|
Grandia Extreme has officially earned a good portion of my ire and hate as being one of the most God-awful, boring, and repetitive RPGs I ever had to suffer through. And yet, I've been forcing myself to go through the optional dungeon that unlocks after the last boss is beaten. Of course, once I found out that said dungeon has one hundred levels, I decided to quit the game for good (which involves burning the disc and case, and dumping the ashes in a sewer in New York). Since I have no love for the game, I'm not worried about leaving things unfinished. But it does remind me about the better games I've played that keep nagging on my mind for a replay simply because I left several side missions unfinished. Which leads me to the question: how many RPGs have players fully completed, including the side quests, item collection, optional dungeons and bosses, and (if it applies) character gathering?
In general, RPGs contain some of the most optional gameplay and events in gaming. The time I usually get irritated with side missions and whatnot is when I'm right at the end of the game. It sucks to have to wait to see the conclusion of the story, but I know that most times I'm not going to be satisfied with rolling the credits without tying up all of the loose ends. Yeah, Final Fantasy X is done with, but the fact I never won that chocobo race in the Calm Lands for part of Tidus's weapon, barely ever played blitzball, and never dodged those 200 lightning bolts in the Thunder Plains bothers me. And X-2 is just going to have to be restarted, because I'm not ending that game without the perfect ending. This mentality of mine is going to make games like Shin Megami Tensei series and Radiata Stories last a llloooonnngggg time.
Sometimes I wonder if the game makers create some of this content with the intention of seeing just how much patience and endurance the player can muster while jumping through virtual flaming hoops. And it's extremely hard to resist the call of those extra in-game quests, but there's only so much frustration I'm willing to put up with, even if the reward is worth it. And the entertainment value of the game in the mind of the player is probably a factor as well. A one hundred level dungeon in Wild Arms 3? Sure thing. Grandia Extreme? Screw it. But there's no denying the satisfaction of knowing you've been able to tackle every challenge put out for you, despite the extra long hours you'll have to commit to the game in order to accomplish them.
|
RSS feed
iTunes