Author Topic: How Do You Level Up?  (Read 3903 times)

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Offline M.K.Ultra

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How Do You Level Up?
« on: February 20, 2022, 03:12:21 PM »
I am playing through Shin Megami Tensei V right now and decided to put all my spendable points into the Luck category. I just reached 100 in that category so I switched to Agility.

This made me think, how do others usually upgrade their character?

In action/adventure games I usually go for stealth, or whatever is closest to that. I don't play a lot of RPGs so I usually try something different with each one. In Fallout 4 I put most of my points into Intelligence and Perception.

So, how do you level up?

Offline BeautifulShy

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2022, 03:53:53 PM »
That is a really interesting question and it can be very broad for lots of genres.

Generally speaking for RPGs I typically go and focus on what they are already good at but for more specialized RPGs like Paper Mario: TTYD I typically go for a formula.  3 levels early on in the game I go for HP two times and then Badges once and then the next 3 levels I go for FP twice and then badges once.  Then Badges twice and then FP once, Then back to the two HP and then cycle like that till I reach the HP level I want which is typically 50 HP.  Then I would probably go badge points and FP. 


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Offline Order.RSS

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2022, 03:57:25 PM »
What does luck do in SMT5? (Or in general, really?). It's amusing you put every point into a single stat - I'm much more boring and would probably spread them around evenly. Probably slightly favor stats which improve speed or let you have more turns.

In Pokémon I would usually cash out all the money right before the Elite 4 to buy stat improvements. So weak Pokémon I would get an Iron to up their defense, but if they have elemental moves I would boost their Special Attack stat even higher so they'd hit harder.
I've never really played D&D or similar tabletop games, so I don't really know the ins and outs of most categories, but basically: shore up weaknesses, and dump the rest in whatever that party member is best at?

Offline TOPHATANT123

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2022, 10:17:50 PM »
I, maybe compulsively, like to try and keep everyone around the same level, you're only as strong as your weakest link. This causes problems with strategy RPGs where you have dozens of characters. In Fire Emblem 3 Houses most of my units were like 8 levels below the recommended level because I didn't concentrate the exp. But I had still managed to beat it and had a fun time, with that extra level of challenge.

When levelling up I like to cover my weaknesses. A point in something you're weak at is more important than in something you're good at. 2 -> 3 magic is a bigger jump percentage wise than 12 -> 15 strength.

For SMT 5 in particular I put most of my points into magic, a healthy amount into vitality and some into agility. If I was doing well I would increase offense with magic. If I had died recently or the enemies were doing a lot of damage, I would spend some points in vitality.

Offline Adrock

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2022, 12:25:54 PM »
In RPGs, I usually grind until I’m so strong, I can brute force my way through bosses because I don’t employ any strategy.

If I have to pick the upgrade, I, again, have no strategy. If it seems like I’m low on one thing like HP, I’ll pick that. I haven’t played a game like this in a while though. Sometimes I’ll just check a walkthrough to see what other people recommend.

Offline Ian Sane

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2022, 12:34:25 PM »
If a game lets you auto-assign stat categories I tend to let it do that.  Otherwise I get overwhelmed by too many choices.  Historically I would try to balance things out.  My gut feeling being that if someone has weak defense for example I should give them some defense boosts.  But recently I'm trying to force myself not to do that so that the characters are more distinct and specialized.

I get pretty lazy about manually-allocated stats and weapon upgrades and stuff like that when playing RPGs, until I end up dying and then I'll catch up to get past where I'm stuck.  If I can still proceed I'll slack off on manual adjustments.

Offline M.K.Ultra

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2022, 07:25:15 PM »
What does luck do in SMT5?
The description says "increases probability of chance-based results being in your favor during battle".
I am guessing that refers to things like whether an attack is dodged or not.
That was sort of the reason I chose luck, it seemed like the least useful attribute so I thought it would make the game more challenging.

Offline Luigi Dude

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2022, 04:09:32 PM »
It pretty much depends on the game and the characters.  If you got a character that uses magic, I'll want to focus and making sure their magic power being stronger.  Same with a character that specialized in physical combat, I'll want to focus on their strength.  It's best to do this since it will make stat buffs even more powerful when you get into tougher boss fights.  If you have a fighter heavy strength, with equipment that buffs their attack and critical rates, and then cast spells that makes their physical hits even stronger, you can easily take down bosses that are literally over 10 levels or more higher then you.

What does luck do in SMT5?
The description says "increases probability of chance-based results being in your favor during battle".
I am guessing that refers to things like whether an attack is dodged or not.
That was sort of the reason I chose luck, it seemed like the least useful attribute so I thought it would make the game more challenging.

Actually maxing out the Luck stat will make the game easier.  The Luck stat affects your critical hit rate, which can cause some pretty massive damage when using powerful later game weapons.  It also effects how many time you can hit enemies when you use attacks that say will hit an enemy a certain amount of times.  So if you use an attack that says will hit 2-4 times, if your Luck is high your more likely to get all 4 hits in, and some could be critical hits as well.  So if you use attack buffing spells to the max, and your character has a multi hit weapon, with a high luck stat, you can destroy most enemies and bosses pretty quick.
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Offline M.K.Ultra

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2022, 07:15:31 PM »
Actually maxing out the Luck stat will make the game easier.  The Luck stat affects your critical hit rate, which can cause some pretty massive damage when using powerful later game weapons.  It also effects how many time you can hit enemies when you use attacks that say will hit an enemy a certain amount of times.  So if you use an attack that says will hit 2-4 times, if your Luck is high your more likely to get all 4 hits in, and some could be critical hits as well.  So if you use attack buffing spells to the max, and your character has a multi hit weapon, with a high luck stat, you can destroy most enemies and bosses pretty quick.
Interesting. It has been pretty easy, but I have also been doing all the side quests and I have not had to grind at all.

Offline Order.RSS

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2022, 04:36:39 PM »
Thanks for the explanation, so basically like leaning on the scales in situations of chance huh.

I'd like to get SMT5, but it does seem like conversation on it died very quickly. Not sure if that's due to the timeframe (holiday season) or getting buried in an absolute barrage of terrible news events. Or maybe it just doesn't have the audience to sustain hype for it I guess.

Offline Luigi Dude

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2022, 11:26:58 AM »
Thanks for the explanation, so basically like leaning on the scales in situations of chance huh.

I'd like to get SMT5, but it does seem like conversation on it died very quickly. Not sure if that's due to the timeframe (holiday season) or getting buried in an absolute barrage of terrible news events. Or maybe it just doesn't have the audience to sustain hype for it I guess.

Atlus released a press release at the end of the year saying SMT5 had become the best selling SMT game in franchise history, with over 800k worldwide.  The previous best seller was SMT4 which did 600k worldwide.  So it's actually done very well for itself, it's just this type of series has always been pretty niche so unless your looking for specific SMT fan communities, overall discussions across the web would die down pretty fast for this type of game.
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2022, 12:45:14 PM »
It can depend on several factors but I typically choose whatever I feel fits in with the character's personality or place in the game world. A hot temper? Strength! A genius? Magic! Sly? Dexterity! Slender? Speed! A gambler? Luck!

Offline M.K.Ultra

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Re: How Do You Level Up?
« Reply #12 on: April 18, 2022, 04:51:33 PM »
Atlus released a press release at the end of the year saying SMT5 had become the best selling SMT game in franchise history, with over 800k worldwide.  The previous best seller was SMT4 which did 600k worldwide.  So it's actually done very well for itself, it's just this type of series has always been pretty niche so unless your looking for specific SMT fan communities, overall discussions across the web would die down pretty fast for this type of game.

Update, the game has officially gone platinum