Grinding vs Taking Advantage of the System

[Prpl_Mage]

See, I've always been a "You lose, you fail and don't deserve to live; restart and make it as if that lost never happened" guy.

Yeah although I would rather put it like "If you lose you restart and do it over and do it right." That's how i play games. I hate the way FFXIII gave me the option to restart battles I lost the moment I lost them. I always clicked "return to main menu" out of principle. I'm kinda stuck like that.

[Archem]

I'm now leaving the thread because I'm [random offensive adjective] and refuse to even try black and white, so I should also avoid talking about it.

Refusal to try something is one way to really irritate me.

[drenrin2120]

Grinding is why I stopped playing pokemon. EVs only made grinding even less fun. I like the concept of EVs but implementing them like that it is just bastardly of Gamefreak.

[Meiscool]

In regards to the pokemon exp system and not wanting to share exp... several rpgs DO share the exp. Valkyrie profile is one that I can rattle off the top of my head. It will say you earned 4000 exp from the fight, but each of the four members will really only get 1000. The persona/devil summoner series is also another example of this. I believe that .hack GU did something similar to this as well. I know of others too, but can't name them off with complete certainty as to how the exp system works.

I'm not much of a fan of games that give separate EXP to people though. Essentially, you can grind one character for a small while, to the point where they can solo stuff, and proceed through the game with that single character. In typical rpgs you will often be getting 4x experience, enough to keep you over-leveled, and in games like pokemon, you will doubtlessly be strong enough to kill anything you come across. I remember Pokemon Platinum, my piplup took me through the whole game. I don't think I used a single other pokemon besides HM slaves.

@purple: Any real reason for me to do new game+ for Last Story? I beat Zan and you-know-who after him, then quit. Not sure if there was a wedding cutscene in the epilogue or not... kinda stopped caring.

[Prpl_Mage]

@purple: Any real reason for me to do new game+ for Last Story? I beat Zan and you-know-who after him, then quit. Not sure if there was a wedding cutscene in the epilogue or not... kinda stopped caring.

Storywise, nothing changes. There are two epilogue dungeons. One by talking to horace in his shop and one by examining the painting in Callista's room.  Also there's a certain someone you promised a duel waiting in the castle's tomb thingy.
Pretty much, you can upgrade all equipment to lvl 99, also upgrade weapons such as the zan lance, traive, the online weapons (claw sword, eclipse, dragon fang ect) and all the joke weapons (hoe, chair, pitchfork ect).
Also, all bosses get a huge level boost in new game+, also ogres and reptid gladiators. And replaying a dungeon in new game plus gives all monsters a ridiculous level boost.
So that's about it. You start a new game with all the stuff you had earlier, can upgrade all items further and the enemies are harder.

[Archem]

I don't like the reliance on a single Pokémon. I did it for Red and Gold, but I don't like doing it these days. It feels cheap, and puts me at a massive risk if my lead gets KOed.

[daoman89]

True that.  I always have my party close to each other's levels.  I trained my Scizor (I named her Strife) from a low level and it's fun to grind the ones you like (hahahaha no pun intended).  Anyways, she's a monster with i think 393 attack at level 100 and has the ability to increase weaker moves so her Bullet Punch is beast.  Combined with my Baton Passers, she always makes my opponent quit if things go right lol.  Grinding in my opinion isn't an issue if there's a reward for doing it in the end, you know? 

[Cerebus]

I don't like relying on a single Pokémon either, yet, I don't like grinding levels for all my party. Probably why I grew bored of it...

[daoman89]

I hate relying on my starter.  I never pick the water type and I always end up picking the grass.  Dammit I make bad decisions lol

[Archem]

Fire every time. It's how I roll. Coincidentally, the fire starters always look the coolest to me.

[Prpl_Mage]

Fire every time. It's how I roll. Coincidentally, the fire starters always look the coolest to me.

Too bad that infernape was such a bad starter. Picking it was a bad decision, torterra and empoleon both kicked his ***.

[Meiscool]

Infernape is faster and can one shot both of them though... (Fire and Fighting cover Grass and Steel).

[Prpl_Mage]

Never seen an infernape 1 shot any of the other starters. But infernape gets killed by earthquakes and psychics. Big time.

[daoman89]

He'd be beast if you Baton Pass him some defense and special defense lol

[Meiscool]

Nah, he doesn't have the HP to warrant baton passing some defense to him. Plus, his best attacks lower his def and cause recoil damage to him, so there would be no point in trying to preserve him. He is pretty much a glass cannon.

Close combat would definitely kill empoleon if infernape had a helpful nature and max atk EVs... not so sure if fire blast/flare blitz would do away with torterra in one hit without life orb (but really... who would run nape without it?), but it could.