Character Level: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:pld-rdm-75-small_3397.png|link=Final Fantasy XI|frame|Now I can finally [[Took a Level In Badass|take a level in badass]].]]

 

{{quote|''"Wow! [[Lampshade Hanging|I feel as if I've passed some arbitrary experience value and gained more power]]!"''|'''Marcus''', '''''[[Fallout 2]]'''''}}

 

Oh, and if you're looking for the game called ''Level Up!'', that's [[Level Up (video game)|here]]. and if you are looking for the show called Level Up is over [[Level Up (TV series)|here]]

{{examples}}

* ''[[Iji]]'' has levels for your Nanofield, but all a level does is allow you to get a 1 point increase to 1 stat. Interestingly, this isn't automatic - you have to find a special station to spend your available point on one of the 7 stats. You can also get extra points by picking up special powerups.

* Played for laughs in ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men Origins: Wolverine]]'', where levelling up would make Logan glow brightly and let out a primal roar.

* In ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]],'' [[Deadpool]] gets the best level up lines. "[[No Fourth Wall|I gained enough experience points, and I leveled up!]]" "Now ''I'm'' the best at doing whatever it is [[Wolverine]] does!" (As one of Wolverine's post-[[Mook]]-kill phrases, as well as one of the character's signature phrases, is "I'm the best at what I do.")

 

* ''[[Call of Duty]] 4: [[Call of Duty: Modern Warfare|Modern Warfare]]'''s multiplayer not only has character levels, topping out at 55, but once you do get to the highest level you can then go for Prestige -- resetting your character level to 1 so you can go through it again, this time [[Cosmetic Award|with a special icon to let others know]] how many times you've done this (up to 10). Later games add various other bonuses for prestiging - ''Modern Warfare 3'' gives you "Prestige tokens" every time you prestige, which can be spent on bonuses such as extra Create-a-Class slots or having a specific weapon or gadget unlocked indefinitely, even if you prestige again.

 

* The only thing that increases when Caim levels up in ''[[Drakengard]]'' is the amount of [[Hit Points]] he has. In order to increase his damage or his magic meter, you have to level up the various weapons that are found in the game.

 

* In ''[[Zone of the Enders]] 2'', if you defeat enough enemies, your health bar will increase slightly. But since you gain no other attributes upon "leveling up", you will still die fairly quickly if you let your guard down (especially against the [[Big Bad]])

 

* In the DS ''[[Dinosaur King]]'' game, the level(s) of your opponent's dinosaurs determine how much EXP you obtain by beating them. Also, as they level up, dinosaurs produce Move Cards, which can be equipped on any dinosaur regardless of their level.

 

* An interesting usage of this trope involves the MMO Sports game ''[[Shot Online]]'', a golf game where you start as a Level 1 golfer, slicing and hooking the ball like mad, driving off the tee barely 150 yards. The more you play, the more experience you earn, gaining levels, and placing points to stats to straighten and lengthen those shots...

* ''[[Battle Stations]]'' - [[RPG Elements|levelling up]] gives you stat points that can be used to boost your abilities, and allows access to better ships and equipment.

* The MMO ''[[Video Game/Dark Ages 1999|Dark Ages]]'' handled character levels in the usual way, but it called them "insights", which at least added some flavor and an explanation as to why your character was suddenly better at something: he or she was said to have "gained a flash of insight". Later updates to the game ruined this flavor, though, by implementing a [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|"Level Up" graphic above the character's head]].

 

* ''Faxanadu'' has character levels, but they only determine the amount of XP and money retained by the player when they die and resurrect.

** And the character levels are, in fact, counter-intuitive. Rather than leveling up as soon as you get enough experience, you have to get enough experience, and then make your way to a church and speak to the priest, who gives you a new title (and effectively the level). If you die before you manage to make it to the church (a frequent occurrence), then your experience points are reset to your previous title, making leveling a grueling and ''entirely unnecessary'' aspect of the game.

* The Ratchet & Clank games feature this, in generally increasingly extreme forms as the series progresses, but for your weapons: Each time you kill something with any particular weapon, the WEAPON earns experience. When it gets enough, it levels up. Later games allow it to become a new, more powerful type of weapon at the end of a multi-step leveling sequence. Some games only allow higher levels to be reached after you unlock the hard mode of the game and are playing in it.

 

* ''[[Blur (video game)|Blur]]'' has Fan Levels. As your fan level increases, you unlock new cars and new mods. In single player this is capped at 25. In multiplayer this is capped at 50 with the option to enter Legend Mode, similar to Prestige in ''[[Call of Duty]] [[Modern Warfare]]'' in that your level resets to 1 and you can go through the progression again (up to 10 times), except each Legend Mode unlocks another new car.

 

* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series has a fairly generic level-up system similar to ''[[GURPS]]'' (which it was originally slated to use), in which each level-up is primarily focused on allocating skill points. Base attributes do not change upon level-up, but every third level grants a perk for further customization of the player character. Your [[NPC|NPCs]] level up as well, and, as the page quote shows, they will throw in some funny lines when they do. [[Fallout|Fallout's]] level system is notable for not holding the player back from wielding powerful weapons in an open game, allowing people in later playthroughs to pick up [[Game Breaker|devastating weapons and armor]] early on with the proper know-how. This is marginally balanced by the fact that most low-level characters won't be able to pick up enough ammo or even hit anything with an energy weapon at 20% skill with it.

* Despite being a card game, some [[Genre Shift|Genre Shifting]] ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' video games do this, preventing you from using stronger cards until you "level up" to their caliber. This has sometimes gone to the extreme, not only preventing you from using cards higher than your current level, but whose collective experience point total is higher than yours, as well, essentially forcing you to play with lackluster cards until you're more than halfway through the game.

* [[Knights of the Old Republic]] naturally does this. It's a good idea to wait until low on health before spending the experience points, as this will fully heal your character.

 

* ''[[Bubble Tanks]]'' has your "levels" in an evolution tree- when you collect enough bubbles from defeated enemies, you "level up" and choose a next evolution for your tank. Careful though, getting hit by enemies causes you to ''lose'' experience points, and you can go back down a level if you are not careful!

 

* The early ''[[Metal Gear]]'' had leveling systems. In the first ''[[Metal Gear 1987]]'' (and ''[[Snake's Revenge]]''), Snake is promoted in rank as he rescues hostages, increasing not only his maximum health, but also the maximum capacity of items and ammo he can carry. In ''[[Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake]]'' and ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', Snake's level increases after defeating a boss.

 

* ''[[Dead Rising]]'' uses a basic form of this: you kill zombies and take pictures to gain experience, and each level gained results in either a stat boost (Speed, Power, Inventory, etc.) or a new move (Double Lariat, Disembowel).

 

* ''[[Jagged Alliance]]'' has an "Experience Level" that increases slowly whenever the character's attributes or skills go up (no matter which skills...). It increases performance in nearly every aspect of gameplay, but does not increase the level of challenge (that's based on another, character-irrelevant value). However, more experienced characters do cost more to hire, which means that you need to watch out not to train your characters beyond your financial means.

 

* In ''[[The Gamers|The Gamers: Dorkness Rising]]'', which is, after all, about ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', the characters are explicitly stated to be level 9. Which, considering their abilities, seems about right.

 

* Two of the first tabletop RPGs not to use levels at all were ''[[Traveller]]'' and ''[[Rune Quest]]'', which relied on skill and stat advancement entirely.

* Averted in ''[[GURPS]]''. Characters slowly gain Character Points that are used to improve skills, powers or stats. Theoretically a character built on more points is more powerful but the system explicitly notes that even a discrepancy of 25 points is fairly minor.

* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'': First edition had levels the character earned after every 15 power points. These levels in turn acted as a cap on how much a character could invest in certain attributes. Second edition loosened this up a bit, and level simply became a cap on all players power point expenditures (the cap only applies to certain categories) that could be changed any time the GM felt like it.

 

* Apparently gaining a level in ''[[Goblins]]'' [http://www.goblinscomic.com/07162006/ feels like a glow inside]... and can be the result of roleplaying at the last moment to have just enough [http://goblinscomic.com/d/20070120.html experience].

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', Levelling up is representing by an audible "Ding". Roleplaying for experience is also what comes to mind when you've just been denied [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0125.html killing your party's scrappy for the level]

* Parodied in [http://xkcd.com/189/ this] [[Xkcd]].

 

* The serial ''Memetic Narration'' ([http://writetocreate.tumblr.com/ found here]) features a third-person narrator whom the main character can hear. Said narrator informs the main character that as he builds relationships with his friends he will be alerted when the relationships "level up," a la ''[[Persona 3]]'' and ''[[Persona 4]].''

* In the first ''[[Asdfmovie]]'' a character levels up after randomly punching another character in the face.