Stat caps seem annoyingly low

[RobotGuy405]

I played through the game this past summer for the first time and one thing I walked away with was the feeling that the stat caps, especially on certain classes, seemed a bit too low. I know exactly why, this game is probably the longest in the series so you get more levels to compensate, and you typically don't get an extra 20 levels to grow in these games, but it seemed like my characters capped too easily and quickly. I never gave Titania a single stat booster yet by maybe the middle of Part 4 at the absolute latest she was getting empty levels due to there being no more stats she had a good growth in that wasn't already capped.

 

My Nephenee had a similar problem, but I admit I gave her a few stat boosters and a strength, skill and speed transfer. This all wouldn't be that bad if the caps weren't so low on classes like Silver/Gold Knight and Archsage, where it seems like at peak performance they will still only match the enemies in the higher levels in the tower, Archsages especially have it bad due to there being so many enemies and bosses in the tower with high resistance, which in general also seems strangely high in this game specifically. Enemies get so fast that mages and paladins can't double in many instances, and so bulky that they might need at least 3 hits to kill. It just really seems like enemy stats are inflated to quite a high degree for this game.

 

This is a small thing that doesn't really matter much, but it's also just kind of weird when you haven't even reached Endgame yet but your units aren't really getting much better anymore, just doesn't feel good. In a typical game, it feels really nice when you get a really meaty level right at the end of the penultimate chapter, but that doesn't really happen in RD. 

[ping]

To a degree, this is a feature. If a character levels up through bonus XP, they will always gain three stat points (unless they have 0-2 uncapped stats, of course), so once a character starts hitting caps, you can use BEXP to make them catch up on their weaker stats. Nephenee is a great example of this, actually - once she caps Skl/Spd/Res around Lv.12 as a Halbadier, BEXP levels will most likely hit at least one of her Str or Def (her HP and Lck growths are higher than Str/Def, so it's less likely to hit both).

You're not wrong about the classes you mentioned being kinda bad, though. Magic users are generally considered to be pretty bad picks for the tower because of their low stats and the enemies' high Res compared to other games. I haven't played RD in a while, but I believe I generally only used Micaiah and Elincia as staff users, benched Sanaki and didn't bring any other magic users, unless I was specifically going for "sub-optimal" characters. Silver/Gold Knights are a bit underwhelming, too, especially because of their low Spd cap.

As far as the "feel" goes - well, personally, I like that it's possible to paint the stat screen green. I guess my perception is that, if a character starts maxing out early, i succeeded in making them endgame-ready ahead of time, but I can understand that the lack of *dink*s per level-up can feel unsatisfying.

[DaveCozy]

yeah, particularly in part 4 enemy stats tend to be inflated to really high values, more than should be reasonably possible. It's also probably contributing to why your characters don't feel like they're getting better, aside capping early enemies are just thicc in RD.

I think the devs went too hard at Silver and Gold Knights after PoR, and pretty much made them be just balanced without excelling at anything by restricting their caps. I pretty much went with them for taxi utility in the tower: ferry units with rescue drops and trade stuff quickly, and supporting whoever else they want if they have a good affinity.

Archsages, Saints, and Mist (Valkyrie) are pretty much staff utility, which Elincia does better than any of them already if you ask me since she requires much less investment to stay useful and can just fly to safety to not be a liability. Considering that Micaiah is forced deployed, and given how a) stats cap fast, b) generous the game is at giving you tower-ready units and c) how the final two sections of the tower have much higher resistance enemies over defense, I personally think only two staff users are really worth bringing along; so this also leaves very little room for anyone else. A tome user can be good in the first (and maybe 3rd) chapter of the tower though, but they really fall off afterwards.

Edited November 18, 2022 by DaveCozy