Commitment Issues

[ReservoirAngel]

I feel I need to get this off my chest:

My name is Steven, and I cannot stay faithful to my character.

The game causing me problems with this right now is Dragon Age: Inquisition. I love the thing, I really do... at least, I love what I've seen of it. Because I cannot stop re-rolling characters all the damn time.

Like, I cannot stick with one class. I just can't. My most successful attempt thus far was a Mage that I managed to blindly stumble to level 13 or so before my PS4 decided I didn't need that save file and made it impossible to load or play it again, so it had to go.

Since then, I'm back at square one: "What class?"

I feel like this goes beyond just indecisiveness. This feels like a chronic disorder for me at this point. I do it with every game I've played where it makes you pick a class at the get-go and stick with it. The original Dragon Age got me, every Mass Effect got me, any fantasy RPG gets me the same way. Hell, I played the crap out of Shining Soul II and I can't even remember the amount of times I'd restart as a different class, only to them re-restart as the same class I was originally playing.

But Inquisition is on track to be that bad for this. I'll always feel drawn to the Mage, but I've kind of done that a bit already. Plus I've seen the quest where you side with the Rebel Mages twice already, but siding with the Templars when I'm playing as a Mage just seems insane.

But if I don't go Mage, I have either Warrior or Rogue. Rogue I like the idea of, but I get the feeling (and every build guide I've seen seems to confirm) that playing a Rogue well requires way more skill than I seem to possess.

And the Warrior... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in ripping crap up as a Warrior with a big two-handed weapon, but I always steer away from Warriors in fantasy games because it always seems to come down to "run up to thing, hit thing with sword until thing falls down, run up to next thing, repeat" which seems a touch.... dull, to me. Rogue's can fuck around with stealth and subterfuge, Mages can rain down death on the entire battlefield, Warriors can just hit things really hard. Not feeling it, so much.

Plus it doesn't help that I naturally end up always playing as an Elf. I don't know what it is (maybe those sexy, sexy ears) but Elves just appeal to me. And even that limits my pedantic options because the sight of a thin, twinky little Elf with delicate hair charging into battle swinging a flaming broadsword that's as long as his body just seems comical. See also: Dwarves for the same sizing issue.

Basically I don't know what this thread was, I just needed to vent about my biggest self-inflicted pain and hatred in gaming currently and maybe either get some advice on classes, or just for someone to share my absurd issue to make me feel like less of an absolute lunatic moron.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I'm sort of the opposite, I never change from the classes I like. Like with my fighting games there might be 50 characters (see UMVC3) but i'll play like one team exclusively in a 3v3 fighter. I play Phoenix Wright/X-23/Vergil OR Phoenix Wright/X-23/Dante and not much else. Likewise I play Mu-12 near exclusively in BlazBlue and Labrys/Shadow Labrys (REAL Shabrys I might add, not that fake poser who's just a Labrys re-skin) in Persona 4 Ultimax/Arena.

I just like the feel of certain characters and I will never move away from them, I go away from Labrys and that amazing autocombo chain calls me back. She spins forward for like a quarter of the screen in a second, it's awesome. Pity Shabrys keeps the old autocombo but if they gave Shabrys any more pressure she'd be broken as fuck. How to Shabrys: Throw strategy to the wind and just press buttons. She's not subtitled The Raging Bull of Carnage for nothing, especially now since they gave her increased Cards so Asterius can just facetank hits.

And on the Visual Novel side, i'll finish a route, start a replay and pick the exact same route again every time.

 

[aozgolo]

Hi Steven!

I understand your pain at this, I actually suffer from similar issues, I couldn't tell you how many times I started brand new in The Elder Scrolls games (I even have quick start mods for Skyrim and Oblivion to let me skip the first mission).

I wouldn't say I can't commit to one character, I just have to take breaks from time to time. The best solution I've found is to not limit yourself to a single playthrough at a time. Make multiple characters but keep like 3 separate saves that way when you are finding yourself bored of one, you can jump to another and play with them.

In my Baldur's Gate games I have like 5 different playthroughs going, a good character, neutral character, evil character, solo challenge character, and an alternate evil character to play with the romance sidequests.

Have your cake and eat it too, just don't throw perfectly good cake in the trash because you got a different kind of cake!


Captcha: cup cake

 

[TitanAtlas]

Oh my god, i feel like i'm playing KOTOR or Skyrim again..... i can't tell you the times, ive had characters for 2 or 4 hours, then had to re-create a new character because i didn't liked the beard, or the colour, or the size of the character or even the GODDAM name!!

This happens to me a lot. Ive reached mid-game points that i just delete the save games, because i'm not comfortable with my character. And i just re-start it again and again till i'm comfortable with my choice....

The ONLY game this didn't happen to me was in Guild Wars. My first Character (a Warrior/Monk - that got changed and re-skilled constantly till perfection), was my favourite and defenitive choices, considering i invested time in getting everything piece of armors, and weaponry especificly cuz i loved that character so much, i waned to make him the most epic badass ever. I even loved the name xD

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

I have a somewhat related issue; I'm never comfortable unless my character can do almost everything. Unless I can do anything that I want, and am able to adapt to any possible scenario, I never feel right. Take, for example, my recent playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas; I found myself constantly agonizing over my level-ups, because: "I want to level up my Guns, because I need to be able to fight off enemies if I need to, but I saw that hard-level safe a while back and I want to be able to loot it, but there's also that person who'll sell me that thing I need at a discounted price if I level up Barter, but there's that other quest that'll let me pass without wasting any valuable ammo if I pass the Speech check, but I also have all of these awesome Energy Weapons that'll go to waste if I don't use them, and there's that Repair check that I can pass to skip that annoying fetch quest, and I just found this awesome new Melee Weapon that I might need to use if I run out of ammo, and there's that terminal that I can unlock if I level up Science..." The list goes on, and it's even worse with perks. The only stats that weren't really high on my priority list were Survival (I was playing casual, so I didn't really need anything in the way of survival skills) and Explosives (I'm not a huge grenade fan, since I find them unwieldy). But this spread-out distribution of skills caused me to be lacking in a few areas, and that was pretty painful for me, as well.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

Ah a fellow Altoholic, don't worry you are not alone.

It seems like any game with a decent character creator I just want to constantly make new characters, investment in game be damned. I'm sure this is what keeps many of us from finishing long RPG's. There is something so addicting to creating a new character look and ability wise.

The most extreme moment for me was planning out all the class combinations and making the respective characters all at once filling all 9 of our slots in Tera with my friend. Also in any of the Souls games when I get stuck I reroll. It has taken all of my will power to not abandon my 100 hour safe file in Dragon Age Inquisition to create a new character.

I think my desire to play every single free to play mmo possible is because each one is free characters to make.

 

[Elfgore]

I feel ya. So far I've done;

-A Qunari Mage
-A Qunari two-handed warrior
-A human archer
-An Elf mage
-A human duel-wield rogue

I got pretty far as the Elven mage, but I then realized my character had makeup on and had to completely start over. Hopefully, my human rogue last a little longer.

 

[Diablo2000]

I feel ya. So far I've done;

-A Qunari Mage
-A Qunari two-handed warrior
-A human archer
-An Elf mage
-A human duel-wield rogue

I got pretty far as the Elven mage, but I then realized my character had makeup on and had to completely start over. Hopefully, my human rogue last a little longer.

That seems a pretty petty reason to delete your save file and start a new.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

Like The Wykydtron, I'm kind of the opposite, and I'll use Dragon Age: Inquisition as an example too.

Before starting my first playthrough, all I knew was that I wanted to play a male, and romance Cassandra. The options besides that were pretty much endless to how I could play, but I settled on an Elven Mage, because Human's are boring, Dwarves can't be Mages, and I was saving a Qunari for a possible female run.

My Elven Mage grew on me, big time. I got into character as a generally easygoing Dalish Elf, one who wasn't particularly close to anyone but his Keeper since he kept to himself, wasn't particularly attached to Dalish customs, and didn't see the point in discriminating due to race.

When I finished my first playthrough, which included him going through a crisis of faith, the loss of his clan, and seeing firsthand what would happen if he failed, he pretty much got locked as my 'main' Inquisitor.

My second playthrough, I tried to play a female Human Warrior, who was going to go with the Templar specialization and romance Cullen. I never got out of the Hinterlands before just going back and remaking my first character.

After finishing the game for a second time with my Elven Mage, I tried to make a female Elven Archer Rogue, once again with my eye on Cullen. This time I managed to get about a third of the way through before moving onto a different character.

I'm hoping my male Dwarf Dual-Dagger Rogue lasts longer before I try and make Cazaril again.

 

[Bat Vader]

I made a human male warrior in DA:I and then saw gameplay of the mage and wanted to make a new character. I was already 30 hours in and didn't want to have to restart everything from square one. I am on my second playthrough though with a female elf mage.

I kinda wish more RPGs had a Gandalf class. Being able to use magic and martial skills at the same time. DA:O had the Arcane Warrior which I love.

 

[Godhead]

I have a fantastic way for you to train yourself against rerolling characters. First, hook yourself up to some form of machine that gives you a painful shock every time you start a new game without finishing the prior one, this teaches you to fear the pain, causing you to do complete playthroughs before making a new character. In chapter 2, we'll discuss swinging axe blades that descend every time you reload a bossfight or checkpoint.

 

[Risingblade]

That is the exact reason why I have not completed DAI, down to the elf thing as well. .-.

 

[Doom972]

I can only recommend that you pick which characters you'll want with you most of the time and pick a class that complements them. For example: If you prefer having Cassandra(Warrior), Iron Bull(Warrior) and Varric(Rogue), You should play a mage. If you prefer having Blackwall (Warrior), Sera (Rogue) and Dorian (Mage), you should probably play a Warrior.

I recommend sticking to the warrior (tank), warrior (DPS), rogue, mage party combination.

 

[PacDwell]

Back in the days of Baldurs Gate, a few in the community coined the phrase "Restartitis".

As a fellow sufferer it means that I've never completed the main quest of Skyrim (despite playing the first dungeon about 50 times).

I really enjoyed playing The Witcher 2 because I didn't have to worry about my restartitis as much.

I feel your pain.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

I feel ya. So far I've done;

-A Qunari Mage
-A Qunari two-handed warrior
-A human archer
-An Elf mage
-A human duel-wield rogue

I got pretty far as the Elven mage, but I then realized my character had makeup on and had to completely start over. Hopefully, my human rogue last a little longer.

That seems a pretty petty reason to delete your save file and start a new.

I once deleted a DA: I character because I thought his nose looked a bit too big on his face.

 

[SoreWristed]

*chimes in* Hi steven,

I understand your plight. On skyrim i've had a succession of characters, each more unique than the next, and on WoW i was at a point in the start of the game when i had every class possible at lvl 30 and none above 40. I realised this when i entered a guild and had to bugger the guildmaster to enter alt after alt, at some point he said i had a problem.
In skyrim and Oblivion, my most loaded save was right before the reroll point.

Most notable alts :
A Norse, norse woman with an obsession for having the largest and heaviest weapons (only character to finish the story)

An Elderly (modded) barbarian with no more than a fur loincloth and a bandolier that is way too big for his chest (i was roleplaying as Cohen the Barbarian, +5 if you get that reference)

A Cat thief with extreme jumping skills (modded) because i was a bit upset that they've removed jumping as an upgradeable skill in skyrim

A Dark-elf Indecisive mage, lots and lots of switching spells mid-combat

A Worried Warrior, who casted revive on all the people he's just slain before leaving the area

A Mage with no magical skills and a thing for language (roleplaying again, +5 if you get it)

A Sneaky mage, which was confusing as to why so little people thought to fire arrows at the shadow in the corner who illuminates himself every spell he casts

A guy who has somehow found a revolver in medieval times (modded)

Shaft = Redguard with a suit and a gun (modded)

Amazon princess : huge muscular dude with a beard and a bikini (modded)

 

[Queen Michael]

To use a modern expression: "Playas gotta play." So don't feel bad.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

I can really relate to this. In a sudden, explosive urge to play Silent Storm again, I bought that game on a whim a few days ago but I still haven't really managed to get far because I keep wanting to go back and create a new character. Even right now I'm thinking about different characters I would like to make!

 

[The Random Critic]

It's one of the reasons why I prefer games that let's you create your party from scratch. Even though it probably isn't good for role playing reason on some perspective.

As for me, I try to stick it out until the end. Unless that game's said character/classes playstyle happens to be really boring