Duplicate Trope, Repurpose? (new crowner 4/12): Restart At Level One

No, and no.

So how do you know he was level 50?

Do we need a trope for the game mechanic that resets level progress? Like in Final Fantasy where changing jobs sets you back at level 1 for that job.

That is distinct from "lose all your abilities at the beginning of the sequel" and "This character doesn't play as awesome as they're made out to be.

But would we ordinarily have a separate trope for something like that?

In the game, the person says he was level 50, but something caused him to lose all of that power. Also, you cannot play any of that backstory yourself.

Sure, but that's distinct from this trope.

Going by the name only

Restart At Level One sounds like

• Bag of Spilling
• Every level starts you at exp level 1 and you gain exp only in that specific level after you win the next level you start at 1 as well... This was semi popular in multiplayer games a while back
• Shmuck Bait event that sends you back to the first level.
• enemy uses a skill that makes your level go down or lose exp.
• Class Change To Level 1 ie you change your Job System class in like FFXI or Dragon Quest IX go to level 1,
  • or Disgaea's reincarnation ability which starts you back at level 1 (with a few added stats from previous level's bonuses)
  • or like Final Fantasy V X2, Dragon Quest VI classes and your character level are separate changing classes resets your class level (and maybe some stats) but your character's actual level stays the same. May use a different level name like Tech Points or something like that.

edited 14th Apr '12 2:12:51 AM by Raso

In practice, it is mistaken for:

• Bag of Spilling
• Any event in the game resets your level to 1
• Level is reset to 1 between stages/levels/etc.

@Spacemarine: That sounds like Overrated and Underleveled to me.

edited 14th Apr '12 8:45:26 AM by ccoa

Bumping for votes and opinions on the next step.

When I saw the name I instantly thought it meant what people are using it for. This is a prime candidate for re-purposing.

Calling crowner in favor of repurposing.

edited 1st May '12 6:28:10 AM by ccoa

Two things:

I think that "event that reduces your level to 1" and "level is reduced to 1 between stages" are similar enough to be one trope. Agree? Disagree?

Also, do we need to rename this to prevent confusion with Bag of Spilling? Or does Bag of Spilling need a TRS for a rename? Or neither?

edited 1st May '12 8:11:56 AM by ccoa

Disagree; games where you always start a stage at your lowest experience level as par for the course are not the same as one-time events.

I think Bag of Spilling might need to go here. Plus, I'm not sure which definition this trope is using:

• Bag of Spilling, but different, somehow
• Character is reset to level 1 in-game
• Character is reset to level 1
• Must start at level 1 again if you restart or start a new game

The laconic says that a character is reset to level one in the sequel to his previous game. What about that?

edited 1st May '12 2:21:51 PM by spacemarine50

Bag of Spilling is about losing the equipment/abilities you gained in the original game when you play a sequel, even if they are supposed to be part of a continuous timeline. I think Restart At Level One should be being "kicked back to level 1" (or some other early-game low-powered state, if the game doesn't have levels as such) within a given game.

"I think that "event that reduces your level to 1" and "level is reduced to 1 between stages" are similar enough to be one trope."

Agree.

"Also, do we need to rename this to prevent confusion with Bag of Spilling?"

I'm OK with both names, although I don't oppose a rename for either.

edited 1st May '12 2:27:55 PM by lebrel

Possibly all but the duplicate of Bag of Spilling can be spun off, possibly including the ones mentioned previously in-thread, if they have enough examples. What the trope is right this minute is a clone of Overrated and Underleveled, but we're working on fixing that.

So we may have:

• Possibly a supertrope about things that reduce your level
  • Event in the game that resets your level to one (Level Reset?)
    • Level resets to one after changing job class (Job Class Change Level Reset?)
  • Level returns to one between stages (Between Stage Level Reset?)
  • Level returns to one if you continue (common enough to trope?)
  • Level returns to one in a New Game Plus (common enough to trope?)

Hmm, maybe splitting is the best option here.

edited 1st May '12 2:30:58 PM by ccoa

In that case, Restart At Level One's laconic should be in Bag of Spilling's. That should be fixed first, after we agree what this trope means.

Indeed, Laconic.Restart At Level One actually describes the definition of Bag of Spilling. It is 101% wrong.

And that's bad.

What needs to be done here:

• Move all good examples of Restart At Level One to Overrated and Underleveled
• Make a trope about an in-game event that causes level loss, usually to 1.
• Make a trope about your level returning to 1 because of changing classes/jobs.
• Make a trope about your level returning to 1 between stages.
• Make one of the above tropes Restart At Level One, or make Restart At Level One a disambig for the above.

Does that sound right?

edited 22nd May '12 11:17:10 AM by ccoa

Should we make Bag of Spilling only apply to games that are sequels/prequels?

Bag of Spilling already only applies to sequels.

So, does the import function between Mass Effect 1 and 2 fits where?

Let me elaborate on this a little. The Mass Effect franchise was built from the start to be a trilogy where you take your Commander Shepard, that is highly customizable and basically different from anyone's else, to have your actions affect the subsequent games. While how much it changes is debatable, without the import, Shepard starts in the second game at level one, but importing your save, the level will be instead 3 or 5, depending on the level you finished the first game.

So, my question is, does this fits any of the tropes or is simply a case of Old Save Bonus, or something?

edited 24th May '12 9:44:21 AM by fakeangelbr

Sounds like a combination of Bag of Spilling (if he loses levels and wasn't actually level 3 or 5 at the end of the first game) and Old Save Bonus.

Does anyone have an opinion on whether Restart At Level One should be one of the above tropes or a disambig instead?

Disambig. At least the name fits some of the tropes mentioned above.

Level Loss Event YKTTW, Class Change Level Reset YKTTW, and Between Stage Level Reset YKTTW.

Feedback, examples, and hats welcome.