Games That Have Unique Progression Systems

Highlights

• Unique progression systems in video games offer more creative and rewarding ways for players to advance compared to standard objective-based systems. These systems make games more memorable and provide a cathartic experience.
• Games like
  Final Fantasy 10
  and
  Yakuza 0
  have innovative progression systems that allow players to customize their characters and gain unique abilities. These systems break away from the repetitive skill tree mechanics seen in many games.
• Games such as
  Warframe
  and
  No Man’s Sky
  offer progression through exploration and mastery of different tools and weapons, rather than traditional leveling systems. These games provide organic and immersive ways for players to level up and become more powerful.

Quest markers on open-world maps, cookie-cutter puzzles and challenges, and XP as a reward; these things get old fast. In many video games, they might even cause nausea or boredom as soon as the players start seeing a checklist of these progression metrics. But every once in a while, some brilliant developers go against the grain and think outside the box. The result is a progression system in video games that incentivizes players in more creative and rewarding ways than objective stomping.

These unique progression systems not only give players more special gameplay but also make the game a lot more memorable compared to the usual template that’s all too common in numerous modern games that don’t really need to be named. The sheer amount of fun that players can have while getting stronger is an incredibly cathartic experience that is a blast to experience first-hand in every way. It’s a testament to how creative video game developers can be that something like a progression system that is usually so robotic ends up being one of the highlights of their respective games!

Updated on March 13, 2024, by Ritwik Mitra: With games becoming more and more complex as they transform from simple gameplay loops to epic adventures spanning hours upon hours, it’s easy to see why more gamers want a palpable sense of progression from the titles they get their hands on. Making progress is fun and all, but players want to be rewarded for the efforts they put into developing their heroes from casual misfits to death-defying saviors who will move heaven and earth to save the day. Games enjoy a bonus if the progression loops they attach to the proceedings end up being so unique and engaging that they become a whole new talking point.

22 Inscryption

All Three Acts Of The Game Are Wildly Different And Engaging In Their Own Way

Inscryption is one of the best video games ever made, using the guise of a roguelike deck-building game to become a truly magical experience that will keep fans engaged every step of the way. From battling against Leshy to uncovering a conspiracy that has dire consequences for the Lucky Carder, it’s easy to see why anyone who played Inscryption can’t stop raving about it.

The three acts in this game are wildly different from each other and do a great job of keeping things fresh and engaging. While some of the risks taken in this title may not pay off, there’s no denying that the guts Inscryption shows to keep players on their toes is something that more games need to try. The mind-bending story and amazing visuals enhance the progression of this game, which will throw players in for a loop time and time again.

21 Tyranny

Magic Is Formed With Sigils And Progression Depends On A Character’s Abilities, Skills, Bonds, And Reputation

It’s a shame that Tyranny was never allowed to achieve its full potential, cutting its story short just when things got engaging. While this is a genuine complaint that may turn people off from enjoying the experience. However, if players don’t mind a bit of an anticlimax, then it’s only a given that Tyranny‘s unique depiction of evil will enrapture players, who have probably never seen the dark side explored in any RPG like this.

Combat is pretty fun to engage with in Tyranny, with the magic system being a clear-cut winner here. Players must find sigils in the game world and use them to craft spells with varying levels of strength and effectiveness. Along with this, the Fatebinder can unlock a wealth of solo and combo moves by forging a reputation with factions and allies alike, making for a fun time as players get in the good or bad graces of certain factions while also utilizing some fun abilities to boot.

20 Final Fantasy 8

The Junction System, While Flawed, Is An Interesting Way To Bolster A Character’s Stats

After the release of Final Fantasy 7, the world was hotly anticipating the next game in the series, with Squaresoft’s reputation being lauded as one of the best companies that was developing games for the PlayStation. While Final Fantasy 8 wowed players with its immaculate presentation, awe-inspiring Guardian Forces, and fun gameplay, some people felt like this game’s focus on the Junction system ended up working against it. The universal acclaim for Final Fantasy 9 further cemented the growing notion in most people’s minds that Final Fantasy 8 was pretty much the black sheep of the franchise.

However, a large section of the Final Fantasy 8 fanbase also swears by this title as a unique, engaging video game that accomplished quite a bit, despite its detractors stating otherwise. The Junction system may be broken, but that’s a part of what makes this game such a fun experience. After sitting through the grind of drawing 99 magic of each element, Junctioning the same to a stat and watching a character’s attributes expand is satisfying for obvious reasons.

19 Gothic

Players Have To Learn Techniques From Combat Masters To Become Proficient In Combat

Gothic is one of the hardest games to get into, with everything from the poorly-aged graphics to the clunky combat system leading to many players giving this game a wide berth. It’s a shame since players who decide to give Gothic a shot will be absolutely blown away by its many immersive systems.

Combat feels awkward early on, which is by design. Players need to accumulate Skill Points and talk to a combat master, who will teach them how to wield weapons so that the Nameless Hero can actually string combos instead of flailing their weapons about in an awkward manner. It’s a unique progression loop that Piranha Bytes has tried to integrate into almost every video game they develop with varying degrees of success.

18 Final Fantasy 10

A Sphere Grid Where Players Can Jump Around With Certain Special Spheres

Final Fantasy 10‘s Sphere Grid system may not seem like the most innovative progression system in the world. After all, a lot of games have skill trees, but it’s the manner in which this game presents the upgrade paths that make it so amazing. For starters, the idea of leveling up with the Sphere Grid was a fresh change of pace for the series as is.

On top of that, players could jump around the Sphere Grid to gain access to another character’s upgrade path. This essentially allowed players who understood how the Sphere Grid worked to create multi-class characters who enjoyed the best of both worlds and could enjoy the best and more perfect stats to augment their attacks. The enhanced version of this title understood how much fun it was to mess around with the Sphere Grid and added an alternate variant of this leveling system that changed how players interacted with the game, making for a contestable yet welcome addition for returning fans who didn’t mind playing through Final Fantasy 10 again with a few tweaked mechanics to make things more interesting.

17 Yakuza 0

Set During Japan’s Bubble Era, Upgrades Are Bought With Cash And Are Pretty Extensive

The Yakuza series is one of the most popular and beloved open-world franchises around, and many people consider Yakuza 0 to be the game that launched the popularity of this franchise to new heights. The game was set during Japan’s bubble era, reflecting just how ridiculous money had become during this era by using it as the sole metric that players used to obtain everything from items to skills.

This made for a great upgrade system as players strove to earn millions of yen and level up their abilities as quickly as possible. It was a unique spin on this iconic moment in Japanese history, with both Real Estate Royale and Cabaret Club Czar allowing players to rack up a ton of cash in no time at all. No matter what, it’s always cathartic to spend a lot of money on a character and watch their suite of abilities expand, with Kiryu and Majima becoming adept dealers of pain and destruction in no time.

16 Empire Earth

Players Start From The Stone Age And Progress All The Way Into The Future

Most strategy games have a unique progression mechanic of going through the ages as players explore new technologies, enter new eras, and develop units that can absolutely decimate their opposition. Titles like Age of Empires and Civilization did this progression pretty well, but there are games that took this concept and injected it with a ton of steroids to make something truly magical.

Such is the case of Empire Earth, an excellent RTS title that not a lot of people talk about nowadays, which is a shame. This game allowed players to start out from the very dark ages and ultimately enter the future, which made for one of the coolest ways to progress through the ages. It helped that the campaign also leveraged this by letting players explore stories across the times, with these story-driven experiences showing the ages of Empire Earth and how well they were fleshed out as well!

15 Warframe

Weapon Mastery Increases A Player’s Rank

There’s nothing standard about Warframe, which was part of the reason why it maintained its loyal player base over the years despite the notorious lack of proper tutorials. In this space ninja game, players progress partly by completing mercenary missions across the solar system.

There are standard quests, but players don’t level up by doing those. Instead, they must literally try out and master as many weapons and warframes as they can to increase their rank. In hindsight, it’s quite an organic way of leveling. Being proficient in many tools is one of the best ways for mercenary ninjas to become good at their job.

14 No Man’s Sky

The Galaxy Is The Player’s Oyster, And Progression Of Any Form Isn’t Gated

It had a rough release, but No Man’s Sky managed to turn its reputation around thanks to updates and free DLCs. It went from an empty, procedurally generated playground to a game that incentivizes exploration and strategizing about survival, especially in harsh environments.

Due to the procedural nature of the game world or, rather, the game universe, there’s no ceiling to No Man’s Sky‘s exploration. And unlike other games that also feature this kind of game world, there’s more to do in No Man’s Sky. Players can follow storylines, go in all directions, or just build bases all over the universe.

13 Death Stranding

Players Help Themselves And Others By Setting Up Shortcuts And Giving Likes

Death Stranding was initially an acquired taste, but numerous updates and newfound player appreciation made it age well over time. Nearly four years later, the game is now one of the most thoughtful cooperation exercises in gaming, where players literally build bridges and roads for others in an online space. For that matter, offline play isn’t recommended.

Even before its numerous fixes, Death Stranding was already a unique game due to its odd progression system. Players assume the role of Sam Bridges in the most dangerous delivery man job in history as he unites a broken world.

12 Path Of Exile

An Impressively Massive Skill Tree That Can Be A Bit Overwhelming For Some

Path of Exile initially comes off as a Diablo clone, but after a few hours, it quickly sets itself apart. Progression is deceptively standard at first until players start hitting a wall with their builds, and they’re compelled to think outside of the box and start abusing the skill tree and skill system.

That’s where the meat of Path of Exile‘s progression lies. Its complex passive skill tree and novel skill gem system make it the Rubik’s cube equivalent of ARPGs. After that, the mechanics just keep getting more and more complex as players reach the endgame; developers just keep piling them on with no end in sight.

11 Pathfinder: Wrath Of The Righteous

Unique Mythic Path System That Naturally Evolves Over Time

Unlike its simpler predecessor, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous shakes up the CRPG formula with its Mythic Path system. This allows players to become literal villains with swarms of insects at their disposal. Or, if they want, players can even turn themselves into permanent dragons.

This kind of freedom in a CRPG was rather unprecedented, making Wrath of the Righteous a surprise hit. With this kind of Mythic Path-fueled progression system, replaying the game is massively rewarding since there are so many avenues of gameplay, and it puts other RPGs to shame.

10 Elden Ring

Organic Exploration Rewards The Player With More Runes, Better Weapons, And Other Useful Items

Elden Ring‘s popularity is proof enough that it’s more than just a thinly-veiled Dark Souls sequel but in an open-world playground. By removing all quest markers and common progression UI elements, the game breathed a fresh new perspective into the open-world genre.

This is an RPG where players can go anywhere they want. There are no limits, though there are a couple of literal gatekeepers (in the form of bosses). Making questlines as vague as possible also ensures that players are rewarded with lateral thinking and exploration. Players will scarcely face a problem if a boss stops them from progressing, since they can just explore more of The Lands Between to get stronger and decimate any boss that was giving them a hard time.

9 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

A Hidden Leveling System That Governs The Weapons And Enemies In The World

Before Elden Ring started redefining open-world RPGs, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild already set an example of how it should be done. Likewise, the progression here is tied to exploration in a way that doesn’t water it down to a level metric.

Players have to find locations based on images in order to progress quests and help Link with his amnesia. The game also doesn’t set up a railroad for players to follow; they can go any direction they want and even head to the final boss as early as the first 30 minutes or so, assuming they can.

8 Hades

Players Invest In Zagreus’ Abilities After Each Run And Master Weapons To Make Them More Powerful

As far as roguelike games go, Hades has one of the most clever ways to tell its story because players get to unravel more about this Greek myth drama whenever their hero, Zagreus, dies. This way, players get rewarded no matter how they play the game.

Dying in Hades is also one of the best ways to become stronger. Hence, the death in this roguelike game isn’t as anxiety-inducing compared to others. And despite the roguelike tag, Hades is a pretty chill game where every mechanic seamlessly blends together to ensure that players keep trying again despite failure.

7 Monster Hunter: World

A Steady Loop Of Hunting Powerful Monsters, Attaining Resources, Crafting Equipment, And Rinse & Repeat

The Monster Hunter series is a franchise so distinctive that its gameplay loop is its own trademark. Thus, not many games were able to imitate it successfully. Monster Hunter‘s rare formula was in full swing and made more accessible in Monster Hunter: World.

In these games, players will go on hunts or missions where their progression relies on how efficiently they can hunt the monsters again and again. Hunts go anywhere from five to 20 minutes, depending on the player’s skill. Monsters themselves have varying and quirky personalities, making each hunt different from the last, and classes are divided by weapons.

6 Nier: Automata

In Terms Of Story Progression, Players Are Encouraged To Uncover All Endings

Seeing the ending screen for the first time in Nier: Automata is not the end of the game. It’s usually just a fourth or fifth fraction of the game because players will have to replay the game several times in order to get the most out of the story.

Each subsequent playthrough is offered from the perspective of different characters. They all achieve different endings, but these endings are all tied together to the final one. That’s game director Yoko Taro’s creative signature for his titles, and this narrative freedom translates to an unforgettable gameplay experience.

5 Darkest Dungeon

Death Is How Players Learn, Hiring Adventurers To Explore Multiple Horrifying Dungeons

Darkest Dungeon is one of the most brutal video games in existence due to the randomness of its combat mechanics. Players control a town or manor that serves as a gathering hub for adventurers or heroes. They must then delve into horrific dungeons to uncover the manor’s secrets and obtain treasures.

Thanks to the game’s sadistic mechanics, players who try to conserve their heroes and pick favorites will have a bad time. The game compels players to work around failure and embrace the impermanence of their fragile and mortal adventurers. Thus, the town or manor has the illusion of a sanctuary that needs rebuilding; but in reality, it’s actually a meat grinder. Heroes go in, and gold or treasure comes out, usually covered in the heroes’ blood and guts. That’s how to progress in Darkest Dungeon.

Actions In-Game Level Up The Skill In Question, And Sleeping Is Necessary To Level Up

Morrowind will forever remain one of the most daring and wondrous environments in an Elder Scrolls game. How the developers handled the titular Dunmer province was nothing short of spectacular. To solidify Morrowind‘s status as an alien game, its progression system is equally eccentric.

There’s the standard Elder Scrolls stat suite, but players level them up more organically compared to something like Skyrim. Jumping around increases Acrobatics, and running around increases Athletics, etc. Questlines are also somewhat vague, and players can lock themselves out of the main quest by killing certain NPCs. It was the Wild West of RPGs back then.

3 Divinity: Original Sin

Following A Structured Build Early On Is Important To Not Be Stuck With A Poor Character

Its sequel is a lot more polished and casual-friendly; hence, Divinity: Original Sin offered a more hardcore experience. In the sequel, it’s easy to follow quests and complete everything. But in the first game, players will have to fend for themselves.

The quest system is a journal that players have to read for clues. Using one’s common sense and deductive abilities is also one of the ways to progress here. There’s no hand-holding, and party members can even debate with others regarding what to do. It makes the sequel look tame by comparison.