I'm exactly the same. At the 20 hour mark I'm looking for guides. I don't feel bad about guides at all though, I'm an adult human, I love long-ass JRPGs, but I want to play them, beat them, and then play another. If I take 70 hours for a 50 hour game, that's eating into time I could spend on the next game.

The only rpgs I felt compelled to use a guide on were the old nes FFs so I wouldn't get lost and Shining Force since you could easily miss a few characters and never get the chance to get them again. I hated that trope.

I've never had a problem beating a standard RPG even when I didn't get some elusive item or made some mistakes in character development.
I mainly check guides when I'm stuck for a prolonged time.

RPGs are easy shit, if you feel you've run yourself into a dead end just hack 99 elixirs or freeze your HP values using cheat engine.

The fuck does "RPG" even mean, you're not playing any roles and it's definitely not a game.

>>3229351
Historical reasons, RPGs follow after Dungeons and Dragons which set itself apart from the wargames it was developed from by having players take the roles of single characters instead of commanding larger armies.

>>3229351
You don't know what any of those words mean.

>>3229349
There's a difference between looking up how to overcome a particular obstacle so you're able to enjoy the rest of the game normally, and resorting to complete exploitation.

I never understood people and their motives behind using cheats.

most jrpgs are designed in such a way that if you just go where they tell and buy the new gear from a town, you'll finish the game. i don't know of any instance where missing some secret path or an easteregg matters much.

>>3229413
Star Ocean 2 comes to mind. Unless you craft some crazy items the final boss can still take off 9999 of the entire team in one attack (the flood). I never did beat that game because I couldn't find a way to survive.

>>3229205
Play the game one blind, then if you're autistic and want to 100% it, play it again with a guide?

>>3230041
Takes too much time though.

>>3229362
Do not consort with trolls.

>>3229661
Utter bollocks. Crafting is not needed at all. The final boss's normal form can be beaten with standard equipment. And he will only get ridiculously strong if you leave the final dungeon after reaching the final save point and go watch a secret private action, not something you're likely to do accidentally (though I did but I'm a daft bugger so there) and at that point he can be beaten with equipment that you find in the secret dungeon.

Never need to touch crafting.

>>3229205
wait what game is this?

Sometimes I resort to a guide even earlier. I've grown soft in my old age.

Usually it's because I don't want a character to die or fuck up some part of the story. Like I totally looked up how to cheese training that one wimpy guy in BoF3 to make him into the ultimate badass.

FOMO

>>3231420
Artifact Adventure on Steam. It's like Dragon Quest mixed with Fallout 1/2 style quests with lots of choices and possible outcomes. Good game.

>>3229205

maybe a little. Not because I want to or anything but well a lot of RPGs, especially these days are purposely obtuse so they can sell games

I hope you download and read the instruction manuals first.
Cheating is fair game in RPGs though IMO because RPG mechanics are derived from pen & paper games where you are literally supposed to *role play*, but who the fuck wants to do that. Not sure if modern RPG developers are actually aware of the disconnect between how their games are designed to be played (role playing) and how people actually play them (min-maxing, wikias)

What I do is when I stop playing a game for the day I read FAQs about what is to come because I'm excited to see what's up next even if I don't have the time to play it anymore that night.

>>3234016
>how people play them
Don't speak for me, faggot. Idk wtf min-maxing or a wikia is.