Should the player char be able to become more powerful than the most powerful NPCs?

[Piccolo]

Yes, but progression should be very slow so it takes hundreds of hours (at least) for such a goal to be achieved.

Edited October 1, 2012 by Piccolo

[Osvir]

I liked DAO in this way, you are skilled and powerful, but you are still at the whim of fate and have to be tactical in order to survive. If you have to use tactics to survive, you can get away with near-godmode pc's. Skyrim is, like all other ES-games an ego-fest. Pick up some mods to make it harder. Tried one with deadlier dragons, was very satisfied unto a point i reached too high a level again.

 

In Nightmare mode in DAO, yes. Otherwise it felt like wading through shallow water. Even in Nightmare I had more of an easy time towards the end, as I learned the system of the game and my party it too became fairly simple. My team were heavily relying on each other, it became one unit. If one fell I would have to re-load kind of thing. Like loosing an arm. In this manner DAO managed this brilliantly.

 

So it is a question of "Difficulty"?

[Jarmo]

Yes, but progression should be very slow so it takes hundreds of hours (at least) for such a goal to be achieved.

 

But what it the story is only 25hrs, but covers a timespan of many years?

And it's divided into multiple chapters and there's a training montage between the chapters!

 

Nah, it all depends on the story and how it's made to work.

Maybe the hero will swallow the souls of defeated opponents, gaining all their strength?

[Piccolo]

Yes, but progression should be very slow so it takes hundreds of hours (at least) for such a goal to be achieved.

 

But what it the story is only 25hrs, but covers a timespan of many years?

And it's divided into multiple chapters and there's a training montage between the chapters!

 

Nah, it all depends on the story and how it's made to work.

Maybe the hero will swallow the souls of defeated opponents, gaining all their strength?

Why does the player-character necessarily have to be the most powerful character by the end of the storyline? Even if the game pretty much ends with the main storyline, I don't think this is necessarily - but it's especially unnecessary if there's stuff to do after.

 

This really just conforms to the whole player-character being special and 'chosen' concept, which i'm sick of in RPGs.

[moridin84]

Yes, but progression should be very slow so it takes hundreds of hours (at least) for such a goal to be achieved.

I'm not going to play the game for hundreds of hours. I still want to be able to 'beat' the game, I still want to feel that I've accomplished something.

 

A game where I've progressed from being able to kill 2 bandits to being able to kill 10 isn't very interesting. I LIKE being able to do cool things.

[Piccolo]

Yes, but progression should be very slow so it takes hundreds of hours (at least) for such a goal to be achieved.

I'm not going to play the game for hundreds of hours. I still want to be able to 'beat' the game, I still want to feel that I've accomplished something.

 

A game where I've progressed from being able to kill 2 bandits to being able to kill 10 isn't very interesting. I LIKE being able to do cool things.

Okay, so let's say you finish the game's main storylines after 30 hours and end up with a very powerful character; but somewhere, in the depths of the world, there may be characters or monsters not directly tied to the game's main storyline who are more powerful than your character. Would that really be a bad thing?

[moridin84]

Yes, but progression should be very slow so it takes hundreds of hours (at least) for such a goal to be achieved.

I'm not going to play the game for hundreds of hours. I still want to be able to 'beat' the game, I still want to feel that I've accomplished something.

 

A game where I've progressed from being able to kill 2 bandits to being able to kill 10 isn't very interesting. I LIKE being able to do cool things.

Okay, so let's say you finish the game's main storylines after 30 hours and end up with a very powerful character; but somewhere, in the depths of the world, there may be characters or monsters not directly tied to the game's main storyline who are more powerful than your character. Would that really be a bad thing?

 

Yes that's fine.

 

Like I said, whether or not you are the 'most powerful' or not depends on the story, not the game-play.