07-06-2014, 03:44 AM
I've been playing a lot of RPG's lately like Tales of Xillia and also revisiting the dot hack GU games, Dragon Quest 8 and some pokemon games and I realized something, sometimes the leveling up system in an RPG can really suck, or be really good. Take for example. dot hack GU, where it always takes the same amount of Exp to level up but you get so much for beating enemies that are higher levels than you, or by how many Rengeki's you get in battle. It can become a little repetitive but all in all, you can practically level up at your own pace based on your own skill which makes it fun.
Tales of Xillia often doesn't give enough Exp when you get to the higher levels which can make leveling slow, especially as you start fighting battles that can take longer to win, but you can buy and eat foods that double your exp or even equip items that double it again at the cost of giving you status effects. Because of all this, you can again choose how you want to level up, based on skill and willingness to reflect harm upon your characters to help them get stronger quicker.
Then there are games like the first few generations of pokemon and Dragon Quest 8. In gen 1 and 2 for pokemon, more than any other gens, leveling can be slow because once you beat all the trainers, you have to train off of wild pokemon unless you can grind off the elite 4, which is extremely slow. In the case of Heartgold and Soulsilver, since the elite 4 gets stronger, the fastest way to level up is to not beat all 8 Kanto gyms and keep using them to level up until you can face them again at their higher levels, or to go and train at mount silver. Both of these methods are slow and can take hours to get anywhere with. In retrospect, leveling up Black and White 2 is far too easy because the white forest and black tower having an infinite number of trainers. While it became a little slower to level up in gen 6, it still was a bit too easy.
Dragon Quest 8 makes leveling up either really hard or really slow as you prepare for the the final boss. It comes to the point where even foes who can be hard to beat don't give up enough exp. There are of course, slimes you can fight in a certain small area on the map, but they are hard to hit and can and will run away if you don't beat them quickly which can be really annoying.
The reason I bring all this up, is because I was just thinking how hard it can be to balance out the leveling up in a game so that it's not too easy, but it isn't too much of a grind fest either. I'm curious to find out what games people have played here that have you level up and what you thought about how that system worked with the game. Let me know.
Tales of Xillia often doesn't give enough Exp when you get to the higher levels which can make leveling slow, especially as you start fighting battles that can take longer to win, but you can buy and eat foods that double your exp or even equip items that double it again at the cost of giving you status effects. Because of all this, you can again choose how you want to level up, based on skill and willingness to reflect harm upon your characters to help them get stronger quicker.
Then there are games like the first few generations of pokemon and Dragon Quest 8. In gen 1 and 2 for pokemon, more than any other gens, leveling can be slow because once you beat all the trainers, you have to train off of wild pokemon unless you can grind off the elite 4, which is extremely slow. In the case of Heartgold and Soulsilver, since the elite 4 gets stronger, the fastest way to level up is to not beat all 8 Kanto gyms and keep using them to level up until you can face them again at their higher levels, or to go and train at mount silver. Both of these methods are slow and can take hours to get anywhere with. In retrospect, leveling up Black and White 2 is far too easy because the white forest and black tower having an infinite number of trainers. While it became a little slower to level up in gen 6, it still was a bit too easy.
Dragon Quest 8 makes leveling up either really hard or really slow as you prepare for the the final boss. It comes to the point where even foes who can be hard to beat don't give up enough exp. There are of course, slimes you can fight in a certain small area on the map, but they are hard to hit and can and will run away if you don't beat them quickly which can be really annoying.
The reason I bring all this up, is because I was just thinking how hard it can be to balance out the leveling up in a game so that it's not too easy, but it isn't too much of a grind fest either. I'm curious to find out what games people have played here that have you level up and what you thought about how that system worked with the game. Let me know.