Earlier, I made a topic about level draining, which is when an enemy attack decreases the character's level, a mechanic that has not exactly been popular. (Even D&D has replaced it with different mechanics in later editions, I believe.)

On the other hand, there are some games where you can lower your level, sometimes even all the way back to level 1, in order to gain some long term benefit, and am wondering what you think of this mechanic (as well as, perhaps, some interesting uses of it that I'm not aware of).

For examples of games with this mechanic that are on GOG:
* Wizardry 6-7: You can change a character's class, lowering the character's level to 1, but you keep your skills and spells, and can get more when you level back up.
* Elminage Gothic and Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls: Based off earlier Wizardry, the only things you really keep are spells and HP (and in Elminage Gothic the extra HP don't actually matter in the long run due to the way HP gains work).
* Bard's Tale 1-3: Casters can change to other spellcasting classes, keeping spells and stats, but going back to level 1. This feature is limited by the fact that you can't return to a previous class, and there's only a finite number of classes you can change to (BT1 has only 4, BT2 has 5, and BT3 has 7, but there's extra rules for the BT3 exclusive classes).
* Many older D&D games (Gold Box series, Dark Sun Series, Baldur's Gate 1/2 and Icewind Dale) have dual-classing. You go back to level 1, and lose your former abilities until you pass your former level. Also, there's high ability score requirements (in a game where ability scores are basically set on character creation and don't increase), and you can only do this once (twice in the Dark Sun games). Also, this mechanic is restricted to Humans.

More modern GOG examples:
* Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark lets you reset a character's level. In a game where stat gains depend on your class at the time of level up, this can be used to create slightly more optimized builds, or be used to fix a character who leveled up in the wrong class for their role too much.
* Stranger of Sword City Revisited: Class change costs half your level, but allows you borrow a limited number of skills from the former class, and your HP and MP will be higher than if you didn't change class.
* Mary Skelter: Nightmares: Apparently, you can "devolve" your characters, gaining permanent stacking bonuses to stats and CP (used to learn skills), as well as allowing characters to respec abilities. This ability costs a varying number of levels, with the cheapest option costing 15 and the most expensive costing 80 (but giving much bigger boosts). (Note that I haven't played this game myself except just to see if it works; it does on one of my computers, but not the others.)

So, any thoughts, or other interesting examples of this mechanic? (Worth noting that I didn't have to leave GOG to get these examples; leaving GOG would allow examples like Disgaea and Etrian Odyssey to be considered.)

Edit: Why the low rating?

Xanadu Next *Which is currently on sale
https://www.gog.com/game/xanadu_next

This action RPG has a level down mechanic. In the early game if you decide you've made a mistake with your stat allocation you can level down at the local church to fix it and the levels up only take half the experience to get back to the same point. As a side note, most pieces of equipment have minimum stats checks if you want to use them.

In the late game, there's a guardian that you equip that gives more stats per level up. So it makes sense to level down to level 1 at that point and get all those bonus stats. The game even gives you a complimentary wood sword (weakest weapon) to help nudge you on that path at the time. This isn't needed to finish the main game though.

It's not exactly the same, but in Resident Evil Revelations 2 there is a Diablo like mode that is really fun to play except that it punishes good performance. That is, if your gain a lot of levels from good performance quickly your level is over the recommended level for given stages. This is an issue when you realize that you actually have to be under level in order to gain all medals for a stage. So, before you start a mission, you have to tell it to change your character's level to be under the rec or else you are wasting time. However, I did not put a bunch of money (in game currency, I probably unfortunately must clarify) and effort into the character just so that I can not use them.

When this mechanic is played straight in games I do tend to ignore it. Any game making me re-grind levels is probably a game I just want to be done with already, which can be a shame. Combine this with the fact I will inevitably unintentionally ignore a major game mechanic (like in Alliance Alive, not the level thing the other one) and I probably waste more time being stubborn and ignorant than if I just took advantage of the level decreaser.

The upcoming Mary Skelter 2 has exactly the same level decrease mechanic as the og Mary Skelter Nightmares, albeit glitchy (at least in both console versions). So while it's great for maxing stats and abilities (which helps a bunch in the final boss, since it packs quite a punch), make sure you save before each time you use the level decrease mechanic, as the game could randomly erase a character's abilities permanently.

And if I remember correctly but I need to confirm again, when you start the revamped Mary Skelter: Nightmares from the MS2 package and choose to skip most of the game, the characters' stats are imported, including what you got from the level decrease system.

A game where this mechanic was used well was the world ends with you.

Your level is on a slider so you can easily slide up to max or slide down to level 1.

Decreasing levels only reduced HP iirc and increased the chance for rare drops, up to 100% which was useful for completing the bestiary and getting items. Also bragging rights since the bestiary recorded the lowest level you defeated a boss.

It's also a game that has historically failed to work under WINE in an interesting way; apparently, many of the game's textures would be replaced with rainbow colors or something along those lines. (I've heard that's been fixed, but the game was broken for a really long time before then.)

I'm sure I mentioned Materia Magica around here before, that text-based MMO I used to play. Each character has a class level and a total level, and classes are split into four categories, mage, fighter, cleric and thief, and each character will eventually get a class from each category, exactly which classes are available depending on race, and the order in which categories are tackled being the player's choice. Once you reach class level 60, you can no longer level up until you change class to one from a category you don't have a class in yet, at which point your total level increases by 1 and your class level is reset to 1. You get access to all skills and spells of your new class alongside all those from your previous classes, but all proficiencies are reset to the highest level each of your classes has at level 1, and since each skill and spell has a proficiency requirement, you'll lose access to all but the basic skills. Then, as you level up your new class, said proficiencies will always be at the highest level of any of your classes.
So if for example your first class granted at level 2 an 8% spell complexity comprehension, 6% mystical proficiency and 5% for the rest, your second 7% weapon and 7% combat and 5% at the rest and your third and current one 6% each for weapon, defense, combat and technical and 5% for the other two, you'll actually get 8% spell, 7% weapon and combat and 6% defense, technical and mystical.
So it's not a choice like multiclassing is in D&D, you have to do it if you want to increase in total level and it must be done after you reach class level 60, can't level more in a class, can't multiclass earlier. But can stay at class level 60 however long you want and keep improving all currently available skills and spells, as training is through use (also at trainers, but for most, trainers only teach up to 75%).

Not on GOG, but Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy also has a system for decreasing levels, which works as an extra challenge, as a way to get more rewards in dungeons, and as a way to get more experience and ability points from battles. And the system doesn't affect your actual level, as you can go back to it whenever you want and you can keep getting levels from battles.

Does Diablo 2's respec function count, where if you've gone down the wrong skill tree, you can reset skills?

Does it cost levels to use?

When i used it recently, no it didn't. You clicked it, all skills undid themselves, and you just did a new branch.

Though stats you can do too, in multiplayer i'd reset, then put a ton into health and my health bar went WAY wide green until it adjusted itself. Reminds me of editing the save file to give myself like 100million experience the experience bar would be off the screen until i killed something and leveled like 40 times.