Games with Terrible Grinds

So I just collected my last purple coin in Odyssey. I LOVE the game, but now to 100% the game I need to buy 100+ moons. Each Moon is 100 coins, meaning I need more than 10,000 coins. Given that I had just spent 9,999 for a particular outfit, climbing my way all the way back up is a nightmare.

I felt this way about Zelda, upgrading all my armor to max is bananas because collecting the star bits necessary was more annoying than collecting all 900 Korok seeds, which was a task and a half.

Battlefront 2, while I don't really give a shit about microtransactions, gives so few credits after each game, that I can't se myself maxing everything out.

What other games in your opinion have terrible grinds? Any goods grinds?

Final Fantasy 8. I mever beat that game because the grinding. I never found out how it ends lol.

Breath Of The Wild, weapons keep breaking.

It's not Stalker.

I 100% very few games. I've yet to dip my toes into Mario odyssey since my mom passed away a few weeks ago. Just not in the mood. So I don't know much about the moon situation in the game. Why must moons be purchased?

And 100%ing BOTW is insane. I would surely start hating that game if I took on that mindset.

I dunno but once I begin to feel like I'm grinding I just absolutely hate my life. Destiny 2? More like Destiny 2 much grinding.

I prefer compelling content, narrative, mechanics etc.

In my opinion we can say that every FF game need lots of grinding to beat the super bosses. for FF 7 my characters were level 50-60 and they couldn't last that long against those 2 super bosses.(FF X also had those annoying Dark summons that wouldn't allow you to explore the temples to get that special summon)

A lot of Final Fantasy and Tales games require or I'd recommend a shit ton of grinding. I'd say grinding in FFXII: The Zodiac Age was the most fun I've ever had while doing so because you can speed up time. I found myself level grinding when I didn't even need to because it's never been that fun before lol

Tales? Grinding? C'mon man. You just stock up on Life Bottles and Gels. That is not grinding.

@dorog1995: From what I've seen, though, playing about half of the main series games, most of the grinding comes more so in the post game than in the main storyline. I've found the games to be paced out pretty well in terms of making sure the player is properly leveled.

On topic, competitive Pokemon. Hours and hours just for one "perfect" Pokemon.

@Sam3231: But you can only carry 15 at a time which is a pain. If you're a few levels ahead you'll barely ever have to use them and you're not constantly veering back to the nearest town.

Every JRPG ever. In all seriousness though, the last act of Shadow of War was pretty brutal. Round after round of protecting forts and grinding up followers to make the next battle reasonable. Unfortunately, I had told myself I would get 1000/1000 gamerscore, so I went through it all. For anyone who gets to Act 4, just watch the final video on YouTube.

The Witcher 3 comes to mind. Steam says I spent 173 hours on the thing. All of it felt like mostly grinding.

Fallout 4

FFXV

Dragon Age: Inquisition comes to mind. I was bored of it half-way through.

I only play games as long as I am having fun. So, I typically will do the main campaign and any interesting side quests. I do not hunt down all the collectibles and grinding for loot does not motivate me to keep playing. Also, achievements and trophies are a fucking joke. I was enjoying games long before any of that bullshit. I just turn that shit off so I don't get stupid pop-ups ruining my immersion.

MLB The Show 16/17

My player(pitcher) is a snooze.

Combine I only played about 20+ games between and still in the minors.

@appariti0n: You don't really have to grind in FFXV. As long as you eat the right foods and stay at the right hotels your experience can practically make itself. One time I jumped like 30 levels at once. I went from like 59 to 89 lol

Games where you grind to make things a bit easier or just to ramp up points or levels to check out new skills are fine by me. What I don't get is people wanting to 100% games to me it's totally against the idea of playing games for fun.

I don't get this whole achievements thing either, playing the boring bits of games over and over to get some stupid achievement that is just mystifying to me. Fair play to people who enjoy it I just don't personally understand it.

@Bread_or_Decide: bro! My condolences, after my dad passed it took me a bit, but Halo Reach came out and my siblings and I just sunk like 1000 hours each into it to keep our minds off of things.

In regards to the moons. There are a certain number of moons it’s less than 900 but you can eventually purchase moons to max out at 999. The buying mechanic is in place because there is some post game content that is locked behind a moon count (250 and 500) and I’m assuming Nintendo didn’t want to limit how you can get to that content.

Achievements would be better if their benefits are in-game like in Call of Pripyat, for example.

Yes, completely. Instead of asking 'why am I doing this shit?' you should have some reward for going through really repetitive gameplay outside of bragging to yourself in the mirror which is currently the only discernible benefit of 'achievements' that I can see.

@jun_aka_pekto said:

@blueinheaven said:

I don't get this whole achievements thing either, playing the boring bits of games over and over to get some stupid achievement that is just mystifying to me. Fair play to people who enjoy it I just don't personally understand it.

Achievements would be better if their benefits are in-game like in Call of Pripyat, for example.

Destiny 1 and 2. They could have at least take a page out of Borderlands handbook and learn how to make a worth while loot system. Oh wait I forgot microtransactions say yeah they made the RNG system suck.

Before Assassin's Creed I tended to be a completionist.

After Assassin's Creed I preferred to just play through the story and have fun.

I gave up collecting flags about halfway through. A friend of mine got all of them. I still want to get him a T-shirt that says: "I collected all the flags in Assassin's Creed and all I got was this lousy T-shirt".

@valgaav_219: Yeah, I was more referring to the fact that the grind that does exist, ie: sidequests and hunts are boring as hell.

I don't mind long grinds even, as long as it's fun doing it.

@blueinheaven: I’ve been a completionist since I felt the need to get a 96* in Super Mario World.

Seriously?

Pretty much the same for me.

everything has grinds these days unless its a linear story

When it comes to achievements i have a 97.2% completion rate, so i know all about grinds lol.

@blueinheaven said:

Yes, completely. Instead of asking 'why am I doing this shit?' you should have some reward for going through really repetitive gameplay outside of bragging to yourself in the mirror which is currently the only discernible benefit of 'achievements' that I can see.

@jun_aka_pekto said:

@blueinheaven said:

I don't get this whole achievements thing either, playing the boring bits of games over and over to get some stupid achievement that is just mystifying to me. Fair play to people who enjoy it I just don't personally understand it.

Achievements would be better if their benefits are in-game like in Call of Pripyat, for example.

There's an indie dev called Hopoo games that does this as well. You can get Steam achievements, but getting them actually gives you in game rewards. In their game Risk of Rain it's more items that can turn up in future play throughs (it's a rogue like). In Deadbolt it's more currency you can use to buy level starting weapons (side scrolling stealth em up where you get weapons in the beginning of each level until you run out of ammo for them). If I REALLY love a game I will go for all the achievements (still proud of my 100% completion of the original Hotline Miami) but most of the time I don't worry about it.

That's my philosophy for games in general, actually. If I really enjoy a game I will go out of my way to find all its hidden content. If not I might play through it a few times but I won't actively seek achievements out.

Back in the day when I was addicted to Diablo 2, I remember the incredible grind via Boss runs at the higher levels, I think level 96-98 took incredibly long and when you died you lost XP progress, if memory serves me right. I didn't find it terrible though, and I loved the game because I would get with a group of people and we would do boss runs all day long lol. The thing about the grind is it depends on the game and sometimes it's fun for me, I think it has to do with the risk-reward concept where you feel you have to put in a lot of effort to eventually get the reward.

If you're goal-oriented, the grind is not necessarily as bad as it seems......but like I said it really depends on the game, and my mood....these days I don't have much patience for that kind of stuff, but once in a while a game sucks me in a little like that.

Thanks, man. It's been rough. I appreciate you taking the time for the kind words. I played nothing but Doom 2016 on my Switch while my mom was in the hospital. It was the perfect outlet for my anger and frustration. Now I'm sort of left with just sadness and Skyrim and Animal Crossing are helping me get my mind off those sad thoughts.

Very interesting, about Mario odyssey's moons. In some ways, I'm dying to find out what it's all about. But Mario is such a happy place for me and that doesn't feel right at this moment and time. But neat....I'm very very curious.

FF12-15. Games are unplayable.

I quit ffiv when I heard that final bosses level is ridiculously high. That's just a chore to do. Same with DQ9, but I don't remember as much

Xenoblade Chronicles X, grinded like a mofo in that one.

FFXIII. More grinding than in any other FF game needed to beat the bosses. Cannot believe I even bothered to finish the game. Twice.

No Man's Sky. The new update added new incredients to pretty much every formula, so now you need to collect like 2000 rare flowers or whatever when constructing even the simplest stuff in the game. And this in addition to the regular incredients like plutonium and iridium which those formulae also require.

I used Modified Save Games or Cheat Engine to get 99/999 of every items. I hate grinding.

Just another in the long list of things we disagree on lol.

Yup. It's not the game's fault. It's hard for me to get immersed with 3rd-person games. If it was 1st-person and had guns a la Fallout 4, I'd be immersed enough to finish the game.....and I did finish Fallout 4 (with 340+ hours) despite being an "inferior" game to The Witcher 3.

The Witcher 3

Having played over the last 2 years? achievements included?

Mad Max

Shadow Warrior 2

Destiny 2 (and no endgame, what a waste of space)

Shadow Warrior 1

Sleeping Dogs

@sHaDyCuBe321: Mario isn't a grind. By the time you get to buy moons, you'll also have unlocked a shitload of new moons in all worlds to find. So if you go do that, you'll get your needed coins naturally. Grinding would be unnecessary and dumb.

Exactly.

Started to play all the main Assassins Creed Games from the first one up to Syndicate. Currently I'm in the middle of Rogue and I can't help but feel extremely bored by the never-ending collecting of treasure chests and Animus fragments, yet I am unable to stop myself doing it, because with every game, especially open world games, I want to get as much content out of it as possible.

Works fine for me in games like GTA or the later Far Cry Games, but if you play all the Assassin's Creed games in a row, it's borderline torture. Picking up some collectibles on the way through AC I and AC II is fine, but starting with Brotherhood, all this collectible crap really starts to distract from the storyline of the games and makes the series slow down to a crawl from Brotherhood onwards. And then comes the Sailing stuff in Black Flag and Rogue...jeeeeeeez! Sail a mile, get off the ship, pick up treasure chest / Animus fragment on random beach, get back on ship, sail another mile, get off ship, pick up treasure chest on random beach, get back on ship, sail another mile... over and over and over again.

@i_p_daily: I don't need to be constantly patted on the back by the developers. Nor do I need an additional task list of things to do. I make my own fun and play the way I want. A well designed game will reward you through the gameplay and provide you with all the sense of accomplishment that you need. Achievements and trophies are unnecessary and a nuisance.

If all you are spending your coins on are moons then maybe, but if you also want to get all costumes then grinding will become necessary, all because they had to make that one suit cost 9999 coins. Really wish they didn't price that one so high.

I just thought of one, the employment game anyone?

Literally the grind.

Agreed. When they made FFXV it's like they put all of their time and energy into the graphics then used Open World RPG's 101 when it came to the quests and pretty much everything else too. My greatest experiences with that game were fighting the Leviathan and riding chocobos lol

GTAV. I don't know what the balancing is like these days, but holy shit, they cut earning bad the last time I was playing.

Shark Cards, please.

@indzman: same here. The worse grind I seen in a video game is in Lightning returns: FF XIII. You don't get exp, but you get stats up by completing main and side missions. It means you need to finish the game several times or repeat a set of missions to be maxed out.

Yeah I don't have time for that, as soon as that I finished the game I used a save editor to Max out the stats for my new game plus.

@valgaav_219: as big of a fan I am of final fantasy, FF XV is simply garbage. It's the only FF game I played that I can't be bothered to finish.

@da_illest101: Agreed. It's pretty sad too because I grew up getting every Final Fantasy on day 1 or preordering and now it's just meh. I honestly had more fun playing FFXII: The Zodiac Age this year than FFXV. I beat it over the weekend but I still wanna go back and beat everything. The only time I ever play FFXV is when a new episode comes out then it goes back in the box lol