[POLL] CHARACTER PROGRESSION MECHANICS

I support anyone who supports Kawazu. XD

He's made some missteps here and there with his systems (most famously Final Fantasy II and Unlimited SaGa), but there's always something fresh and lively in the way he handles things. When you pick up a typical JRPG you just have to figure out how the game handles traditional systems, but a Kawazu JRPG is like exploring its own dungeon. You feel sort of like you're playing a traditional system, and yet there is so much hidden mystery to it all that even if it's broken to shit (SaGa Frontier, while one of my favorite games, is a broken mess) you have fun figuring out how and why.

Hey, Unlimited SaGa is brilliant too, people just don't understand it. Even that I like about Akitoshi Kawazu, that he sometimes just does something so different, nobody can play it anymore. But really Unlimited SaGa is perfectly fine. SGF2 is a lot worse in terms of battle/growth balance design.

But SaGaFrontier 1 is my favorite as well.

Which makes you wonder why there's so much conformity when it comes to character development in RPG games.

I actually indirectly answered it above. Most humans just want to play what they are used to. When you give them an Unlimited SaGa they'll just be like "What is this I don't even". Big companies just can't afford taking risks like that usually, so they have to go with formulas known to succeed. Indie developers have all the freedom they want, but are often not brilliant enough game designers to think of something unique that works (or are just lazy). Not to mention that many just want to copy the games they love.

Akitoshi Kawazu only can do crazy stuff like that because he's one of the big guys at Square, not to mention that he is DM for their internal Pen&Paper games, you can't fire your DM.

I'm surprised the sphere grid from FFX hasn't been mentioned, it's a really innovative system. Your character has a piece on a grid of upgrades, and as you fight monsters you get "sphere levels" that you can use to move along the grid; each node on the grid represents an upgrade like HP+2, STR+5, a magic spell or technique, etc. You can look around the entire grid right from the get-go, which lets you see how you'll be improving beforehand. So you have goals to work towards while grinding. It makes grinding much more rewarding. I always found myself saying "I'll grind till I move up to that HP+2 sphere, then I'm good."

A similar progression system was done in ... drum roll ... Kingdom Hearts re:Coded on the DS. Believe it or not, re:Coded has one of the greatest progression systems I've seen. It's a chip matrix, and you can get chips like HP+1, DEF+1, etc. from stores or fighting enemies. Here's a video. You place chips to build a path between CPUs, and when you connect two CPUs, all the chips in between them get their effect doubled or tripled. There are also other miletones called "abilities", you can place chips to build a path towards an ability like dodge roll or high jump. Lastly there are "cheats" you can build towards, e.g. you can temporarily sacrifice your max HP for a higher EXP payout. Unlike the sphere grid, you can see abilities and cheats in the chip matrix as big buttons, but you can't see what specific ability you'll get until you activate it --- so there's the added element of surprise to it. I actually like the chip matrix more than the sphere grid, even if there are a few ways to improve it.

But I've always been a fan of progression systems which are not points-based, like Metroid or Zelda --- OK, not RPGs and also not necessarily "character progression systems". But I think JRPGs could learn from this: usually if there's an enemy you can't beat, you grind until your number is higher than their number so you can hit them harder before they hit you. In Metroid, there are shielded enemies you can't defeat unless you have the missiles. Or in Zelda, there are shielded monsters you can defeat by striking them from behind, but when you get the hookshot you can just use it to steal the shield and attack from the front. I think that's far more effective, far more rewarding to the player. You actually feel like YOU'RE progressing instead of just seeing a number go up.

This should be exploited in JRPGs. Often in JRPGs you find a new area to explore, but the monsters are too powerful, which is the game's way of indicating you shouldn't be there now BUT you can come back later when you're a higher level. (Good example: Xenoblade Chronicles.) Instead, what if it's filled with ice enemies that don't take damage from anything but the fire spell? Then once you get the fire spell you're like "hell yeah, now I can go back to that last zone I couldn't explore". Same feeling as in Metroid or Zelda: "hell yeah I got the missiles" or "hell yeah I got the hookshot", etc. This combined with a more traditional XP-based progression would be awesome.

author=Toaster_Team
Baldur's Gate and an XP cap (which I find THE worst system ever).

Every game that uses XP has an XP cap. This is due to the limited capacity of data storage creating counter overflow.