SFC Dual Orb — When Grinding Becomes the Entire Game

I’m currently about 47 hours into Dual Orb on the Super Famicom, and going into this game, I absolutely did not expect it to take this long.

I’ll get into all of this much more when I eventually write my full review, but the biggest problem continues to be the game’s balancing. Obviously grinding is nothing unusual for an old-school JRPG. Sometimes you reach a new area, the enemies are stronger, and you need to gain a few levels before moving on.

Dual Orb is different.

The entire game seems built around reaching a new area, realizing the enemies are too strong, and then grinding until you can comfortably deal with them. Eventually you catch up, progress for a while, reach another area, and the exact same thing happens again. It never really feels like your natural progression keeps pace with the game.

Right now I’m level 39, and gaining a single level is taking me roughly an hour. I’m already well beyond the level and completion time I expected based on the walkthrough I’ve been following, and I’m still not finished.

There are ways to suppress random encounters, and admittedly I probably could be using them more often. But I don’t think that really excuses the underlying problem. The game should still be reasonably balanced without requiring the player to constantly avoid its own battles just to make the pacing tolerable.

That’s what makes Dual Orb so frustrating. There are plenty of below-average RPGs that I can still enjoy for what they are. But the balancing here takes what might have simply been a mediocre game and turns playing it into an exhausting experience.

At this point, there really isn’t any suspense about where Dual Orb is going on my tier list. It isn’t getting an A, B, C, D, or even F. I had to create an entirely new Shit Tier just for this game. I’m going to finish it.

But, this thing refuses to end.