Meaningless Battles...

[SaberMaxwell]

Tales of Destiny does it right. At one point you do a 4 v 1 fight and the kid is just decimating your group. You can kinda brute force it with a lot of healing items and what not and might get lucky if you did a ton of early story grinding. If not...he beats you into paste. HOWEVER if you beat him...game is over. You don't get thrown into prison that sets you up for the rest of your adventure. You win. You become successful lens hunters and that's it.

Reminds me of Disgaea 2 on the ps2. Chapter 3 sets you up against Demon Lord Etna who is Level 1,000 and your party is on ng1 probably like lv20. No chance of winning at all, but if you come back on ng+ (or just grinded hard enough in the item world) you could win...and when you do, your MC inherits the title "Demon Lord" from Etna and loses the ability to battle Overlord Zenon (main antagonist), ending the game.

Same thing in Chapter...11 I think? The previous game's MC, Laharl, appears at Level 1,200 before the party. If you win, he throws an absolute hissy fit, leaps to orbit and glasses the whole planet with magical flames. I'd appreciate games to do stuff like alternate ends for beating what you're not expected to beat.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Reminds me of Disgaea 2 on the ps2. Chapter 3 sets you up against Demon Lord Etna who is Level 1,000 and your party is on ng1 probably like lv20. No chance of winning at all, but if you come back on ng+ (or just grinded hard enough in the item world) you could win...and when you do, your MC inherits the title "Demon Lord" from Etna and loses the ability to battle Overlord Zenon (main antagonist), ending the game.

Same thing in Chapter...11 I think? The previous game's MC, Laharl, appears at Level 1,200 before the party. If you win, he throws an absolute hissy fit, leaps to orbit and glasses the whole planet with magical flames. I'd appreciate games to do stuff like alternate ends for beating what you're not expected to beat.

This reminds me of Breath of Fire 2. Towards the end, Ryu's mother has to sacrifice her life to open the way to Infinity so you can descend to fight the big bad. You can refuse, sparring Valerie's life.....but it triggers the bad ending, where the demons continue building their strength uninterrupted, until they shatter the gate and overrun the world.