Games that make level grinding fun

[xsoenx]

Here's this nonsense again.

Grinding is not fun. By definition, grinding cannot be fun. That is why it is called "grinding", as it is meant to be analogous to a repetitive, unpleasant task or sensation.

If you are having fun, you are not "grinding". You are "playing".

or they use skinner box technique and make you think its fun when its not
i say Pokêmon since i never have the oh god grinding feeling even thoug i used MANY hours on it

 

[The Wykydtron]

I really haven't seen a grinding system i like, i will say i like the Social Link system in Persona 3 and 4. It basically says you can go into a dungeon and grind but you don't have to since a lvl 10 Link gives you about 9/10 lvls of free exp.

Unless you've been running past all the enemies for half the dungeon and are therefore underleveled of course.

Speaking of Persona, the less said about The Answer the better, i can deal with grinding but did the difficulty need to be set to highest and be unchangable? The frankly terrible AI really shows on the hardest difficulty y'know. Yukari Y U NO HEAL?!

The World Ends With You has an interesting system as well, though i could hardly call it grinding when the game has only just started to get out of "a toddler could do it" difficulty. I probably could just set my level slider to max and just breeze through the entire game. Drops be damned, the sooner i unlock Hard Mode the better.

 

[WillItWork]

Here's this nonsense again.

Grinding is not fun. By definition, grinding cannot be fun. That is why it is called "grinding", as it is meant to be analogous to a repetitive, unpleasant task or sensation.

If you are having fun, you are not "grinding". You are "playing".

Pretty much. For example, Dynasty Warriors; I like dial-a-combo grunt mashing.

 

[Fappy]

Here's this nonsense again.

Grinding is not fun. By definition, grinding cannot be fun. That is why it is called "grinding", as it is meant to be analogous to a repetitive, unpleasant task or sensation.

If you are having fun, you are not "grinding". You are "playing".

Well said. Grinding is the bane of modern MMO's. Why glorify it?

 

[Chased]

The first time you have to go to max level in WoW the grinding is fun. You can do it through questing, PvP, instancing, crafting, etc. Since there's such a variety in the game play, the leveling sometimes seems secondary. The second time around the is atrocious. I'm assuming it's still like this, haven't played WoW in some time.

 

[Chased]

Sorry for the double post!

 

[Ed Classified]

I did some grinding in Skyrim, just making a ton of iron daggers every day and living the life of a simple blacksmith who can shoot fire out of his hands.
It was pretty fun trading around and crafting stuff, also I gained loads of XP, got a break from everything trying to murder me and I got some awesome weapons and armor.

The first and probably only time I actually enjoyed grinding.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I did some grinding in Skyrim, just making a ton of iron daggers every day and living the life of a simple blacksmith who can shoot fire out of his hands.
It was pretty fun trading around and crafting stuff, also I gained loads of XP, got a break from everything trying to murder me and I got some awesome weapons and armor.

The first and probably only time I actually enjoyed grinding.

If you enjoyed yourself, it wasn't grinding.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Pretty much any JRPG, most notably by Nippon Ichi Software.

The characters have a lot of personality and style, the special attacks are fun to look at and are often times, over the top, there's a real element to developing a strategy and approaching old missions/scenarios in a different light, and you not only level up your character's level, but also their weapon proficiency (yes, your characters can uses any weapon, regardless of their class or level), and their special attacks (for more damage).

Also, you get rewarded for taking a lot of damage and even if your characters go down in battle.

 

[krazykidd]

Here's this nonsense again.

Grinding is not fun. By definition, grinding cannot be fun. That is why it is called "grinding", as it is meant to be analogous to a repetitive, unpleasant task or sensation.

If you are having fun, you are not "grinding". You are "playing".

Sooo grinding is reletive tothe person playing? I call bullshit. If you find a task task tedious it's grinding but if i find doing the same task fun it's playing ? Nope not buying it

Here's this nonsense again.

Grinding is not fun. By definition, grinding cannot be fun. That is why it is called "grinding", as it is meant to be analogous to a repetitive, unpleasant task or sensation.

If you are having fun, you are not "grinding". You are "playing".

or they use skinner box technique and make you think its fun when its not
i say Pokêmon since i never have the oh god grinding feeling even thoug i used MANY hours on it

What about when people grind on other people in clubs thats fun xD.

 

[KrossBillNye]

Final Fantasy IX had a unique ability system. Whenever you wore certain accessories, your character had access to abilities that they could permanently obtain by maxing out its ability meter. These meters, coupled with the fact that you had access to really powerful stuff (Auto-Life, Auto-Reflect and Regen come to mind), meant that you could feel really powerful after AP grinding for only 15 or so minutes.

By the Gods yes!

I have not seen many mentioning this in good favor towards the game. I loved that mechanic.

The one pet peeve I have had in a lot of JRPGS though was the random encounter system.

Walk < ATTACK! < FffffuuuuU!!!!!

Which is why I would say level grinding in Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross was the best in my view. You SEE the encounters and can choose to ignore the fight or go right in there.

Skyrim so far has not given me any unhappy feeling of level grinding at all. Well established skills to increase and not all of them are a pain sore to increase (Save for the light and heavy armor which either you spend a fortune in getting points in or do it the old fashion way and be beaten up.

 

[kypsilon]

I still play Torchlight, but really any Diablo style clone with the gear-grind mechanic and random dungeon generation will do...but I liked Torchlight's look as well. I'd like to try Torchlight 2 whenever it gets released.

 

[Bolt-206]

The only game that I ever found grinding to be fun, was pokemon. All others suck. Make me want to shove a shotgun into my gameing device and pull the trigger.

Pokemon? That's debatable.
I've played dang near all of them, but I'd hardly call the grinding in that game 'fun',
It normally consists of; Find spot of grass, walk around several spaces, beat wild pokemon, rinse & repeat.
About the only changes that happens during this process is if you change loctaion, go back to the pokemon centre, or by some rare occurrence find a shiny pokemon.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

This may just be semantics but I feel the need to point this out. If it is fun, it isn't grinding. Grinding implies that you are doing a repetitive task that is NOT fun. If you are doing something repetitive and it IS fun, it is just that, repetitive. If leveling ever feels like "grinding", it isn't fun.
That is just my take on it.

 

[Zeema]

Uncharted 3 i really like the idea of shooting people for money

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

I still grind Borderlands for better guns... that I have no use for...

 

[Skin]

I'd like to say Dark Souls. Because grinding out a decent total for that key element you've been after is just as rewarding when you know you've been through hell and back. And then strong enough to do it all again, but with a shiny new blade of doom. Doesn't stop every enemy from being able to kick you in the nuts but we live and learn.

But you don't need to grind in Dark Souls..

People have finished the game on level 1 with no armor.

 

[teebeeohh]

grinding is not fun
if it's fun it's leveling
or item farming but grinding specifically means it's not fun and you watch TV on the other screen

 

[Daymo]

Sequence, an indie RPG I picked up in the last steam sale has such a fun combat system that I enjoy doing the same three battles on each level enough times to get all the items. (Seriously buy this game if you like rhythm games or RPGs.)

Edit: What is with people aruging semantics, grinding, leveling and item farming are all so similar that they are interchangable.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I found that the Lord of the Rings, Return of the King game on the PS2 was pretty fun to level grind... although I don't know if it was more of an obsession with getting all the characters to max level (40). The worst part of doing that as well was the fact that after level 20 the characters only got stronger, they didn't have any new moves or bonuses to unlock! And the hobbits were a pain in the ass! They were crap to play as, and they could only play on rubbish levels, they couldn't go on the southern gate level with over 200 enemies like the other characters... The other anoying thing was they all played EXACTLY THE SAME! It was essentially leveling up the same character 4 times! But I did it, just to say I did...! :| Masochistic child, I was!