Grinding In RPGs Is Good Actually
It was Final Fantasy 7 that gave me my first taste of grinding in RPGs. Towards the end of the first disc, in the Temple of the Ancients, I encountered a notorious boss called Demon's Gate. If you've played it, you'll remember this jerk: a giant, clawed demon vaguely reminiscent of an H.R. Giger painting, poking its gross schlong-shaped head out of a wall. It's the first really tough boss you fight in the game, and catches a lot of players off guard.
Demon's Gate destroyed my party effortlessly. It was my punishment for skipping so many battles earlier in the game, and I realised that the only way to beat this thing was by levelling up—a lot. I found a long corridor in the temple and ran up and down it repeatedly, for hours, fighting monsters until I'd gained enough strength to show Demon's Gate who was boss. I was an impatient teen back then, and I found it frustrating. But now? I love the grind.
Related: An Extensive History Of Rappers Rapping About Video Games
There's something about repetitive tasks in games that I find strangely soothing. Whether it's solo questing through a World of Warcraft zone, mining asteroids in EVE Online, dismantling ships in Hardspace: Shipbreaker, or driving long distances in Euro Truck Simulator 2—things that should be boring—I can't get enough of it. Doing long distance cargo runs in Elite Dangerous while listening to music or a podcast? Bliss.
Recently when I played Final Fantasy 12, I partook in some primo grind. In the Lhusu Mines in Bhujerba, there's a bridge called the Shunia Twinspan. Fans of the game often refer to this as the Skeleton Bridge, because as you walk back and forth across it, countless undead skellies spawn around you—and they keep on coming for ages, making this an
Read more on thegamer.com
