What are you playing right now?

[Humanoid]

In my few hours with Bravely Default, playing with random encounters off (I so hate that mechanic) was clearly not possible. Playing with halved encounter rate, I ended up in a slog of a boss battle that took 20 minutes and all my consumables. No surprise then that I firmly decided after tutorial island that this game wasn't for me. My last 'proper' JRPG before that was FF7 and I have no real recollection of how much I did or didn't grind there.

 

Stretching the definition of JRPG a bit, Fire Emblem likely requires some grinding to unlock the child missions. While you could argue that these are equivalent to sidequests and therefore don't count, in a strategy game you'd typically want to play each included map at least once. Ignoring these missions would be like never seeing a full third of the maps in XCOM, for example, and new maps are always the thing I want most.

[Fenixp]

Japanese games are weird it that aspect. To my knowledge, grinding is not exactly considered bad design in Japan, in fact a lot of people seem to enjoy it - even so, most jRPGs I have played seemed to be designed in such a way that you can get trough the main content without grinding, but you needed to grind a lot to see all optional content as well. See Nier and Drakengard games in general. So I'd say the grinding complaint has a lot of merit when made by completionists.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Fenixp

[Bartimaeus]

Well, I am very soon closing my 30s (I am already planning what should I purchase, to counter my middle age crisis haha), and I still do not feel nor remember, that any JRPG, I have ever played, needed grind to finish the main storyline

 

But I must admit, I have had access only to PS One and PS2 games.

 

Of course, if you wanted Tournesol in FFXII or some similar lunacy in other JRPGs, you had to spend almost 200 hours in the game, but that content was never needed for continuation of the main storyline.

 

And TBH, I read these complaints more from younger audience, than from fellow gamers around my age *shrugs*

 

Probably because they need strategy guides even for Call of Duty games LOL...

 

I think Humanoid perhaps got the crux of it - while you may not technically have to grind in modern JRPGs to be able to keep progressing in the main story, if the gameplay is so dreadfully repetitive to some players that even doing the bare minimum in regards to the combat is too much of a slog, then, well, perhaps the complaint shouldn't be "too grindy" but rather "not fun to me, period". People might say the former, but they probably mean the latter, particularly if they haven't played hardly any JRPGs to begin with.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Bartimaeus

[Malcador]

WoW went live with pre Legion changes. Sad to see my ability bars emptier than before and I am still unfamiliar with the way Holy Paladins work. A lot more twitchy for sure

[HoonDing]

"Still, I do not understand people complaining that JRPGs are only grind fests... I have not needed to grind in any modern JPRG, which I have played since I own PS3 to finish the game. Only when I have decided to go for all sidequests. Even Star Ocean 4, the game, which picture is in dictionary next to explanation to word grind, can be finished in less than 50 encounters *shrugs*."

 

Only bad players need to grind.

[Majek]

Thinking of playing some 1996 games for their 20th anniversary.  So Archimedean dynasty, Warcraft 2 with DLC, C&C : red alert , MoO2 and Death race. Maybe even Neverhood.  Quake and Duke3d and TR1 don't interest me right now. :D

[Humanoid]

The most important game released in 1996 was the Tamagotchi, obviously.

[the_dog_days]

The most important game released in 1996 was the Tamagotchi, obviously.

 

Nothing worse than coming home to check on the little guy and find him buried under a pile of his own poop. Kept thinking to myself, "Why do you just sit there pooping all day?"

[Majek]

In 1996 it was Japan only.

 

Also some Wing Commander IV and Privateer 2 were released in 1996 as well. But no working joystick = no attempt to play them.

[Keyrock]

More Salt & Sanctuary.  I died many many inglorious deaths in the forest.  I've now got a hang of the area, though me plummeting to my death due to my piss poor platforming skills remains a very real possibility.  On the positive side, I killed the Queen of Smiles on my second attempt at fighting her.  This is still undoubtedly very early in the game, but I'll take whatever small victories I can get. 

[Katphood]

Xenoblade Chronicles X.

 

Just made it to New L.A. Pretty early to rate the game but it sure looks nice. 

[Mamoulian War]

I have just finished Fairy Fencer F for the second time. I have decide to go for the Normal Ending this time. Took me the same time as the first blind playthrough, but I was able to get some grindy trophies and currently having all but one fury. I have enjoyed it and going to preorder Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force, which will be released in few days.

 

The game is now 46% finished ) And I will need one more playthrough for Platinum. It will take little bit longer I think, but I am very close to few more trophies )

 

But next game will be something different. Still need to decide if I should go for another Atelier Rorona playthrough, or play finaly something from my GOG backlog.

[Keyrock]

Killed the Mad Alchemist in Salt & Sanctuary.  Definitely the easiest boss fight so far.  I almost killed him on my first attempt, only died because I didn't know what I was up against.  I wrecked him on my second attempt. 

[melkathi]

Lost twice against the Sharkatrix in Anarcute. I know how to beat him, just haven't managed to pull it off yet. Maybe try it when I am not tired.

[Heijoushin]

Just finished Zero Time Dilemma. Let's just say... that game made me think about my mortality... 

[Fenixp]

I just shot like 50 people in GTA 5 and feel a lot more relaxed.

 

I feel like there are people in the world who would benefit from having access to the game.

[Keyrock]

I just shot like 50 people in GTA 5 and feel a lot more relaxed.

 

I feel like there are people in the world who would benefit from having access to the game.

But but but video games cause violence, despite countless studies claiming otherwise.  For example, that person that shot people in Munich recently...  I bet that person played a video game at some point in their life, therefore video games make people kill. 

[GhostofAnakin]

Finished the Technomancer.  Overall, I'd give it a 7 out of 10.

 

Likes:

-Story was decent.  Not great, but solid and kept me interested throughout.  Though the third chapter kind of got boring.

-Choice and consequence.  Things changed depending on what choices you made.

-Setting/atmosphere.  I'm a sucker for RPGs set in that kind of sci-fi backdrop.

-Party member backstories were pretty cool.

 

Dislikes:

-Combat.  It got to be okay, but there was still something about the controls that irked me.

-Uneven quality of the story.  Some good build up to big events, but then the payoff often times felt like "that was it?".

-Loot.  My character used a gun and knife he got very early in the game right up until the very last boss battle because no better loot was ever dropped.  Loot seemed to be an after thought.

-Final "boss" battle.  I don't even ... like, what?  Why they chose THAT as the final combat encounter is beyond me.

[melkathi]

Just did a no comments video for the first few minutes:

 

https://youtu.be/MZi535Q-dLI

[Keyrock]

That mouse is so adorable 

[Wrath of Dagon]

.

-Final "boss" battle.  I don't even ... like, what?  Why they chose THAT as the final combat encounter is beyond me.

It was the only real boss battle in the game.

[GhostofAnakin]

 

.

-Final "boss" battle.  I don't even ... like, what?  Why they chose THAT as the final combat encounter is beyond me.

It was the only real boss battle in the game.

 

 

It just felt so weirdly out of place.  Unless I missed something earlier, there was no significance to that boss battle.

 

It's like they just added it because every game apparently needs to pit you against a giant alien creature before the end of the game.

 

At least the previous semi-boss battle just prior to that made sense from a story perspective.  That one was sort of like "wait, why am I fighting a giant creature that there's been no mention of in the lore?"

[Fenixp]

But but but video games cause violence, despite countless studies claiming otherwise.  For example, that person that shot people in Munich recently...  I bet that person played a video game at some point in their life, therefore video games make people kill. 

Actually, local newspapers reported he was in a video game addiction therapy, I kid you not. Anyway, let's not continue dragging politics into this - I'm just really, really enjoying GTA 5. I didn't really like a single GTA game since Vice City, but with 5, Rockstar massively outdid themselves and made me want to look forward to another GTA again.

[Mamoulian War]

 

 

I just shot like 50 people in GTA 5 and feel a lot more relaxed.

 

I feel like there are people in the world who would benefit from having access to the game.

But but but video games cause violence, despite countless studies claiming otherwise. For example, that person that shot people in Munich recently... I bet that person played a video game at some point in their life, therefore video games make people kill.

Well Slovak "news" already reported he was Counter Strike player...

 

*pukes*

[Mamoulian War]

And Pokemon GO bashing is here currently being more hipsterish than bashing islam for having your own piss in your cereals.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Mamoulian War