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[prwxv3]

What are some RPG's with great progression systems?

Birth By Sleep is one of my pics.

By the end of the game you have crazy attacks and abilities. And there a a rather large amount of combat related things that you get during the game. Different deck commands, shotlocks, D-links, Command Styles, finishing moves, and abilities.

I wish they did not screw that up with DDD.

 

[cpp_is_king]

Tales of Graces F's title system is probably the best progression system of any game I've played.

 

[EatinOlives]

I really liked Earthbound's stat increases, since you could actually see a big difference in stats. If you ever had to grind it only had to be like one level to get up to snuff. I've never liked games where you have to level up like 5 times before you even see a practical difference in your stats.

Plus it had that awesome feature where enemies would run away from you after beating the dungeon's boss.

 

[Meccanical]

I like Star Ocean 2's skill system.

Simply because it is the only RPG that I have played that allowed me to become a best selling author.

 

[darkistheway]

I really liked Final Fantasy X. In the beginning, your progression is character specific but eventually the game opens up and you can take your characters wherever you want.

 

[badgenome]

Final Fantasy X's sphere grid. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!

 

[PKrockin]

Tales of Graces f: the thread

 

[injurai]

Persona, specifically 3 and 4.

 

[Anival]

I really liked FFX's Sphere grid.

 

[Reveirg]

Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X, Tales of Grace f, Xenoblade, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 days, Digital Devil Saga 2!

 

[Freyjadour]

I'll be the first of many to say Xenoblade... LOL NOPE.

Probably FFT or any other good job system.

Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X, Tales of Grace f, Xenoblade, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 days, Digital Devil Saga 2!

Gooodddddd damnit.

 

[Camp Lo]

I was always a fan of FF8's system. Materia is the only thing I liked about FF7.

 

[NerdEyeBlind]

I haven't played a lot of RPGs but I like LOST ODYSSEY with the Skill Link system.

 

[prwxv3]

I'll be the first of many to say Xenoblade... LOL NOPE.

Probably FFT or any other good job system.



Gooodddddd damnit.

The affinity system was terribad.

 

[TheExodu5]

I loved Star Ocean 3 in this regard.

 

[Metaroo]

I always liked FFIX's ability system. I also like the FFT and FFTA systems, which were pretty similar, if not the same thing. Learning abilities from certain weapons was really engaging, and made finding or buying new weapons, armors, and accessories that much more exciting.

 

[meltingparappa]

I loved FF12 because you were essentially building a sort of auto-battle engine, and as time went on you could add more options and more tweaks to try and streamline your process and protect it against the curveballs any given monster may throw at you.

It was also kind enough to let you save multiple if>then clauses, so you could have a monster build versus a boss build.

And it did it all (arguably) without making it a horrifically tedious slog like FF13 did.

 

[Burt]

I always thought final fantasy tactics' progression system was super solid. Other SRPG's have similar ones, but the rate, reward, and customization available always struck me as pretty much perfect. Now, plenty of skills were super broken, but that's part of them fun. If I have to save up 900 JP on a god damn time Mage to get teleport on one of my fighters, it damn well better turn me into a skull-crushing badass. Hitting enough JP to buy and über skill for a sweet class and then putting it on Ramza to break the game really is the pinnacle of FFT.

Counter argument to the FFX and FFXII fans: the sphere grid, laid out, is about as straight a line as FFXIII, and I didn't like the license board in FFXII because a) it's stupid to have to buy licenses for equipment, and b) everyone is exactly the same by the end. The similarity argument could be made against fft too, but at least its job system narrowed down characters' skill sets, make every character a unique and valuable member of your team.

 

[QP3]

Pokemon.

Your end team won't bat an eyelash at your starters.

 

[prwxv3]

I loved FF12 because you were essentially building a sort of auto-battle engine, and as time went on you could add more options and more tweaks to try and streamline your process and protect it against the curveballs any given monster may throw at you.

It was also kind enough to let you save multiple if>then clauses, so you could have a monster build versus a boss build.

And it did it all (arguably) without making it a horrifically tedious slog like FF13 did.

I liked that too. That system also allowed you to auto level with a certain enemy if configured correctly.

 

[Yuterald]

To just name a few...

Digital Devil Saga I & II, mantra grid
SMT: Nocturne, demon compendium stuff
Star Ocean 2's (and PSP original) skill system

 

[mariusrhpsd]

digital devil saga I & II, and all the disgaeas, man you can do or be ANYTHING on those games

 

[QP3]

I really liked FFX's Sphere grid.

Yes, I loved this system!

Were they the first to do it? I loved this system and am surprised I haven't seen more iterations in other games.

 

[Manmademan]

To just name a few...

Digital Devil Saga I & II, mantra grid
SMT: Nocturne, demon compendium stuff
Star Ocean 2's (and PSP original) skill system

yeah, the SMT stuff is great, though nocturne in particular since no two players are going to end up with the same build- and permanently losing abilities once you sacrifice them or choose not to upgrade can be pretty tense.

 

[Subaru]

I haven't played a lot of RPGs but I like LOST ODYSSEY with the Skill Link system.

It's awesome! Final Fantasy IX have a system like that too! It's very cool to learn abilities from rings \o\

 

[Midnight Bliss]

Arcanum still reigns king of this. Awesome yet sad really that we don't have more games like that. Still remains my favorite game mostly because of this. And to a lesser extent System Shock 2. Also Etrian Odyssey did it pretty well. I know there are other good examples but I can't think of much. And maybe Divine Divinity and Morrowind. We need more games with lots of character growth customization.

Ragnarok Online (even though being an mmorpg) did it pretty nicely as well, as did Ultima Online.

It's a shame most rpgs and even mmorpgs can't have at the very least a diablo 2 standard for character progression.

 

[Manmademan]

Saga Frontier II was interesting, though kind of random.

Skills were gained not by level, but by experimenting with combinations of routine attacks, and the skills were weapon specific.

so equipping a sword, getting into a one on one duel and selecting Ready-Charge-Charge-Backslash would give you a CHANCE of permanently learning Blade Spray, a combination area attack.

of course, trying the same command with an axe, a dagger, or bare fists might yield a different skill, or nothing at all.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Tales of Graces F's title system is probably the best progression system of any game I've played.

Tales of Graces f: the thread

It was lost in the shadow of its jaw-droppingly great combat, but the character building system in that was an absolute perfect mix of everything in the genre from tickling the lizard brain to deep deep number crunching to meld with said combat.

 

[The Technomancer]

The Etrian Oddyssy games immedietly spring to mind for how much they make every single level and point matter.

 

[Cheska]

I absolutely love the sphere grid in Final Fantasy X.

 

[MegaKungFuRadio]

I thought the title system in Tales of Graces was good, but too cumbersome and other games have done similar things better. Way too many titles and way too much menu management, and I usually love menu management. You could set it to auto equip at certain ranks, but that defeats the purpose of a good progression system.

I don't remember the details at this point, but I remember feeling like Blue Dragon refined the already amazing FFV job system to near perfection.

Materia was a bad system that I nonetheless loved, the sphere grid is the main reason I keep meaning to replay FFX, and the FFX-2 dress sphere, while embarrassingly named and in a sort of embarrassing game, actually does a lot of neat things by combining the job system with the ability to actively switch them in battle and gain stat bonuses for doing so.

Most disappointing to me were the license board in FFXII and whatever they called the system in FFXIII. Both looked like they were super robust and customizable, but ended up feeling very bland. All my characters in FFXII ended up mostly the same (which I guess they fixed in the International version, which I would like to play some day). In FFXIII, this beautiful, seemingly sprawling interface is ultimately super linear because of how inefficient it is to stray from the suggested paths, and one of the things I hate most in RPGs is linear progression systems. It's one of the reasons I don't like FFIV nearly as much as most other people seem to.

 

[Tylahedras]

I absolutely love the sphere grid in Final Fantasy X.

What's with all the sphere grid love? I thought I remembered people hating it back in the day. (Not me personally I thought it was fine)

 

[Xilium]

What's with all the sphere grid love? I thought I remembered people hating it back in the day. (Not me personally I thought it was fine)

Final Fantasy games are almost always better in hindsight (FF7 may be the one exception). People always complain whenever a new FF comes out because it is different from the last FF or not as good as whatever their current favorite FF is. Once people let each FF stand on its own merits and not compare it with every other game in the series, they usually stop being so critical of them...until the next one comes out and the cycle repeats itself.

 

[ASIS]

Sphere grid was the first to spring to my mind. It was wonderful!

Xenoblade was good in the way you always feel like your party is growing. Even 15 minutes of playtime can significantly enhance your party. But the system itself isn't anything to write home about.

 

[Kuro Madoushi]

Chrono Cross. Never worried about leveling up

 

[BadWolf]

FFX, FFVIII and FFXIII.

 

[Data West]

World of Warcraft talent trees. I felt like I was getting something awesome every 5 levels. Instant earth shock? Yes I'll take that, thank you

 

[encephalon]

FFVIII would have been pretty cool had they balanced the game. Other than that, I'm trying to think of a truly special system. I tend to like systems where leveling up gives you points to put into certain stats.

 

[BlackJace]

Chrono Trigger's progression trees were perfect IMO.

 

[Pachterballs]

really liked FFX (sphere grid) + FFX-2 (dress sphere system) is pretty great.



FFXIII? I don't even remember it and that's the last FF I played. That's how bad it is

 

[Loxley]

I'm going to put up my flame shield and say that I really enjoyed Skyrim's approach to leveling. I thought it was an interesting way to experiment with the concept of "leveling up".

I'll never make the claim that it was the "best", since that's entirely objective, but I really enjoyed it.

 

[MegaKungFuRadio]

really liked FFX (sphere grid) + FFX-2 (dress sphere system) is pretty great.



FFXIII? I don't even remember it and that's the last FF I played. That's how bad it is

FFXIII looked very promising but ended up being empty, shallow, and linear.

I am, of course, speaking about its leveling system.

The game never looked that promising.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

World of Warcraft talent trees. I felt like I was getting something awesome every 5 levels. Instant earth shock? Yes I'll take that, thank you

You used to get something good every level past 9. I still don't know how that went down smoothly counter to trends unchallenged.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

I see some of you like FFX's sphere grid...

Well, Path of Exile is right up your alley!

 

[EMT0]

I'd say The Witcher 1. The combat starts very unfun, very clunky, very bleh. But as you play through the game, your combos get better, your attacks get better, and you actually figure out how the combat system works in the first place, and you're tearing everything in your wake up.

All of a sudden, you're a certified badass, and you never realized when you started being one.

 

[Nimajneb]

Dark Cloud. Building up weapons felt really rewarding, and there were a lot of options too.

 

[chaostrophy]

Shadow Hearts. The Graveyard system for getting new Fusions was so awesome.

 

[Meccanical]

Shadow Hearts. The Graveyard system for getting new Fusions was so awesome.

Everything about the Graveyard was awesome.

I miss those games.

 

[Aeana]

Lots of Japanese RPGs have really interesting progression systems; it's one of the things that draws me to them in the first place. It's really common for them to try to change it up, and I really like that. I think, though, that job systems are probably always going to be my favorite, especially ones that let you carry over abilities between jobs. FF5 does it really well, FFT does it even better, as do FF10-2, Blue Dragon and Bravely Default. Beyond that, I love the title system in Graces, as well as Rebirth's system, and I'm also pretty fond of the skill system as it is in FF9 and Tales of Vesperia. I feel like I could go on forever, because so many RPGs actually have really neat progression systems, but I'll spare everyone a novel-style post. (._. )

FF10's sphere grid was an interesting idea, but in the first implementation, its potential isn't well-realized. It seems like you can take anybody anywhere but the lack of connections makes it difficult to take anyone off of their path until later in the game, so it's actually very linear. In the International version, it's much easier to switch paths and that makes it a much more rewarding system, I think.

 

[Rpgmonkey]

I love Blue Dragon and Final Fantasy X-2's job systems.

Blue Dragon because there's other methods to level jobs besides just fighting, in addition to being able to build very detailed combinations of passive and active abilities. FFX-2 because you can switch jobs on the fly mid-battle and build different class/ability combinations, which worked well with the game's very smooth and fast-paced combat.