[Rant] Bullshit gaming, you know how it is.

Actually, unused characters in Rogue Galaxy did level up and gain the normal stat boosts. A percentage of earned XP was also gained by characters not participating in battle. Sure, you'd wind up with Jaster, Kisala, Simon and Zegram being pretty beefy. But even if you went the entire game ignoring Jupis (and who didn't?) he was still able to hold his own somewhat okay in the final battle where you were forced to use him. (And to people who didn't bother with Steve, SHAME ON YOU.)

A convention that I dislike is the one in which enemies grow progressively stronger as you do. What this means is that the same clueless goblin fodder you opposed and destroyed in the beginning of the game still somehow remain a challenge if you go back to the beginning area fifty levels and six legendary swords later. Even worse, it presents the idea that these simple goblins could actually pose a legitimate threat to the elder lich dragon endboss since they take roughly the same amount of time and effort to dispatch. The lich dragon never had the chance to grow stronger over the course of the game, but everything else learned their lessons, hit the gym and came back to hurt you with a vengeance. I think weaklings should remain weaklings to provide a sense of accomplishment and progression. What was once difficult should become easy so that there's a proportionate sense of growth as you move through the game. I think a more recent example of this, on some level, was Torchlight.

Another thing I strongly disliked, something that was mostly prevalent in the post-FFVII PSX era, was inescapable CGI sequences. We loved them in FFVII because they were new and imaginative. But a few other programmers decided that they had put so much work into trying to outdo the animations in FFVII that nobody was allowed to skip over them. So we had to watch, time after time, the most basic of summons sequences just because levelling them up was also kind of important. The biggest culprit here was Legend of Legaia. GOD THOSE WERE FUCKING LONG. But a small handful of others made you wade through needless sequences too.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Eh, SaGa Frontier wasn't as bad as you say. There was ample opportunity for grinding in most character scenarios. Granted, they didn't make things completely simple for Riki or Asellus, but with a little diligence you could manage long enough to survive. And it's not like you weren't thrown ridiculously strong allies to help protect those two.

Red, Amelia, Blue and T260G were freaking cakewalks. Lute was too, for the most part, except that you had the option of facing his endboss within the first hour and if you didn't grind, there wasn't much chance you'd win. But really, a couple hours beating krakens was all it took for any of the characters, main or supporting, to get super buff. All you needed was Gen, Mei Ling or Annie as your allies and you were fucking good to go. Thunder wasn't bad either.

The only things capable of an OHKO, in my experience, were krakens and that damned earth turtle in Shrike.

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Dr. Uzuki

Hey there

I'm almost positive that a similar flaw was contained in KQ6. There was a certain item you had to possess near the end of the game upon sneaking into the castle that could be missed early in the game, although I can't recall the specifics. Had something to do with the guy in the boat on the dock, I think.

No, the guy in the drydocked boat only told you about the four islands and gave you a lucky rabbit's foot if you clicked where it sat on his table. The rabbit's foot was used soon after for getting past the sense gnomes. But even if you didn't have it, the book allowed you to teleport out of that trap so you could find the solution.

I've never run across anything that absolutely spoiled KQ6, though missing certain things did divert you into the lesser ending. You had to make it rain on the secret island if you wished to progress to the best ending and that took a decent bit of preparation.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The mission in which you're introduced to Rafa and Malak was rather annoying. Both were frail as rice paper, especially Rafa, and neither of them could do a whole lot to reliably defend themselves since their innate powers were so randomized. The enemy troops went right for Rafa, typically, and if either died, the game was over.

It was annoying because the mission was so stacked against you that it became a race out of the gate, and forced you to rush into a situation in which you were woefully surrounded. You almost absolutely needed to bring a Chemist or White Mage and the enemy AI seemed programmed to gang rape those classes first. And it was damn near critical to have Rafa if you wanted to find any of the awesome items using Walk/Find later in the game.

And let me tell you, chickening that bitch to a Bravery of 11 is a fucking chore.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.