The Most grindy Games to platinum or to 100% of all time

[DrasticAutomatic]

White Knight Chronicles 1 and 2. 

[Brightblade76]

White Knight Chronicles is a beast now that servers are closed, took me 650 hours solo, Star Ocean will probably take me less than that.

[Matto_lsi]

Go check .org's estimates...

 

Gran Turismo is only at 600 not 1,000 hours and White Knight II is at 1,000+ going by .org but got to love how some games were just ignored despite being grindier than most of this list like Mugen Souls, Mortal Kombat, WKC, WKCII and Star Ocean.

 

As someone who has the GT5 plat, and got it after the 1.10 update that made the tracks HARDER and removed the exploits of dropping under the maps, 600 hours is still a high estimate.  Most of my plat runs take way longer than the guides specify cause i take my time, and GT5 still took me far less than 600 hours.  Of the games I've played, GT5 and Sports Champions are the grindiest for sure, but definitely not the single grindiest game of all time.  GT5 took me 2 months, that's playing nights and weekends only, as I work full time, and obviously not every minute of my free time was playing that game.  So I'd say I spent about 250-300 hours on GT5.  Sports Champions was probably about the same. 

 

To the OP - There's games that take far longer than any racing game ever could.  It's cool if you like racing games, but considering that actual grinding means repeatedly doing the same thing over and over, most racing games aren't that much of a grind.  They might be time consuming, but you're doing lots of different things to work towards plat.  Compare that to many RPGs where you literally spend at least 100-200 hours AFTER finishing the rest of the game repeatedly killing the exact same mobs over and over to grind XP (or stats, or drops, or hit certain damage marks, etc...), there really is no comparison. 

 

Though it had no trophies, I remember spending every day after school for 6 months playing FF VIII just to grind thorn drops from cactuars, so I could take 100 of those and refine them into 1 hundred needles to then refine that into a Speed+1 potion, and then do that about 150 times for each of my characters until they hit max (255, I think) for that skill.  I could have done that for all of the stats too, and some required refining 100 of an item into another item, then 100 of that item to get the stat up point, so it was really 10,000 of the individual drop for those stat points.  But I eventually moved on to other games and spared myself the punishment.  Now imagine if FF VIII had trophies and one of those was to max all skills on all characters?  You'd easily spend 3000 hours grinding.  Not playing, not exploring, not even leveling; not doing anything fun whatsoever, simply grinding.  And there are trophies like that for some RPGs.  There's no other genre of game that can come close to that kind of grind.  Also, these can't be boosted like the vast majority of racing game's online trophies can.  I know you entered an 'Other' field, as I used that when I voted, but you really should take some recommendations from others in the thread, especially of the RPG variety.  Just a suggestion.

Edited September 2, 2015 by Matto_lsi

[patrickogorman19]

As someone who has the GT5 plat, and got it after the 1.10 update that made the tracks HARDER and removed the exploits of dropping under the maps, 600 hours is still a high estimate.  Most of my plat runs take way longer than the guides specify cause i take my time, and GT5 still took me far less than 600 hours.  Of the games I've played, GT5 and Sports Champions are the grindiest for sure, but definitely not the single grindiest game of all time.  GT5 took me 2 months, that's playing nights and weekends only, as I work full time, and obviously not every minute of my free time was playing that game.  So I'd say I spent about 250-300 hours on GT5.  Sports Champions was probably about the same. 

 

To the OP - There's games that take far longer than any racing game ever could.  It's cool if you like racing games, but considering that actual grinding means repeatedly doing the same thing over and over, most racing games aren't that much of a grind.  They might be time consuming, but you're doing lots of different things to work towards plat.  Compare that to many RPGs where you literally spend at least 100-200 hours AFTER finishing the rest of the game repeatedly killing the exact same mobs over and over to grind XP (or stats, or drops, or hit certain damage marks, etc...), there really is no comparison. 

 

Though it had no trophies, I remember spending every day after school for 6 months playing FF VIII just to grind thorn drops from cactuars, so I could take 100 of

those and refine them into 1 hundred needles to then refine that into a Speed+1 potion, and then do that about 150 times for each of my characters until they hit max (255, I think) for that skill.  I could have done that for all of the stats too, and some required refining 100 of an item into another item, then 100 of that item to get the stat up point, so it was really 10,000 of the individual drop for those stat points.  But I eventually moved on to other games and spared myself the punishment.  Now imagine if FF VIII had trophies and one of those was to max all skills on all characters?  You'd easily spend 3000 hours grinding.  Not playing, not exploring, not even leveling; not doing anything fun whatsoever, simply grinding.  And there are trophies like that for some RPGs.  There's no other genre of game that can come close to that kind of grind.  Also, these can't be boosted like the vast majority of racing game's online trophies can.  I know you entered an 'Other' field, as I used that when I voted, but you really should take some recommendations from others in the thread, especially of the RPG variety.  Just a suggestion.

Grid Autosport you 95% of your time grinding that's a higher percentage than every other game on this list.

[acasser]

Star Ocean The Last Hope International, Tales Of Graces F, Xcom Enemy Unknown [maybe(?)] and Tales Of Symphonia

That is all. 

 

Star Ocean is a fair nominee, although not my selection.  If you know what you're doing and/or plan ahead, it's a 450-500 hour platinum.  Grindy, but not the most excessive.

 

The other three titles you suggest aren't particularly grindy at all.  Symphonia and Graces are a little grindy, but not to the excesses of other games.  X-Com: Enemy Unknown isn't immensely grindy, either.... sure, it takes five playthroughs to knock out the platinum but it's not excessively long unless you choose to make it so.

 

....

 

As for other suggestions I've seen in this thread:

 

White Knight Chronicles (I and II) is something that I personally wouldn't put up there, but then again I took advantage of the online when it was around.  It's grindy and tedious, but not to the numbers of hours that others have taken.

 

My vote went to "Other" for Mugen Souls which is probably the longest platinum grind in my entire collection.  (I don't count the Disgaea series because I never went at those titles in an optimal/"shortest possible grind" fashion.)  It's not just grindy, but it's tedious and requires a little bit of RNG luck at times, too.  And if one takes a look at the percentage numbers for that game here on PSNP, it's a grind that most everybody doesn't feel like doing.

[patrickogorman19]

700 hours should be enough to take the cake.

 

Warhawk takes longer.

[djGLCKR]

300 hours of 5-min runs of "Only game in town II" in WKC2, not including load times and menu navigation. Just for 13 guild ranks (~63.000.000 Gexp). Out of 30. And yes I did the math. And it seems to be (so far) the only way to grind GR without spending more than 10 minutes on a quest and getting a decent amount of exp. So it remains as the best quest in terms of time:GR.

 

Not including the material grind for the 800 binds, the UNID farm for the rares, getting enough money to upgrade your personal Georama to max level, get the ridiculous materials to recruit the best 3-stat villagers, and a back-and-forth between setting a theme your village and cap your bank of every single material you can purchase from each store (because you can't go to another player's georama to buy mats anymore). Create the best gear for each class, get all 6 characters to lv 80, rebirth, cap and repeat the process 4 times, then climb Vellgander and try to survive Upper Annex.

 

I'm almost 300 hours in, lv 63 party, GR17, done with both WKC stories, and not even properly geared (still wearing lv50 stuff). Add the 300 hours from the GR grindfest. You could easily add 500-600 extra hours doing the material farming, level grinding, georama editing and the final preparations for Vellgander 10 (unless you have a plan, the number is still a couple hundred hours). This platinum, restricted to offline play due to servers going off mid 2013, goes beyond the 1.2k hours mark no sweat. It may vary depending on how good/bad RNG treats you, but it won't go lower than 1k hours according to my numbers. 

 

And we're talking WKC2, where you can bring 2 NPCs to any offline quest, increasing your group DPS a bit. WKCI? Good luck making a decent geared lancer and surviving alone.

 

Bit of trivia. Because RNG is an arse, it took me FOUR DAYS to get a single Flemron 108 (~3% drop rate) hunting T2 Efreets in the Forest FMQ, since the spawn is more consistent (20 min wait on the same spot) compared to the castle underground (RNG), and I had to use it for the final request. Fun fact, Flemron 308 drop rate is ~1%. And you need it for certain binds.

[Gildenmagier]

Warhawk takes longer.

I already voted so there is no point in starting a debate with me.

[James_Tonto]

I voted Resistance 2. Mainly because it's the most grinding I had to do for a Platinum and I hated doing it. Not saying there aren't potentially worse grindy games, but Resistance 2 is the one I've personally played.

[Slipknot_rooney]

From this list I've only done Resistance 2. I can't imagine spending 600+ hours on a plat, that is a crazy amount of time.

[Manuelito]

OP: remove Loadout and put Hustle King instead.

[flashpool23]

Rayman Legends. You cannot plat it in a day...or a week.. because of the final level of Grindiness Awesomeness.

[patrickogorman19]

OP: remove Loadout and put Hustle King instead.

Load out is a huge grid

[ShadowSigmaX]

Voted for Star Ocean, longest grind in my opinion. I applaud everyone who has gotten the platinum in that game, for your dedication and resolve. Also why is Mod Nation on there? Is that the PS3 game or the Vita? I didn't find the Vita one grindy at all. Sure there is the create XP, but that was easily done when the game first came out. Considering it grindy now since the online being dead, doesn't make it so. I just found it extremely frustrating with the rubber banding AI, some of the challenge BS, and incredibly boring. That's why it took me 3 years and 4 months to get the Platinum...

[Jak]

For future references, when you start polls like this, whatever is listed needs to be spelled correctly. *Modnation Racers and *White Knight Chronicles.

 

This would be a tough choice. But I reckon Grid Autosport because you'll spent 95% of your time on the game grinding XP for single player. And 200 hours online. What do you guys think.

 

Considering WKC takes a minimal or maximum (forget which) of 700+ hours, I'd say that easily triumphs over Grid Autosports...

[RICO2100]

I voted other for Battlefield Hardline, the 100% as of now is a pretty long grind i'd estimate it at about 250-400 if you are a very skilled fps player but 400-500+ for the average player. the 10,000 kills with each kit x4 is torture and there's still more DLC coming lol.

 

it's not the biggest grind but i think it could be added to the list.

Edited September 12, 2015 by RICO2100

[patrickogorman19]

I voted other for Battlefield Hardline, the 100% as of now is a pretty long grind i'd estimate it at about 250-400 if you are a very skilled fps player but 400-500+ for the average player. the 10,000 kills with each kit x4 is torture and there's still more DLC coming lol.

 

it's not the biggest grind but i think it could be added to the list.

Forgot about that but the platnium doesn't take that long.

[Manuelito]

Load out is a huge grid

Not as big as hustle king. Trust me I have both

[patrickogorman19]

Not as big as hustle king. Trust me I have both

Load out takes at least 100 hours that's hell of a lot for a non platinum game.

[Manuelito]

Load out takes at least 100 hours that's hell of a lot for a non platinum game.

Hustle king if done legit need from 1000 to 40000 matches if you won all of them. But of course you don't win every match.

Also even hustle king is only a 100%

Edited September 24, 2015 by Winston

[xZoneHunter]

Blacklight: Retribution is a pretty big grind too. And in the end you'll only get a bronze(reaching max level) and a silver (get all other trophies in the game)

[patrickogorman19]

Other: Razing Storm.

Put it on the list

Hustle king if done legit need from 1000 to 40000 matches if you won all of them. But of course you don't win every match.

Also even hustle king is only a 100%[/quote

For future references, when you start polls like this, whatever is listed needs to be spelled correctly. *Modnation Racers and *White Knight Chronicles.

 

 

Considering WKC takes a minimal or maximum (forget which) of 700+ hours, I'd say that easily triumphs over Grid Autosports...

What does WKC stand for

If you aren't going to add Star Ocean, MK9, Uncharted 3 and WKC then at the very least add an "Other" selection.

Personally I think it's a toss up between DCUO and Star Ocean

I did

[starcrunch061]

I imagine the "other" category is full of people picking WKC before it made the list? Because that game is grinder's hell. I actually think it's WORSE than Star Ocean, because you literally do the same thing over and over (hey - time to fight that red monster again!). At least with Star Ocean's battle trophies, you have 900 different insipid things to do.

[patrickogorman19]

I imagine the "other" category is full of people picking WKC before it made the list? Because that game is grinder's hell. I actually think it's WORSE than Star Ocean, because you literally do the same thing over and over (hey - time to fight that red monster again!). At least with Star Ocean's battle trophies, you have 900 different insipid things to do.

That game is on the list.

[Pengz88]

i voted other, with Final Fantasy X HD in mind. have to completely finish the sphere grid for all 7 characters. that right there takes 80-120 hours. I have probably grinded more on some other game but thats the one that springs to mind. I had nightmares about Don Tonberry afterwards. ( i dont like grinding)

White Knight Chronicles is also missing. Needless to say the voting list is a... bit flawed. Unless "of all time" is being used the same way Kanye West uses it.

I'm liking the dig at Kanye

Edited October 14, 2015 by Pengz88