191: Grinding to Infinity

[tendo82]

Grinding to Infinity

Videogames from all corners of the industry have attracted fanatical fanbases. But one game was seemingly built from the ground up to encourage this kind of fervor: Disgaea. Tom Endo explores the series and what makes it so attractive to obsessive players.

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[Siris]

I was actually playing Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness on my PSP when I found this article...

 

[fd18e3d0-816e-11e4-b4a9-0800200c9a66]

Good article

I've never understood the appeal of grinding. Repeating the same action hundreds of times to make your level go up. But i guess some people like something to work at. I personally prefer a game with an end so I can look back afterwards and feel satisfied that i beat it. If i were to play a game with no end it would remove all sense of accomplishment and i would become incredibly unmotivated to play it.

 

[Vortigar]

I feel rather silly getting worked up about it but...

I cringed when I read "Shining Force was conceptually an SRPG". Merely conceptually? Are you kidding me?

The Shining Force series portrays the essence of the genre in its purest form. It is the great grandfather, the first, the one and only. FF tactics', Ogre Tactics, Disgaea's and La Pucelle's added complexities are mere elaborations on the theme and if you ask me distract from the main point. The main point being insight in the situation on the board and making correct decisions based on that. That's strategy, right? (Ok, I'm a fan of the series, but still, panning the first game in a genre irks me. Especially when its a quality game.)

Other than that, loved the article.

I've level grinded many games to pieces. Including a couple of Shining Force titles in fact. A friend of mine is a notorious level grinder, always goes for 100% saves in his games. His Disgaea fetish is the stuff of legends. The way he went on about all the various things you could level it seemed like he'd found the holy grail. Personally, I find grinding is something that shouldn't be inherrant to the design but rather something you feel compelled to do because of the game's other qualities (like Diablo, Shining Force (there she is again) and Valkyria did for me).

baggyn:
It's really quite liberating after the first few runs. You can lapse into a zen-like state that feels both restful and at the end there's a sense of accomplishment as well. Doing the same thing over and over again until the patterns and motions become second nature and you can find minute little tweaks to add to them can become really addictive. Yes, with all the negative connotations that word implies.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Now see, as much as I love games that allow the players to boost their stats to ridiculous proportions, I probably wouldn't be a fan of Disgaea. I have to have some variety in my games, otherwise I get really bored of the repetition. It's one of the reasons I'd been looking forward to the release of Star Ocean 4 so much.

Admittedly my only experience in the series was 3, but I loved how the game allowed max stats of 9,999. And sure you could grind through the 255 levels, but more than that the game encouraged the player to get those stats by creating insanely powerful weapons, armor, and items. Not to mention, even the grinding was made less repetitive by having Battle Trophies to collect. Star Ocean 4 seems to stay true to all of this, and even improving on the amount of things to collect, and the number of skills to level up to break up the grinding.

I guess what I'm ultimately trying to say is that although I am not a fan of Disgaea, I can certainly understand what would draw people to the game.

 

[bikeninja]

I used to grind in older games when I was in jr.high and hadall thetime in the world. I wish I new about Disgaea back then.
When I found the disgaea games (later in University) I did not have the time to play them that often and was content getting 3 or 4 endings. I always wanted to get to lvl 9,999, but just didn't have the time. It was especially devastating when I turned my game on and my memory card forgot EVERYTHING and I had to start from scratch.
But what it boils down to is that grinding takes a lot of time, and had little rewards (for me anyways). You would spend 20hours beating up the same monsters just so you could get a new 1 minute ending sequence, or a flashy attack, or a new character sprite, etc. I still walk into a hipnotic trance and grind my butt off, but the rewards (after beating the game) are not worth it IMHO.
Anyways, great article, it's reminded me that Prinny is out now. Disgaea is a great game for anyone, even if you don't grind and just beat the game a couple times.
Thanks.

 

[delet]

It seems I've gotten myself into more than expected... I bought Disgea: Afternoon of Darkness for my PSP not too long ago after hearing my friend rave about it. Guess I'll have to go through it a lot more than I thought...

To Klutz: Yes, Star Ocean 3 was amazing for me. Before, when I detested turn based RPGs, but loved the concept, Star Ocean was the best game of my life. I only played 3 as well, but I spent a long long time on it. One of the few games I actually bought a strategy guide for too. The one thing that pissed me off, though, is that I simply could not beat Gabriel Celeste, no matter how hard I tried. I went through the other dungeon available(where you fight your clones) and got all the way to the end where I discovered I had to fight the hardest combo of all, Fayte paired with Luther... I died very quickly in that. Gabriel Celeste was too much for me, so I was never able to get further into the bonus dungeons, which makes me quite sad...

But, I bought Star Ocean 4, plus strategy guide, the day it came out. 15 hours into the game and I'm only about 30 pages into the strategy guide. That's one thing I truly love about the game, it takes FOREVER to get through the story. I have only a few complaints so far, and am overall loving it... Just find myself despairing with the knowledge that Gabriel Celeste is back -_-

 

[Break]

The wonderful thing about Disgaea - aside from being "pornography for numberphiliacs", as a friend of mine charmingly put it - is that it works perfectly well as an ordinary SRPG. The story and writing is full of black, self-referential humour, the item world can be a completely optional extra for producing high-powered special weapons for your favoured units, you don't even need to get into reincarnation at all... And for the fanatics, you can level your units to ten thousand, reset them right down to level one by reincarnating them into a class that's functionally identical except for slightly better stats, fight through hundreds of levels for the sole purpose of powering up a single item, and then do it all again for the rest of your team.

Then again, I am a SRPG lover, a Nippon Ichi fanboy, and a Disgaea fanatic, so I might be very, very wrong. But what the hell, I'm going to go play some more Absence of Justice. Because it's great.

 

[SaintWaldo]

Disgaea is perhaps the most perverse video game series I've ever played. The entire system is about breaking the system. Instead of making the player feel cheap for leveling well past the challenge point of any given map, this series fervently demands and rewards such behavior. Your _items_ have dungeons to be cleared...think about it. It's an amazing well of gravity and you are rewarded for turning eye candy _off_. Turning games back into stochastic math is a service to some of us.

Yes, I'm a fanatic.

 

[theultimateend]

Disgaea is perhaps the most perverse video game series I've ever played. The entire system is about breaking the system. Instead of making the player feel cheap for leveling well past the challenge point of any given map, this series fervently demands and rewards such behavior. Your _items_ have dungeons to be cleared...think about it. It's an amazing well of gravity and you are rewarded for turning eye candy _off_. Turning games back into stochastic math is a service to some of us.

Yes, I'm a fanatic.

Plus if you are playing right you never 'outlevel' the game . Can always crank up the enemies difficulty.

 

[Emsanity]

Disgaea is perhaps the most perverse video game series I've ever played. The entire system is about breaking the system. Instead of making the player feel cheap for leveling well past the challenge point of any given map, this series fervently demands and rewards such behavior. Your _items_ have dungeons to be cleared...think about it. It's an amazing well of gravity and you are rewarded for turning eye candy _off_. Turning games back into stochastic math is a service to some of us.

Yes, I'm a fanatic.

Plus if you are playing right you never 'outlevel' the game . Can always crank up the enemies difficulty.

Well...you can't always crank up the difficulty, there is a cap to that difficulty meter. Eventually.

But yeah, the time and procedure to properly max out your characters, and their equipment, is completely ridiculous. I've thought about devoting the proper time to do so, but Irealized I don't have that sort of time to actually do it, so I merely appreciate how breakable the system is. If only I were young again...

Also, I agree with Vortigar's assessment, Shining Force is a great SRPG.

 

[theultimateend]

Disgaea is perhaps the most perverse video game series I've ever played. The entire system is about breaking the system. Instead of making the player feel cheap for leveling well past the challenge point of any given map, this series fervently demands and rewards such behavior. Your _items_ have dungeons to be cleared...think about it. It's an amazing well of gravity and you are rewarded for turning eye candy _off_. Turning games back into stochastic math is a service to some of us.

Yes, I'm a fanatic.

Plus if you are playing right you never 'outlevel' the game . Can always crank up the enemies difficulty.

Well...you can't always crank up the difficulty, there is a cap to that difficulty meter. Eventually.

But yeah, the time and procedure to properly max out your characters, and their equipment, is completely ridiculous. I've thought about devoting the proper time to do so, but Irealized I don't have that sort of time to actually do it, so I merely appreciate how breakable the system is. If only I were young again...

Also, I agre with Vortigar's assessment, Shining Force is a great SRPG.

I actually play Disgaea for the story. That's why I felt weird reading the article . Because its a wonderfully quirky universe to me, the grinding came as a secondary feature.

 

[peachy_keen]

Come on Pikachu, two more level ups and we can beat the Elite F...oh snap is that a rare candy :>

 

[Say Anything]

It seems I've gotten myself into more than expected... I bought Disgea: Afternoon of Darkness for my PSP not too long ago after hearing my friend rave about it. Guess I'll have to go through it a lot more than I thought...

To Klutz: Yes, Star Ocean 3 was amazing for me. Before, when I detested turn based RPGs, but loved the concept, Star Ocean was the best game of my life. I only played 3 as well, but I spent a long long time on it. One of the few games I actually bought a strategy guide for too. The one thing that pissed me off, though, is that I simply could not beat Gabriel Celeste, no matter how hard I tried. I went through the other dungeon available(where you fight your clones) and got all the way to the end where I discovered I had to fight the hardest combo of all, Fayte paired with Luther... I died very quickly in that. Gabriel Celeste was too much for me, so I was never able to get further into the bonus dungeons, which makes me quite sad...

But, I bought Star Ocean 4, plus strategy guide, the day it came out. 15 hours into the game and I'm only about 30 pages into the strategy guide. That's one thing I truly love about the game, it takes FOREVER to get through the story. I have only a few complaints so far, and am overall loving it... Just find myself despairing with the knowledge that Gabriel Celeste is back -_-

Gabriel is in all of the Star Ocean games

The comments to this article made me realize how very, very sad I am that I don't have an Xbox 360. Or, perhaps, that Star Ocean 4 will never be ported to the PC.

 

[VZLANemesis]

mmm... Am I the only one who thought this guy didn't get disgaea at all?
I mean, yes the grinding is there for whoever (whomever?) wants to do it, but its not the whole point of the series as the guy repeatedly points out. And talking about the videos of youtube is further prove of how much he doesn't get the fanbase of this game, disgaea fans aren't the kind that get off when seeing people watch their characters on getting praised on youtube, it is a self-satisfaction thing (insert masturbation joke here).

I'm not the kind to make huge chunks of words for stuff, but somehow i felt really insulted by the article and how much he misses both the point of the game, and the point in the genre. I mean it is all about Strategy after all.

 

[Axehilt]

mmm... Am I the only one who thought this guy didn't get disgaea at all?

You're not the only one.

I beat Disgaea 3 once and stopped playing. Despite not sinking thousands of hours into the game to get to level 999 (I think my chars were like level 50?) I completely enjoyed the game and recommended it to more friends than any other recent title. Between the entertainingly wacky storyline, complete playstyle freedom, reward of strategic play, and fast pacing, it's the best SRPG I've played.

FF Tactics on the other hand, struck me as overwhelmingly tedious mostly as a result of battle pacing being slower than hell. Issue an order in D3 and it's acted upon in less than a second. Issue orders in FFT and they take forever to resolve.

 

[VZLANemesis]

^^ I knew somebody had to agree with me... yaiii me
(most pointless post ever, yeah... I know)

 

[Eric the Orange]

In the review you say "why stop at 400 when you can level to 999", you do know that you can go into the thousands right?In fact Baal, the now traditional Nippon Ichi games final secret boss is level 4000.


anyways, iv'e been a huge Nippon Ichi game fan sence the first Disgea. But i'm confused as to why Disgaea 3 was on PS3. The graphics were easily last generation capable, in fact id say only slightly higher than the original PS capabilitys.