Character progression systems (outside of leveling/weapons)

[Escalario]

One of the few things we still don't know about is what additional ways of improving the characters will be in the game outside of simple level ups and stronger weapons.

Here are some examples of the additional systems from other Warriors games:

-Skill tree in Hyrule Warriors

After killing an enemy with a rank (so anything that's not a generic mook) they would drop a badge (which were divided into bronze, silver and gold rarity). When having enough badges of certain types, you could upgrade the skill tree to get stuff like new/longer combos, more Special Attack bars, faster way of depleting enemy's weakpoint gauges, higher elemental resistance, more healing potions, and some more.

 

-Coins and Skill slots in One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3

In OP:PW3, after beating a mission, you get Character coins (the bronze ones) depending on who you fought in that mission. The golden coins are acquired after doing something specific (like doing side missions in Story Mode, or killing Wanted enemies in Dream Log). You can use them to max your stats, get a 2nd Special attack which uses 2 Special bars instead of one, and break character level limit (normally characters can only get to level 50).

Skills have a certain slot cost are used to get passive bonuses like faster weakpoint gauge depletion or stronger Special attacks.

 

-Skill board in Samurai Warriors 4-II

The skill board is used to acquire passive and active skills by using Strategy Tomes (which are acquired by killing enemy officers and buying in the shop between battles). Passive skills are stuff like more damage to enemy officers, Special/Spirit gauge recovery when riding a horse, and much more stuff. Active skills are temporal buffs that have to be used during battle and it has stuff like more frequent elemental attacks, faster movement, more frequent gold/experience drops from enemies.

 

Personally I would like to see a version of OP:PW3 system's. It's much easier to farm Coins since there's no RNG (I'm sure some of you will say FE is all about RNG :p) like for HW's badges and SW4-II's Strategy Tomes. Skill slots also allow for a good deal of customization.

And, of course, what system would you guys would like to see? Maybe something completely different from what I've posted?

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Well, in recent games, the alternative form of character progression is picking up new class skills via reclassing, or in the case of Echoes, picking up new combat arts from wielding different weapons. I think the latter would suit a warriors style game the best. Assuming you can equip different weapons at all (can you? I've only seen characters wielding their ultimate stuff in demo footage).

Alternatively, they could go with skill scrolls seen in Tellius and Fates/Awakening DLC. Find a scroll with a useful skill, teach it to a playable character, they spend skill points on a loadout of skills they've earned. And the max amount of skill points increases via level up. This would probably result in excessive farming for skills, but it would be neat to see what builds can improve a character's strengths and weaknesses.

[DaloDask]

The traditional progression tree with multiple branches was an idea I threw around my head from my limited experience with Samurai Warriors Extreme Legends and Hyrule Warriors, and was mostly, in my mind, a way to make class animations and the idea of using multiple members of the same class any kind of interesting.

I'm kind of hoping the progression system uses items in an equippable sense, as in you would pick up traditional stat boosters, stuff like the Iron Shield and so on to equip to your characters, also potentially allowing you to make jumping from a stronger character to a weaker one while keeping some of the perks, since they could be equipped by multiple characters.

Of course, this is all just throwing ideas out there until we get an FE Warriors specific Direct.

Maybe that will save the hype

[Fireball260]

I really really don't want the coin system from PW to return unless they get rid of the level break system completely. That mechanic really ruined the game because of how rare and random gold character coins are. 

[Anomalocaris]

I'd be fine with either the Hyrule Warriors skill tree or the Samurai Warriors skill board. I like those kinds of non-linear skill progression things.

As long as we don't have to do shit like collect a gazillion gold drops from giant bosses like in Hyrule Warriors.

[Shadow Mir]

36 minutes ago, Anomalocaris said:

I'd be fine with either the Hyrule Warriors skill tree or the Samurai Warriors skill board. I like those kinds of non-linear skill progression things.

As long as we don't have to do shit like collect a gazillion gold drops from giant bosses like in Hyrule Warriors.

Speaking of, the most infuriating case was Toon Zelda by far - she needs Ganon stuff, and loads of it, for her badges. Toon Link in Legends was also a pretty bad case due to needing stuff you couldn't even get until you finished most of Legend mode.

[Jedi]

Theres also the method Dragon Quest Heroes employed which was skill points based (which ties into Dragon Quest itself too) 

[Folt]

Maybe each character would have a weapon stat which would unlock new moves for their moveset as they level it up (on top of a wider variety of weapons for their chosen weapon type).