Grinding Alternative: Train with your fellow party members

[wallacethepig]

If I remember right, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn had a mechanic where if you lost a battle, you could retry that particular battle with a 5-level increase to your party. (It may have been another game, don't quote me on this.) And I know for a fact that The World Ends With You lets you retry battles on Easy mode if you lose.

So you could try something like that. I don't know how you'd implement it in a RPG Maker game, but you could try. The above methods aren't particularly classy or spiffy, but they don't need to be. If you can't git gud, then they give you an out, which is what you wanted with none of the hassle of grinding. And of course, if you lose after retrying with a generous helping of "free" grinding, maybe you should go back and grind.

All things, aside, I like the idea of sparring with your party members. But I think there are a few ways to go about it:

• Every time some important event happens, you can go to a training guild, pay something, and get a one-time free exp boost. No hassle, no wasted time.
• Have repercussions for "killing" another party member, or getting "killed" yourself. Maybe you need to go to a certain place to heal your wounds a la Earthbound?
• Instead of experience, you can also learn your party member's moves if you train with them long enough. Maybe they show you how to cast Fire I after blasting you with it countless times. Sure, you wouldn't be able to get their best techniques, but in case they fall in battle, their skillset is not entirely lost.

Anyway, I say go for it. Time spent grinding is mostly time wasted. And no one wants to fight the same enemies over and over again just so they can go on to fight more enemies.

-Wallace

 

[bgillisp]

I do recall there was a PC game back in the early 90's that let you train with your party members some when you rested. That might work if you control the number of times you can rest. Maybe just make it a 1 point boost or something small, and in scripted moments. That way it is helpful but not necessary to win the game.