RPG Insanity

Spoiler alert

 

It probably sounds silly to most but I absolutely hate not being able to level my characters relatively closely. So losing Selene made me put the game down. I’d rather she never return than end up several levels behind the rest of the party. For me, that’s enough to just drop this game.

Can anyone tell me, is her level adjusted when she returns? Or should I just move on to something else.

I haven't played Infinite Links. However, it's an Exe-Create game, and Exe-Create is usually very formulaic about their game mechanics; they have strong similarities in gameplay.

Having someone leave for a long time and return way behind the rest of the party isn't something I've experienced in any of the seven Exe-Create games I've played. Either the character only separates for a short time, or there's level adjustment. At most, they might be one or two levels behind.

I clearly remember the party splitting up in a couple Exe-Create games (not saying which ones because that's technically a spoiler) and it never made any real difference in their progression.

I also hate games which change my party (dropped Symphony of Eternity because that), it is truly a wonder that Silver Nornir is my #2 (they really did that RIGHT). Happens in Fortuna Magus twice with the protag, but there's a level adjustment (fixed bonus, tho)

 

But Exe-Create rarely does that, except for cutscenes and usually already late game. Like Victar, I don't think it'll wreak havoc, at least nothing you can't fix with seeds or the arena or metal monster grinding (I like to keep protagonist ahead others and it was only difficult in eg. Miden Tower or Antiqua Lost due specific mechanics). Haven't played this specific title, though.

I'm roughly halfway through Symphony of Eternity (3DS version) right now, and even though the game shakes up the party, switching jobs on the fly and the gameplay in general is so easy that it doesn't matter.

Symphony of Eternity is by World Wide Software, and it's a lot better than the only other WWS game I played, End of Aspiration/End of Serenity.

WWS is a mixed bag; Symphony are their best games, their short games are all good (Fortuna Magus, Eve of the Genesis and Tears Revolude), the others are... so-so, I like most of them.

 

They have 3 horrible titles, though: Aeon Avenger (terrible GUI), Astral Frontier (must be online), and End of Aspiration (generally not well done).

 

WWS is always risky but Exe-Create always wanted to be profitable, so they tend to produce "JRPG bread'n'butter" — cliché stories, no innovation which could take you off guard or limit the playerbase, similar GUI (improving over years but essentially always the same). If they try something different, it'll likely be present in all their future games unless they got backslash at Japan.

So I highly doubt Infinite Links will do anything too different from others. If it was WWS' Link of Hearts the story would be different.

[quote=41997]

Spoiler alert

 

It probably sounds silly to most but I absolutely hate not being able to level my characters relatively closely. So losing Selene made me put the game down. I’d rather she never return than end up several levels behind the rest of the party. For me, that’s enough to just drop this game.

Can anyone tell me, is her level adjusted when she returns? Or should I just move on to something else.

[/quote]

I don't know about in this game, but it is an unfortunate occurrence in other games.  For example, in "Soul of Deva" (from Hit-Point)  you lose one of your interesting characters for quite some time.  The character does return, but is now way behind the levels of the rest of your party.  You can grind up the character's level if you wish, but it isn't a fun way to play.

To be fair: Once you get the ship in Infinite Links while the party is still complete, nothing stops you from reaching maximum level (99) in the blink of an eye.

Now I can confirm that Serene rejoins the party after completing the next main storyline dungeon. Taking into consideration that the player has completed approximately 75-80% of the game at this point, I wouldn't abandon my playthrough just because of Serene's short absence.

I checked, this game lets you customize random enemies appearance rate. I usually set it to half or none when I lose a party member and flee from battles if I judge that to be necessary ─ even if boss fight gets a bit more painful

That's doable.

I'm not yet at a point where that will happen (I will obliterate whoever dares to take away my best friend Nezuko) but I'm at level 99 already so I won't even have to care about her level. However, even if she would be behind a few levels, it's easy to level up in this game and max level is 99 for no reason..

Selene is the one hero I truly like from the game (Alzoph must die no matter what the story does). It was a surprise (although expected, but still) that she's special.