Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What games to play other than BG3 only?

I think we would need to determine definition of grinding. As I understand it, grinding is doing repetitive content, for a lengthy amount of time to move through slow progression system (farming XP, loot, resources etc.). I don't think grinding applies to getting better as a player - so for example playing a lot of competitive game matches to get better, or repeating difficult encounter where player always starts with the same odds of winning.

I hate grinding with passion, and I would say that FromSoft games have none of it, unless you conciously choose to do so (aka. I don't want to learn the boss, so I will overlevel it - Sekiro being the exception of course, due to limited vertical progression). Beating bosses is about learning their moveset and developing strategy to beat them, so to me that's peak gameplay. Though if you don't enjoy this type of gameplay loop I can see how one could perceive it as grinding (though I don't think it is an accurate term to use).

It reminds me of rogue-lite conundrum - I have heard people criticise rogue-lites without meta progressions, like Spelunky or Crypt of Necrodancer because how "grindy" their are, and praise rogue-lites with meta progression as a better design. To me it is a complete opposite, as it is the rogue-lites with meta-progression who are designed around grinding. Whenever it is your first or 100th run of Spelunky (or FromSoftware boss) your chances of success are the same - the only thing that will change is player skill. On the other hand, games like Rogue Legacy, Hades stack odds heavily against the player, and gradually tip the scales over as they continue grinding. I personally find this illusion of game mastery really unsatisfying, as it doesn't take long to see through the charade, but to each their own I suppose.

That's odd, as Elden Ring pretty much discarted boss runs. It tends to put Stakes of Marika pretty much near every spot player is likely to die around. DS1&2 definitely had their share of tedious boss runs, but that's design that FromSoft has been gradually moving away from.