Should there be level requirements for story missions and/or areas you visit?

People do complain about the weirdest things...

Though really I've never really been a fan of having any enemies with level requirements. It raises more problems then it solves and ME was just fine letting your character level up and progress without knowing how theoretically powerful the enemy mooks are.

Dragon Age obviously has it's roots in D&D so you can see it where it comes from. But it's soft level-gating, and you can always try punching above your weight class. DA is more forgiving here too than in some other RPGs.

There's a number of things here to consider too...

- What is the overall power curve in the game? Steep or shallow?

- Is combat primarily reliant on player skill/reflexes? Is it reliant on character power and strategy? Or is based on some combination of these?

- How fast do you want your players to advance? Rate of progression is going to be trickier to balance in a big open world game than a linear one. What might seem slow to one player, might be too fast for another. And yes, there are games with way too much grind.

Dragon Age is a game with a fairly steep power curve and reliant on character power and strategy. So having recommended level requirements makes sense. For games with shallow power curves and reliant primarily on player skill/reflexes, then level requirements aren't as needed.

DA's level advancement is on the quicker side too IMO. If you're grinding, it'll likely be for crafting materials and not leveling. I think it's because people were complaining you were leveling too quickly in DA:I that they added the "Take It Slow" Trial (1/2 XP). Even with that I'm maxed out before the end of the game.

I don't think there should be level requirements at all. To me, it seems like player hand-holding, which I want to reduce as much as possible. And I say this as someone who plays the games on easy mode. I don't think of this regarding game difficulty, but of enabling the player to just use their damn brain; be observant; pay attention to the game going on in front of their eyeballs.

That said, I'd prefer level scaling. I always turn that on in the DAI trials, even if I don't use anything else.


I think the "warning" is the key word here. Perhaps the map info could state a level range. There is the warning; people can heed it, or not. I'm sure there are people who would eagerly try for Nightmare+++ with a level 10 character on a level 15-20 map. Let them do it if they want.

I think it's a fair question. While it is very easy to get "power" in DAI. You still have to do some side quests to get "power". No other BioWare game as that kind of requirement to advance the story. The closest is probably ME3, but even then it doesn't require a point system.

I wouldn’t mind seeing more areas restricted due to the part of the story you are at, so that there can be more reactivity.

Absolutely not.

Agree! I would rather have more reactivity than be able to do anything in any order.

My perspective on this is...side quests or no...if the activities in question are fun and fullfilling why not do them? And its not just easy to get power in Inquisition but absurdly easy. I always finish the game with about 200+ power...and I know I don't do everything...not even close! Which means I can probably do something like 1/20ths of the side quests I do in the game and still have enough power to finish the game. I've always felt that the grind for crafting materials was a lot more omni-present then the grind for power.

Which would be great for XP and loot farming. (I do that alot in Skyrim)

I just went off the OP, where they referenced Assassin's Creed Odyssey.  You can try to do quests that are above your level.  You'll die, almost immediately.  But it lets you try.

Ideally, there would be enough side quest content that grinding isn't necessary.