Do you feel like you are under-leveled in your RPGs?

I only felt this way in Dark Souls 2 Crown of the Sunken King DLC area. I was level 140 and everything in that zone was hitting me like a truck. I looked up the recommended level and it was 115-125. I didn't understand what I did wrong because I had great gear, but that area was hell to get through.

No other souls game felt that way to me. I was legitimately puzzled by how strong the mobs were in DS2 sometimes.

I avoid all unnecessary fighting.
I got stuck in Sun and Moon because when I got to the not elite four, my highest level pokemon was 32

For sure, but it's on purpose.

I love the challenge and overcoming dangerous odds with sheer skill alone. Big ego boost

Yes, but I like a challenge. Power-leveling and such is for when I come back and revisit my favorite JRPG's

No I like to grind my ass off so I can effortlessly stomp everything.

Not really, I tend to do a good amount of side quests/exploring in most RPGs which always helps in terms of staying around the recommended level or above that.

It's something that's always on my mind when I dip back into a JRPG.

I love feeling underleveled. The minotaur fight in SMTIV is one of my favorites in the series because you can't brute force your way through it.

When I was young I'm almost always over leveled.

Now I'm usually underleveled and I find the challenge just right.

I wouldn't say I make a conscious effort to do so, but in general I'll try to not run from fights, and find all the chests in dungeons, and the game balance almost always ends up having me over leveled if I do that.

Its like I either miss half the shit, or the combat becomes easy mode.

I kinda of like being underleveled for the challenge of it

Playing through Tales of Vesperia now, and there's a free DLC that gives you a few items that can optionally increase your party's level by 5 or 10 at a time, up to I believe 40 levels (which is a lot.)

So far, I have used one of the 5 level ones when I was beginning to feel severely underleveled and it evened the game's difficulty right out. It saved me probably an hour or two of grinding as well.The 10 level up items seem like a bit overkill since the game is now honestly a bit on the easy side just after one 5 level up, but I guess it's nice as an option for those who want to just blitz through the combat to experience the story/characters.

I wish more games would integrate this kind of modular difficulty, particularly JRPGs where a big part of the difficulty is just based on numbers and simply requires tedious grinding to proceed. That's great for people who enjoy it, but please make it optional for those of us who don't.

I think the only RPG in memory that I've felt constantly under-levelled without actively going out of my way to do so would be The 7th Saga on the SNES.

But that game is bullshit to the nth degree.

If I don't one-shot the area I'm in, I don't move on.

I like to take my time exploring, doing quests and learning the battle system so I never have the issue of being under leveled .

Back then, mostly as a kid, i used to run for half of the regular battles and never grind. It was a normal process to be extremely underleveled in some games and dying 5+ times every boss.

Nowadays i don't have this patience anymore, i just fight the battles in my way, rarely do sidequests, and i mostly never felt underleveled.

Games that you need to grind or do sidequests to not feel underleveled are pretty rare nowadays, or even after the snes era. It's pretty bizarre to see people grinding to finish the story in a FFVII.

Orion said:

No I like to grind my ass off so I can effortlessly stomp everything.

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Same ! I suck at RPGs so I grind af and play the easiest difficulty lol
Persona 4 golden and Persona 5 are awesome on very easy lol, you got a shit ton of XP and yen at each fight lmao

I tend to stay pretty overleveled during the front half of RPGs. Then usually something happens (usually burnout) where I start to move more quickly through the second half... and struggle so much by the end. LOL

statham said:

I tried to over level in FFXIII, ran into every monster I saw on purpose. replayed certain parts, final boss still destroyed me. I have a love/hate with this game, enjoyed 95% but that last 5%, COME ON! not fun at all. for my sanity, I gave up on it. Hoping the 2 sequels are better.

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As someone who is only about 10 hours in (and kinda playing it the same way), this is completely discouraging to read... :(

I'd say mostly no. Overleving has been more of a "problem". I usually do side content too when available. I like to meet new characters and explore new areas. But I also tend to avoid combat scenarios when I can though. So I definitely don't stop to grind.

Only in Dragon Quest games because the EXP flows so slowly and characters don't feel like they're getting demonstrably stronger from level to level while monsters do way more damage the deeper in you go.

Most JRPGs are better at level pathing than DQ is, but DQ's designers are too set in their ways to change after all this time.

Always overleveled when deciding to explore, and always underleveled when deciding to tackle the critical path.

I usually feel over-leveled, then I check a FAQ and I am lower level than the writer.

Orion said:

No I like to grind my ass off so I can effortlessly stomp everything.

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MaitreWakou said:

Same ! I suck at RPGs so I grind af and play the easiest difficulty lol
Persona 4 golden and Persona 5 are awesome on very easy lol, you got a shit ton of XP and yen at each fight lmao

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Yup, I played Persona 5 on Easy and then switched it to Safety at the very end. Part of it was that I hadn't grinded enough Mementos stuff to be leveled for the final dungeon, and part of it was that by that point I was just extremely done with the game after 98 hours. I know some people love a final boss with a ton of challenge, and for some game genres that can be satisfying - but for me, a JRPG with a fuck you hard endboss just feels like the developers are asking me to run around the final dungeon grinding out levels for an hour. No thanks.

Persona 5 is much more enjoyable on the lower difficulties imo.

I'm usually way over-leveled. Worst case of this was The Witcher 3, I only did like half the side quest and was still pretty much invincible.

ghibli99 said:

I tend to stay pretty overleveled during the front half of RPGs. Then usually something happens (usually burnout) where I start to move more quickly through the second half... and struggle so much by the end. LOL


As someone who is only about 10 hours in (and kinda playing it the same way), this is completely discouraging to read... :(

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I tend to do a lot of exploration and rarely run from or avoid fights so I often feel over levelled if anything.

All the damn time. I always think I'm underleveled, so I spend a huge amount of time grinding and preparing myself for the boss fights. I actually enjoy boss fights much more when the boss barely even scratches my HP.

I feel overleveled until I reach post game content in a JRPG and realise I never actually got good at the game
See this tall drink of asshole:

No I got to level 99 way too early in Dragon Quest XI. Made the last 10 hours pretty trivial.

Not always but I'd say I end up being underlevelled more often than over. Although I will do side content in most cases(unless it's just not very good), random battles with the same enemies over and over grate on me a bit so I've been known to skip battles from time to time and it usually adds up. I don't generally mind too much though, in most games you can usually still beat bosses underleveled and it can add some fun challenges. There's a exceptions like the first Xenoblade Chronicles, I ended up underleveled because I avoided side quests since they were mostly dull fetch quests, unfortunately it had a stupid agility system that meant you just missed all the time if you were 2-3+ levels under. I ended up having to grind a bit to get back to the right level.

I felt this way with Bravely Default recently even though I did all the side stuff I came across in the first half. Game was just hard if you didn't grind. Not unfair, but I hit so many of those walls that it was frustrating.

I dont feel many jrpgs in the last few years have required me to grind. I tend to do very few if any side quests. I don't generally run from battle though, so i get xp from that.

Finished Dragon Quest XI two days ago. It was a walk in the park. I never died.

I have the same issue, generally because boss battles are the highlight of RPGs, so I don't fight a ton of random encounters.

That's why I was confused why people were calling NNK2 so easy. I hardly died, but the battles weren't cakewalks with enemies 10-15 levels above me and able to two shot me if not outright OHKO. Though it is an easy way to up the challenge.

The opposite. Grinding out levels is my zen zone.

I'm always overlevelled due to the fact that I always wanna buy everything on the next town/hub.

butman said:

Finished Dragon Quest XI two days ago. It was a walk in the park. I never died.

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In this case, having draconian settings on would give you a challange. Most recommend at least stronger enemies.

Nope. I always explore and talk to all the npcs and do all the side quests before advancing the story so I'm usually the right level or over leveled

I can't stand games that don't do a good job of keeping you adequately leveled for the content that I have to face. If a game at any point forces me to grind, I'm done with it.

If anything, I'm typically over-leveled, because I spend a lot of time doing side content.

Only when i just want to get the main story over with and rush through skipping battles.

Hmmm... probably 50% of the time. The other half I'm over-leveled. Like a Sith, I only deal in absolutes with my leveling.

The last time i felt being underleveled was some time ago when i replayed Final Fantasy on NES. I remember being in a cave and avoid as many battle as possible since single encounter would drain my party's HP in one turn. Nowadays developer are better at scaling the enemy level though. But i love the feeling of being underleveled when facing the bosses, defeating the top dog by being underdog is really satisfying, last time when i finished DS3 (my first run) i refused to leveled up myself beyond level 69, when i faced sister friede and finally defeated her at level 69 my joy is immeasureable.

im usually either a little over or just at the right level tbh.

Nah, my biggest fear is getting overleveled. RPGs are at their best when you are constantly progressing with no stops to grind. If I fail, I usually adjust my team set-up, equipment, and strategy first before I resort to grinding.

However, I actually did end up critically underleveled recently in The Last Remnant. After reading a ton of people saying stuff like "avoid unnecessary battles or your Battle Rank will get too high!" I tried to follow said advice. I ended up so far below the Battle Rank I was expected to have that I was triggering a special enemy advantage that was making the game more difficult than necessary. That's when I realized that the advice was directed at those crazy people who grind habitually.

In old school JRPGs where side quests were non existent and the leveling was only through 300XP encounters? I felt underleveled.

In the modern RPGs where leveling up is just doing side quests with story? I'm always vastly overleveled.

I enjoy a slight grind, I don't go out of my way to avoid fights or flee from them. But every couple of areas I'll grind for an extra 5-10 fights before moving on.

My whole pleasure in a rpg is to be over-leveled every time, and strategically so. I'll find any place where the exp/fight time is higher and i'll grind just the right amount.

Nah. I usually do side quests and explore the map so I end up overleveled.

sandboxgod said:

never stop for side quests normally and never grind much. I only kill what is in front of me and even then, sometimes I run away if possible.

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Well, there's your problem. If you have trouble with your characters being too underleveled that's it too much of a challenge, you need to take on side quests since they are an alternative to basic grinding. You'll usually get experience(many times, alot of it) along the quest as well as some reward that helps you in the fight against stronger enemies.