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Grinding vs limited resources


Grinding vs limited resources  

40 members have voted

  1. 1. What do you prefer in a Fire Emblem game?

    • Unlimited EXP and money grinding
      9
    • Resources limited by the length of the game
      31


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In some Fire Emblem games, you have the freedom to return to previous maps and fight additional enemies to train your units and possibly acquire more money and weapons. In others, your EXP and item count is limited by the number of maps in the game, which you can not return to. This creates different playstyles between these games. In some, you can grind and class change to raise stats or replenish weapons, allowing a more Build style of play where you train your units to reach certain benchmark levels and stats. In the others what you have is what you get and training and item grabbing is important as many items are so rare you might only get a few across the whole game.

Which do you prefer?

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I prefer a set, limited resources style of FE game.

Even knowing grinding is optional, it feels like they can better balance a game when they don't have to take grinding into consideration, as it's easier to predict where a player should be at any given moment.

It also makes me choose my actions a bit more wisely knowing resources are limited, which, to me, is a big plus when playing a strategy game like Fire Emblem. There are plenty of strategy games that theoretically have unlimited resources, but most of them aren't structured like Fire Emblem.

Edited by Slumber
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I note that typically the most well received fire emblems gameplay wise do not include grinding, I personally think that grinding tends to make the game more aggravating in the postgame, leading to min-maxing all units suddenly making everything less fun because now you are focusing on making super units for pvp (I pity any sad fool who gets my awakening streetpass team), grinding also harms game balance and dumbs down the experience rather than find a real solution to the problem just grind until there is no problem.

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I picked unlimited, but really I don't need things to be too free if that makes sense.

One thing I liked about world map and grinding-friendly Fire Emblems is that they feel more forgiving.  I can afford to misjudge and suddenly switch strategies without having to worry too much about resources or being unprepared for endgame.  The pain of the EXP gain petering out in skirmishes is enough of a grinding con unless I'm support grinding or trying to squeeze in another precious level before I decide to promote someone.  I don't mind limited resource games when they're balanced well enough to allow an indecisive person like me to have a little wiggle room, but otherwise I prefer the Fire Emblems that are a little more free, even if I never take full advantage of it such as reclassing.  It's more enjoyable personally.

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From my experience every FE game has had some form of grinding (be it map encounters, dungeons, arena, bonus EXP, etc.), with some being more lenient and others more unforgiving, although I can't tell about FE1 and FE5 as I have not played those two. As long as the game is balanced around 0 grinding it should be fine to let the player choose how they want to tackle the game. Balancing a game like that leads to grinding breaking the game but that's true of every game that allows it so I don't really see a problem with that.

Personally, I prefer unlimited resources because that lets me forget stuff like being RNG screwed and also lets me use a wider variety of characters instead of sticking to 10 or so juggernauts. Then again I play FE more for the RPG aspects than the Strategy ones so I'm pretty biased.

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Limited. It just feels better strategy-wise.

Though I would prefer if an option to grind was unlocked post-game. Don't tempt me with overpowering my units during the main campaign, but give me something to do to keep me playing the game after the story is over.

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1 hour ago, Alexmender said:

From my experience every FE game has had some form of grinding (be it map encounters, dungeons, arena, bonus EXP, etc.), with some being more lenient and others more unforgiving, although I can't tell about FE1 and FE5 as I have not played those two. As long as the game is balanced around 0 grinding it should be fine to let the player choose how they want to tackle the game. Balancing a game like that leads to grinding breaking the game but that's true of every game that allows it so I don't really see a problem with that.

Personally, I prefer unlimited resources because that lets me forget stuff like being RNG screwed and also lets me use a wider variety of characters instead of sticking to 10 or so juggernauts. Then again I play FE more for the RPG aspects than the Strategy ones so I'm pretty biased.

I really wouldn't count BEXP as "Grinding", since it's by design a limited resource. There's only so much BEXP you can get in FE9 or 10, which are also devoid of arenas. FE4, similarly, has a limited arena. You get to arena level 8, and you're locked out until the next chapter.

So those are 3 games in the franchise that don't have grinding.

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I love Gaiden so this is a no brainer for me but I enjoy both, I suppose. Not a fan of how 13 did it w/ Reeking Boxes and 14 was meh all around (in my opinion). I certainly enjoy grinding in 15 and 8 though. 

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I like grinding there as an option, honestly, mostly because then I get to play around with the characters more.

That being said, FE7 is one of my favourite games... although I still did some grinding in that when I came to arena levels.

Then again, despite playing them all, I will always lean towards easy game options (though I play on classic compared to other mode since that was Fire Emblem to me). I never play on Hard mode (the one time I tried, I regretted it, since I thought I'd be too much of a whizz at RD to bother with normal... yeah, typical of me to pick the completely wrong game to try it xD ). I play Fire Emblem for the large cast of characters and the supports more than anything. The actual strategy elements never really come into it as much for me ^.^''

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I usually like grinding, but I also have to admit that the Fire Emblem experience is not the same when you have the option to do that. On one side you don't really need grinding in these games to beat them, you'll always get enough experience.

But at the same time if you don't have the option to grind, most of your squad will be benched sooner or later.

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Grinding feels boring and tedious, plus in games featuring it they almost make it a requirement on the higher difficultues. Not a fan, and I really liked the feelibg of gettibg by during the Tellius games (the only non-grinding FE I've played so far).

Edited by Nanima
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Limited resources and limited grinding would make a lot more sense for balancing if level up gains weren't dictated by RNG. They already can't choose which units the player will use. And if the player gets their first healer killed that wildly changes the difficulty of an early chapter.

I'm on team grinding. The RPG elements have drawn in most of the player base for this series, new and old, and being able to grind takes the stress off. And I hope that future Hard and Lunatic difficulties will sensibly cut down grinding possibilities to ensure some level of challenge, but I doubt anything will stop them from at least putting in DLC grinding maps. 

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1 hour ago, Glennstavos said:

Limited resources and limited grinding would make a lot more sense for balancing if level up gains weren't dictated by RNG. They already can't choose which units the player will use. And if the player gets their first healer killed that wildly changes the difficulty of an early chapter.

I'm on team grinding. The RPG elements have drawn in most of the player base for this series, new and old, and being able to grind takes the stress off. And I hope that future Hard and Lunatic difficulties will sensibly cut down grinding possibilities to ensure some level of challenge, but I doubt anything will stop them from at least putting in DLC grinding maps. 

Well they could still balance the game even with rng by just providing the player with the necessary tools to complete the map. Most Fire Emblem games can be completed on 0% growths so balancing the game shouldn’t be any harder than its already been.

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1 hour ago, Modamy said:

Well they could still balance the game even with rng by just providing the player with the necessary tools to complete the map. Most Fire Emblem games can be completed on 0% growths so balancing the game shouldn’t be any harder than its already been.

In most games towards the end you get a couple strong units, just in case your old units are dead. In some games you even get one at the very end before the final boss, just in case

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1 hour ago, Griffinlwgameplayer said:

In most games towards the end you get a couple strong units, just in case your old units are dead. In some games you even get one at the very end before the final boss, just in case

Yeah, I know that. I mean that going forward in the series they could still balance game difficulty with limited resources and rng level ups by giving the player access to certain tools to help them beat the game. For example; even if you don't train Roy he could still easily kill Idunn with the Binding Blade at base. Before grinding became a regular thing in the series they never had issues with giving the player resources in the form of weapons or "Gotohs" to beat the game.

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I prefer having limited resources when the game is designed around it, because it forces you to plan and use your resources wisely but also gives you enough so that it isn't impossible to win. I have fun grinding when the game lets you though, and I think it should at least be an option in the postgame (I didn't like that about Conquest).

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