and am going to start on the third soon. The story is phenomenal, but there is so much repetition in the battles and enemies, that it seems to get stale real quick. But they are good games overall.

David N. Alderman wrote:You know what games I absolutely hate to level grind in? The Xenosaga trilogy. Anyone here played them? I've played through the first, refuse to finish the second, and am going to start on the third soon. The story is phenomenal, but there is so much repetition in the battles and enemies, that it seems to get stale real quick. But they are good games overall.

Man, I tried to play the first game. Wanted to love it. But it was actually the massively long cut-scenes that turned me off of it.

Paeter, the cut scenes were probably some of my favorite parts of the game, but I do agree that some of them were wayyyy too long. I think there was one that clocked in at 45 minutes to an hour. I hate that, because if I'm on my way out the door and I get stuck in a cutscene before I've been able to save my game, I feel like throwing the control at the TV.

What I loved about Xenosaga was the religious overtones spread throughout the storyline. It's one of the few games I've played that went into religious overtones so heavily.

After you beat KH3D you a new difficulty mode called critical mode and you have the option to turn off getting experience points so you can play the entire game on level 1

David N. Alderman wrote:Paeter, the cut scenes were probably some of my favorite parts of the game, but I do agree that some of them were wayyyy too long. I think there was one that clocked in at 45 minutes to an hour. I hate that, because if I'm on my way out the door and I get stuck in a cutscene before I've been able to save my game, I feel like throwing the control at the TV.

What I loved about Xenosaga was the religious overtones spread throughout the storyline. It's one of the few games I've played that went into religious overtones so heavily.

If I remember the cutscenes from the game you were able to pause them mid-cutscene. That made the episode length cutscenes bearable.