What's Your RPG Playstyle?

[Yuri-G]

If you fight all the way to the end of the dungeon (which apparently doesn't have save points in your example) 10 times and keep dying each time without leveling up, you have bigger problems than being challenged by an RPG boss.

[izembo]

there have been games as such, and its far easier and more enjoyable to just play through it and enjoy the story than anything else, to each his own

[Akiyama]

I generally plow through, say fuck leveling and shit, and just go through for the story alone. I don't want to grind too hard to make the game seem like it's on Easy Mode.

[Purrrfect]

stuff

If you went thru 10 times without save points in an attempt to fight the boss and lost each time and had to restart why would you think they would keep the exp they gained each run thru? I wouldn't do it myself, but its up to them when they feel they have sufficiently proven to themselves that they need to grind a bit before attempting again.

[Ivaden]

I grind. If I'm a person capable of saving the world or whatever other generic RPG storyline there is, I want to feel like I'm actually playing someone capable of saving the world, not some random person getting his ass kicked by lesser bosses. It's all about the story.

[Kohan]

I normally play RPGs where the grinding part is actually fun, though not necessary; I usually enjoy the storyline first and come back to perfect things later. My favorite franchises tend to reflect this (Tales, Grandia, et cetera).

The most noteworthy exception to my usual requirements is Dragon Quest, which I've always been a big fan of. Something about its simple, archaic battle system makes me want to play it over, and over, and over again. That and the fun of actually trying to kill Metal Slimes. Speaking of, why did they change the Babble to "Liquid Slime"? Bastards, it's a Babble.

[Zeb]

I think I do it a little inbetween grinding and plowing through. I'll just do story progression until I get to the next rest stop. If they have new weapons or armor, I'll probably grind a bit, to make money, so I can equip most of my gang with the new stuff. Just plowing through, you never have enough money to fully equip your group with the best goods.

[Yuri-G]

If you went thru 10 times without save points in an attempt to fight the boss and lost each time and had to restart why would you think they would keep the exp they gained each run thru? I wouldn't do it myself, but its up to them when they feel they have sufficiently proven to themselves that they need to grind a bit before attempting again.

Did I say they'd keep the XP? No, I said if you go through a long dungeon without save points 10 times in a row before you figure out that you need to level up to beat the boss, you have issues. Maybe I didn't phrase it clearly, but you didn't read it clearly either.

[Sonomaa]

start playing, get into the game, get a third of the way through it, be addicted to it and preach about how good it is. Get caught back up in FFXI, not able to play the game again, forget about it, try to play it again and cant remember the story, realize Ive wasted a lot of money on another game I want to play but dont have the time to... again.

[Ivaden]

start playing, get into the game, get a third of the way through it, be addicted to it and preach about how good it is. Get caught back up in FFXI, not able to play the game again, forget about it, try to play it again and cant remember the story, realize Ive wasted a lot of money on another game I want to play but dont have the time to... again.

And this is why I'm glad I managed to break my FFXI addiction. Happened to so many games.

[Marcin]

I pretty much just explore a new area fully and don't try to avoid battles along the way. Doing this has never made me have to go back and grind levels because a certain boss was too tough. Only time I'll ever grind in an rpg is if I'm short on money to upgrade all my characters their equipment.

[Maguspk]

I usually just play through, don't worry about leveling too much.

Definitely add me to the list of people who hoard and don't use consumable items. Haha, I always hang onto the Megaelixirs and Ethers like they are my life and always end up not using them even at boss fights.

I have a guilty habit of looking up shit online though especially since it's so easy. It's not so much because I can't play without doing that, but I'm always worried I'm going to miss something important like an ultimate weapon or a one-time chance at something.

[Shroomy]

I play the game 1/2 way though, get ahead 20 levels, get right before the end, finish all sidequests then regret not reading a guide for missing some awesome random shit in the game.

When I played my last MMO I couldnt play anything else. With FFXI at least when im making money I can play something else;;

[Qeomash]

Add me to the ever growing list of non-item users. The only item I ever use are Phoenix Downs and the like. Though, it depends on the game. Early on in the Tales series games I tend to use a fair number of healing items because the mages haven't caught up to the need yet.

First play through, I try not to use guides unless I'm completly stuck on something. I'll go through at a normal pace, usually not stopping to grind unless necessary. I want it to be a challenge, not too easy and not too hard.

If possible, I try to do my "complete" file on the first file, but will start over if I missed something.

[Yuri-G]

I hate games that do the one-time chance thing. I much prefer games where there's a lot to discover but none of it is permanently missable, because I don't usually play games twice unless I really like them, but I hate not being able to get a perfect file because I missed some random obscure side-quest at some point. Final Fantasy X-2 was a horrible, horrible offender in this category - I missed one specific conversation in the entire game and because of it, I was unable to get the Mascot suits. I didn't even finish it until a year later once I found that out, I was so pissed off.

I also hoard items, although I use them if I need to. It just seems that in the majority of games you can get by fine on magic and abilities alone. It's funny, I used to do the exact opposite; I would buy hi-potions and such in huge amounts and refuse to use my skills until I reached the boss of a dungeon for fear of running out of MP. I don't remember when, but at some point I finally realized that's what fucking tents and save points and shit like that are for, no sense wasting items when you could just use your damn cure spells.

The funny thing about item-hoarding is, I'm obsessive about getting every single chest in a game, even though I might not use the majority of the items. I get annoyed by branching pathways since I want to pick the path that doesn't go towards the end of the dungeon first, in case it has treasure down it. This has made the full-Kagatsuchi chests in SMT: Nocturne a pain for me, though I have gotten the best item out of every single one of them so far.

[Zilong]

If I can't buy it on the store, there is 90% chance I won't use my items.

I personally love grinding, especially if the fighting system is interesting, like right now I'm playing SRT Mugen Frontier and I actually like random encounters.

Maybe because of this, I prefer games with scaling encounter, since everything is too easy otherwise.

I ruined FFXII by getting Zodiac Spear...and Masamune/Tournesol before even finishing Giruvegan, now I'm just burnt out from the game because I'm too lazy to hunt marks, and storyline is not even close to be challenging.

[Koul]

if I'm really annoyed and hate the dungeon I'm in. I'll probably run from every battle or use as much MP/AP/TP/whatever to kill shit asap. then hope I don't get a surprise boss fight or one that doesn't have a save point close to it. Ex. midgard in FF7. fucking hate the beginning of that game. Or Isle of the damned/poisoned marsh place/earth dragon island in Chrono Cross.

I usually grind the shit out of crap if I've never played the game before because I want to see all the pretty abilities or magic skills people will get.

after playing grandia I now explore every single corner of every dungeon in any game. I also check every barrel/dresser/trash can. I got that from breath of fire games though, I think.

when it comes to getting final weapons/spells/special bosses. I try to do em but I usually don't unless I was really excited for the game. Last RPG I was really excited for would either be xenosaga 3 or KH2 whichever came later lol

[Maxxthepenguin]

I also make sure not to learn about the super items on my first playthrough. FFXII would have seemed much more hollow if I cared about the Zodiac Spear on the first playthrough.

Seriously, whenever I hear somebody say "oh FFXII was retarded with that Zodiac Spear bullshit" I wonder why the fuck they couldn't just, you know, play the game and not worry about that shit.
Then I remember, people are retarded.

[Atreides]

I played FF12 and got the zodiac spear my first time through, I also kept copious and meticulous notes about what items I had sold to NPCs, what I was holding onto, etc. With the negalmuur autoleveling trick I sank about 249 hours into FF12 when all was said and done (only about 50 of those were afk, lol) and ended up farming up enough to get every single item from bazaars, finished every quest, and killed every mark/esper/boss.

If the above paragraph didn't clue you in I'm a 'get everything my first try' kinda player. I'll sink as much time as necessary farming/grinding/whatever, but I'll almost never play through a game a 2nd time. I usually use strategy guides/online guides, but usually only for things like synthesis (in FF12, Dragon Quest 8, infinite undiscovery, etc), and I always use pen/paper to plan things out and make notes of what I need to do. It becomes this whole ritualized geeky experience for me, and I can get really immersed in some games (90+ hrs in mass effect, 275+ in oblivion, lol). Even if overleveling and overequipping my characters makes the game to easy I don't really find it detracts from my overall enjoyment of the game, since for me the experience is always so much more than just battle strategy.

Oh and like everyone else here I always save ethers and megalixirs, and will only use them to beat bosses if I fail at killing them the first time without them.

[arus2001]

I usually overpower myself a little, but if I find the game deliberately cripples your EXP gain or is stingy with money, I tend to just wing it and pray.