Mention the concept of “grinding” in a room full of gamers, and you are liable to get one of two reactions: either some titters of excitement, or a cacophonous mix of sighs and groans.  There are, in my experience, very few people who respond to the idea of the grind with simple ambivalence.

Grinding, in traditional gaming terms, stems from RPGs where the player has to fight battle after battle in order to gain experience and level up before being able to proceed further in the game (think of the original Final Fantasy and the huge jump in difficulty when moving from one area into the next). In more general terms, grinding is any time the player engages in a repetitive activity for the purpose of gaining some sort of reward (think brewing hundreds of potions in Oblivion to become a better alchemist). 

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There is a refrain that I hear often on gaming sites: “turn-based combat in RPGs is dead.”  As anyone who has been paying attention knows, it is a favorite hobby of games journalists and bloggers to proclaim the death of this, that, or the other.  For instance, adventure gaming has been declared dead on more occasions than I can count, and yet seems to be enjoying quite a resurgence at the moment; episodic Monkey Island games, some fantastic-looking titles like Machinarium, and a host of others are popping up for download on a weekly basis.

So why the eulogies for turn-based (TB) combat?  The general consensus seems to be that TB combat is simply too boring in this new world of HD graphics and multiplayer FPSes. People want speed and twitch gaming, the writers say, and turn-based is just too slow and old-fashioned to keep people interested.

This is a pretty shallow way of thinking, I’d argue.  Yes, turn-based combat is by definition slower than real-time, but that does not automatically make it boring.  Boredom is in the eye of the beholder, and for those used to speed and action, turn-based systems must feel like a long walk through a muddy swamp.  But depth and choice can be exciting, and TB systems can usually offer those in spades.

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There is no doubt in my mind that there are many games I recall with far more kindness than they deserve.  Were I actually to go back and play them, it is entirely possible the experience would wipe away my cherished memories and replace them with bitter truth – it is for that reason that they remain untouched in the far recesses of time.

The question this raises to me is:  If I remember some games too fondly, am I perhaps also remembering some games too harshly?  If that is the case, then there is no other game better to check that theory against than Final Fantasy VII.

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“Wuv, Twu Wuv – that is wat bwings us togevver today”

-The Princess Bride

Love, as we all well know, has been a source of inspiration for some of the greatest works of mankind. Paintings to capture a lover’s  image, poetry to capture a lover’s heart, or obscenely over-sized monuments to impress a lover with how many slaves you have; the story is repeated over and over again throughout history.

As we head towards the most celebrated love-related day of the year, let’s take a look at a few classic tales of romance as embodied in our medium of choice: the videogame.

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