I got back playing Ishin a week ago and finished it the other day. Game was fun and I enjoyed the story & music, but what the hell padded grindy F2P-like experience has the series become!? They totally gimped the combat mechanics, forcing you to grind for dozens of hours of combat arenas just to get some of the useful battle mechanics and heat moves (of which there are far fewer than back in the day). And if you wanted to actually upgrade your weapons/armor in the game it was a total F2P-style grind item drops to the point that even 34 hours in the game when I finished it after about 6 additional hours of just grinding, I still never made a good sword.
So is this what RGG games are like these days? Having only played 1/2/Kenzan before this, I miss the simplicity of RGG1/2 where you have a fun 12-15 hour story with like an additional 10 hours of optional subquests and some mini-games and that was it. No bs rpg grind game.
How's the padding/filler/grind in
RGG3
RGG4
RGG5
Black Panther
Black Panter 2
Of the End
?