Sarisio: But she also had a point in what concerned combat in MM2 but she didn't say why (perhaps because it wasn't a t hing back in the time yet). Encounters were ridiculous because of level scaling. As you level up you encounter increasingly more and more enemies (keep in mind that you could save only in town, so it was a big problem). Might and Magic III was a huge improvement in what concerns combat (no level scaling and no battles with 100+ monsters at the same time), but too bad that they removed combat log for MM III-V.
PetrusOctavianus: Huge numbers of enemies in MM2 was not really a problem if playing normally, and I only had a few fights with 100+ enemies last time I played. But if you grinded the Cuisinarts for dozens of levels it became apparent.
So increasing numbers of enemies was actually a rather effective anti-grind measure.
MM3 was a huge decline IMO, and so simple and easy that it might as well have been real time.
That "anti-grind" (I dislike the term "grind", hence the quotes) is, IMO, bad game design. If you want to discourage heavy powerleveling, there are better ways, like making it impractical past a certain point, or making it so that you can't advance past a certain point until later in the game (or when you fight stronger enemies). Making the game more tedious for those who power level is not a good solution; instead of punishing powerleveling, make it give less of a reward. (A player should not have a harder time completing the game at a higher level than at a lower level; that's just bad game design.)
There's also the question of whether you want to discourage powerleveling in the first place. Sometimes, powerleveling is fun. (I note that, for example, the Disgaea series capitalizes on this; you can reach level 9999 in those games, and if that isn't enough (and it won't be enough if you want to defeat Baal, who is originally "only" level 4000), there are other ways of increasing your stats, like using the Item World to upgrade your items.)
