The Grind

Before I get into the meat of what I really wanted to talk about, I guess I should talk briefly about something that affects no one but me, but it is kind of a big deal. Over the past month or so, I have really fallen off playing World of Warcraft. Ever since the people I played with quit, I had been struggling to find a reason to continue playing the game. I still enjoyed WoW itself, but the social aspect, which I had come to rely on as a normal part of my experience, kind of up and died on me. I tried to change things up for myself, with faction changes and such, and while I did find some good people to be around, I could not find something to recreate that feeling I had. So to that end, I decided to finally hang in the WoW towel. As of May...19th I think, my account is done. However, in my mind it was done for a bit before then, as I have already gotten rid of WoW from both of my computers, not to be seen again, probably. Anyway, I should talk about the thing I actually wanted to talk about today and that is grinding in video games. Well RPGs specifically. I guess ill put the jump cut...here.

Grinding to some degree is typically present in RPG's, Japanese RPG's especially, with the amounts varying steeply by game. We do it usually for two reasons. We do it either for the experience points gained in battle, or for money/items that enemies may drop. There are plenty of games that require a lot of grinding to be able to get past a certain point, upping the difficulty at random place, even more that require some degree of grinding before being able to take on a final boss. Why is it that so many of these games require you to go into battle over and over, fighting the same enemies in the field or a dungeon? Usually the only thing gained from this process is experience points, and time spent.

From what I can tell, a lot of games add a grind to things is to artificially extend the length of their playtime. Final Fantasy IV comes to mind as a game that required a lot of needless grinding. Fighting battle after battle just to be able to take on a boss. Not even the final boss, just a boss. Many say that this added to the difficulty of the game, requiring you to get stronger before you venture forth. I would argue that this does not make a game more difficult, it simply makes a game more time-consuming. I remember sitting in that fucking cave before the dark elf/dragon fiddling around for hours, fighting and fighting. Same battles all the time. How is this fun? For most people it will not be, but the other, more fun parts of the game will cause the player to keep with the grind, knowing that later some sort of payoff will ensue. It can be fun for some, if a person truly does not mind doing the same thing over and over again, but that is okay. It does not however, make a game harder when a game makes a completely artificial barrier of entry, based entirely on numbers, and requires you to get past that barrier before you can do anything. That is just the game masturbating, and getting its spunk all over its own eyes, so it cannot see how disappointed you are that you're fighting the same ogre model again. What happens to a game though, in this sort of environment, is that it is now able to brag that it has 50+ hours of gameplay! Congratulations, you get to stand in a bland fucking dungeon for the better part of your day because you really want to know if the knight saves the princess or some shit. Shame you have to go through roughly 500 random battles worth of experience points before you're even remotely ready to fight the next boss though. There are a few games that enjoy a forced grind, the most obvious examples being MMORPG’s. Other games like this are: FFXIII, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 2 the entirety of the Suikoden series, and other somewhat linear RPGs.

There is another school of grinds, that like the first one, to me is exemplified by a Final Fantasy game. This school of grindy grind is the idea that grinding, while extending the length of the game, does so for another purpose as well, giving us enough new stuff to be able to beat up the bad guys. Final Fantasy V was a game with an almost prodigious time-sink attached to it. However, for every grouping of 20 hours you dove into this world, you got a lot out of it other than higher stat numbers. You got options, options in the form of job classes, and abilities linked to those classes. Every character could be every job class, and while it was by no means required you max out every class on every character, it was definitely in your best interest to get you feet wet in most of the class pools so you would have everything you need to cut down a giant fucking tree. And while some grinding was required, it did not resemble the giant level wall FFIV put up, making you go for hours, with no visible end in sight to the constant fighting. FFV allowed you a sort of freedom while going through the narrative that the fourth installment simply did not allow. Games that follow this idea of leveling do not by necessity have something like a job system, but they do tend to have something to collect...whether it be job classes, or materia, ya know, not an item, but an expandable part of gameplay. Other games that include this school of grindery include: Final Fantasy VII, Breath of Fire 3, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, and Mass Effect.

The third type of game is the type where there is a grind present, but it is completely optional. The grind is not required for whatever reason, but doing so yields rewards that make the rest of the game easier, allow access to extra, non-essential places or story bits, or are there simply to satisfy people with nothing better to do. The perfect example of this type of game would be again, another Final Fantasy. In Final Fantasy VIII, the enemies actually level up with you, and yes this does include every boss. So in this setting, why would you bother grinding, when you can just rush through the game? Well for those who decide to put the time in, the game gives a ton of extras to those who decide to level up, such as extra spells, and abilities. So while the game can stay a simple one, more like a jaunt through a narrative, you can choose to turn things into a fairly complex affair that can take as much time to beat as FFV’s required, and time-consuming job system. Besides the aforementioned game, the other series that fits this description quite well is the Elder Scrolls series.

The fourth and last type of RPG I have found during my tenure as a game player is the RPG where the grind is basically non-existent. The game is little more than a narrative, and the battles are just there to break up the path from point A to point B. Games like this tend to be very story heavy, and also tend to offer little in the way of side-quests. Lunar: Silver Star Story is the title that really comes to mind with this. Kingdom Hearts also is a series offering little to no grind. Lunar especially has no side-quests, except for opening those red chests. This type of game seems easily like the best type of game, based on the lack of work required, but often this can be a detriment, for if the story is bad, there is nothing else holding the game together. So really it can be a dicey, and often quick adventure going this route.

So what do I think is the best way of doing this (like you care)? Well I think a nice combo of method two and three are the best ways to do an RPG. Give us some required stuff, but nothing that will make you break the game in frustration, then throw a bunch of extra stuff that allows people to do some extra quests that make the game feel like a significant investment, while not being boring. The rewards for this make the games easier, while all the time feeling like a nice and meaningful diversion, not a test in patience like some games can throw at you. Sometimes a no work game like Lunar can be good, but it takes a real talented group to put together a game that makes you feel like you are getting your money’s worth. I personally like a bit of a light grind, while giving me the freedom to go nuts. Probably why I like FFX so much, despite the fact it’s headed up by a Meg Ryan clone.

-Kesith