Baldurs Gate 3: I know my main quest is to get this worm parasite out of my head... but a nice person in my dreams says letting in more worm parasites means I get cool abilities. Seems legit.
In the playthrough I've just done, I took the Astral Touched Tadpole and got every single Illithid power. I'm pretty sure there's more tadpoles in my Dark Urge's head than brain matter, especially considering Orin lobotomised him. When I destroyed the Elder Brain, my character should have just dropped like a puppet with the strings cut. Cause of death? Empty skull.
Deeply surprised Baldur’s Gate wasn’t here. Considering that the whole point of the story is that you have to remove a worm from your head, having the strongest skills locked behind putting MORE worms in your head is pretty unexpected
In Planescape: Torment , your character is an immortal amnesiac who often levels up by remembering the skills he used to have in his myriad former lives. Conversations with people you've forgotten, reading about things you've done, anything that triggers a flashback to a former life will net you loads of experience
Yakuza 3 also had you learn new skills by watching weird events. It was framed as Kiryu starting a blog about the weird people he saw in kamurocho and required a QTE sequence and indecipherable blog comment seleciton. if you picked the wrong caption for your blog you had to redo the qte
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. Your strength is directly tied to how well your rice fields are doing, so increasing things like health, defense, and magic depends on how you mix your fertilizer and how much damage happens to your crops from pests.
Commenter’s edition: Darkwood has you cooking and injecting yourself with the mushrooms you find in the forest. Fear and Hunger Termina has you sacrificing your friends’ heads and your enemies heads for your skill tree.
When I first saw the video title, I initially thought of Far Cry 3's tattoo-based skill system. These, however, are all even more wildly weird (and oft gruesome) ways to level up than simple tattoos.
Come to think of it, it makes sense. We need a game where you can increase all your stats by just doing certain things in the real world. Get hit a bunch? Congrats, your Defense just went up. Get into a fistfight? Boost to Strength. Run a footrace? More Agility.
Vampyr mention? In the year 2024? I appreciate it (actually really loved the levelling system, one of the few games that's made me consider my morals while playing) bt also I'd think that eating people would be the logical way to power up as a vampire. Y'know. More blood. Better for you. Great video though!
The problem is that game is kind of broken in a few ways. It wants you to feed on good people but 2 people if you don’t kill give you the 2 best weapons in the entire game. A pistol that shoots sliver bullets and a sliver sword. The only reason you would feed on good people would be for the achievements and bad ending. As long as you don’t feed on many people you are immune to silver which means you can carry more sliver. All vampires and link to vampires are 1 to 2 shots to die by anything sliver.
@@joshportal2808 That wasn't something I considered broken, actually! The push, especially early game, to level up and stop dying so often, especially if you got stuck in a situation where you couldn't level up without losing an npc gave you instant gratification, but you missed out on some long-term rewards, so it was really a wisdom vs temptation mechanic. It made you genuinely weigh the bad future consequences versus the short-term benefit and make that choice. I liked that about it, at least. There are definitely some things the game does that I consider more than a little broken, but honestly the embrace mechanic is one of the things that made the game memorable for me.
I'll admit, I still feel bitter about that game because it seems likely that the whole "feeding" mechanics were supposed to be a necessary evil but at some point during development it was decided that they should tone it down.
@@joshportal2808 That's not the part that made it broken. There should be long-term rewards for trying to preserve your humanity and not killing good people. The incentive to kill for the short term XP boost was still there and trying to find a middle ground and chose victims who won't be missed and/or were in a bad situation anyway over good people who helped others was part of what made it interesting. But there was another flaw in the levelling system that took a bit of the impact out of the "Resisting those urges and being a good person is tough" message: The fact that random enemies respawned infinitely whenever you made a save at a savepoint. This allowed you to grind XP by killing normal enemies and thus avoid being underleveled for the tougher encounters. They should either have introduced story based experience caps that could only be surpassed by drinking blood from non-hostile characters or limited the respawning of enemies (e.g. only have them respawn when you rest for the day).
@@SimuLord Oh agreed. I watched those Let's Plays. I meant her telling Andy from off-screen that he's been doing these videos for 10 years and still sucks at them, like 10 seconds in. 🤣
The "level up by dying" from Sifu is pretty interesting but I prefer the way Hylics 2 did it because when you die in that game you get sent to a different realm where you can take the meat from enemies you beat (don't ask) and put it in a meat grinder to make yourself stronger (still don't ask).
In the Prototype series, both of it's protagonists, Alex Mercer and James Heller gain health upgrades and new abilities by consuming other people in the game.
dont that make sense though from what iv just read on the wiki its a virus that gives him his power and dont virus's normally get stronger by doing the same?
Alan Wake 2’s level up system is actually a lot weirder than you say. For Alan, you shine your flashlight on Words of Power, which are word spirals on walls in Dark NYC. Alan then goes into a drawer in his desk and chooses the corresponding note card to level that particular aspect (Gun, Fix, Stuff, etc). For Saga, she finds those manuscript fragments in lunchboxes hidden in the world by Rose Marigold, the very unwell woman who has been obsessed with Alan for years. She hid these lunchboxes around for The Hero prophesied in clouds and newspapers (hidden messages sent to Rose by Alan from the Dark Place, which he either does not remember doing, or he hasn’t done yet). When Saga has enough of these manuscript fragments, she enters her Mind Place and then chooses weapon upgrades, which are represented by gun magazines (kind u read not the pew pew kind). THEN we hear Alan’s manuscript rewriting Saga’s weapons. ps yes yes I know I’m being the Alan Wake fan telling you you’re wrong! But I actually speedrun AW2 so I have played it… a few times. ❤❤
I was disappointed with how they described the leveling up in AW2, because they left off the goofy stuff! Good recap for how it’s actually done to show just how odd it actually is
In Terraria, progression is very nonlinear for certain stats, One of my favorite ways involves finding magic fruit, and instead of eating it, taking it to a magic pool of liquid called "Shimmer" and dropping the fruit in, and eating the resulting fruit for a unique stat increase
First time i played RE Village I for some reason thought the food perks where from the duke and therefor figured I could do without them, I didn’t realize they were permanent until my second playthrough. I proceeded to have many flashbacks to the how hard the Heisenberg and Miranda fight had been for me
I’ve been playing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and I’d like to throw that one into the conversation. How does the titular squad level up you ask? Through the power of Neck Bombs! Which is actually pretty ironic if you think about it.
I pretty recently played Prey for the first time. It was a strange experience. I enjoyed my time with it, have few complaints and even started a new game plus soon after. Then I stopped playing the ng+ fairly quickly, totally forgot nearly everything about the game and have never been less interested in going back to a game I liked before. My impression from reviews seems like that is not unique either. No clear idea why, very few games have left me feeling like that before.
In Vampyr you get more then enough exp from side quests and combat. I didn't feed on a single named Npc and still got the best ending without much trouble.
Yay! Someone else who enjoys Prey! Sadly, every save I played crapped out at the point you meet Elana Salazar (I might have spelled that wrong, sorry) since my computer had somewhat limited memory. I was...very frustrated because I was *SPOILERS!* enjoying roleplaying as someone who believed themselves to be human.
I still remember when Skyrim first came out and my roommate and I spent an entire day just hammering daggers to max out our smithing skill 😂 great time.
This is a reasonable way to improve your smithing skill. Getting whacked by giants for hours is not a good way to level up heavy armor, however. Or paying someone to teach you how use armor better.
@@adambryant4149 reminds me of a video where someone leveled his heavy armor skill by getting wacked by "horkers". i think he picked them because they are slow...
@@adambryant4149 The best way to level up Heavy Armor in Skyrim is to use Light Armor until you're like level 70, because it's objectively superior, then use the "getting whacked by giants" method to quickly power-level your HA skill to gain a few levels before you go back to wearing light armor.
@@adambryant4149 It's actually terribly inefficient, the skill experience is mostly tied to the value, then quantity. If your only option is iron, make tons of nails, or ammunition.
@@MarkDeSade100 Unless you are mix-matching, there is never any reason to waste experience on skills you don't use. Just ends up leveling you without actually having a useful character, every time you reach the next level for stronger standard enemies. Of cause that is more of a problem on higher difficulty.
In Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy you play as a powerful psychic who has had their memories wiped. You gain new powers throughout the game by remembering your training sessions for honing each power (which gives you a nice tutorial to boot)
I love how my brain just sorted "See for yourself in these 7 ways to new learn skills gaming video! spoilers beware ..." into the usual order and didnt question it until the "dammit" =D
I beat Vampyr on the hardest difficulty without feeding on any innocent and got the good ending. It’s not even hard just use the Bonesaw. You get health back for every attack and can consistently put enemies into take down (aka feeding) range.
I love it when Vampyr gets some love. I absolutely love that game. Seeing it here makes me want to start a new playthrough. Maybe I can manage to get a good ending this time...
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days had the panel system for leveling. Instead of gaining levels, Roxas would get panels from leveling up. He could install these panels to boost his stats, but the skills, weapons, items, and magic he carried into battle used the same grid. You had to decide what was needed for the upcoming mission, and what build you wanted to focus on.
Not a weird way, but a cool way A Plague Tale: Requiem has you level up is actually doing it. Want to get better at stealth? Be stealthy and don't murder your way through the level. Want to get better at said murder? Just murder your way through the level. And with New Game+ you can keep your item upgrades and levels in the different skills so you can max yourself out completely.
This is what I loved about Skyrim, it had a good mix of leveling through doing and giving you points to spend as you wish to either max out your strengths or shore up your weak points. Made you feel like your character was genuinely mastering skills while also providing flexibility. That said, one the weirdest ways I have leveled was once Skyrim introduced the ability to Legendary your character, essentially wiping their level back down to one. Then I could use all my past hoarding tendencies to power level by blacksmithing a thousand million daggers.
A ton of RPGs do this, I think. In Obenseuer, pretty much everything you do can be levelled up. Increase lockpicking by breaking into every apartment in the Kolhola building! Increase machining by mass-manufacturing lockpicks! Increase farming by working at the Kurahaara Greenhouse! Increase bribery by working a crappy telemarketing job! ...Increase _drinking_ by emptying an Osmo Olut vending machine...? Increase... _paperworking_ by mass-crafting letters to Stalburg Bank? What the perkele???
@@WackoMcGoose Ah, thanks for this information. I don't play many games that involve leveling up and most of those that do have you get points and spend those how you want.
Yes, but that leads to weird grinding techniques like purposefully getting beat up to train your constitution, or walking against a wall to train your walk speed. (iirc that's how it works in CONTACT too.)
@@sinteleon I remember that being one of the (irl) reasons that Sword Art Online was so dunked on, is that the players _did_ have to do that kind of grinding. In order for Kirito to get his Battle Healing skill high enough to tank a squad of Lv40 player killers, he apparently had to spend uncomfortably long amounts of time with his HP bar in the red...
Doing pull-ups was how you increased Raiden's grip strength in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Definitely an interesting game mechanic for the time.
How about The Evil Within 2? Kill enemies, collect their green gel, go to a mirror world and inject said green gel into your brain by strapping yourself into a terrifying lobotomy machine.
Vampyr had a neat idea for leveling, but even on the hardest difficulty I never felt underd leveled despite not feeding on anyone and turning everyone that I could. There's just too many xp filled enemies in the game to force you to choose to kill a friend via feeding.
In Skyrim, if you follow the Stormcloak contact into the keep, he will wait for you to open the door. You can sneak behind him and smack him with your swords to level up your stealth and one handed, basically forever, and it's definitely, technically sneaking and backstabbing, but...
Pick High Elf and leave with the Stormclock. Get to that point, then you maximize Illusion, Restoration, Destruction, Block, Light Armor, Heavy Armor, One Handed, and Sneak. You're welcome.
One of the weirder leveling systems I've encountered is the one found in Darkwood. You have to juice up with "Essence" extracted from mushrooms, meat from fallen enemies, stillborn babies, and weirdest of all embryos. These give you downright magic skills for a game that is rather grounded in most of its other aspects.
I’m reminded of Yakuza 0’s approach of “investing in yourself”. What this meant in practice was that apparently Kiryu and Majima used to get stronger by somehow absorbing millions or billions of yen into themselves like Kirby.
Andy: One of these recommended videos will help you in your future life. One of the videos: 7 Worst Ways to Screw Over Your Friends in Videogames Andy, dear, are you *trying* to destroy all my friendships?
I'm surprised Hylics isn't in this list! Like most RPGs, you get XP from killing enemies, or well. Not right away. You actually get their flesh, and in order to get the XP, you need to put it in a giant ethereal meat grinder which you can only access in the afterlife when you die!
Ooooh! How about _Geneforge?_ You technically could level up by gaining experience from combat and quests, but all that did was improve a few of your stats a bit; in order to gain most of the interesting skills and abilities available in that game (particularly for the mage-equivalent class), you had to absorb containers of mystery goo, which were conveniently left lying around, all over the suspiciously deserted island you've washed up on. The game even has a stat to track how many canisters you'd absorbed throughout your adventure! I'm sure that doesn't do anything bad, probably.
Smithing iron daggers by the bushel in Skyrim. 😂 I'm convinced it's Adrianne Avenicci that has the Dark Brotherhood contract out on the Dragonborn because you've been using the forge outside her bedroom window for 48 hours straight, day and night, to raise your smithing skill. Meanwhile she's got the Battleborns breathing down her neck every five minutes for swords for the Imperials.
Also, Final Fantasy Crisis Core DMW system... Its super cool, but you only level up when the roulette lands on 777 , so get ready to grind and then beg to get lucky lol
You guys should do “7 Great Things in Otherwise Terrible Games” For example if a game is so bad it automatically bars you from entering Heaven when you die, but man the music is an absolute banger.
An interesting video idea could be bosses who did not want to fight you but you fought anyway. I immediately think of Morgan Freeman from South Park The Fractured But Whole who had been your mentor throughout the entire game and then at the end you can choose to fight him for no apparent reason.
Not sure if this was mentioned in the previous video, but The Evil Within had one of the most hard-core "level up" systems I've ever seen. You had to sit in an electric chair like device that shocked the upgrades into you!
Even stranger with Sifu was the fact that when you unlocked a new skill, it was only available for the current run! Unless you have purchased the skill multiple times to make it permanent. It took me too long to figure it out.
I would think Persona 5 would count, at least, when it comes to the Social Stats system. Some of them make sense, like Knowledge is improved by reading or playing Shogi with an experienced player, or Charm being increased by flirting with waitresses in a maid cafe. Some of them are weird as hell though. Eating a burger makes me more Gutsy? Watering a houseplant makes me more Kind? Eating a bowl full of beef and rice makes me more Proficient?! HOW?! Makes no sense.
I think sitting on a bench outside the monastery also raises your guts if you continue to sit despite Morgana increasingly saying it's weird that you're still there lol I can see why the houseplant one increases kindness cause you're actively taking care of a living thing. Also the burger is a challenge which requires endurance to get through. Not sure how exactly a beef bowl raises proficiency, but I'm not sure I've used that level up method myself
Maybe it's just me, but I find it funny this video starts by talking about videoediting mistakes, and then goes on to call the game "Vampyr", "Vampire".
3:25 I see Andy hasn't quite learned the art of cleaning house with your opponents. Gotta pump up those numbers, my guy. You'll never get a Trophy or Achievement stuck in that slump. Edit: Also, I'd be very interested in trying some Herbed Fish. Seems interesting on a flavor level.
How ‘bout Salt and Sanctuary, another massively underrated game? Your character is quite literally absorbing salt, from bags, boxes and dead monsters and converting it into black pearls to level up. Seems like it would lead to some serious health issues down the line…
Duke: Might have been a crap game, but I enjoyed a lot of things. When you're in the Barbie car that keeps saying inane things, JUST about when I was about to tell it to shut up, Duke says the same thing, amused the hell out of me. :) Great timing. And that weightlifting, I was amused that if you have on ANY less than every weight on there (which add up to an insane inhuman amount), Duke complains about it being too light and being pointless, he's THAT full of himself, :) Related: GTA V, a tip I heard that works great, get on the roof of a bus and spam Attack. You keep stomping the roof of the bus, bus driver panics and tries to drive away from you (with you on the roof). VERY quickly boosts Strength and I think Stamina. I know it increases more than one stat.
You gotta mention Baldurs gate 3 in the next one. Not quite levelling up, but a big part of the plot is trying to rid yourself of a brain slug and to help you with that goal you can unlock powerful secondary abilities by *checks my notes* putting additional slugs in your brain?
Both fear and hunger games have weird and sadistic leveling methods. Either by performing "marriages", sacrificing heads, stealing souls, or killing other contestants/party members. Or you can just have god to give you a skill writing the request on a scroll.
In Dragon Ball Kakarot you level your stats by finding lots of ingredients and giving them to Milk so she can cook a super meal and your stats level up permanently
milk? Also, aside for ki, those stats are worthless. Oh, 10 more hp... When it's at half a million around what, 60? Even ki is useless with the dlc boosting max level - 100 combo meals was annoying as fuck, but 100 more ki, when it was around 300 near level 100, k. Level 250, it's over 1k, meh as fuck for the effort.
As to number 5...Odin Sphere did the "eat to level up thing" quite a while before RE:Village did. I'll grant you that Resident Evil's version of it is definitely creepier, though. Plus, I feel fairly certain there are even older examples of it...
i like bloodstained's - not the exp focus really, but you get massive stat boosts from food - especially mp regen, which doesn't increase from leveling or gear.
Darkwood had the fun mechanic of effectively cooking random stuff that you find into hallucinogens and shooting yourself up for perks and the occasional trippy sequence.
The variety of jobs in Like a Dragon remind me of the jobs in Miitopia. The first four jobs; Warrior, Mage, Cleric, and Thief; seem like standard RPG classes, but then you see Pop Star and Chef and go, “Hm.” Instead of learning them gradually, you start with six, unlock three at the start of Neksdor, unlock three more at the start of Realm of the Fey, and get two more from certain quests in the postgame. I especially enjoy the concept of the Tank job. It’s a literal tank.
If I may volunteer one, you level up your poker hands in Balatro... with the SOLAR SYSTEM!!! Each hand in Balatro has a Planet Card associated with it that boosts said hand by one level, permanently increasing its Base Chips and Multiplier. Earth boosts Full House, Saturn boosts Straight, Jupiter boosts Flush. There are 3 other planet cards that buff the secret hands you can only play when you have more of that card: Five of a Kind, Flush House, and Flush Five. What's even more ridiculous (and better for it) is when you find a Black Hole Spectral Card in a Celestial Pack, EVERY HAND INCREASES BY 1 LEVEL!!! Even the secret hands you may or may not have unlocked yet!
If we're counting non-level levelling, in FF8 you increase your salary by... going to school. Because despite fighting the actual devil in a lamp the headmaster gave you immediately before(?) your first real job, you're still a student and you'll do your homework, damn it!
The Like a Dragon one reminds me of the Fast Draw skills that Jack learns in Wild ARMs, where he uses things he sees around him as inspiration to create more sword techniques.
I've never been super interested in Alan Wake, but that level up system genuinely makes me want to try it. That's just such a flavorful way to do it that I can't help but want to try it.
Two examples I can think of: Disco Elysium, which has a pretty conventional experience system on the face of it, but when put in the context of the rest of the game turns into a mechanical representation of the main character slowly stitching their shattered psyche back together by talking to people after a major mental break. Rad and Nuclear Throne, which are both roguelites where you get your powerups by absorbing radiation and inducing mutations.
Baldurs Gate 3: I know my main quest is to get this worm parasite out of my head... but a nice person in my dreams says letting in more worm parasites means I get cool abilities. Seems legit.
reminds me of a weird Manga i found recently, "DoomBreaker", where the villains get their powers from Magical Stomach Parasites...
In the playthrough I've just done, I took the Astral Touched Tadpole and got every single Illithid power.
I'm pretty sure there's more tadpoles in my Dark Urge's head than brain matter, especially considering Orin lobotomised him.
When I destroyed the Elder Brain, my character should have just dropped like a puppet with the strings cut. Cause of death? Empty skull.
I have so many friends in my brain
Deeply surprised Baldur’s Gate wasn’t here. Considering that the whole point of the story is that you have to remove a worm from your head, having the strongest skills locked behind putting MORE worms in your head is pretty unexpected
that's... Not really unexpected, given they're basically OP psychic worms. Unusual that it's a choice, maybe, but good/evil path, i guess
In Planescape: Torment , your character is an immortal amnesiac who often levels up by remembering the skills he used to have in his myriad former lives. Conversations with people you've forgotten, reading about things you've done, anything that triggers a flashback to a former life will net you loads of experience
I love that, too. The sound effect that accompanies remembering something is also the freaking best.
Torment is a true classic, amazing writing and concept.
Ah I see Jedi: Fallen Order took notes.
BOTW is kinda like that!
So let me get this straight. Kasuga needed to get in a squirt gun beach battle to have an epiphany that guns could be used to hurt people?
Moreso he learned how to do so...stylishly.
If you are confused by that...he learns the Quaterback job by saving a kid from a falling coconut
Kasuga has the best Himbo energy, so that's not terribly surprising to me. I really love seeing how his mind works.
@@madalice5134 yeah he is unique in good, lovingky way
I feel like it's more about the style of the fight than the usage of guns...he was a low-down, dirty sidewinder and bushwhacked his buddy.
Yakuza 3 also had you learn new skills by watching weird events. It was framed as Kiryu starting a blog about the weird people he saw in kamurocho and required a QTE sequence and indecipherable blog comment seleciton. if you picked the wrong caption for your blog you had to redo the qte
The way Jane said "delicious blood" was a bit too convincing. Are you a vampire, Jane? You have to tell us. It's like being a cop on Breaking Bad.
Well she is a 17th century Scottish noblewoman.
I believe you have to invite her in first?
i mean she's already some manner of other worldly demon, might as well add vampire to the mix.
In the Resident Evil Village Let's Play she keeps begging Lady Dimitrescu to turn her into a vampire, so I think she's not one yet.
Is that a question anymore?
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. Your strength is directly tied to how well your rice fields are doing, so increasing things like health, defense, and magic depends on how you mix your fertilizer and how much damage happens to your crops from pests.
Literally farming exp.
Commenter’s edition: Darkwood has you cooking and injecting yourself with the mushrooms you find in the forest. Fear and Hunger Termina has you sacrificing your friends’ heads and your enemies heads for your skill tree.
I mean with fear and hunger it'd be more weird if the way to gain new skills wasnt jarring and brutal
not just mushrooms. eggs, rats, embryos...
When I first saw the video title, I initially thought of Far Cry 3's tattoo-based skill system.
These, however, are all even more wildly weird (and oft gruesome) ways to level up than simple tattoos.
That got a mention in the first video
In mgs2, when hanging over a ledge, if you do 100 pull ups, you increase your stamina.
I never got it levelled up via that. Always did the drop from one ledge and grab another
And yet in Mass Effect 3, you do 183 or more pull-ups and get bupkis. Nada. Zip.
Come to think of it, it makes sense. We need a game where you can increase all your stats by just doing certain things in the real world. Get hit a bunch? Congrats, your Defense just went up. Get into a fistfight? Boost to Strength. Run a footrace? More Agility.
Vampyr mention? In the year 2024? I appreciate it (actually really loved the levelling system, one of the few games that's made me consider my morals while playing) bt also I'd think that eating people would be the logical way to power up as a vampire. Y'know. More blood. Better for you. Great video though!
The problem is that game is kind of broken in a few ways. It wants you to feed on good people but 2 people if you don’t kill give you the 2 best weapons in the entire game. A pistol that shoots sliver bullets and a sliver sword.
The only reason you would feed on good people would be for the achievements and bad ending. As long as you don’t feed on many people you are immune to silver which means you can carry more sliver. All vampires and link to vampires are 1 to 2 shots to die by anything sliver.
@@joshportal2808 That wasn't something I considered broken, actually! The push, especially early game, to level up and stop dying so often, especially if you got stuck in a situation where you couldn't level up without losing an npc gave you instant gratification, but you missed out on some long-term rewards, so it was really a wisdom vs temptation mechanic. It made you genuinely weigh the bad future consequences versus the short-term benefit and make that choice. I liked that about it, at least.
There are definitely some things the game does that I consider more than a little broken, but honestly the embrace mechanic is one of the things that made the game memorable for me.
I'll admit, I still feel bitter about that game because it seems likely that the whole "feeding" mechanics were supposed to be a necessary evil but at some point during development it was decided that they should tone it down.
@@joshportal2808 That's not the part that made it broken. There should be long-term rewards for trying to preserve your humanity and not killing good people. The incentive to kill for the short term XP boost was still there and trying to find a middle ground and chose victims who won't be missed and/or were in a bad situation anyway over good people who helped others was part of what made it interesting. But there was another flaw in the levelling system that took a bit of the impact out of the "Resisting those urges and being a good person is tough" message: The fact that random enemies respawned infinitely whenever you made a save at a savepoint. This allowed you to grind XP by killing normal enemies and thus avoid being underleveled for the tougher encounters. They should either have introduced story based experience caps that could only be surpassed by drinking blood from non-hostile characters or limited the respawning of enemies (e.g. only have them respawn when you rest for the day).
@@chrisrudolf9839the reward was that the district remained stable and didn't turn to anarchy, filling the area with more difficult enemies?
Wow! Jane throwing shade right out of the gate 🤣
@@SimuLord Oh agreed. I watched those Let's Plays. I meant her telling Andy from off-screen that he's been doing these videos for 10 years and still sucks at them, like 10 seconds in. 🤣
@@SimuLord XD
All hail Jane! All hail Jane!!!
Yeah I don't think you know what shade is 😂 because that wasn't shade that was direct and clear AF
The "level up by dying" from Sifu is pretty interesting but I prefer the way Hylics 2 did it because when you die in that game you get sent to a different realm where you can take the meat from enemies you beat (don't ask) and put it in a meat grinder to make yourself stronger (still don't ask).
the meat from who i beat? ok one sec gotta ... use the bathroom
Meat grinder? Jerma coded.
Sounds a bit like the levelling system in Shadow Hearts
@@oldvlognewtricks Will you elaborate?
In the Prototype series, both of it's protagonists, Alex Mercer and James Heller gain health upgrades and new abilities by consuming other people in the game.
dont that make sense though from what iv just read on the wiki its a virus that gives him his power and dont virus's normally get stronger by doing the same?
Can confirm, I am terrible at things I’ve been doing for my entire life, like walking
Yup. Do you walk wrong too?
Alan Wake 2’s level up system is actually a lot weirder than you say. For Alan, you shine your flashlight on Words of Power, which are word spirals on walls in Dark NYC. Alan then goes into a drawer in his desk and chooses the corresponding note card to level that particular aspect (Gun, Fix, Stuff, etc). For Saga, she finds those manuscript fragments in lunchboxes hidden in the world by Rose Marigold, the very unwell woman who has been obsessed with Alan for years. She hid these lunchboxes around for The Hero prophesied in clouds and newspapers (hidden messages sent to Rose by Alan from the Dark Place, which he either does not remember doing, or he hasn’t done yet). When Saga has enough of these manuscript fragments, she enters her Mind Place and then chooses weapon upgrades, which are represented by gun magazines (kind u read not the pew pew kind). THEN we hear Alan’s manuscript rewriting Saga’s weapons.
ps yes yes I know I’m being the Alan Wake fan telling you you’re wrong! But I actually speedrun AW2 so I have played it… a few times. ❤❤
I was disappointed with how they described the leveling up in AW2, because they left off the goofy stuff! Good recap for how it’s actually done to show just how odd it actually is
Asking Ozzy Osborne in brutal legend. Because if it isn't cool to ask the prince of darkness to level up, I don't know what it is.
In Terraria, progression is very nonlinear for certain stats, One of my favorite ways involves finding magic fruit, and instead of eating it, taking it to a magic pool of liquid called "Shimmer" and dropping the fruit in, and eating the resulting fruit for a unique stat increase
First time i played RE Village I for some reason thought the food perks where from the duke and therefor figured I could do without them, I didn’t realize they were permanent until my second playthrough. I proceeded to have many flashbacks to the how hard the Heisenberg and Miranda fight had been for me
oh you poor poor soul
00:04 Jane with the ... Constructive co-Worker's work Evaluation.
😆😆😆😆
I’ve been playing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and I’d like to throw that one into the conversation. How does the titular squad level up you ask? Through the power of Neck Bombs! Which is actually pretty ironic if you think about it.
I loved Vampyr, nice to see it here! That system alone was great for really feeling the role playing as a vampire
I’m just ecstatic whenever Prey gets brought up; it’s such an underrated game!!
I pretty recently played Prey for the first time. It was a strange experience. I enjoyed my time with it, have few complaints and even started a new game plus soon after. Then I stopped playing the ng+ fairly quickly, totally forgot nearly everything about the game and have never been less interested in going back to a game I liked before. My impression from reviews seems like that is not unique either. No clear idea why, very few games have left me feeling like that before.
@@davidchristie6003 probably because the neuromod-injected memories fade quicker than real ones ;)
In Vampyr you get more then enough exp from side quests and combat. I didn't feed on a single named Npc and still got the best ending without much trouble.
Same
Yay! Someone else who enjoys Prey!
Sadly, every save I played crapped out at the point you meet Elana Salazar (I might have spelled that wrong, sorry) since my computer had somewhat limited memory. I was...very frustrated because I was *SPOILERS!* enjoying roleplaying as someone who believed themselves to be human.
I still remember when Skyrim first came out and my roommate and I spent an entire day just hammering daggers to max out our smithing skill 😂 great time.
This is a reasonable way to improve your smithing skill. Getting whacked by giants for hours is not a good way to level up heavy armor, however. Or paying someone to teach you how use armor better.
@@adambryant4149 reminds me of a video where someone leveled his heavy armor skill by getting wacked by "horkers".
i think he picked them because they are slow...
@@adambryant4149 The best way to level up Heavy Armor in Skyrim is to use Light Armor until you're like level 70, because it's objectively superior, then use the "getting whacked by giants" method to quickly power-level your HA skill to gain a few levels before you go back to wearing light armor.
@@adambryant4149 It's actually terribly inefficient, the skill experience is mostly tied to the value, then quantity. If your only option is iron, make tons of nails, or ammunition.
@@MarkDeSade100 Unless you are mix-matching, there is never any reason to waste experience on skills you don't use. Just ends up leveling you without actually having a useful character, every time you reach the next level for stronger standard enemies. Of cause that is more of a problem on higher difficulty.
In Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy you play as a powerful psychic who has had their memories wiped. You gain new powers throughout the game by remembering your training sessions for honing each power (which gives you a nice tutorial to boot)
I love how my brain just sorted "See for yourself in these 7 ways to new learn skills gaming video! spoilers beware ..." into the usual order and didnt question it until the "dammit" =D
I beat Vampyr on the hardest difficulty without feeding on any innocent and got the good ending.
It’s not even hard just use the Bonesaw.
You get health back for every attack and can consistently put enemies into take down (aka feeding) range.
Sifu's devs must have had a great day in the office when they came up with its skill tree
Literally. Once you have all the skills you have a huge cherry blossom tree in your home.
I love it when Vampyr gets some love. I absolutely love that game. Seeing it here makes me want to start a new playthrough. Maybe I can manage to get a good ending this time...
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days had the panel system for leveling. Instead of gaining levels, Roxas would get panels from leveling up. He could install these panels to boost his stats, but the skills, weapons, items, and magic he carried into battle used the same grid. You had to decide what was needed for the upcoming mission, and what build you wanted to focus on.
Not a weird way, but a cool way A Plague Tale: Requiem has you level up is actually doing it. Want to get better at stealth? Be stealthy and don't murder your way through the level. Want to get better at said murder? Just murder your way through the level. And with New Game+ you can keep your item upgrades and levels in the different skills so you can max yourself out completely.
This is what I loved about Skyrim, it had a good mix of leveling through doing and giving you points to spend as you wish to either max out your strengths or shore up your weak points. Made you feel like your character was genuinely mastering skills while also providing flexibility.
That said, one the weirdest ways I have leveled was once Skyrim introduced the ability to Legendary your character, essentially wiping their level back down to one. Then I could use all my past hoarding tendencies to power level by blacksmithing a thousand million daggers.
A ton of RPGs do this, I think. In Obenseuer, pretty much everything you do can be levelled up. Increase lockpicking by breaking into every apartment in the Kolhola building! Increase machining by mass-manufacturing lockpicks! Increase farming by working at the Kurahaara Greenhouse! Increase bribery by working a crappy telemarketing job! ...Increase _drinking_ by emptying an Osmo Olut vending machine...? Increase... _paperworking_ by mass-crafting letters to Stalburg Bank? What the perkele???
@@WackoMcGoose Ah, thanks for this information. I don't play many games that involve leveling up and most of those that do have you get points and spend those how you want.
Yes, but that leads to weird grinding techniques like purposefully getting beat up to train your constitution, or walking against a wall to train your walk speed. (iirc that's how it works in CONTACT too.)
@@sinteleon I remember that being one of the (irl) reasons that Sword Art Online was so dunked on, is that the players _did_ have to do that kind of grinding. In order for Kirito to get his Battle Healing skill high enough to tank a squad of Lv40 player killers, he apparently had to spend uncomfortably long amounts of time with his HP bar in the red...
Doing pull-ups was how you increased Raiden's grip strength in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Definitely an interesting game mechanic for the time.
How about The Evil Within 2? Kill enemies, collect their green gel, go to a mirror world and inject said green gel into your brain by strapping yourself into a terrifying lobotomy machine.
That was in the prequel to this video.
Vampyr had a neat idea for leveling, but even on the hardest difficulty I never felt underd leveled despite not feeding on anyone and turning everyone that I could. There's just too many xp filled enemies in the game to force you to choose to kill a friend via feeding.
Yeah, if you nom all the enemy things then ez mode. :D
@@marhawkman303 Literally. XP filled enemies.
In Skyrim, if you follow the Stormcloak contact into the keep, he will wait for you to open the door. You can sneak behind him and smack him with your swords to level up your stealth and one handed, basically forever, and it's definitely, technically sneaking and backstabbing, but...
Also, apparently casting the same spell over and over again is enough to become a master disciplines.
@daviddaugherty2816 "I fear not the dovahkiin who has practised a thousand spells once" or something
Pick High Elf and leave with the Stormclock. Get to that point, then you maximize Illusion, Restoration, Destruction, Block, Light Armor, Heavy Armor, One Handed, and Sneak. You're welcome.
One of the weirder leveling systems I've encountered is the one found in Darkwood. You have to juice up with "Essence" extracted from mushrooms, meat from fallen enemies, stillborn babies, and weirdest of all embryos. These give you downright magic skills for a game that is rather grounded in most of its other aspects.
You can't imagine how cleaning would inspire you to be a ninja? Seriously, imagining I am a ninja is sometimes the only way I get through cleaning 😂
I’m reminded of Yakuza 0’s approach of “investing in yourself”. What this meant in practice was that apparently Kiryu and Majima used to get stronger by somehow absorbing millions or billions of yen into themselves like Kirby.
i like the way you learn those new jobs in like a dragon, a bit more inventive then the way other rpgs like to add new classes
Andy: One of these recommended videos will help you in your future life.
One of the videos: 7 Worst Ways to Screw Over Your Friends in Videogames
Andy, dear, are you *trying* to destroy all my friendships?
The real question here is how many takes did Andy need to do that intro wrong? 🤔🤭
1
I'm surprised Hylics isn't in this list!
Like most RPGs, you get XP from killing enemies, or well. Not right away. You actually get their flesh, and in order to get the XP, you need to put it in a giant ethereal meat grinder which you can only access in the afterlife when you die!
1:06 - Remember everyone, Mario is currently canonically a Zoomer.
😉
Like a dragon lets you level up skills by studying and taking tests at school. Quite normal fro real life but quite unique for a videogame
Ooooh! How about _Geneforge?_ You technically could level up by gaining experience from combat and quests, but all that did was improve a few of your stats a bit; in order to gain most of the interesting skills and abilities available in that game (particularly for the mage-equivalent class), you had to absorb containers of mystery goo, which were conveniently left lying around, all over the suspiciously deserted island you've washed up on.
The game even has a stat to track how many canisters you'd absorbed throughout your adventure! I'm sure that doesn't do anything bad, probably.
Ah an oxbox video to eat my lunch with !
*resident evil food comes on*
Yeah I'm not hungry anymore
oh me too. was about to take a bite of a sandwich when that popped up lol
@@karichhoy But the ravioli is delicious!
Smithing iron daggers by the bushel in Skyrim. 😂 I'm convinced it's Adrianne Avenicci that has the Dark Brotherhood contract out on the Dragonborn because you've been using the forge outside her bedroom window for 48 hours straight, day and night, to raise your smithing skill. Meanwhile she's got the Battleborns breathing down her neck every five minutes for swords for the Imperials.
Also, Final Fantasy Crisis Core DMW system... Its super cool, but you only level up when the roulette lands on 777 , so get ready to grind and then beg to get lucky lol
Oh yeah
I loved the system tbh
It felt great when you hit a 777 with Genesis or neo bahamut
Andy: To read makes our speaking English good.
You guys should do “7 Great Things in Otherwise Terrible Games”
For example if a game is so bad it automatically bars you from entering Heaven when you die, but man the music is an absolute banger.
Vampyre? More like Dr. Acula. (I'll see myself out.)
An interesting video idea could be bosses who did not want to fight you but you fought anyway. I immediately think of Morgan Freeman from South Park The Fractured But Whole who had been your mentor throughout the entire game and then at the end you can choose to fight him for no apparent reason.
Congrats! You've reached Level 2!
Oh Jane's got new hair...fancy.
I think it might the old one, just styled differently.
*Tony Stark meme* You used Vampyr in 2 separate "Weird/Unlikely/Unusual/Etc. Ways to Level Up" lists. Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did.
Not sure if this was mentioned in the previous video, but The Evil Within had one of the most hard-core "level up" systems I've ever seen. You had to sit in an electric chair like device that shocked the upgrades into you!
Even stranger with Sifu was the fact that when you unlocked a new skill, it was only available for the current run! Unless you have purchased the skill multiple times to make it permanent. It took me too long to figure it out.
4:44 a real missed opportunity to name the game "Dr. Acula" in my opinion.
I would think Persona 5 would count, at least, when it comes to the Social Stats system. Some of them make sense, like Knowledge is improved by reading or playing Shogi with an experienced player, or Charm being increased by flirting with waitresses in a maid cafe.
Some of them are weird as hell though. Eating a burger makes me more Gutsy? Watering a houseplant makes me more Kind? Eating a bowl full of beef and rice makes me more Proficient?! HOW?! Makes no sense.
I think sitting on a bench outside the monastery also raises your guts if you continue to sit despite Morgana increasingly saying it's weird that you're still there lol
I can see why the houseplant one increases kindness cause you're actively taking care of a living thing. Also the burger is a challenge which requires endurance to get through. Not sure how exactly a beef bowl raises proficiency, but I'm not sure I've used that level up method myself
Maybe it's just me, but I find it funny this video starts by talking about videoediting mistakes, and then goes on to call the game "Vampyr", "Vampire".
3:25 I see Andy hasn't quite learned the art of cleaning house with your opponents. Gotta pump up those numbers, my guy. You'll never get a Trophy or Achievement stuck in that slump.
Edit: Also, I'd be very interested in trying some Herbed Fish. Seems interesting on a flavor level.
Baldurs Gate 3, eating mindflayer tadpoles to level up psionic abilities was a blast
How ‘bout Salt and Sanctuary, another massively underrated game? Your character is quite literally absorbing salt, from bags, boxes and dead monsters and converting it into black pearls to level up. Seems like it would lead to some serious health issues down the line…
it's just soulsbourne shit. He's not ingesting salt, after all.
Immediately thought of lizard tails and apples in Shadow of the Colossus when I saw the title
Duke: Might have been a crap game, but I enjoyed a lot of things. When you're in the Barbie car that keeps saying inane things, JUST about when I was about to tell it to shut up, Duke says the same thing, amused the hell out of me. :) Great timing. And that weightlifting, I was amused that if you have on ANY less than every weight on there (which add up to an insane inhuman amount), Duke complains about it being too light and being pointless, he's THAT full of himself, :)
Related: GTA V, a tip I heard that works great, get on the roof of a bus and spam Attack. You keep stomping the roof of the bus, bus driver panics and tries to drive away from you (with you on the roof). VERY quickly boosts Strength and I think Stamina. I know it increases more than one stat.
You gotta mention Baldurs gate 3 in the next one. Not quite levelling up, but a big part of the plot is trying to rid yourself of a brain slug and to help you with that goal you can unlock powerful secondary abilities by *checks my notes* putting additional slugs in your brain?
Metal Gear Solid 2, you increase your grip level by doing pull ups. I thought that was pretty neat.
Both fear and hunger games have weird and sadistic leveling methods. Either by performing "marriages", sacrificing heads, stealing souls, or killing other contestants/party members. Or you can just have god to give you a skill writing the request on a scroll.
In Dragon Ball Kakarot you level your stats by finding lots of ingredients and giving them to Milk so she can cook a super meal and your stats level up permanently
milk? Also, aside for ki, those stats are worthless. Oh, 10 more hp... When it's at half a million around what, 60?
Even ki is useless with the dlc boosting max level - 100 combo meals was annoying as fuck, but 100 more ki, when it was around 300 near level 100, k. Level 250, it's over 1k, meh as fuck for the effort.
Skyrim: leveling up your sneak skill during the tutorial by literally stabbing your friend in the back. Don't worry, they're invincible. 😂
Vampire doctor? Dr. Acula... Is that you?
in sifu you can use xp in shrines for more powerful moves , so technically speaking you can upgrade without dying
Still need to include that weird af tetris like grid system from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days XD
Also the chip installation system from Re:Coded
I had the same answer. For all those that spent hours organizing your inventory in RE4, we have good news for you!
In Darkwood you level up by mashing random shit into a syringe and inject it into your bloodstream. Yea...
The coffee cup in Prey reminds me of the polymorph episode of Red Dwarf.
Andy, you are a consummate professional; you answered the one *key* question I had about the new Like a Dragon, did Nancy survive?
Yes and she gets a girlfriend xD
I wish you guys would talk through the spoilers more. I LOVE that!!! PLEASE talk throu the spoilers more 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
As to number 5...Odin Sphere did the "eat to level up thing" quite a while before RE:Village did. I'll grant you that Resident Evil's version of it is definitely creepier, though. Plus, I feel fairly certain there are even older examples of it...
i like bloodstained's - not the exp focus really, but you get massive stat boosts from food - especially mp regen, which doesn't increase from leveling or gear.
Darkwood had the fun mechanic of effectively cooking random stuff that you find into hallucinogens and shooting yourself up for perks and the occasional trippy sequence.
How about Thousand Arms? It’s a weird JRPG fused with a dating sim, and you need to use the latter part to get better equipment.
Just a quick question ... Has anyone ever hear Jane say the word "blood" without the descriptor "delicious?" Ever?
These videos have devolved into an opportunity for Andy to pass off talking about Like A Dragon as working haven't they?
Tbf the games are great though 😂
The variety of jobs in Like a Dragon remind me of the jobs in Miitopia. The first four jobs; Warrior, Mage, Cleric, and Thief; seem like standard RPG classes, but then you see Pop Star and Chef and go, “Hm.” Instead of learning them gradually, you start with six, unlock three at the start of Neksdor, unlock three more at the start of Realm of the Fey, and get two more from certain quests in the postgame. I especially enjoy the concept of the Tank job. It’s a literal tank.
On this subject… Evil Within - Green Gel (Also called Brain Gel!) Used in both games for the same purpose :3
Hilarious timing that this comes on the day of my own level up. Lol I love these videos! Keep up the good work!
Happy level-up, then
Days gone is a good example, the NERO injections increasing stamina is crazy
Jane's hair is on point today! *snap*
If I may volunteer one, you level up your poker hands in Balatro... with the SOLAR SYSTEM!!! Each hand in Balatro has a Planet Card associated with it that boosts said hand by one level, permanently increasing its Base Chips and Multiplier. Earth boosts Full House, Saturn boosts Straight, Jupiter boosts Flush. There are 3 other planet cards that buff the secret hands you can only play when you have more of that card: Five of a Kind, Flush House, and Flush Five. What's even more ridiculous (and better for it) is when you find a Black Hole Spectral Card in a Celestial Pack, EVERY HAND INCREASES BY 1 LEVEL!!! Even the secret hands you may or may not have unlocked yet!
As someone who has had surgery where they opened my eyeball, that Neuroid injection made me thankful I was knocked tf out 😭😭
If we're counting non-level levelling, in FF8 you increase your salary by... going to school. Because despite fighting the actual devil in a lamp the headmaster gave you immediately before(?) your first real job, you're still a student and you'll do your homework, damn it!
The Like a Dragon one reminds me of the Fast Draw skills that Jack learns in Wild ARMs, where he uses things he sees around him as inspiration to create more sword techniques.
To be fair in the world of aime, there's the whole combat maid subtrope. (oddly there IS a western variant, but we mostly see combat butlers instead)
I've never been super interested in Alan Wake, but that level up system genuinely makes me want to try it. That's just such a flavorful way to do it that I can't help but want to try it.
The jobs are a lot of fun in Y8. They've really polished it since Y7.
I’ve been playing a bards tale 4, if you want to advance in the skill tree you need to go back to the guild and meet with the review board.
That's a common thing in all the main-line _Bard's Tale_ games, from back in the before times when EA had a three-letter logo.
The first game I seen you get older as you learn new skills was fable
Two examples I can think of:
Disco Elysium, which has a pretty conventional experience system on the face of it, but when put in the context of the rest of the game turns into a mechanical representation of the main character slowly stitching their shattered psyche back together by talking to people after a major mental break.
Rad and Nuclear Throne, which are both roguelites where you get your powerups by absorbing radiation and inducing mutations.
"Delicious blood" eh, Jane?
I played a kill everyone run of Vampyre recently; definitely the best way to play!! Hypocratic oath who?
More like "Hypocritical Oath!"
@@DFloyd84 Nice.
Im so glad someones talking about the jobs in the new Yakuza. Gotdamn I love this stupid melodrama so much