I often say to others that I’m not really into turn-based RPGs, yet upon reflection, I’ve ended up playing quite a few of them. When it comes to between
Final Fantasy
,
Mario & Luigi
, Octopath Traveler,
Pokemon
, and now
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
I’ve invested countless hours into turn-based games over the course of my life. One might assume that with this much gameplay under my belt, I would have mastered the genre. However, despite all these years, there remains something I simply cannot grasp about them.
You saw the title: I’m clueless about using my upgrade points. Seriously, tell me what to do.
you
I’m beginning to believe that for years we’ve merely been assigning points haphazardly across various attributes and convincing ourselves that we understand what’s going on, when in reality, we’re aware that upgrade points don’t actually hold significance.
The Largest Fraud in RPG History
For almost three decades, I’ve grappled with this conundrum. Since playing “Super Mario RPG” on the Super Nintendo, upgrade points have baffled me entirely. Each time Mario and his companions level up, players can allocate an extra point to either strength, magic, or health stats, but whenever I face this decision, I end up closing my eyes and picking randomly.
A significant issue is not getting to feel the impact of small stat boosts. Over thirty years of playing Diablo, I’ve never put a point into Dexterity and felt, “There, that’s precisely what was missing!” And honestly, what difference does adding one point to Agility make? If such increments have negligible effects, why should I be concerned about where I allocate my points?
I often find it frustrating when games include redundant statistics such as Health Points (HP) and Defense. It’s unclear whether boosting HP allows me to endure more attacks, or enhancing Defense makes each hit less damaging. This ambiguity leaves players wondering which attribute will be more beneficial for their survival. If increasing either HP or Defense does not change how many blows I can withstand before dying, it feels pointless choosing between them.
There Must Be a More Effective Approach
Expedition 33, to its credit, provides
some
guidance for how to spend your points. Every weapon has two attributes that it scales with, and you can see which attributes those are when you look at the level up screen. So, if a sword has a B-rank in Luck and an A-rank in Might, you know that a point in Might is going to go further than a point in Luck, and a point in either one is going to go further than a point in Vitality, Agility, or Defense.
This has really helped me assign upgrade points to my characters strategically… until I get a new weapon. Every time I change my gear – which happens frequently – my point allocation gets completely thrown off. You can respec your characters, but it takes time and requires you to use an item that costs gold. So while it’s nice to have some guidance from the weapons, it’s kind of pointless if my build only works for one specific one.
I’m not completely clueless. I can create synergistic builds with spells and abilities that work together. I can equip gear that enhances the things my character is best at or compensates for their weaknesses, depending on the situation. I understand archetypes and the roles that individual party members serve in battle. I
get
RPGs, but when it comes to spending upgrade points, it feels like most games are just trying to give us the illusion of choice.
If that’s the case, then maybe I should just stick to Pokemon where the characters level up automatically. And no, I’ve never used Vitamins, thank you very much.