Summary
80s gaming fans knew the satisfaction of a goodRPGwhen they beat it after grueling sessions of grinding for days, weeks, or maybe even months. Today, most RPGs are not as grind-heavy as the ones back in the early PC and NES days.
In this era, developers typically put inrare monstersthatgranted huge EXPrewards or loot if they were found and defeated. This tradition carried over to modern games and consoles. Let’s rewind the clock and rememberthe most rewarding and hard-to-find enemies in RPGs.Retro and modern RPGs will be ranked based on how rare these monsters actually were to find and destroy.
Bravely Default 2is actually the third game in the seriesand features a similar Job systemto the other games.With over a dozen Jobs to master, it can take a while without the right grinding spots. That’s where theBig Wiki-Wikienemies came into play.
They appeared in a few varieties, but they all looked like goofy little kiwis. Finding them is not as tricky as rare monsters in some other RPGs, as they can appear in dungeons like all enemy encounters, but defeating them is another story, as they can absorb a lot of blows before going down.
There were rumors started about a secret cow level in the firstDiablo,which then persisted into the sequel. It turns out, such a level never existed in the original, but Blizzard took those rumors and made them their own inDiablo 2.
To encounter theHell Bovines, players have to beat the game, get some specific items, and then restart on the same difficulty to unlock a portal. There, they will fight these demonic cows to get some good loot and EXP, but unless players were in the know back in the day, they may not have known this secret encounter existed. Thecow level also appears inDiablo 2’sremake, too.
Metal Slimes were a rare version of theSlime monsters in the originalDragon Questthat rewarded high amounts of EXP. The trick was that they were nearly impervious to damage, and they had a high probability of fleeing. As the series went on, more versions of these enemies were added, including liquid and stacked Metal Slimes.
Platinum King Jewelis the rarest of them all, which first appeared inDragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosenand hasn’t had many appearances overall since then.Striking it down is next to impossible, as is encountering it in the first place, but if players do so, they are guaranteed a level up (or three).
Etrian Odyssey 4: Legends of the Titanwas the first game in the series released on the 3DS, which leveled up the franchise to make it more appealing for novices. There were easier difficulties, more tools for exploring dungeons, and a new type of monster that could help with grinding.
Most enemies in the game have a variant called aRare Breedthat will appear as a shiny gold version. Their defenses are better, and they will likely run away after a few turns, so players have to cross their fingers that they can both encounter and defeat these little devils.
Final Fantasyhas a few rare encountersthroughout the series, but they don’t have recurring encounters likeDragon Quest’sMetal Slimes.Final Fantasy 9probably has some of the most interesting exemples in its Friendly Monsters. These monsters want gems and will reward players with rare items and AP to level up their skills.
Yan, for example, can be found around Vile Island and wants a Diamond in exchange for items and AP. There’s also the Ragtime Mouse, a quizmaster who can appear in forests throughout the world map, and if players answer his questions correctly, they will win prizes.
Persona 3revamped the series in a few ways, like focusing the narrative on a high schooler, adding Social Links, and creating new enemies. One of these enemies was theWealth Hand, a rare golden glove-looking monster who was prone to running away and was hard to defeat.
It had a variant called a Treasure Hand, too. Great rewards awaited patient players, and Wealth Hands became a staple in the series after this. In the most recent entry,Persona 3 Reload,which was a full-blown remake, finding Wealth Handswasn’t that hard, as they appeared physically on the map likeBravely Default 2’sBig Wiki-Wiki enemies.
Pokemon GoldandPokemon Silverwere the first games to introduceShiny Pokemonto the series. Most players probably didn’t even know they existed, let along that they were available to capture, because they were that rare.
Shiny Pokemon can have good stats compared to normal versions of Pokemon, but what mostly sets them apart is the different color palettes. A Bulbasaur could appear in brighter green, for example. Most Pokemon players have probably never encountered a Shiny Pokemon, even dozens of games later. That’s how rare they are for the franchise.
