I've been wondering some times about how the progression in terms of leveling works in beat 'em up adventure games, like the ones seen in Dungeon and Fighters Online and Elsword, and I believe the fact that the player progresses in level as the stages unlocks and quests are completed is a mistake.
You may think I'm being quite radical on saying that, but the sense of personal progression isn't just about being by the level of the stage, but instead related on how you play with your character in any situation, even if you are underleveled. On the time I played Lunia Online, after it first launched it's brazillian server, the game didn't had quests for leveling, so if you kept following the stages one by one, you would end up underleveled for it, that's the part where you'll think "that is the problem", and I say no. I'll tell you why: Because that incentivated me either to improve my skills playing with that character, or party up with other people, being that the last one, several people were doing the same, too.
Partying up with other people that were also underleveled, made the stages more challenging and harder, on the stage 3-10, was such a joy for the entire party when we defeated the, at that time, final boss of the game. Even though everyone was underleveled, were able to do it.
That sense of joy has died when Lunia Z came, and the game added a lot of things to ease the gameplay, like adding quests on each stage to give the extra exp to level up, or allowing you to skip stages because one for your level unlocked. Those changes made the game way more soloable, not even the before used for grinding stages were being played by people, only a few final episode bosses were actually having some people looking for group, but... The necessity of partying up to play the stages has went downhill, and so went Lunia.
That lead me into thinking if making the player progress at the same pace as the stages unlocks isn't good for those kinds of games, due to the fact that a beat 'em up game, isn't just about the level, your progression, but also how you play with your character, if you play well, even underleveled, you can defeat a tough challenge.
The second thing that lead me into this thought, was when Grand Chase was about to close it's brazillian server, too. As a thank you gift, the host made the cash shop cheaper, and rewarded everyone with some cash points. Due to the fact that the server were going to close soon, a lot of people has quit the game, so I've had to solo it, but with the help of a few cash items like revive items and stuff. With around level 58, I've beaten the final boss, counting also the fact that I've had to burn some revive items during that but... It's doable, If I were playing with other people of course would be easier, but just by the fact that is possible for a lower level character to beat something like the final boss, already proves that there is something wrong with the progression of the game, and not related to the level comparission.
I guess that to make a game like that incentivate more the coop, would be better if the developers not give the players some hand holdings, making them progress as stages goes, not only that but also the creatures in the stage the players face against, shouldn't really follow the map level range, if the monster is though, It could gain 5 more levels compared to the normal map monsters, that not only would be an extra challenge to the players, but also more rewarding too, since the rewards for defeating that creature would be higher than the normal creatures in the stage.
So, that's my thought on this matter, maybe those kinds of games should award exp to the players through doing stages, than through quests acquired outside stages. At least would incentivate more the coop play, and certainly meeting new people, since I met more people during Lunia time, than during Lunia Z time.
No comments:
Post a Comment