Bear with me for a bit, because this ramble will get around to a point sooner rather than later. The thing is, after bouncing off a few games this month, I went back to playing Dark Souls and Dark Souls III a lot. Mostly it’s just to try out weapons and builds that are outside of my normal roster of characters. I’m not even playing to beat the games. It’s just a nice routine while I wait for something else to tickle my fancy.

Inevitably, there always comes a point where grinding is unavoidable. I don’t mean grinding to get XP for more levels, though that can also happen if a character’s build is found wanting against certain bosses. There’s grinding to buy items, like the 20,000 soul Tower Key or the equally priced Crest of Artorias. There’s grinding to get faction items like a Sunlight Medal or Proof of a Concord Kept without going online to fight other players. (Our 4G modem would give invaders fits, so generally, I play offline. You’re welcome.) You might need to grind to get a weapon to drop that can’t be bought from any of the vendors. Then there’s grinding to get upgrade materials, continuously fighting the same guy over and over to get enough titanite for that shiny new sword the other enemy finally dropped after two hours of being stingy.

I don’t like grinding in any of these cases, but when it’s inevitable, I tuck in and get it over with because I know that in a few hours, I can get back to the fun parts. But every time, it’s just so boring that I have actually fallen asleep mid-grind. Again, it doesn’t last that long, but I would love for games to have a lot less grind to them. Continue reading