Indeed, that's a gorgeous quote. Thanks for sharing!

Far Cry 2

Don't make the enemies a bunch of bullet sponges. I don't feel like wasting half a mag of 7.62mm on an enemy for "balance" purposes just because it's an assault rifle. It's why the AR-16 sucks the most.

War for the Overworld did that ;)
If you have not tried it yet, this is the Dungeon Keeper 2.5 we have been waiting for!

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I remember playing with a mod that does exactly what you describe (sadly I don’t remember its name right now). I used to combine it with another mod doing only a small tweak: skill progress on failure instead of success, so skills progress quickly at low level and slow down at high level.

Character levels were not entirely removed, but did increase automatically with the general character power. I think they were kept because of the levelled lists Morrowind uses in several places.

I hear that an obscure NES game called Legend of the Ghost Lion is also like this, which permanently penalizes the player for leveling before finding later companions.

(On the other hand, note that Legend of the Ghost Lion handles leveling up differently; instead of earning XP from enemies, you level up by finding a certain item.)

The Magic of Scheherezade handles this better. Companion stats are tied to the main character's level, and levels gained before the companion joins do count. (Worth noting that said game consists of discrete chapters with no backtracking between them; also, when you complete a chapter, you're automatically leveled up to the level cap for that chapter, which serves as the starting level for the next.)

Incidentally, this also reminds me of an issue that is found in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and Geneforge 1 (not Mutagen); XP gained from battle decreases as the main character levels up. This means that companions (demons in SMT:N, or creations in Geneforge) who join (or are created) late won't have a chance to catch up level wise unless they start at a high level, which means you can't, say, train a new Pixie late game and expect it to be anywhere close to the expected level.

(On the other hand, one game that handled this better is Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. In that game, any companion that is lower in level than the main character will gain XP much faster, allowing said companions to reach a decent level in a reasonable amount of time. This means it is feasible to get a new companion up to a reasonable level if, say, you want to try out different types of fairy.)

Reminds me of Wizardry 8, where failing to cast a spell gives you more chances for skill growth than casting the spell successfully. (Note that this is not the case for many other types of actions. Also, note that the manual explicitly mentions failure being good for skill development, so I would not consider this a bug.)

The Surge has a Mk XX limit on equipment. I'd make that much higher or maybe even remove it. Power core doesn't seem to have one.

More for Stranger of Sword City Revisited (I just beat the main game):
* In the final dungeon, if you've cleared all 3 sub-dungeons and step on the center square of the hub, the final sequence starts immediately; there should be a confirmation.
* It's a bit jarring that, after the ending, you're returned to right where you fight the final battle, in the same state you were in, without any chance to save, so you have to walk back out of the dungeon to the warp stone in the nearby dungeon to go back to town to save the game. (Usually, games with post-game content prompt you to save after the ending; this game does not. At least the ending is a lot shorter than the one in Saviors of Sapphire Wings, which just dragged on and on and on.)
* Speaking of which, there should have been an extra warp stone at the beginning of the final dungeon, or perhaps right near the entrance, so it wouldn't be necessary to trek through that part of the forest every time.
* You can only save in the guild. There should have been an option to save in the menu where you select which place to go; this would have cut down on the issue with having to watch cutscenes before you can save the game in some instances.
* You can improve equipment in the store, but only 1 point at a time. There should have been a way to improve the item multiple points at once. (Remember buying potions in Final Fantasy 1 NES? At least you get to see the gradual improvement doing it 1 point at a time here.)

The classic feel of that game is refreshing. I have never heard of it before, but, I'd try to improve the art style for it to look more realistic and serious in tone and design.

If you're into this sort of game, you might want to check out Elminage Gothic as well. It's another Wizardry-inspired dungeon crawler, and it's big with lots of content. Do note, however, that it is quite brutal, with enemies decapitating your characters starting in the second dungeon, resurrection having a chance to fail, and later you even have level draining to deal with. Oh, and stats randomly decreasing at level up, just like in Wizardry.

Thank you for the recommendation, really. :)

nvm

Hmmm... I don't have a specific game in mind but i'd love to see a few features in a number of them, especially console ones.

1) Time elapsed pauses after 5 seconds in menu (if idle), so the amount of time actually spent playing is more accurate.

2) Option to NG+ on every game if able (removing key items that wouldn't work otherwise, or having alternate flags where they'd recieve it, or realize it's a key item later)

3) Have a fast/auto battle mode. For turn based games when you often just keep hitting AAAAAAAAA over and over as it's basically just 'attack' and you don't need any special maneuvers. Also make an option to make said battles/animations fairly fast

4) Skipping easy battles. If you would at your worst speed not get hurt, or beat them before they can act, you just get experience/items/gold as you walk instead of having to battle. In events where it's not a party battle but single (like Pokemon) you can specify which pokemon gets experience to build up weaker ones you actually want to grow/evolve/prep.

5) On console games include either better graphics options for optimizing speed, or include a fast rendering option.

What if I want to battle for reasons other than experience or gold? (For example, to use a free combat-only healing ability, or to build up something like a limit break meter, or I want to steal items or MP from the enemies.)

Then either a) You'd set up a one-round battle plan and if the battle plan would succeed it would go without entering it. This could include healing, stealing, one attack, blocking, etc. Remember if you couldn't beat them in round one then you'd enter the battle normally. Or b) You'd have the option to turn this feature on/off and you'd enter battles by default.

Hmmm or c), i've seen in one game where there's weak mobs that running into them will boost experience/gold but never enter a battle, and then normal ones. But that's where you could see said icons/enemies on the map, rather than RNG entering battle.

The problem with a) is that I might want to spend a few dozen rounds slowly recovering my HP or MP. (For example, Final Fantasy 1 has a couple items that cast a weak healing spell on the party for free; given how scarce healing resources are in that game (99 weak potions and a caster has at most 9 casts of each spell level, and only 4 spell levels have healing spells if you don't count LIF2 (which only works on dead characters), it is extremely helpful to have free healing in that game.)