For a related post, see here.Ah, Final Fantasy, the RPG series with amazing fantasy stories, and to my dismay, leveling.
Leveling is the cock-block of video games, especially ones that are turn-based. Just when you were really enjoying the story, boom, you're not leveled enough to beat some boss and have to go run around looking for XP. You have just been penalized for fleeing from all of those prior random encounters because you wanted to advance the storyline faster, or because you didn't want Cactuar to kill everyone in your party.
This is where my personal experience with Final Fantasy X comes in. I forget which boss I first got screwed over with because I wasn't leveled enough, but I ended up putting the game away for a month, going back to it, leveling and moving forward. I got much further into the amazing story. Then I got to the part where you're supposed to crash Yuna's wedding after fighting a flying worm boss, and then fighting guards with no save point in between. That was three years ago. I went back to the game a few times and leveled but my party was always so horribly drained after the boss that the guards would kill them before they'd even get the chance to use potions. It was one of those times that I gave up on the game. I got a friend to tell me the rest of the story because I figured I'd never beat it anyway.
Another experience of mine with leveling games were two free online MMORPGs, the well known Maple Story, and the lesser known, but filled with hilarious Engrish, Wonderland Online. They're fun for a while, but then it gets to the point where you can't do certain quests because you're not leveled enough. Or you can't buy certain items because you're not leveled enough. Fighting random monsters gets really tiring. So I stopped playing both of them after a while.
When you walk away from a leveling game, it's not like walking away from a more puzzle based game like Zelda. When you walk away from a dungeon in Zelda because you couldn't figure out a puzzle, clear your mind, and come back a week later, the answer is always right there in front of you, and if it's not, there are always FAQ's that will tell you which block to push. When you walk away from a Final Fantasy and come back a week later, you're still screwed unless you go level.
Kingdom Hearts is the one minor exception to leveling games. You can still beat bosses if you aren't leveled, it'll just take forever, as long as you can dodge their attacks. But for those of us who are less skilled, it gets annoying after a while. I personally suck when a final boss has five million forms. My boyfriend, being the true Kingdom Hearts fan that he is, ended up beating those five million final boss forms in both Kingdom Hearts to prevent me from watching the endings on YouTube.
In the end my only comment is that leveling is the cock-block of video games.
How do you feel about leveling?
Comments (40)
Leveling is one of those things that irks me. It's not a test of any sort of skill, especially when the action is repetitive. It just gets in the way of experiencing the story or partaking in competition.
"Just when you were really enjoying the story, boom, you're not leveled
enough to beat some boss and have to go run around looking for XP. You
have just been penalized for fleeing from all of those prior random
encounters because you wanted to advance the storyline faster, or
because you didn't want Cactuar to kill everyone in your party. "
That sums it up pretty well for me. Ugh that's the worst. Getting stopped on a boss then coming to the realization that you must go walk around in circles for 5-10 more levels.
@Unfettered_Mind@xanga - yeah, I agree...
after some hours of leveling on FFX my hands could do the whole thing without me paying attention at the tv...
Depends on the type of game, I do like some aspects of leveling. However crazy exponential leveling rates in games such as MapleStory is a complete waste of time. I like leveling in Pokemon more than any other level system. WoW is cool too, just because there's a set cap every now and then and it's only increased every expansion pack, which seems to be every year or so. Meaning you have 1 year to get 10 levels from the last expansion times how many expansion you didn't get, or 1 year to get to lvl 80 if you just started.
Evrae. Biggest bitch of a boss ever. Harder than actual Yu Yevon.
And leveling in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, when done incorrectly sucks. Power leveling is the worst thing to do in that game.
I quite like leveling if it's done correctly. I especially like the way it's done in Diablo 2. I like how how can start from nothing with any character, and depending on what you do once you level, being able to take your character in one of very many directions. I enjoy trying to play unusual characters. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't, but it's all in good fun. But the fact that leveling is the action that makes the diversity of characters in the game possible is the reason I love it. And for those of you that say even though there are many ways you can go with the characters but relatively less that you can make to become the most powerful PvP player ever, I say to stop taking the game so seriously. It's supposed to be fun
.
Both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X I always tried to level up quickly, especially after playing though the game a 2nd time.
Also in Final Fantasy X with the dark aeons I still not defeated them all, it will take time.
Final Fantasy VIII I never got into
Final Fantasy X-2 level up at a good pace, but never got into the game.
You should definitely go back and beat FFX, its a work of art.
Leveling in Pokemon is also quite a chore...what's worse is the whole competitive scene with all the Effort Values and Individual Values D=
It just turns me off to have to first find a Pokemon with the right nature and good IVs then go and fight hundreds of the same Pokemon over and over again to get the EVs. There isn't even any story involved. It's just that. Ugh.Random encounters in dungeons are also crazy stupid...
Leveling up is a good game for us to take the challenge of digging our brain to be the smarter person!
I have played all the MMORPGS on the computer that you can try and I have tried all the console games. They look great, the story is awesome, then the leveling... I feel your pain entirely. World of warcraft was the worst but i stuck it out all the way to the top. Console games are different in the sense that you cant have a friend help you like in WoW. So essentially, console RPG's are much harder. Final Fantasy is one I always walk away from and I never return because I was so frustrated. Kingdom Hearts, I felt the same way towards the end. I had a demo disc from sony a year after the first one came out, I put it in, It had something wrong with it.... it deleted all my saves on my memory card. I had all the Dalmatians, almost all the key blades, I was at the last and final boss battle and I had it saved for when I would have time to play. Over 60+ hours probably and it was all gone. That's probably the worst thing to happen to you when you are playing an RPG. And then, there's LEVELING. :p
Sony was giving a free copy of sly cooper for all the lost memory saves. Honestly, its not the same...
Quit your whining. We live in a society where people barely work for anything anyway, and you're ranting about putting a couple of hours in a game (that you hopefully enjoy somewhat). Leveling builds character. Take it any way you want.
Leveling up was never an issue because I always walked around every nook and cranny of an area and got into a ton of battles that way. By the time I actually leave a place, I'm already leveled up.
Just don't ask me about the time I accidentally cast an X-Potion on the final boss in Final Fantasy X....
I'm actually obsessed with leveling. I always want to go to a boss over-prepared.. HAHAHA. Like the Tales series. It's a bit of an obsession.... level as much as I can!
lol as a gamer i had to comment on this post... leveling isn't a cock block for amazing story lines, there are games that intentionally make it hard for you to level because it puts more worth, dedication, and usually more money if its a mmorpg to level a character. i personally don't see the problem that people face when they try to level. there are great virtues that are associated with grinding/leveling such as patience or perseverance.
leveling was always the fun part of playing games... because i had the ability to level characters easily and because of that it made the games funner because i got to experience them to their fullest potential.... a lot of games become too boring too fast because its too easy. i rather have a challenging game where i get my money's worth for the time i have to spend to perfect it haha.
I like levelling. It lets me adjust the difficulty of the fight, because if I can beat it early, it feels good. I beat Lavos in Schala. That felt danged good. It's also a good time killer. "I'm bored. I don't want to do anything.", so I level mindlessly. It also makes me feel like my character is getting stronger. I like that as well. So, over all, I like it with very few reservations.
Leveling is the part of the game that is suppose to want players to play more.
What feels good is being able to level up and beat the boss's ass
and make him/her feel like your b word
I'm on the final boss of FFX but haven't had the time cause well
side bosses
actually just lazy now
I know where the PS2 is
I love FFX
I primarily play the Pokemon RPGs and I wholeheartedly agree with you. It's quite a pain.
i never finished FFX for the same reason. though i died several times fighting some bosses, one of them being that dragon (which i eventually figured out how to beat by i think buying some ridiculously expensive equipment that prevented certain statuses and constantly switching out party members), another being sinspawn gui near the beginning, and i just gave up when i had to fight that one annoying-ass mofo guy that wants to marry yuna (schyster or something? iono) for the third time-ish at the mountain before you go to zanarkand. my hp values due to being underleveled aren't NEARLY high enough to survive his cross-cleave attack and it takes a ridiculous amount of time to level up considering all of the monsters around are pretty much mini-bosses to my underleveled party and so i haven't touched the game for several months now.
i much prefer games like zelda and kingdom hearts, where, as you said, you CAN survive even the higher up boss fights as an underleveled party since you can just dodge a lot. however, you DO need levels if you plan to fight some of the optional bosses, like sephiroth, whose attacks you absolutely canNOT avoid 100% of the time, and he does insane amounts of damage.
sometimes, though, after beating a boss and being thoroughly underleveled at the end of it, in anticipation for the next fight, i level up, though generally TOO much, so the next fight is a pushover. this happens from time to time even if you do sidequests that require certain items or fights you just can't avoid and so you level up. this happened to me in FFXII, where i did a number of sidequests before heading into pharos and some place before it, so at the end of it, there was absolutely NO fight that really required me to break a sweat and i could just run from every enemy fight there was without consequence. even the final boss fights were pushovers. vayne in all his forms could barely scratch my characters, and the character i chose to play as didn't even need to move during that last fight.all in all, leveling CAN be a good thing since it adds a level of skill and strategy to the game, but in general, it can be quite annoying at times.
I have no such issues with levelling in RPGs. I was annoyed at FF8, which rewards you for NOT levelling (enemies become more difficult the higher you are). Levelling doesn't take that long, and the reward for doing so is generally worth it. If it takes you that little bit longer to play it since you don't have much free time, then there is value for money then. The game lasts longer, so you don't have to buy more
.
Jesus, so many things to relate to in this post!!!!! I noticed that you were a chick right away because no self-respecting boy gamer would say that he couldn't beat Final Fantasy, haha. Anyway, back to my point. This brings back so many fond memories. I got stuck at the exact same point in FF10 because I had no idea those guards were so effing powerful. But Final Fantasy has been generally pretty easy for me, with the exception of FF12 or FF8, maybe, especially for the optional bosses. But having played MapleStory myself, leveling in FF is like nothing. Piece of cake, psh. I believe at some point in FF10, the aeons took over and I hardly did any work for the final bosses.
Kingdom Hearts on the other hand, really deceives me. It's got the Disney storyline going on, and I've managed to get to the final boss at something around Level 50 (I forget), but apparently the final boss is like invincible unless you're at least ten levels higher. Or I need a boyfriend to beat it for me as well. T_T
@snapeful@xanga - I level obsessively too. Especially in FFX. I spent hours on the highroad getting sphere levels because the sphere grid is pretty genius I think. The leveling in FFXII though really irks me, because there's not a lot to do, but I like the large number of bosses...
(I haven't finished FFXII though because I forgot what was going on...)
Leveling I can do. Puzzles I can't. I nearly broke my gameboy playing zelda and shouting "I will NOT be beat by a fecking BLOCK"
@MysticalInverseDrummer@xanga - Haha I have to say I'm unfortunately not a big FF fan. But levelling is just like. I have to do it! I want to unlock secret moves! Haha. I actually love playing Zelda but only Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess on gamecube/n64. xD
haha i had the exact same problem with the same boss when i played ffx for the first time.
it does suck that with some games you're having to level up every time you beat a boss, but i guess that's what makes the game last a little longer.