Grinding

One of the main aspects of RPGs is grinding. This is defined as staying in an area and doing lots of battles (whether they be random or otherwise), to level up beyond what you would be at naturally if you only battled what the game gave you.

I am in two minds about grinding. One, when you need to do it so you can beat a boss, then the game is badly designed. If I have to go out of my way to get more powerful so I can beat it, then I just won't bother. I play games to enjoy myself, to immerse myself in it's atmosphere, as an escape from real life. Grinding is like a shunt back out of that reality.

I am Felt, wielder of the Azure Azoth, advanced alchemist, savior of both Eden and Belkhyde. I am beating up small creatures so I can gain enough experience to beat Chaos, evil bad guy.

It doesn't wash, does it?

On the other hand, sometimes, you just get into a state of mind where all you want is to mindlessly grind for a while, because you've had a taxing day or whatever. And games that let you do it if you want to cater to this perfectly. It's nice and calming and you can almost just watch which your character does what it does.

Now, if RPGs instead had the second kind of grinding instead of the first (which is placed in a game simply so you don't complete it so fast), then I'd play a lot more through to the end. I would buy more as impulse buys, instead of laboriously searching on the Internet to find ones which don't have grinding as a gameplay feature (a number which is few and far between).

Game developers, take note. I will not finish your game if I have to grind to get through it. What you place in the game so I don't finish it as quickly makes me play it less. If you give me the option to, instead, I will savor it, I will take my time, I will play it longer. I will then go buy more of your games.