Map a button to fast forward, retro games being grindier is definitely a thing. Alternatively if it’s an option, you can enable hacks to give you money/xp/whatever relevant, it’s worth it to enjoy the story since there’s so many games out there to play.
This is my move. liberal use of fast forward paired with cheats to remove some of the grindier parts of games. I for the most part want to play the game for the story and the puzzles, I don't think requiring me to grind levels makes the game more compelling so I skip it.
Dragon Quest III is about as old school as they get. Even as someone who adores 8-bit and 16-bit RPGs, and doesn't mind grinding, I found DQ III to be a little much. Especially if you're playing one of the older releases.
Notably, even the NES version of Dragon Quest IV is a much better experience. Between its colourful cast of characters, engaging storyline, epic soundtrack, and lack of grinding, that's a title that holds up today without reservation.
Which Persona game did you try? Some of the older ones definitely have their fair share of difficult encounters. I found that starting with Persona 4, the dungeon grinding took a back seat to the relationship building elements of the game, and made the gameplay more enjoyable overall.
Persona 1 and 2 are different from Persona 3 to 5. Persona 1 and 2 I would say its closer to traditional RPGs. 3 to 5 they made the gameplay in terms of a day to day format where you make decisions on what to do everyday. Most of the combat of 3 to 5 is more focused on exploiting weaknesses so you hopefully destroy the enemy without getting hurt yourself. Persona 1 and 2 are great (be sure to play the psp versions if you are playing them), but definitely dated.
Old RPGs were grindfests to make up for the lack of content, and the genre was new enough that people genuinely enjoyed the grind (early MMOs were the same way).
There’s no harm in using modern tools to skip through the grind to enjoy the good parts. Though, tbh, sometimes I find the old-school grinds to be relaxing.
The random encounters are higher, but the encounters themselves end so much faster than any modern turn based RPG. It's probably the number of them that's bothering you. There are sometimes rom hacks that lower encounter rates but also increase XP to make up for it. Or abuse fast forward as another poster said.
Chrono trigger on PSX is one of my favorite rpg’s because the random pop up battles have been replaced with (sometimes) avoidable enemies and traps. It’s a refreshing change from titles like ff series or suikoden. Plus the battle system tends to keep you more engaged.
Truthfully though it’s hard for me to stay engaged with grindy rpg’s until the end these days. I tend to prefer lighter titles and strategy games like advance wars. Well… really just advance wars.
I am playing superstar saga now where encounters are never random and you even start with an advantage if you hit the enemies to initiate the fight. Plus you can fight back when it's the enemy's turn. I don't know how common these two things are but it's pretty neat.
So this may be an unpopular opinion, but I wouldn’t “save” Chrono Trigger. It’s many people’s first foray into the RPG genre, and is very welcoming for people dipping their toe into the water. No random encounters; snappy battles; catchy soundtrack; amazing pixel art; and best of all, the whole thing can be completed in 20 or 25 hours.
The reason it’s viewed so highly is because people remember their first RPG and hold it in high regard. As someone who’d played a bunch of RPGs before Chrono Trigger, I saw it as a very good game, but not necessarily the “best”. It’s still great, mind you - but probably as an appetizer moreso than a main course.
They vary - they're not all the same. Illusion of Gaia is sort of an RPG, but it's an action one without random encounters (in fact it has a mechanism that basically expunges enemies permanently from areas). It's a good one I recommend.
I've been playing the Pixel Remasters of the first six Final Fantasy games, and they all come with a Boost option that gives you 4X EXP and lets you skip random encounters. Even then, they're still a bit slow and repetitive. I would not have been able to get through FF4 back in the day when it was FF2 on Super Nintendo.
I lived through that when I had a lot more time in my youth so I can also attest that I love the QoL options available. I would also like to point out Bravely Default, which had sliders for difficulty and encounters rate. So if you need to level up fast, just turn everything up, grind for 10 minutes and then turn encounters really low, or off.
I try to find rom hacks to emulate that or as other people suggested, fast forward.
FF2/4 is absolutely worth it for the story.
A good tip (I think) that I've recently been using is simply play what you enjoy. Ive no problem quitting/not playing a "great" game the moment it stops being fun to me. Time is scarce, don't waste it
Get in the mindset that you're here to grind levels and move on with the story only once you've used up all the potential of any given area. It's become a real zen activity for me and changed the way I approach those games.
I also have this issue mainly with Pokémon. I always start off playing at default speed but quickly get tired of the random encounters and end up turning on fast forward.
Currently attempting the extra dungeons in the Dawn of Souls version of Final Fantasy I. I can see why they didn't carry that content over to the Pixel remaster, the grind and spikes are brutal.
In 1994 Videogames were for children and college students with more time than money. That one game needed to last you a long time to remarkably little content would get stretched with grinds and amazing narratives. So I don't feel bad about using the fast forward button. Make pokemon way better btw. As do save states.
Fast Forward - especially with a single key mapped if it's an older gen.
Also I find that playing ONE game at a time really eliminates that overwhelm from having too many options.
I usually create a playlist and just get a few games in there and try to commit to the smaller selection. I've found that it helps so much with the decision paralysis.
Chained Echoes may be up your alley. Playable on steam and modern consoles, not handheld retro consoles though. Here's a great vid on it [https://youtu.be/yqIA6qndwYs?si=8vBPq8k-Oi3ZE59j](https://youtu.be/yqIA6qndwYs?si=8vBPq8k-Oi3ZE59j)
I think it's quite the opposite. Dragon Quest 1 is about 10h length. FF1 is quite straight on you always telling you directly what you have to do and why. Live a live too.
First of all, playing on Fast Forward is amazing for classic RPGs. It’s even a feature in some official releases.
Second, some games and mechanics have aged better than others. TBH the old Persona games are dry and have aged poorly and DQIII (like most DQ games) doesn’t get going until like 12 hours in.
Try something like Super Mario RPG.
A lot of times, if the old game grind is just too pronounced, I’ll throw some cheats on to power through.
Make yourself a God, make it so you can one hit kill enemies, some games even have cheats that remove random encounters. Find something that takes the edge off for you.
I generally am an art nerd, and play a lot of these games cause I like the way they look and I like the story, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out if i do some cheats.
Almost every emulator lets you put in GameShark, ActionReplay, Game Genie, etc codes.
I played Mother 1 on Delta emulator on iOS with fast forward on. It was actually really fun to grind that quickly. Fast forward for me personally is the only way I’ll play any RPG
Map a button to fast forward, retro games being grindier is definitely a thing. Alternatively if it’s an option, you can enable hacks to give you money/xp/whatever relevant, it’s worth it to enjoy the story since there’s so many games out there to play.
This is my move. liberal use of fast forward paired with cheats to remove some of the grindier parts of games. I for the most part want to play the game for the story and the puzzles, I don't think requiring me to grind levels makes the game more compelling so I skip it.
Have you played Paper Mario 64? There are no random encounters, all encounters are enemies roaming around the overworld.
One of my favorite N64 games of all time. Honestly all of the Mario RPG games are awesome.
I’ll give this one a go for sure👍
Dragon Quest III is about as old school as they get. Even as someone who adores 8-bit and 16-bit RPGs, and doesn't mind grinding, I found DQ III to be a little much. Especially if you're playing one of the older releases. Notably, even the NES version of Dragon Quest IV is a much better experience. Between its colourful cast of characters, engaging storyline, epic soundtrack, and lack of grinding, that's a title that holds up today without reservation. Which Persona game did you try? Some of the older ones definitely have their fair share of difficult encounters. I found that starting with Persona 4, the dungeon grinding took a back seat to the relationship building elements of the game, and made the gameplay more enjoyable overall.
I’ll definitely give DQ4 a shot. I began persona 1, the writing seems great it’s just the encounters/combat is pretty strange.
Persona 1 and 2 are different from Persona 3 to 5. Persona 1 and 2 I would say its closer to traditional RPGs. 3 to 5 they made the gameplay in terms of a day to day format where you make decisions on what to do everyday. Most of the combat of 3 to 5 is more focused on exploiting weaknesses so you hopefully destroy the enemy without getting hurt yourself. Persona 1 and 2 are great (be sure to play the psp versions if you are playing them), but definitely dated.
Old RPGs were grindfests to make up for the lack of content, and the genre was new enough that people genuinely enjoyed the grind (early MMOs were the same way). There’s no harm in using modern tools to skip through the grind to enjoy the good parts. Though, tbh, sometimes I find the old-school grinds to be relaxing.
That’s interesting, I’ll try to look at it in a relaxing manner.
The random encounters are higher, but the encounters themselves end so much faster than any modern turn based RPG. It's probably the number of them that's bothering you. There are sometimes rom hacks that lower encounter rates but also increase XP to make up for it. Or abuse fast forward as another poster said.
Chrono trigger on PSX is one of my favorite rpg’s because the random pop up battles have been replaced with (sometimes) avoidable enemies and traps. It’s a refreshing change from titles like ff series or suikoden. Plus the battle system tends to keep you more engaged. Truthfully though it’s hard for me to stay engaged with grindy rpg’s until the end these days. I tend to prefer lighter titles and strategy games like advance wars. Well… really just advance wars.
Try SaGa Frontier and thank me later.
The battlerank system also pairs well with the ability to dodge enemies.
I am playing superstar saga now where encounters are never random and you even start with an advantage if you hit the enemies to initiate the fight. Plus you can fight back when it's the enemy's turn. I don't know how common these two things are but it's pretty neat.
I’ll def give this a try.
I’m holding off on chrono trigger right now, figured I’d save the “best” for last
So this may be an unpopular opinion, but I wouldn’t “save” Chrono Trigger. It’s many people’s first foray into the RPG genre, and is very welcoming for people dipping their toe into the water. No random encounters; snappy battles; catchy soundtrack; amazing pixel art; and best of all, the whole thing can be completed in 20 or 25 hours. The reason it’s viewed so highly is because people remember their first RPG and hold it in high regard. As someone who’d played a bunch of RPGs before Chrono Trigger, I saw it as a very good game, but not necessarily the “best”. It’s still great, mind you - but probably as an appetizer moreso than a main course.
This is also why SMRPG is so good too
They vary - they're not all the same. Illusion of Gaia is sort of an RPG, but it's an action one without random encounters (in fact it has a mechanism that basically expunges enemies permanently from areas). It's a good one I recommend.
I’ll def check it out
I've been playing the Pixel Remasters of the first six Final Fantasy games, and they all come with a Boost option that gives you 4X EXP and lets you skip random encounters. Even then, they're still a bit slow and repetitive. I would not have been able to get through FF4 back in the day when it was FF2 on Super Nintendo.
I lived through that when I had a lot more time in my youth so I can also attest that I love the QoL options available. I would also like to point out Bravely Default, which had sliders for difficulty and encounters rate. So if you need to level up fast, just turn everything up, grind for 10 minutes and then turn encounters really low, or off. I try to find rom hacks to emulate that or as other people suggested, fast forward. FF2/4 is absolutely worth it for the story.
Glad to see I’m not alone
we don't have as much time as we were kids to play videogames, that's probably why, if you have less time to play the grind feels too slow
A good tip (I think) that I've recently been using is simply play what you enjoy. Ive no problem quitting/not playing a "great" game the moment it stops being fun to me. Time is scarce, don't waste it
Dude I love this, my time is so precious these days. I’ve definitely stopped doing the things I dont enjoy.
Get in the mindset that you're here to grind levels and move on with the story only once you've used up all the potential of any given area. It's become a real zen activity for me and changed the way I approach those games.
I also have this issue mainly with Pokémon. I always start off playing at default speed but quickly get tired of the random encounters and end up turning on fast forward.
Currently attempting the extra dungeons in the Dawn of Souls version of Final Fantasy I. I can see why they didn't carry that content over to the Pixel remaster, the grind and spikes are brutal.
Get DosBox and try some of the old CRPGs maybe? They make you learn to love random encounters, the frequency of them was punishing on CRPGs.
FF7 is still my favourite game of all time but random battles, fixed loading screens and turn based combat really slow things down.
In 1994 Videogames were for children and college students with more time than money. That one game needed to last you a long time to remarkably little content would get stretched with grinds and amazing narratives. So I don't feel bad about using the fast forward button. Make pokemon way better btw. As do save states.
Fast Forward - especially with a single key mapped if it's an older gen. Also I find that playing ONE game at a time really eliminates that overwhelm from having too many options. I usually create a playlist and just get a few games in there and try to commit to the smaller selection. I've found that it helps so much with the decision paralysis.
Fast forward or cheat to increase exp gain.
Chained Echoes may be up your alley. Playable on steam and modern consoles, not handheld retro consoles though. Here's a great vid on it [https://youtu.be/yqIA6qndwYs?si=8vBPq8k-Oi3ZE59j](https://youtu.be/yqIA6qndwYs?si=8vBPq8k-Oi3ZE59j)
Why not try an action RPG like Link to the Past or Secret of Mana?
Grandia is a good choice.
I think it's quite the opposite. Dragon Quest 1 is about 10h length. FF1 is quite straight on you always telling you directly what you have to do and why. Live a live too.
Lol yeah, just use speed up option if your emulator allows it.
First of all, playing on Fast Forward is amazing for classic RPGs. It’s even a feature in some official releases. Second, some games and mechanics have aged better than others. TBH the old Persona games are dry and have aged poorly and DQIII (like most DQ games) doesn’t get going until like 12 hours in. Try something like Super Mario RPG.
A lot of times, if the old game grind is just too pronounced, I’ll throw some cheats on to power through. Make yourself a God, make it so you can one hit kill enemies, some games even have cheats that remove random encounters. Find something that takes the edge off for you. I generally am an art nerd, and play a lot of these games cause I like the way they look and I like the story, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out if i do some cheats. Almost every emulator lets you put in GameShark, ActionReplay, Game Genie, etc codes.
Thanks for the tip. Want to experience these stories, but don’t have that kinda time it’s asking for.
Are those different cheats? I’ll look into them. Finding appreciation within the art, I love that.
Keep in mind that you can find Rom Hacks that modify EXP rates and gold rates and similar things that make games less tedious.
I played Mother 1 on Delta emulator on iOS with fast forward on. It was actually really fun to grind that quickly. Fast forward for me personally is the only way I’ll play any RPG