I always tell people that I’m not a big turn-based RPG guy, but when I think about it, I’ve actually played tons of them. BetweenFinal Fantasy,Mario & Luigi, Octopath Traveler,Pokemon, and nowClair Obscur: Expedition 33, I’ve put thousands of hours into turn-based games throughout my life. You’d think I’d be a master of the genre having played so many games, but even after all these years, there’s still one thing I just can’t figure out.
You read the headline: I have no idea how to spend my upgrade points. Be honest with me, doyou? I’m starting to think we’ve all just been arbitrarily allocating points into random stats all these years and telling ourselves we know what we’re doing, but deep down we know the truth: Upgrade points aren’t real.
The Biggest Scam In RPG History
I’ve struggled with this dilemma for nearly 30 years. Ever since I played Super Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo, upgrade points have completely thrown me for a loop. Every time Mario and his friends level up, you get to put a bonus point into his physical, magic, or HP stat line, and every time I have to choose, I just close my eyes and pick one at random.
Part of the problem is that you never really get to experience the effects of incremental attribute increases. In three decades of playing Diablo, I’ve never once added a point to Dexterity and thought, ‘Ah, yes, that’s exactly what I needed!’ What does putting one point into Agility even do? If the answer is practically nothing, then why should I care how I spend them?
Games always obscure the effect that individual stats have. One of my biggest pet peeves is games that have both a Vitality and Defense stat. Do I want more health to take more hits, or more defense so the hits don’t hurt as much? How are we even supposed to figure out which one is going to keep us alive better? If I’m going to die in the same number of hits whether I increase my HP or my defense, then it doesn’t seem like it matters which one I choose.
There’s Got To Be A Better Way
Expedition 33, to its credit, providessomeguidance for how to spend your points. Every weapon has two attributes that it scales with, and you may see which attributes those are when you look at the level up screen. So, if a sword has a B-rank in Luck and an A-rank in Might, you know that a point in Might is going to go further than a point in Luck, and a point in either one is going to go further than a point in Vitality, Agility, or Defense.
I’m not completely clueless. I can create synergistic builds with spells and abilities that work together. I can equip gear that enhances the things my character is best at or compensates for their weaknesses, depending on the situation. I understand archetypes and the roles that individual party members serve in battle. IgetRPGs, but when it comes to spending upgrade points, it feels like most games are just trying to give us the illusion of choice.
If that’s the case, then maybe I should just stick to Pokemon where the characters level up automatically. And no, I’ve never used Vitamins, thank you very much.
