Favorite grinds?

[Tonberry]

We’ve all reached that point in a game where we’re forced (or compelled) to do a thing over and over in order to obtain something. Be it experience, gold, reputation, what have you. It’s usually a slog!

Sometimes, however, these grinds can be enjoyable in and of themselves, usually if you feel like you’re doing them of your own will, or because the core gameplay is good. For me, I tend to like grinding gold outside of towns in RPGs so that I can get all the new vendor equipment, or hunting a particularly fun monster in Monster Hunter to get a sick looking armor set. These grinds can be quite relaxing and even therapeutic too!

Do you have any of those experiences?

 

[Yousef]

Don’t tell carboy but Kingdom Hearts 2.
Also Dark Souls 1 and GTA.

 

[VampireLord1024]

I don't have any unless it's a skateboarding game.

 

[Hikari.EXE]

If a game's combat is fun, grinding is fun, even for RPGs. Sometimes it comes in the form of visually upgrading your character to make them stronger, or adquiring a very specific creature from your monster catching game of choice, it really all depends on what aspect we are talking about.

 

[fishboneKiller]

i recently did my first ever Sword of Kings grind in Earthbound, and im glad i finally did it! it's like a rite of passage for any mother fan to do it at some point. i also grind for the Robot Hat in every Terraria playthrough i do, it's a vanity item that's a reference to Quote from Cave Story and i really like how it looks. the Red Snakes in the first Mother game are also pretty fun to chase after, just because they give you SO MUCH exp.

 

[Tonberry]

Don’t tell carboy but Kingdom Hearts 2.
Also Dark Souls 1 and GTA.

In GTA, do you mean like grinding money to buy house and stuff in GTA Online? I don’t think I ever had to grind much in the other games. In the story mode for 5 I felt that the heists kept me going for the entire game.

If a game's combat is fun, grinding is fun, even for RPGs. Sometimes it comes in the form of visually upgrading your character to make them stronger, or adquiring a very specific creature from your monster catching game of choice, it really all depends on what aspect we are talking about.

That’s interesting because I usually hate grinding in Pokémon in particular. Not because I think the combat is bad, but because it’s so very slow and you have to trudge through so many animations and the like every time!

 

[hazys]

I surprisingly enjoy grinding in Etrian Odyssey. It has a bunch of QoL features that make it very smooth. Ironically powerleveling makes the game substantially less fun, though.

In the older (pre-Awakening) Fire Emblem games, grinding was fun because you had to find opportunities to do it. If you wanted to get the level 5 recruit up to speed, you had to soften up enemies and help them finish them off. Or abuse the Coliseum.

I also like "grinding" for rare drops in Monster Hunter, though sometimes they go overboard and it feels like I'm playing a very long-winded slot machine.

 

[Yousef]

In GTA, do you mean like grinding money to buy house and stuff in GTA Online? I don’t think I ever had to grind much in the other games. In the story mode for 5 I felt that the heists kept me going for the entire game.

I don’t play gta online haha.
I meant grinding time. Collectibles take the most amount of time in 100% completion haha.

 

[Stingy Perry]

The Ys series nothing like grinding with a kickass bgm.

 

[Tonberry]

I don’t play gta online haha.
I meant grinding time. Collectibles take the most amount of time in 100% completion haha.

Makes sense!
I don’t play GTA Online either apart from like the first month. I could never fathom 100% a GTA game myself, I get dizzy just thinking about it!

 

[Yousef]

Makes sense!
I don’t play GTA Online either apart from like the first month. I could never fathom 100% a GTA game myself, I get dizzy just thinking about it!

I find it really relaxing haha. Gives me a zen state. It’s my favorite series to 100% (and favorite gaming series in general). I’ve done 9 games so far.

 

[ciro64]

Haven't beat CrossCode yet but grinding there was just straight fun. Feels like a minigame with self-contained risk-benefits mechanics seamlessly integrated into the game.

 

[Tonberry]

I find it really relaxing haha. Gives me a zen state. It’s my favorite series to 100% (and favorite gaming series in general). I’ve done 9 games so far.

I’ve been meaning to replay 5 in preparation for 6. Maybe I should commit and try this too, because I really like fucking around in that game.

4 is my favorite, but I replayed it last year so I don’t think I’m ready to go back to it again.

 

[bjork]

I don't mind a grind and will usually overlevel in games that will let me? Like in Phantasy Star II, spoilers for a 35 year old game (tagged just in case!)

Spoiler

you can grind to level Nei up enough that she can solo Neifirst when you get to Climatrol, though Nei still dies afterwards

, that kind of stuff is fun to me. I've been toying with the idea of doing one of those FFVII 'perfect game' files because just zoning out and grinding for like 400 hours sounds really good sometimes.

 

[Megazao]

The most fun I had while grinding a game was trying to get the platinum in Babylon's Fall before the servers shut down. It was my first (and only) platinum, and playing with friends who shared the same objective made that boring game a lot better!

 

[Hikari.EXE]

The most fun I had while grinding a game was trying to get the platinum in Babylon's Fall before the servers shut down. It was my first (and only) platinum, and playing with friends who shared the same objective made that boring game a lot better!

Now THAT'S hardcore! Getting a platinum in a game that no longer works!

 

[bjork]

Now THAT'S hardcore! Getting a platinum in a game that no longer works!

I always marveled at the people who would coordinate a night where a community would all play at the same time to pop an achievement in a game that was getting shut down in the near future. I feel like this happened several times with basketball games in the 360 era, like 2000 people all log in at once for the last chance to get 100% on their game.

 

[MistHunter]

Final Fantasy 2...!
Final Fantasy 5 (Bandersnatch first, the whole game, hunting Blue Magic and almost everything is down with Rapid Fire and Zeninage).
Final Fantasy 6 (80 hours, all magic, all characters, trying to catch a single Brachiosaurus, along with Cactuars).
Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow (the Red Minotaur and the Killing Mantle. Good memories).
Dragon Quest 3 (changing the jobs for all the skills and maxing stats with seeds...
It is addicitive).
Dragon Quest 9 (killing Platinum King Slimes,
with the Have a Ball Skill, is just hilarious).
Dragon Quest Monster Sub-Series (not at all about grinding EXP... It is grinding to complete every collection and I had the proof in my Laptop).
And so on...
Well, there's two mobile games, but I don't know if those counts...

 

[snes9x]

I loved chaining together battles in TWEWY with the difficulty multiplier maxed out

 

[Murigeki]

I don't have any unless it's a skateboarding game.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the cutscenes

 

[xuvetyn96]

Diablo II.