This is literally how I play every rpg. I just feel obligated to do everything in the game and its kind of sad because it sucks up so much of my time. When I play a RPG I want to do everything possible so that I can enjoy every aspect of the game. I tend not to level up for the fun of it. I just want to do all the sidequests/get all the best weapons/get every ending and fill up a collectors book if the game has it, anything along those lines.

I have a lot of respect for people who have full conquered star ocean 2: The Second because I personally think that has got to be one of the hardest game to full conquer with 82 endings and filling the entire song picture and anything else along those lines.

sometimes if a sidequest gets too monotonous I usually pick up another game and play it until my interest gets rekindled for the other game that I'm in the process of fully conquering.

I've recently fully conquered:
Grandia III
Shadow Hearts: From The New World
Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories



In The progress of fully conquering:
Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin
Tales Of The Abyss

The first RPG I remember I was power-levelling was Secret of Mana, but my 250+ hours FFX savegame tells me that someone went wrong there, too.

I also start out trying to complete everything in an RPG, but usually just lose interest towards the end of the game..some things just take too much time and effort which I gradually don't have..and yes age definitely contributes to it. The only RPGs that I spent hours levelling up and completing those side quests were FFVII and VIII- in VII I levelled my main party up to lvl 99 and completed every side quest to beat Emerald weapon (that son of a bitch took me 2 tries), then in VIII I did the same thing to beat Omega Weapon.

Not many RPGs nowadays make me wanna go all out to complete every side quest available..not even FFXII unfortunately.

Final Fantasy XI

This game near destroyed my life, and it was when I discovered I was a true completionist. SMN75, BLM75, BRD75, RDM75, THF75, and I still continued until I lost my account cause I took a year off. Had CoP, ZM and AU completed, had nearly every quest available completed, and had capped fame everywhere (and all the summons).

I just started a new character on Seraph...

I think the only game I've ever fully completed that's worth talking about is FFX. Zelda 64 was probably the first 'RPG', but it wasn't as time-consuming without all the stats and such. Btw, by fully completing FFX, I meant the International version, dual sphere grids too :) These days, I can't see myself playing any game more than 24 hours ie. 1 day's worth; it's just a waste of time.

When I play an RPG, I play it for the story. To me, the challenge level makes the game rewarding where my efforts lead to more story being revealed. So, for example I would not bother with a sidequest if it only involved a boss fight that didn't gain me a unique, useful item or reveal more of the story-line or develop the characters a bit more.

So, I guess I would have to say that for the most part I am not a "completionist," as I see that as a button-mashing waste of time. Now, on the other hand, doing something like getting the pirate's treasure in Might & Magic VI required locating all the monoliths and putting together the word puzzle that could be found on them. The pirate's treasure yielded powerful, useful items, and it actually took some skill/puzzle-solving to acquire vs. simply power-levelling. Another example would be Zelda: TP. I beat the Cave of Ordeals because I wanted the item (I forget what it was now though?) but after I beat the game there was zero reason for me to round up the remaining Poe's souls.

I'm hearing some sentiment in this thread that when we were younger/the genre was still evolving (i.e. every single game was about levelling) there was more completionism simply due to the nature of RPG's back then, and I agree. Might and Magic VI basically ate up a year of college for me - I logged somewhere around 500 hours. That would only be about 1.3 hours per day for a year, so that's probably not an exaggeration. I just couldn't do that at this point. For me, Zelda: TP dragged on for an exhorbitant amount of time (or at least it seemed to). Shadow Hearts was just aobut the right length. I think for me, an RPG coming in around 35-40 hours is just about right.

I used to be a completionist though that was when I was a child and had time to spare. These days, I am more of a 'Run and gunner' that tries to get through the game with only the bare essentials. I find that this makes the game shorter and still more challenging and exhilirating for myself. I can't stand going 5 hours out of my way to grab a spear, or armour and I generally won't nowadays.
I don't even like leveling and I am proud of the fact that I rarely did for FFXII and really had no problem with making it through the game, completed in a shade over 50 hours. Its more of a natural run, to kill only who you must but it requires a lot of strategy and quick thinking as you move from place to place. I enjoy this type of gaming far more.

I fear for you... :gonk:

@Metal Sphere: Awesome avatar and signature dude.

And about completionism, I myself have a fair share of this, only with a few games though. From the top of my head I can recall FFT, FFI&II Dawn of Souls, FFIII (DS), FFIV-VI Advance, VII and VIII, Valkyrie Profile (didn't got that far to get items for einherjars I never used though) Lenneth, Chrono Cross.

Yeah, I'm a SE whore as you guys can see.

Useless fact:
At the age of 18, 100 hours in a game means 0.02% of your life.
In other words, 50 (100 hour) games = 1% of your life!

Of all of the RPGs I play, I don't know if there have been ANY that I've gotten 100% completion on. I typically play through a main quest, and if I discover any sidequests it's all for the better. Some sidequests are just so obscure that I couldn't imagine ever finding out about them without a guide, and my pride/stubborn nature keeps me from using a guide in games :/

I have fully completed every RPG I ever played, even the horrible ones that you don't honestly want to play anymore but for the sake of getting it over with you do. I cannot honestly say why I do it; I suppose it is just because I hate losing. For me, missing out on something in a game is losing an experience that I could have had. Of course, if I never knew about the existence of the event then it would not grind my gears so to speak. Somehow they have a way of coming to my attention though. :gonk:

The Tynar Rouge on Agrias' birthday (Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions) was an experience that was worth throwing away 70 hours of work and restarting the whole game for. It doesn't hurt that it is arguably one of the most broken Female Only accessories in the game.

Lipstick, not just for looking good anymore.

"Completing" RPGs is actually something I've only done recently. When I was younger, I'd play games several times over, but I'd pretty much do the same things every time. Chrono Trigger is probably the only exception, and that's just because of New Game + where ever accomplishment you made in the previous run carried over. This was also before the Internet, so finding out many of the secrets that made an RPG complete was more dumb luck than anything else.

These days when I play an RPG, I get a guide and just find *everything* I can. Thanks to emulation, I can also go back to older games and try several new approaches (save states help a lot, as do infinite save slots and debug menus). For example, I've gone back to Breath of Fire II and found several new items I never knew existed, fought enemies I had never seen before, and accomplished stuff like beating Barubary with just Ryu and getting all characters to level 80+ and finding hidden spells. It really adds a lot to the game when you put extra time into it.

I've also *mostly* completed Lunar: The Silver Star on my newest play-through. I saw the hidden bathing scene (never could buy that soap early enough), gotten all items, and nearly have every character to level 99 (once Kyle gets to 99 you can do a cool glitch where you play as Nall for a round). Stuff like this really breathes new life into older games, I think, but I only do it for games I *really* like. It's not a time thing, I can make time for good games, it's just a personal preference.

When I was younger, I had the tolerance to do this sometimes.

- I maxed out all characters in Chrono Trigger
- I maxed out all characters in Legend of Legaia (To unlock Juggernaut which was... underwhelming)

Those 2 do not fit the exact description of what you're looking for though, so I'll add the fact that every time I play Final Fantasy Tactics, I aim to get nearly every job right in the beginning of the game. One time I also maxed my characters at level 99 in the process.

In Star Ocean 2, there's this point fairly early in the game where you can go to a area with advanced enemies you weren't supposed to be able to kill at the time. Of course this can be exploited to benefit you though. I don't remember how far I went with it, but I muscled my way through the rest of the first disc without breaking a sweat.

In Odin Sphere, Mercedes simply breaks the game. As soon as I unlocked the Pooka Village, I maxed out her HP. Her down + attack lets her score HUGE chains and bonus monies everywhere.

That's all I can remember at the moment.