Honestly, I really enjoy classic RPG's with very high random encounter rates as long as level grinding my characters enables them to beat bosses later with relative ease. What I can't stand is spending hours level grinding through a dungeon only to get to a boss where there is some kind of special trick or tactic that needs to be discovered that requires your party to die a few times before you can actually beat the boss regardless of your level. The reward for level grinding should be the ability to easily beat bosses, otherwise there is really no point.
I think westerners generally don't enjoy old-school RPG's with high encounter rates because we can't understand the concept of utilizing game time (as opposed to playing skill) as our resource in games. There is a lot of reward (and in my experience, a lot less frustration) in investing time (ie. by levelling up) as the means to defeat a game's enemies as opposed to your own skills as a gamer. There is something very satisfying about watching your over-powered party lay waste to a difficult boss especially when it was your time spent strengthening them.
Last edited by Illusion - on 19 November 2018
