JRPG fans, what was your favorite leveling system?

agrindougar

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May 28, 2013
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I've always liked the way JRPG's try to mix up leveling mechanics. Western games always just slightly bump my stats and ask if I'd like a perk or power. I know the effect on game play is functionally identical, but I've always been a fan of the FFX sphere grid or the Crystarium in FFXIII. It was just cool seeing the possibilities laid out for you to see and slowly activate. But I like finding new stuff I haven't seen before even more. What are some leveling systems that you thought were awesome?
 

badgersprite

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Sep 22, 2009
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The FFX Sphere Grid was cool in that the Expert Sphere grid in particular allowed you to spec your characters out however you wanted. You could turn Tidus into a white mage and then give him thief abilities if you got bored of how he was shaping up and have everyone have elements of multiple classes or deviate to only pick up the stat gains that you wanted. It was very cool.

It was also pretty satisfying in that you could always see your characters improving and that was quite addicting.

Don't know if that's my favourite, but it's the first one that comes to mind.
 

Maximum Bert

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Feb 3, 2013
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badgersprite said:
The FFX Sphere Grid was cool in that the Expert Sphere grid in particular allowed you to spec your characters out however you wanted.
Yes definitely the FFX sphere grid for me as well I really liked what they did there although I was dissapointed in that although the expert grid allowed you to branch out early it actually had fewer nodes so if you wanted the most out of the grid you had to stick with the standard grid I still think it was impossible to get maximum stats in everything though mainly HP.

Other than that I am finding it hard to think of any memorable levelling up system in any RPG I mean path of exiles is good but thats not a JRPG and is essentially a rip off of Xs sphere grid anyway.
 

KarmaTheAlligator

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Mar 2, 2011
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Damn, beat to the punch. Yup, FFX sphere grid was the best I've seen, offering total freedom to customise your characters. The Crystarium is a really cheap imitation in looks only, because you have hardly any freedom with it, with the only choice being, do I want to go up that path, or that one.
 

piinyouri

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For pure OCD leveling heaven, I would not hesitate to say Rune Factory.



For sweet lords sake you can level up SLEEPING.
And if my memory doesn't fail me, WAITING has it's own level bar too that goes up when you're doing absolutely nothing.
Genius.
 

Norrdicus

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Feb 27, 2012
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The FFX Sphere grid was a good idea, but Path of Exile perfected it

As far as JRPG leveling systems go, Breath of Death 7 and Cthulhu Saves The World are my favorites. (Yes, I know Zeboyd Games are not japanese, but the games absolutely play in style of those games)
 

krazykidd

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SMT : Nocturne . Choose where to put your stat points . Choose which skills to learn and keep . Added the fact you can choose what demons to use , and what skills THEY have .The ultimate customisation Jrpg .
 

dumbseizure

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Norrdicus said:
The FFX Sphere grid was a good idea, but Path of Exile perfected it

As far as JRPG leveling systems go, Breath of Death 7 and Cthulhu Saves The World are my favorites. (Yes, I know Zeboyd Games are not japanese, but the games absolutely play in style of those games)
I have to agree with Path of Exile, been playing that recently and, my god, looking at the grid is daunting.

For JRPG's though? FFX's sphere grid was definitely impressive, and I would follow that closely with FFXIII crystarium.

I love being able to spec a single character into multiple jobs.
 

sanquin

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As said plenty of times before, the sphere grid seems to be the best for me as well when it comes to turn-based Jrpg's.

Action Jrpg's though, I'd say Dragon's Dogma. Which class you are determines which stats you get each level. And as you level up your class you can pick which skills you want to buy. Plus the passive skills you get for each class can be used for all classes. Only way this could be better to me is if they would allow you to add stats yourself rather than it being automatic.
 

MammothBlade

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Oct 12, 2011
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I liked materia, that was a pretty great way of mixing and matching abilities however you saw fit. The license grid was pretty great too, but it had a tendency to make characters into jack of all trades once they got high enough. It gets boring with higher levels unless you make it a self-imposed challenge to divide characters into classes. The sphere grid in FFX was quite good, it did allow the player quite a bit if they planned ahead.

SMT Nocturne's magatama system is ok, but it is difficult to plan ahead without a strategy guide, some abilities have to be skipped or lost altogether as you only have 8 skill slots - and that's for both active and passive abilities so you have to plan well ahead. However, if you have the information at hand then it's not so bad.
 

Diddy_Mao

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I rather enjoyed FF X's Sphere grid. While in the short term it appeared to be a lot of pointless busy work, in the long run it really allowed for a lot of customization of your party and play style which I came to rather appreciate.

On a similar note I really liked the theory XII's license board. In practice it was a bucket of crap but it had potential.

Much like the Sphere Grid, I like the customization that it should have allowed. Sadly the game play itself doesn't really allow for that and in the end every character became pretty much the same and it didn't matter who I had in my party at all.

Which leads me to my favorite leveling system which is the "Job Class" system.

God damn do I loves me the Job Class system. It's great, I can use XP to level a character to provide static upgrades to their base stats but I also get to define their growth as a character by assigning them which skills in their chosen class I want them to learn. And there's usually some system in place to allow for a degree of cross class specialization which allows for even more customization.
 

Exius Xavarus

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May 19, 2010
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I typically enjoy good old fashioned leveling. I collect enough experience and up goes my level.

It takes me forever to get anywhere in a JRPG because I have a bad habit of over grinding. Simply because I can. I enjoy the combat system and actively seek out more monsters to fight. Jolly time, it is.

It also feels good to roflstomp early bosses.

But for the love of all that is good and holy, make sure that the reserve characters get experience, too. Even a reduced amount is fine. I will grind for fun with my favorite party of characters. But I do not want to repeat all that grinding because you were an asshole and decided to needlessly gimp the reserve characters.
 

soitgoes19

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Probably Final Fantasy 10-2, which is the most underrated game in the series. The story is awful but the gameplay is so much fun. I can't remember if characters level individually but mostly the system revolves around leveling their job classes. The player has total control over each characters development. Anybody can specialize in any job class you've unlocked, you don't have to wait until you've reached a certain point in the game or leveling system.
 

Fractral

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Feb 28, 2012
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krazykidd said:
SMT : Nocturne . Choose where to put your stat points . Choose which skills to learn and keep . Added the fact you can choose what demons to use , and what skills THEY have .The ultimate customisation Jrpg .
I love the SMT leveling system, although I've not played nocturne it's as good in Devil Survivor and Persona. It's a wee bit OP at times though- I managed to get a Purple Mirror with Null Everything except almighty through some astute fusion, and as stat boosts are carried through in Devil Survivor it also had maxed out Magic and Megidoloan, which made most of the enemies a bit of a joke. Also, have you played Digital Devil Saga? It's similar to Nocturne, only rather than a skill being lost forever when you delete it it stores all the skills you've learned and you can switch between them at will, for all your characters, although you can still only have 8 at a time. it's just a shame that you can't catch demons in that game.
But yeah, SMT. It's almost like Pokemon, only more awesome, and with demons.
 

Miyenne

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Exius Xavarus said:
But for the love of all that is good and holy, make sure that the reserve characters get experience, too. Even a reduced amount is fine. I will grind for fun with my favorite party of characters. But I do not want to repeat all that grinding because you were an asshole and decided to needlessly gimp the reserve characters.
This.

I also liked the Sphere Grid. I like choosing my own path for each character. But I love feeling accomplished from every fight, not just the times I level up, so in games like FFIX and Tales games where you learn abilities from weapons, or FFVI where you would get permanent stat bonuses for leveling with certain espers on is great too.

If a game had something like a sphere grid, abilities learned from weapons and armor, and stat boosts from something like espers, would it be too complicated?

Throw in a in depth crafting system ala Star Ocean and I'd be in customization heaven.
 

PedroSteckecilo

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Feb 7, 2008
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I really enjoyed FF10's "Sphere Grid"... the only downside was that once you started really branching into other characters grids everyone started to lose some uniqueness...

Other than that... it's all about the Job Systems baby... FFtactics's is my all time favorite but FFX-2 has a close second