What if you "leveled backwards" in an RPG?

[BillSeurer]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/8661-Extra-Punctuation-What-if-We-Leveled-Backwards

Wow, that is actually a really cool idea. It would invoke those stories where the hero is worn to almost nothing by the trials of getting there and still has to take on the (perhaps not so Big) Bad Dude.

[JDR13]

Nah… totally cliche. Haven't you ever seen 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'?

;) JK. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Seriously, that *is* a really cool idea. I might have to start reading The Escapist on a more regular basis.

[BillSeurer]

Yahtzee's "Zero Punctuation" reviews are short on review but long on humor (trite humor if he spears a game you like). His "Extra Punctuation" columns on the other hand are sometimes quite thoughtful.

[DArtagnan]

Playing a game with the prospect of getting less and less powerful?

I think the idea in itself is enough - do we really need to PLAY it?

If this is what passes for originality - then I have quite a few brilliant ideas of my own.

How about instead of figthing monsters, we make love to them?
Nah, what about instead of acquiring increasingly cool looking weapons, we go from the +5 Vorpal Sliceblade right to the rusty Spoon at the very end - where we don't fight a huge dragon demon, but a really angry animated grape?

YES!

On the other hand, sometimes there is a reason for the way things are - and sometimes it is enough to question something, without actually DOING it in reverse.

Here's a secret for that once-amusing mouthpiece:

Game mechanics and game design in general act as the UNDERPINNING to the experience, or the story.

So, if you're tired of WoW or you're tired of the traditional level to max paradigm - you don't necessarily reverse the mechanics. What you do, is you tell a good story - or you make a strong experience on the whole. Mechanics can always be improved and they can be taken to new levels.

But these magical reverses never work, because they ignore the entire foundation of why the core paradigm was established in the first place.

So, while you might very well tell a brilliant tale with reverse levelling - it would not be BECAUSE of the reverse levelling, but because you told a brilliant tale.

It might work ONCE for the novelty - and the amusing part. But then it would never work again.

Sort of what happens when you've seen Memento for the first time. It was neat, it was new, and oh-la-la…. But then… You try again, and it's boring as hell. Why? Because stories don't actually improve by being told in reverse.

(I know it's probably all a big joke - but just in case...)

[Jogurt]

It would definitely not work in a pure rpg, but I could see that happening, and actually working, in a action-adventure game, where you gradually master the controls. Starting with god-like powers, then gradually throwing everything away, loot and specials moves, then take on the Demon Lord using only your fists and your reflexes ? I'd be happy to give it a try. But only on a console, or with a joypad anyway.

Come to think of it, story wise, it has already been done, more or less, in the last Metal Gear on ps3, where your character is half dead from exhaustion, an illness that makes him weaker through the game, and the drug he takes to fight it, and still go for one epic final close-combat shodown

[Maylander]

It happened in the final campaign of Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne. Didn't really like it, but that doesn't mean it can't be done right.

[huggster]

It would work best in an action adventure like Farenheit / Indigo Prophecy where you start like Jason Bourne and gradually realise killing people is morally wrong etc. and change your ways. Then in the end you get the girl!

[crpgnut]

I just want Kinghts of Xentar remade with today's graphics :biggrin:

[elkston]

I've actually thought about this before, but couldn't think of any way to make it fun or interesting.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I think this would be interesting if you once would go into an abby as a wealthy, rich man who's had materialistic wealth in abundance -

- and "level bacjkwards" towards a more and more spiritual version of his self (could be a woman, of course, too), and thus developing less and less materialistic ... connections, but more and more spiritual ones ...

And in the end, you fight - this would be at least halway a fantasy game, because otherwise this wouln't work right now - he or she woul fight the end boss with "spiritual powers" alone. No weapons, no armor, just body and of course the spirit.