LogFAQs > #961916189

Suikoden420 posted...

I really enjoyed Oblivions restricted approach to leveling for role play. Having a character commit to a play style added replay value as well. Certainly counter intuitive sometimes but i like it.

In Skyrim its too easy to jump from a strict mage to a heavy armor wearing warhammer wielding berserker. Not that that isnt fun and it definitely cuts down on repeating the same tasks. I've definitely done that though.

And Oblivions level scaling is pretty bad. Once did d a low level character to try and avoid that. It was ... interesting. Still not as bad as FF8

The problem with Oblivion's leveling is that, even if you commit to a dedicated build, you will more than likely still be gimping yourself on attribute increases unless you're very lucky, or are deliberately gaming the system. Strength is the worst Skill-to-Attribute offender, since its skills are all very different combat forms; so a dedicated build will really have to go out of their way to grow Strength effectively through natural gameplay. The other Skill-to-Attribute sets are at least more balanced - a tanky paladin will have an easier time maxing Endurance naturally through Block, HA, and Repair. But if you want to get maximum attribute levels, you'll still have to keep pace-killing track of your gains, and will likely fall back on the old counter-intuition of avoiding use of your major skills. That's not to say that the game isn't beatable by simply taking whatever best Attributes you get at level-up; I certainly did on my first playthrough. But effective stat leveling certainly does start making a difference once you start facing nothing but Xivilais and Minotaur Lords everywhere you turn.

And I actually strongly disagree on Skyrim making it too easy to switch builds willy-nilly. There is a midgame point between, say, levels 15 and 40 where, if you've been dicking around spreading your skills and not narrowing things down to a few core skills, you will start getting your ass kicked by increasingly high-level bandits and draugr. And I know, because despite my prior experience with these games, my first few playthroughs of Skyrim were exactly like this, because I didn't put any thought into my builds and just used whatever skills I felt like. Which made this old comic really hit home when I first read it:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/1/3/AARIckAAC0_B.jpg

IMO, Skyrim's biggest leveling-related problem is that you simply level too fast in the early levels. On one hand it does eliminate some of the mind-bogglingly bad grind that certain skills suffered with in Morrowind and Oblivion, but in Skyrim too often you're already seeing Glass and Ebony gear start to show up when you've barely explored a third of the map. But this is rooted in the problem of modern Bethesda pushing you too fast to burn through the Main Quest asap and fart around in the sandbox after until you get bored.