R P G A M E R . C O M   -   E D I T O R I A L S

Overpowered

!

!

Anna Marie Neufeld
STAFF EDITORIALIST

I sat down not too long ago to play through Shining Force Neo. The first bit of the game opens up with the usual run through the battle system, giving the player a teaser of what is to come without really giving them the chance to really mess up. Further on, after more story development has taken place, the inevitable happens! It has become a habit that many RPGs have fallen into, and it's a pit I wish I could never see again. What is it that aggravates me so much that I have to write an editorial about it just to get it out of my system?

The lone overpowered character your hero or group gets saddled with for the first 'real' level.

In some games, this is done very well; if such a character has a form of seniority and is aiding the player in learning how to play the game, then it can be a handy guide. However, never are these characters of much value beyond "he/she can hack stuff up quickly", and naturally some terrible death befalls them, or some large task forces them to leave, or any other number of flimsy reasons to yank them out as fast as they were put in. Yet many games that use this sort of tactic and then this silly twink simply makes the first level boring. What's the point of trying to get into the mix when the NPC-controlled ubercharacter smashes everything before you can draw a weapon or start an incantation?

Not quite as annoying but can be an equal burden to bear is when the player becomes saddled with these characters and cannot get rid of them thanks to some convenient plot (or plot hole).

The Fire Emblem series is guilty of this particular habit, generally gifting the party with one or two units far more advanced than their typical soldiers. An inexperienced player, or someone not familiar with this ploy, may end up then using that character to the detriment of the rest of the party, which lags more and more behind in experience; those that fall into this sort of trap may find that it is hard to climb out of, since even a gap of one or two levels can mean a huge disadvantage unless the player is veteran enough to understand how to place troops and with what weapons - yet anyone with this sort of knowledge likely wouldn't be abusing their one twinked out character in the first place, placing this writer in a quandry. Either a player is smart enough to dig themselves out of a pit (and *should* be smart enough to not land there in the first place); or, a player isn't smart enough to avoid falling into the trap and therefore has no way to get themselves out. Maybe it's just another way that Fire Emblem games crank the difficulty? Tempting the player with a character they really shouldn't use is a little on the mean side.

Regardless of the reason, I find the inclusion of these characters becoming more commonplace than before, and the upward trend is definitely not a good sign. Sure, I'm anxious to see how cool my characters will be at the end when they can kick some serious butt, but at least let me get there on my own pace and stop throwing these crazily overpowered characters at me, especially right at the start of the game.