History LevelGrinding / RolePlayingGames

* In ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuth'', the higher-tier Mega Digimon require a high "ABI" (Ability) stat to reach the form, which can only be raised by Digivolving and de-Digivolving your {{mons}} over and over (which is a significant time sink). Thankfully, the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch version of the game allows your {{mons}} to passively gain levels in the farm while your console is in sleep mode and you're off doing other things, reducing the overall grind.

** The UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube side-games, ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'' and ''XD'', actually ''avert'' this trope for the most part -- while you can have level grinding, the Pokémon you can catch are as high a level as the area opponents, meaning you can go through the game with just using Pokémon as you catch them rather than training them. The only real point where it does require leveling is against the penultimate and ultimate bosses, which take a leap of levels over the next best opponents.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' and its remake had a mapping bug that allowed the player to fight high-level monster groups very early in the game by visiting a two-square peninsula northeast of Pravoka, the second town visited. Once the Mages learned group-effect spells like Fira[[note]][=FIR2=] in the NES translation [[/note]] and Diara[[note]][=HRM2=] in the NES version[[/note]], many of the encounters provided quick experience boosts. Later on, the best LevelGrinding was available in the Cavern of Ice, where a fixed battle with the EYE boss could be repeated for thousands of easy experience points. Another location is the "Giant's arm" in the Cavern of Earth, a certain bend in the cave where every single step you take results in an encounter with giants or green ogres.

** The Passage of the Eidolons has Summoners who can summon one of several enemies, and will ''always'' summon an enemy if its turn comes up and it's the only monster on the field, and one of the enemies it can summon is the relatively weak Hellflapper. Once you've beaten the Sealed Cave and are down to 4 party members, you will be at a level where two of your party members can each comfortably one-shot a Hellflapper with a standard attack, each time for 3200 exp a pop. You'll be killing two moths a turn, taking next to no damage (the Summoner will occasionally get an attack in), and can pump out almost 200,000 exp in about a half hour of this. A patient player can get your party to the mid-50s, enough to comfortably ''beat the final boss'', with no challenge at all.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' and its remake had a mapping bug that allowed the player to fight high-level monster groups very early in the game by visiting a two-square peninsula northeast of Pravoka, the second town visited. Once the Mages learned group-effect spells like Fira[[note]][=FIR2=] in the NES translation [[/note]] and Diara[[note]][=HRM2=] in the NEs version[[/note]], many of the encounters provided quick experience boosts. Later on, the best LevelGrinding was available in the Cavern of Ice, where a fixed battle with the EYE boss could be repeated for thousands of easy experience points. Another location is the "Giant's arm" in the Cavern of Earth, a certain bend in the cave where every single step you take results in an encounter with giants or green ogres.

** While it's for the most part unnecessary in ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', the game gives several good opportunities:

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' and its remake had a mapping bug that allowed the player to fight high-level monster groups very early in the game by visiting a two-square peninsula northeast of Pravoka, the second town visited. Once the Mages learned group-effect spells like [=FIR2=] and [=HRM2=], many of the encounters provided quick experience boosts. Later on, the best LevelGrinding was available in the Ice Cave, where a fixed battle with the EYE boss could be repeated for thousands of easy experience points. Another location is the "Giant's arm" in the Earth Cave, a certain bend in the cave where every single step you take results in an encounter with giants or green ogres.

** Like the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI first game]], this one also has a {{Peninsula Of Power|Leveling}} north of Mount Ordeals where, if you fadangle yourself around some mountains you'll reach a patch of land where enemies from the Troia world map area can be encountered. They can slaughter you ''messily'' if you underestimate them, but by having Palom spam Virus you can wipe them out and comfortably get to around level 35 or so. If you're lucky you'll also get your mitts on some Cat Claws for Yang.
** The Land of Summoned Monsters has Conjurers who can summon one of several enemies, who will ''always'' summon an enemy if its turn comes up and its the only monster on the field, and one of the enemies it can summon is the relatively weak Rock Moth. Once you've beaten the Sealed Cave and are down to 4 party members, you will be at a level where two of your party members can each comfortably one-shot a Rock Moth with a standard attack, each time for 3200 exp a pop. You'll be killing two moths a turn, taking next to no damage (the Conjurer will occasionally get an attack in), and can pump out almost 200,000 exp in about a half hour of this. A patient player can get your party to the mid-50s, enough to comfortably ''beat the final boss'', with no challenge at all.

** In the World of Balance, once you have your (nearly) complete party and GlobalAirship, returning to the Haunted Forest from Sabin's Scenario grants a high chance of encountering a single, low level monster... which gives 3 AP quite reliably upon defeat, but is worth little to no EXP, meaning you can have a party who have learnt all of the available spells from Espers within a relatively short time, without becoming extremely over-levelled.

** Like the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI first game]], this one also has a PeninsulaOfPower north of Mount Ordeals where, if you fadangle yourself around some mountains you'll reach a patch of land where enemies from the Troia world map area can be encountered. They can slaughter you ''messily'' if you underestimate them, but by having Palom spam Virus you can wipe them out and comfortably get to around level 35 or so. If you're lucky you'll also get your mitts on some Cat Claws for Yang.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'', while not having explicit character levels, forces you to kill the same monsters over and over to get the weapons or armor made from their parts. Also, one gains experience in the form of real-life experience in killing the monsters, such that extremely good players often take on a high-level monster with no armor at all, just to show off.
** ''Monster Hunter Tri'''s online multiplayer required you to grind "Guild Points" to unlock the more next "level" of quests and monsters. Since you used the same character for both single and multiplayer, a maxed out singleplayer character would find the early game multiplayer trivial since you had already grinded the same monsters in the singleplayer. But it also made the singleplayer trivial since a maxed out multiplayer character fought advanced forms of the same monsters as well as multiplayer exclusive monsters and unlocked equipment far better than anything in the singleplayer. Lesson to be learned? Jump straight into multiplayer, come back later and curb stomp your way through the singleplayer.

* In ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'', trying to "skip" to the labyrinth's next floor without having explored a substantial amount of the one you're on will ensure swift death. Oh, and the only way to earn money in the game is to sell off items dropped by monsters. A game where sidequests are arguably a time-consuming practical necessity for the rewards, loot, and exp potentially gained by completing them. You'll [[NintendoHard need]] the lot.

* In ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'', the highest level your characters can reach is 255, so it goes without saying that much LevelGrinding is needed to achieve this level without the aid of a cheat disk. Luckily, for normal gaming purposes, there is no need to reach such a high level unless you plan on taking on [[BonusBoss Freya]].

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', the best place for grinding would be [[BonusDungeon Moria Gallery]], were the toughest and roughest monsters dwell (and also the ones who give more experience/money). You enter as a little more than a [[KidHero boy of 50 or 60 in level]], and come out as a full grown man of level 90-ish with enough money to ignore all the trading sidequests and minigames. Besides, the InfinityPlusOneSword is on the Gallery's last floor, plus [[BonusBoss a couple of powerful summons]]. If you are up to the challenge, no matter how many Cruxis spells [[BigBad Daos]] uses against you, you will be able to kill him with a butter knife.

* ''VideoGame/CapellasPromise'' doesn't require too much grinding to beat the main story, but the postgame will require the party to use Recursion stones, which lowers their level by three if the main character is at a high enough level. The party essentially has to use these stones to level up far more than the cap would normally allow, all to beat the insanely powerful bonus bosses.

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', both Sora and Riku max at Level 99. Thing is, both the main story and ''Reverse/Rebirth'' are beatable at about half there for anyone reasonably skilled with the card system. So if you're someone that likes to max out levels, get ready for lots of level grinding, pointless for anything other than just getting the levels, since there are no [[BonusBoss bonus bosses]] to fight. Not only that, but there are no really quick leveling strategies such as the tech points that the original game has, and eventually the bonuses you get for leveling up stuck having any practical effect in speeding up battle completion. (Riku's attack points max at 30 and Sora doesn't even get attack points.) HD 1.5 [=ReMIX=] ups the pain by linking Trophies to max levels for both Sora and Riku.

** The games tend to discourage this, except when it comes to facing [[BonusBoss bonus bosses]]. Taking the appropriate skill set and immunities into a fight is generally vastly more important than having a high level. Obviously, this can lead to '''skill''' grinding instead.

** ''VideoGame/Mother3'' requires level grinding during the first three chapters of the game, due to switching between different characters and restricting what items you can buy or equip. Chapter 3 suffers from this the most, since the player character of that particular chapter is not only laughably weak, but the chapter also contains [[WakeUpCallBoss what is considered one of the games]]' [[ThatOneBoss hardest bosses]]. Afterwards, the games tones down the need for level grinding, but there are still a few {{difficulty spike}}s and bosses here and there that will make grinding a necessity.

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' takes this UpToEleven. Each character can reach Level 99 in each job. There are 16 jobs. For comparison, beating the final boss is feasible at Level 50. After completing the main game, Level 99 characters can restart at Level 1, but keep all of their skills. This is the only way to maximize all of the many in-game skills.

* In ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'', trying to 'skip' to the labyrinth's next floor without having explored a substantial amount of the one you're on will ensure swift death. Oh, and the only way to earn money in the game is to sell off items dropped by monsters. A game where sidequests are arguably a time-consuming practical necessity for the rewards, loot, and exp potentially gained by completing them. You'll [[NintendoHard need]] the lot.

* In ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuth'', the higher-tier Mega Digimon require a high "ABI" (Ability) stat to reach the form, which can only be raised by Digivolving and de-Digivolving your {{mons}} over and over (which is a significant time sink). Thankfully, the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch version of the game allows your {{mons}} to passively gain levels in the farm while your console is in sleep mode and you're off doing other things, reducing the overall grind.

* All the Digimon World games sans the first one fall into this. The DS games, however, take this to never seen extents. The random encounter rate in these games is fixed, but very high, and no way to repel enemies. The areas you explore are very large, with no map whatsoever. Plus, the enemies give very low experience, while the experience needed in order to level up grows exponentially (ironically, beating the weakest enemy in the game is enough to level anything from 1 to 3). The later bosses have much higher stats and skills than you'd have without Korean MMORPG-levels of grinding. A simple test of beating the game with no random battles and following the right paths in the maze-like dungeons shows that the main story can be beaten in two hours or so, and the post-story mandatory missions in another hour or so. In a game that a proper raised [=PvP=] team may require over 100 hours of gameplay, just by playing random battles and Farmville-like training.

* ''VideoGame/XMenLegends'' has the Danger Room accessible from any safe point wherein a player can spend a lot of time grinding by purposefully losing teamwork missions. The mission simply restarts with all of your newly acquired goodies and XP intact with none of the damage. In relatively little time, you can use it to level up enough to beat whatever boss that gives you trouble.

** It is also worth noting that everything in the Dammerung is weak against Shion's attacks; it doesn't take very long until she one-shots everything with her basic attacks. And don't worry if you passed that area up before you discovered it -- you can go back to it using the Encephelon. One might wonder if the devs did this ''on purpose''.

* This is as old as the first role-playing video game we know about, the 1974 ''VideoGame/{{dnd}}'' game for [=PLATO=] computers. Enemies are deadly, you need 10,000 XP for a level up, and you only level up when you backtrack to the first floor of the dungeon, so the only safe way to level up is to kill weak enemies over and over on early levels of the dungeon and exit. If you press on and get a ton of XP on the bottom floors of the dungeon, odds are you're going to die fighting your way through a dozen levels of dungeon again. [[https://youtu.be/DhA9sPXnsJ4 This guy's playthrough]] offers a good insight into how necessary grinding can be.

** The series accentuates this trope by letting you start a battle with a weak Pokémon, knock out a high-level enemy with a strong one, and [[LeakedExperience have both Pokémon earn experience points]]. At least one "Trainer Tips" sign ''encourages'' this. On the downside, you need to have battled your way to the higher-level locations first.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' has you grind dex tasks to earn enough stars to access new areas to survey.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' is hit pretty badly with this; because the game was never tested for balancing purposes, it suffers from an annoyingly steep difficulty curve that forces the player to grind experience each time the plot advances to a new area. This is particularly necessary when Lloyd and Ana join the party at level 1: those characters will need to gain some levels just to have a chance of surviving areas that are unlocked at about the same time.
* While it's for the most part unnecessary in ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', the game gives several good opportunities:
** After defeating a sanctuary guardian, ''all'' the enemies in the area flee from you regardless of your level compared to theirs. Engaging an enemy from behind (practically a given since they're running away) either guarantees an extra attack or an outright free kill, and since the enemies are still giving decent amounts of experience it's a golden opportunity to gain a couple levels.
** Foppys and Fobbys, which attack in large groups, are weak, respawn readily, and give sizeable experience and money rewards and often a rather useful Psy Caramel upon defeat, were put into the game ''intentionally'' for this purpose to bolster your level before facing [[GoddamnedBoss Master Belch]] and [[ThatOneBoss Electro Spectre]], respectively.