Onholyservicebound
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2013
- Messages
- 1,567
Is this mechanic a detriment to RPGs? Is there a cut-off point to how extensive it can be before it becomes a problem? The mechanic, in my eyes, is of no worth to someone who likes CRPGs, it's primary purpose is to provide a way for people who got stuck with a shit build in an unbalanced game, to fix their mistakes. Those who enjoy unbalanced games will tell you that playing through with gimped builds can be a fun experience, and gaming the system doesn't feel as satisfying if you know nothing you've done is set in stone. It's a clear case of unnecessary handholding, hell, that same issue was the motivation for a lot of Skyrim's dumbed down character creation.
My take on it relates to my semi recent playthrough of D:OS, I enjoyed the game, even if I agreed with a lot of the criticism. My goal near the end was to finish the game in order to have fun replaying it with a different build, since points were relatively sparse in the game(Just how I like it.), it felt like I could have a drastically different experience playing through another time. Finding the respec option completely killed that desire for me, it was pretty much all-encompassing, and topped off with the appearance editor? It felt akin to choosing your head and loadout in Borderlands as opposed to taking a unique character through the world. Why bother trying to build a new and interesting character when I could just do it right now? my choices in creation, and in leveling, were pretty much worthless. Sure I could just ignore it, but that kind of logic is a slippery slope when it comes to RPGs, I like RPGs specifically because I don't have to LARP that I'm playing a certain character/role. I know there's a line of thought that says: "Don't like it don't use it, y u try to dictate how I play me game cause u hav no self control?" But in my eyes, limitation is a part of RPGs, doesn't sound too glamorous, but it's all quite glorious I assure you.
Overall, I dislike any form of respeccing, even FNV's minor respeccing in the form of a one time trait change and plastic surgery feels lame to me. Obviously it depends on how much my choices matter, and how much my build itself is a part of the game, if it's purely a combat thing I might tolerate it. In D:OS's case there wasn't really much more to compensate.
tl;dr: how do you feel about respeccing? I don't like it.
My take on it relates to my semi recent play
Overall, I dislike any form of respeccing, even FNV's minor respeccing in the form of a one time trait change and plastic surgery feels lame to me. Obviously it depends on how much my choices matter, and how much my build itself is a part of the game, if it's purely a combat thing I might tolerate it. In D:OS's case there wasn't really much more to compensate.
tl;dr: how do you feel about respeccing? I don't like it.
Last edited: