WRPGs Vs JRPGs.

[Alby_da_Wolf]

About grinding, if I like the game, I do it because I like to max out all the stats and all the skills I like even if it isn't necessary, and also to make the game last longer. In some games, like AD&D ones, where magic using classes have limited numbers of spells launchable before having to rest, I find grinding quite necessary to raise some weapon skills to be used with weaker foes, to save magic for more difficult battles and enemies. I know they can be played as pure mages, but I don't find amusing having to come back to a safe place too often to rest and recharge magic. In Planescape:Torment, for example, there's a very high level cap, but quite a low cap for skills, spells and stats, only one character has ranged non-magic weapons and only one character has a long blade, while the Nameless One can get only maces, hammers and axes, powerful but slow, and daggers knives and punch-blades, quick but weak, so, while the game can be played relatively peacefully, if one wants to get everything out of the game without having to sleep too often to recharge spells, some grinding is necessary to fortify the One and avoid he dies too often in melee (annoying because although immortal, you resurrect elsewhere and you have to recover all your stuff, and quickly, as items outside of containers or their original location disappear after some time, one in-game time day IIRC). This totally optional grinding (it's necessary only if one wants the Nameless One to become a mage with high warrior capabilities and fight everything that can be fought) can be quite limited, there are places with respawning monsters that give a lot of XP points, so it doesn't ruin an exceptional game, where even the heaviest grinding is an insignificant part of the huge, detailed story and world, with rich dialogues and lots of varied characters, each one with their story, with or without connection with the hero's quest, and often with their little or big sidequests.