The Daily Grind

Hello again,

Today I want to talk about a characteristic of RPGs that has always bugged me: leveling. The game's difficulty is inversely proportional to the time you are willing to put into mindlessly fighting enemies.

When I first played through Final Fantasy VII last summer, I did not take my time. It no longer had that quality it possessed back in 1997 to completely entrance any geek who laid eyes on its pre-rendered backgrounds and brief CG cut-scenes. At any rate, I got to Sephiroth at about 32 hours. We fought it out; it was a long and glorious battle in which I eventually succumbed. Cut to two hours of leveling later and I pounded his face in.

Everyone I know who played it way back when sunk many more hours into the game, getting all the ultimate weapons and the level 4 limit-breaks and what-not. Sephy did not stand a chance against their world-crushing power.

Now, I ask you, don't these people deserve more? They obviously love the game; it hardly seems fair to wimp out at the end. Shouldn't the battle be tough enough to yield a satisfying triumph? Personally I think bosses should scale depending on how powerful your party is. It might help foster camaraderie between players, rather than "Kefka killed me" - "God, how could you suck so hard? Kefka is so easy!"

I mean, I know it is a way for players who are having trouble to advance, but I feel like there must be a better way to balance RPGs. Or maybe I'm just complaining for no reason. It is not exactly my most thought-out idea. Comments are appreciated; maybe with your help I can nail down exactly what I mean.

In the mean time, I just played way too much Virtua Fighter 4 Evo and am feeling kinda tired. I want to write something about it but I'm not I have enough experience to do so and not look like a fool. I'm not sure where that point will be either; it doesn't really have a defined "end". Oh well.

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE YOU,
Kefka