Thanks to Shihali for the inspiration!

Do we even need to grind in Final Fantasy? Well, I guess if you want to defeat that boss. But what if you just want to play the game for the story? This is what Shihali wonders:

The title says it all: where is grinding truly necessary in a Final Fantasy game? By “grinding” I mean fighting fights in addition to those encountered in the normal course of traveling from plot point to plot point and looting everything. This isn’t the same thing as a low-level run, many of which grind for drops.

The only point I can recall where grinding is absolutely necessary is in FF1 NES between Pravoka and the Marsh Cave. Even the speedrun grinds at this point.

Edit: This does not include super bosses, which are not necessary. However, when you need to beat technically optional bosses or grind, I don’t consider that a mandatory grind.

Many others responded. I wrote: Other than the one you’ve mentioned, I don’t know. It’s not always necessary for advancing the story. But say you want to improve your stats or get an item, then grinding becomes of the utmost importance.

Shihali rejoined:

The point of grinding is getting higher stats or items, indeed.

I started this post because I often see advice along the lines of “you must grind here to have the stats to proceed” and I’m just as fed up with it as Tiornys. I know from personal experience that many of those claims aren’t true. Grinding is easier, grinding may even be faster, but I’m looking for the cases where it is not really possible to beat the next objective without grinding with any party composition or any skill level short of RNG manipulation.

I’m on the fence about needing to run a dungeon in multiple parts to survive. This might apply to FF1 NES Marsh Cave, FF2 NES Kashuan Keep, and FF3 NES Crystal Tower+Dark World.

Interesting. My take? This advice helps causal players become proficient, but I agree. Grinding is the tedious, easy way out. The development team programs these games for by people who have less and rely on ingenuity. It’s somewhat of a disservice to not let players experience this.

On the other hand, I wasn’t very adept at playing these games when I first tried. I could definitely appreciate this material. But that’s just me…maybe a few others.

Good luck with the Crystal Tower. If any of us are feeling bold, go for it. But make one wrong move and you’ll have the start the whole thing over (unless you’re using save states). Otherwise, grinding and resource management will help you a lot in those games (especially the older ones).