Mastering a game...The pros and cons

[BlindMessiah94]

So we've all done it. Spend an incessant amount of time on a game, grinding away at EXP until we reach that beloved level ** or acquiring all the best weapons and armor, or pouring all your points into the best AOE spell and making it ungodly.

But there's a downside to this!

I've gotten a lot of hours of gameplay out of doing this. Two games come to mind immediately:
Castlevania: SoTN and FF7.

In SoTN I finally got the best weapons and 100% completed the map and then go to fight Dracula and beat him in under 8 seconds (literally).

I'm at the end of FF7 right now having 3 sets each of Master Summon, Master Command, and Master Magic Materia and am at level 99. I don't even want to fight Sephiroth because the battle will consist of me spamming Knights of the Round until he's dead.

I guess my point is I have a love hate relationship with grinding in games. On one hand, I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it, and I like getting rewarded with cool prized for my efforts.
The downside is the games become waaaaaaay too easy.

Anyone else have this problem? You play a game for hours upon hours only to achieve the stats you desire and then you don't even want to fight the final boss because it's such a let down?

Like and anti-climactic finish for your efforts.

Also for further discussion value list some games where you have had this feeling, or tell me what your favourite condiment is.

 

[LeonLethality]

There are no cons to mastering Monster Hunter!

Though FFVII is not much of an achievement to master...

And Ketchup goes nicely with hot dogs

 

[Dark Knifer]

I don't have many games where I feel this, but in some games it is anti-climatic to be able to beat the last boss so easily. I had this problem in kingdom hearts 1 and 2. But in games like metroid prime, the feeling of finding all those energy tanks is awsome, but the last boss still feels like a challenge.

 

[delet]

I think the reward is getting to the point where you can destroy all your enemies in a heartbeat. I think Disgaea is a prime example of this.

Level cap at 9999, the capability to deal damage in the billions, insanely difficult boss battles that require that billon-damage hit rate to defeat... It's all about reaching that level of pure badassery where you can wipe everything and anything out.

With Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days, the ultimate boss fight is against 8 prinnies who have max stats. As in nothing can ever be more powerful than them. Even if you powerlevel all the way up, they can still one-hit you. You have to kill all 8 of them before they kill you.

It's all about the bragging rights, about being able to say, "Yea, I beat that challenge." Admittedly it's not one of the better things you could brag about ("Hey, I spent half a year and several thousand hours so I could accumulate zeros at the end of this number in one turn!") but it's still something.

 

[Marter]

I really find this in fighting games, especially when playing against the CPU. You get so good that you hardly even have to think, then you face a human opponent and you get beaten by button mashing.

 

[Xeros]

Fallout 3 comes to mind here. I spent hours mapping out the best way to level which ended me up having 7s-9s in all the useful S.P.E.C.I.A.L. areas, all the best perks, and 100s in every stat aside from barter. Granted it never stopped the exploration from being fun, but it did make the game embarrassingly easy on every difficulty.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

I really find this in fighting games, especially when playing against the CPU. You get so good that you hardly even have to think, then you face a human opponent and you get beaten by button mashing.

The problem with fighting games is that the CPU pretty much never plays like a human being. It either cheats (for example by having inhuman reaction times), or it's so easy that someone with a small amount of skill can 'master' the game. Either way, it's a decent way to learn the basics of the game but no more than that. I've never seen someone who played only against the CPU (no matter how well they did it) do good against someone who regularly played against other human beings.

So even if you master the singleplayer, you can't really expect to be good at multiplayer right away as well.

 

[SimuLord]

I played Fallout 3. Beat the game without dying. Got to level 30, got all the SPECIAL bobbleheads and built the character so he's got 100 in all skills. Finished the DLC, all the quests, everything. There is literally nothing left for me in that game. It was last seen at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony giving a speech after I retired it.

 

[Super Offical]

In multiplayer if you master the game its easy and fun, but when people move on thats time wasted. Sure in a singleplayer game replay all you want. Multiplayer is best to not get to attached.

 

[Zorg Machine]

As soon as I got the best weapons and all the aeons in FFX, I decided to try to kill the boss.
It turned out that I could kill him before he got a chance to attack in both his forms. And I could one-shot every aeon. so the final boss was me pressing the attack button over and over again until everything was dead.
The problem I have is that I don't have the willpower to get the ultima armor so that I can destroy the special boss (he will destroy you if you don't have ultima everything)

 

[L-J-F]

The pros - YAY! I won!
The cons - Was it worth it?

I usually don't master games though, but if I do, I spend as little time as possible doing it, but put in everything I have in the most efficient way possible to master it

 

[Koganesaga]

There are no cons to mastering Monster Hunter!

Though FFVII is not much of an achievement to master...

And Ketchup goes nicely with hot dogs

MONSTER HUNTER WOOT!!! No matter how strong you are, Fatalis could still make you look like a whiny *****.

 

[Kouen]

I really find this in fighting games, especially when playing against the CPU. You get so good that you hardly even have to think, then you face a human opponent and you get beaten by button mashing.

yea that pisses me off to no end >.<

 

[LeonLethality]

There are no cons to mastering Monster Hunter!

Though FFVII is not much of an achievement to master...

And Ketchup goes nicely with hot dogs

MONSTER HUNTER WOOT!!! No matter how strong you are, Fatalis could still make you look like a whiny *****.

Fatalis is not hard (though one screw up and you will be sorry you faced him.)

Raviente! He's hard!

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

Burnout: Paradise is perhaps the worst game to do this to. I spent 100+ hours getting 100% game completion to get the gold and platinum cars, but for what? Burnout is a game that does not treat the players too well. Even after all that time spent, and getting 99% in B3 and 100% in Revenge, I am still going to crash...a lot. You never really master that kind of game, you just do a little better each time.

 

[Koganesaga]

There are no cons to mastering Monster Hunter!

Though FFVII is not much of an achievement to master...

And Ketchup goes nicely with hot dogs

MONSTER HUNTER WOOT!!! No matter how strong you are, Fatalis could still make you look like a whiny *****.

Fatalis is not hard (though one screw up and you will be sorry you faced him.)

Raviente! He's hard!

Eh, not gonna buy tri, and I call fatalis hard on the solo fact that it can oneshot you unless you have guts.

 

[LeonLethality]

Eh, not gonna buy tri, and I call fatalis hard on the solo fact that it can oneshot you unless you have guts.

Raviente is in Frontier not Tri.

And that's why I said one screw up and you'll be sorry you faced him.

 

[Koganesaga]

Eh, not gonna buy tri, and I call fatalis hard on the solo fact that it can oneshot you unless you have guts.

Raviente is in Frontier not Tri.

And that's why I said one screw up and you'll be sorry you faced him.

First, damn koreans and their exclusive games. Second, really? It looks alot like that one they're introducing in tri.

 

[LeonLethality]

Eh, not gonna buy tri, and I call fatalis hard on the solo fact that it can oneshot you unless you have guts.

Raviente is in Frontier not Tri.

And that's why I said one screw up and you'll be sorry you faced him.

First, damn koreans and their exclusive games. Second, really? It looks alot like that one they're introducing in tri.

It's Japan and Korea exclusive.
And it does but Raviente is MUCH larger by that I mean the size of an large island.

 

[Koganesaga]

Eh, not gonna buy tri, and I call fatalis hard on the solo fact that it can oneshot you unless you have guts.

Raviente is in Frontier not Tri.

And that's why I said one screw up and you'll be sorry you faced him.

First, damn koreans and their exclusive games. Second, really? It looks alot like that one they're introducing in tri.

It's Japan and Korea exclusive.
And it does but Raviente is MUCH larger by that I mean the size of an large island.

Bigger or smaller than a Lao?