OCD things you've done in RPGs

[sirhansirhan]

I just bought Final Fantasy IV Advance on GBA today, which is the first time I've played that game in about a decade. It reminded me that when I was younger, on my original SNES cart, I leveled up Palom and Porom until they could cast Holy and Meteo. It took an unbelievably long time to do this. (I still have the cart with that save file on it, but I'm afraid its battery will die in the relatively near future.)

Thinking about this reminded me of all of the other obsessive-compulsive stuff I've done in RPGs, mostly SNES ones. These things range from minor like beating the Emerald and Ruby weapons in FFVII, to getting the Sword of Kings for Poo in Earthbound, all the way to beating Earthbound in Japanese (I don't speak any Japanese) without using a guide or a walkthrough (let me tell you, the monkey cave was a bitch) or getting four economizers in the dinosaur forest in FFIII. Still, I think teaching Palom and Porom Holy and Meteo takes the cake.

I'm sure I'm not nearly the hardcore RPG player (or gamer, for that matter) of many on this site, so what weird crap like this have you guys all done? I especially await someone with related Disgaea stories--that game just begs for it.

[roushimsx]

small beans, I know.. I but got a kick out of leveling everyone up in FFVI to 99 and teaching everyone everything with all of the Espers. I don't think I'll ever do that again.

[klausien]

Not really an RPG per se, but I leveled myself and every familiar up to 99 in Castlevania:SOTN on the PSX.

I also maxed out everyone in Lunar for the Sega CD.

Played through Ys IV: Mask of the Sun & Ys V on the Super Famicom and Ys IV: Dawn of Ys on Turboduo in Japanese. Mask of the Sun was pretty dull with no story. I have also played through all three 16-Bit versions (Duo, SNES, Genesis) of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys.

All of this and I am most definitely not a huge RPG person at all.

[sirhansirhan]

small beans, I know.. I but got a kick out of leveling everyone up in FFVI to 99 and teaching everyone everything with all of the Espers. I don't think I'll ever do that again.

Technically, that and pretty much anything else anyone has or will post on this thread beats my Palom and Porom business. The logged time spent on that file is just 27 hours, and P&P are only on level 56. It just seems so obscene that I ever took the time to have done that at all; it's not like you get to keep those characters to the end or anything--you only have them for, what, an hour or two of playtime if you do things the way you're supposed to.

[davepesc]

I never have the dedication or disorder needed to do anything to wacky, but I would like to max everyone's jobs in FFV.

[MightySlacker]

I think you had to be OCD to do the Nintendo Power challenge for Final Fantasy - beat it with 4 White Mages. I did it with all fighters and all black mages, but was too scared to try with white - that'd be way too rough.

Dav
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[Ed Oscuro]

Every time I get a game that you can level up in...I'll grind away until the game becomes crippled with advanced age.

Something I have to try not to do anymore!

Oh, MY personal favorite story?

I've got 90+ hours on one Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1 & 2 character.

All that time was played offline. I've never logged into the online service - can't, actually, until/unless I buy a GC broadband adapter. LOL

[Kid Ice]

My OCD tendencies are probably why I don't play RPGs any more. I have to play to perfection. Missing an item or opportunity to level up is totally unacceptable. I just fear "That's going to catch up with me later, and I'll be screwed".

I also like battles to be absolute slaughter. Not "let me ressurect half my party now that this battle is over"...more like "how the hell did X lose 7 hit points...I'm starting from the last save!"

I do this kind of stuff in other games too, but it's bearable...like saay, when I played the first level of Gradius V over 50 times before I thought I'd done well enough to take on the next level.

[Johnny_Rock]

Getting every charecter in Chono Trigger to lvl 99. That was a great summer.

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh, heh, Kid Ice got me thinking.

I "love" collecting items, but I never, EVER use them (except in a game like PSO where I can be sure there's a stock).

[Jorpho]

Getting every charecter in Chono Trigger to lvl 99. That was a great summer.

I thought the levels become stars long before the numbers get anywhere near 99.

[Milk]

I spent one entire summer playing Dragon Warrior III Remix until I had almost every gold medal. School arrived, I stopped playing, and somehow my save got erased...so I started all over again. If I recall correctly, there are around 500 monster medals. There's one for every monster, in 3 sets of increasing rarity, plus special versions, and there's a small chance of one dropping after every battle. I also played against the secret dragon boss until I could beat him in 9 moves. This involved using 2 Thief/Fighters with Sage magic abilities, one former Thief-Jester with Sage spells and Mage-level MP, and casting support spells/Thordain every move with my Hero. I would cast Twinhits on my fighters and they would just decimate with their critical hits.

[Avatard]

FFI: I talk to every bat. I've played it all the way through with 4 of each class (yes even 4 white mages). I've played it through with a single fighter.

[unbroken]

When I play an rpg, I ALWAYS have to check every door, talk to every npc, open every chest ...ect I usually explore areas way longer than I really need too and end up wasting tons of time doing so.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

It doesn't matter how many times I play FFVII or other similar games, I just have to use the same characters each time. I can't bring myself to play through a game a second or third time using different characters each time. I just can't do it. After the first time through, you kind of get used to the set characters and their abilities... If it ain't broke Etc...

Especially in FFVII, I have to use the same Materia in the same weapons too, for the very same reason.

[Dangerboy]

Mine:
Every few years I replay FF1...every time I max out everyone to Level 50, and make sure I have 99 of every possible buyable item. All magic levels are full, including the none-mages.

Maxed out FFVI characters with the raft trick...left the SNES on for 4 straight days...the ultimate Loop ;)

Ys I + II maxed out to full stats using the infinite basment/fireball "maze" trick.

Friend Alan:
Maxed out FFVII so badly that he had Master SUMMONs for EVERY Character...with one extra...killed end boss in one melee round due to some bizarre fucked up Materia mixing.

Panzeer Dragoon Saga he had 100% in every stat, including areas visited and areas explored.

God knows what else he would have done had I kept track :eek 2:

[Daria]

I played through Shining Force once using ONLY Khris instead of the usual army of 12. (A friend had hacked the save file so she was recruited from the begining). But that wasn't all that hardcore cause the girl ends up being a tank.

I also discovered all the collectable figures in Minish cap by doing nothing for days except weeding the grass for mysterious shells and going to the vending machine. Extremely tedious and hardly worth the reward in the end.

[Jumpman Jr.]

Whenever I'm in a room, with more than one door that I can exit, I always MUST enter each door, then return to the orgional room, to enter another door.
I won't go anywhere in the rooms that I entered until I have seen what all of them look like.

[smokehouse]

There’s a level in FFII where you can hit an “alarm” enemy and he will summon a “MacGiant”. I would kill these MacGiants again and again and again in the same fight (around 50 or so) and then finally end the battle, After 10 or so hours I would have my team maxed out at LV99.

I also spent a ton of time looking for and fighting the ridiculous pinkpuff.

Man, those were the days…

[GameNinja]

Every time I get a game that you can level up in...I'll grind away until the game becomes crippled with advanced age.

Something I have to try not to do anymore!

Oh, MY personal favorite story?

I've got 90+ hours on one Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1 & 2 character.

All that time was played offline. I've never logged into the online service - can't, actually, until/unless I buy a GC broadband adapter. LOL

Heh, I think I have 127 hours on my FoMar. 8-) Never went online either. I hope PSU is as fun as PSO was (and still is)

[Damion]

I did Absolutly everything you could find/glitch/do in FFVII there wasn't anything I didn't do in that game. By the time I was done I was Sick of Final Fantasy and I haven't given any real time to any of the new ones since then LOL

[Cryomancer]

Everytime i start a new platform of PSO I make the same HUnewearl (white outfit, orange hair, eyepatch, tall and curvy) named DeeCee (or with a space after the name to get a certain ID). Have been doing this since DC ver1, and she's since existed on ver2, PC, GC, Xbox, and now BlueBurst. I've gotten her to 100 in ver1, 200 in ver2, 80 something on xbox, and 120ish so far on BlueBurst. Eventually i try and get her an s-rank twin as well and a sega character or system mag (on blueburst she's using an Opa Opa). I generally also end up making other HUnewearls on a similar theme, ie PeeCee, GeeCee, and my girlfriend has now made BeeBee for blueburst. I tried making some EksBee's and whatnot but couldn't decide on a variation I like, which sucks as Xbox PSO is rather nifty.

Other things I do in PSO are name my RAcasts after tanks (Sherman, Abrams, etc); my RAmarls after girls from things kenichi sonoda was involved with (Rally, Becky, Rabby); Almost all forces on a variant of Cryo-something (FOmar: Cryomancer, FOmarl: Cryomistress, FOnewearl: Cryomissy, FOnewm: Cryomister) and TRY to give them decent ice based weapons and skills but PSO isn't really a one-element game. I also never play HUmars for some reason, too standard "fighter" for my taste, something I developed in those years of being the theif on the D&D team I guess. HUcast and HUcaseals I don't play much either but sometimes I make one depending on how many character slots the particular platform gives. And the remaining classes I generally don't play much either, that's what teammates are for, heh.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I am like some of you guys. I MUST explore everything, for fear of missing that vital potion or weapon that may make my life easier... I therefore explore every door possible, often retracing my steps to go and explore some other path.

I went through a phase back in the Snes days after playing Zelda, to check the chests and cupboards in every house I entered in every game. This was just a phase though, and got boring after so long...


Some games I like to collect one of every item, if my inventory will hold it that is. FFVII is a prime example, and I now have at least one of every single item in the game in my inventory.


I'm not too anal about levelling up each character to LV 99 though. Try to do this in Super Hydlide on the Mega Drive ~ Go on, I dare you. It gets to a point in that game where it doesn't even alter your stats after a certain level.

I usually level up to a suitable level to be able to go about my duties without fear of dying easially, and that does it for me. That's the beauty of games like FFVII, because there are always ways of artificially upping your stats without having to endure the levelling up process, like wearing certain armor or using Materia

[Cryomancer]

Oh, I am also cursed when it comes to this. I WANT to explore every side path first, but 905 of the time I end up magically picking the direct route. Arg.

[Snapple]

I was so into Star Ocean 2 when I got the game, that I actually tried to get every ending in the game. Of course, there's over 100 of them, and you can only see 2 or 3 new ones on a given playthrough, but I TRIED. I went through the game like 15 times before I burned out, but seeing those new endings was a constant motivation.

I even tried to get all of the endings on video tape so that my accomplishments would last longer.

Of course, I barely scratched the surface of all the possible endings, but I'm okay with that now. It was still fun to play.

[calthaer]

One thing I hate, hate, hate, hate is when you have an extremely linear RPG (read: most of Square's games) and, in one of the towns, you have one piece or one thing you have to do in order to get a supremely-cool-ultra item or character...

...and you leave that town and move on, and in the next chapter or whatever, the town is destroyed and you lose the opportunity for the rest of the game to get that. You have to start all over if you want that character in your game. It practically forces you to play through the game with a cheat book or something like that.

I guess I'm "OCD" in that way, but IMO they should always provide a way to get the "ultimate" stuff later if you miss one opportunity. Maybe it is more difficult later, but still.

[WiteoutKing]

I am VERY much with you as far as missing secret/increible items goes.

Another one I'm picking up now is wandering around outside a single town battling over and over JUST to buy the best equipment, even if it only adds a single point to one stat.

[calthaer]

And on another related note: how about the "über-item-that-drops-randomly" crap like in Golden Sun - where some people have created secret "codes" or sequences of actions to make the items drop. That's pretty lame, too.

I like the idea of items that you can build, or forge, or things like that - as long as they don't pull dumb stunts and make the components impossible to find.

[MrSmiley381]

In Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, I explored every possible thing there was immediately visible. Sadly, I still missed three ingested demon things.

I played Disgaea 90 hours. However, my friend played his about 200 hours and had a couple level 1000+ guys.

Oh, and I plan to do the Level 99 and all espers/magic trick in FFVI. Can't wait to pick up FFIV remake. As much as I hate the fans, I do like IV and VI.

[Daria]

One thing I hate, hate, hate, hate is when you have an extremely linear RPG (read: most of Square's games) and, in one of the towns, you have one piece or one thing you have to do in order to get a supremely-cool-ultra item or character...

...and you leave that town and move on, and in the next chapter or whatever, the town is destroyed and you lose the opportunity for the rest of the game to get that. You have to start all over if you want that character in your game. It practically forces you to play through the game with a cheat book or something like that.

I guess I'm "OCD" in that way, but IMO they should always provide a way to get the "ultimate" stuff later if you miss one opportunity. Maybe it is more difficult later, but still.

I hate that tactic as well because it's obviously a ploy to sell more strategy guides. Especially if there's been no hint that you'll need to buy that particular item or equipment.

[calthaer]

I hate that tactic as well because it's obviously a ploy to sell more strategy guides. Especially if there's been no hint that you'll need to buy that particular item or equipment.

Even more than that, I believe it totally ruins the experience of the game. Who wants to know how every puzzle is solved and every plot twist develops before it ever happens? It's like jumping to the back of the book to see how it ends.

It's unfortunate, but in some of these games, those that don't want the baby-hand-holding of a strategy guide will have to settle for never seeing the coolest and most powerful parts of the game. Lame.

[Snapple]

But those secret, missable items are a bonus, not something that you have to get. Square puts those things in so that you might find something new the second or third time you play the game, not so you're forced to reset the game.

It's like you're saying Square is evil for putting in extra stuff when they could just as easily not include it at all.

[Zilla]

I have some OCD issues with rpgs. Turns out I'm pretty much like everyone else though. Biggest thing is mindlessly grinding my characters to high levels and moving on only to realize I'm way too godly for the area I'm in. But oh well, its how I play and its how I have fun.