Games with narrativized reason for upgrade mechanics?

For some reason the thought popped into my mind that I couldn't think of any games who give an actual narrativized reason for leveling up or upgrading your character. In a game like Skyrim they have found a way to incorporate the level-up screen into the diegetic world, but it is never really explained in what leveling up grants the character the ability to 'purchase' new stars.

I'm not saying that it is a bad thing that this isn't happening, but I was just wondering if there were any games out there which actually give a real explanation on upgrading.

Are there?

No? :(

That's a really good point. I'm sure there must be at least a few, surely?

Deus Ex sort of gets into it. Deus Ex: Human Revolution in particular has the protagonist receive augmentations at first because that was the only way he was going to survive his injuries from a certain incident.

Basically, his augmentations make him super human, and since he's head of security for a corporation they sort of give him incentive to keep upgrading via praxis kits (which he can find in the world or earn by gaining experience) so he can get his job done more easily. As the player you can even sort of have a say in whether you agree with it or not, and there's a really interesting choice that comes up mid-game with regards to your augmentations that comes to play towards the end, but I'll only spoil it if you press further on it.

There wasn't much narrative to the upgrades of his augmentations themselves, but I still think the premise of the protagonist's augmentations was still well done.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Darksiders, Bioshock.

Also, try not to bump your threads. It had been 20 minutes. Maybe give it a day or so.

@EquitasInvictus: That's a great example. The upgrade mechanics are really part of the world that they create in that game.

@AlisterCat: Bioshock is another great example. Darksiders does get into the whole collecting of souls thing, but does it really give an explanation why delivering souls grants him a new move? Or is it just that he can trade the souls to 'learn' new abilities? Also: I shouldn't have bumped, thanks for pointing out.

Final Fantasy 7 does a good job with this. It is still video gamey but materia are explained within the fiction.

Dead Space.

@TooWalrus: How? Haven't played that one.

Metroid had the idea of fueling your progress through adapting ancient technology to your suit.

Some fighting games have had progression based on the idea that your training and experience makes you better and better.

Half-Minute Hero; the game's narrative is based on a parody of RPG tropes. One of those tropes is upgrading.

Hence, upgrading in this respect has been narrativized, as it's expected. Right..?

@AlisterCat said:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Darksiders, Bioshock.

I was going to say BioShock, as well. No way could you make it through Rapture without Plasmids. Splicers would chew you up, not to mention Big Daddies. One of those "Necessary Evil" situations. And the fact that using the Plasmids and Gene Tonics, is basically making you use the same things that destroyed Rapture to begin with, is quite parallel with the narrative.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster."-Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

In Tear Ring Saga, they explain things like why Raffin can ride a dragon (he starts off as a Paladin) and why Narsus has that strange transform ability that never left Fire Emblem 1. Does that count on any level?

@Demmetje: Psychonauts. You earn "badges" for abilities as well as develop (upgrade) your mind to be able to wield complex abilities. You elaborate, throughout the game you are told how and why you are getting these upgrades. You gather arrowheads (which are there for being upon a burial ground, I believe) which are your currency. You gather Figments and floating "cards" that are generated by collecting thought-webs throughout the game and weaving them.

I probably explained it horribly, but there you go :)

@mwng: That's a cool subversion of the concept!

In Vagrant Story, Sydney Losstarot and Rosencrantz suggest to the protagonist (Ashley Riot) that the memories of his life do not reflect the reality of what has happened to him.  Ashley unlocks new abilities by "recalling" killing arts that he was once trained in.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit does it to an extent, too.

@Drebin_893: The old or the new one?

The Darkness 2 kinda does it if I remember correctly - rewarding Jackie for the kills.

In Nier, all of your magic comes from your homeboy book, grimoire weiss, and to unlock him out of his prison, you have to wail on him, and this causes him to forget all his spells; thus making you go find the sealed verses to get them back.

@Demmetje: Infamous does. In the first one you get new powers by exposing yourself to super powerful charges of electricity at power stations while simultaneously turning on the power to the next part of town. The fiction says that the longer you spend experimenting with the power the more you learn and the more you can control it, so that explains the exp points. In Infamous 2 new powers are gained differently but in a similar way that is also explained in the fiction. Basically there is a plot device and you need to collect 8 of these plot devices to be powerful enough to defeat the final enemy. The different factions know the plot device is important for something so they are trying to hoard and hide the ones they have. I forget the actual fiction that explains what the plot device is and why it's important though.

Also, there is only ONE game called Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit; it is the third one. There is another one called Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit and one called Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. So they really have made it easy to not confuse them.

If I remember correctly Final Fantasy XIII contextualised its levelling up system (the Crystarium System) as the characters unlocking abilities that they have the potential to earn due to them becoming l'Cie but that they cannot control properly. The characters only become l'Cie at the end of the first Chapter and up to that point they cannot level up, they do not gain experience (in XIII it is called CP) which fits with the context. The Crystarium is set out as tiers branching off from each characters crystal (their Eidolith crystal which contains their Eidolon which they can summon once they have aquired access to their Eidoon by breaking open their crystal) and it is actually this crystal which gives them their powers and they need to level it up with CP (Crystal Points) to grow their crystal and thus give them powers.

I have definitely seen others but I can't quite remember them right now.

--Edit-- I also just remembered that XIII-2 actually doesn't contextualize it at all but it does bring up something that sort of breaks XIII's version as characters which are not l'Cie can now use magic, uncluding Noel and Serah the protagonists who can also level up (this time which an actual Level number for their given role) and they do not have an Eidolon so their Crystarium doesn't branch off a Crystal and instead follows a grid akin to a contelations like Skyrim does). However the story does point out how people think it is odd that suddenly now that they are on Pulse they can suddenly use magic and learn these abilities usually associated with l'Cie and this is never actually brought up again after the start of the game (however it is sort of hinted at that it has something to do with either Pulse as a place giving people powers or that the Fal Cie on Cocoon could have been supressing them).

Bulletstorm explained its scoring system, which could be spent on upgrades, as a training program for elite soldiers. The better they did the more resources they had.

Another one which actually subverts this is the .hack series where you, the player, are actually playing a person playing an MMO. So there is an in-game real world (which you interact with through emails and news etc...) and then the game you play is an MMO inside that in-game world. Therefore the levelling system is contextualised that way as it is an MMO which has a levelling system - the main story of the game is about the game being a game and how it is affecting the real world so even taking the story context the levelling system is still there because you are playing a game. It is pretty crazy.

@Demmetje: It's a bit dubious, but War is giving souls to Vulgrim who in turn is infusing war with power or giving him items. It works for everything except the moves, since I'm not sure that counts as power but maybe he is putting knowledge in to your head? Losing your power at the start of the game is explained but I don't see how the knowledge of how to do a move got sucked out too.

Now that I think of it, I'm really surprised that this isn't a wiki concept page yet.

The Arkham games talk about going back to the Batcave to get a better Grapple gun, or asking Alfred to sent him something in particular.

Call of Duty?

Assassin's Creed kind of?

@Demmetje: inFamous?

Witcher 1 and 2 is totally all about preparing yourself and prepping to fight monsters.

@MordeaniisChaos: How does Call of Duty do it? I assume you're talking about the online leveling system.

@EquitasInvictus: Let's make it one! I'm just not sure what the buzzword should be.

@Dixavd: That .hack explanation seems awesome, I should really try that series.

@Demmetje: Aquiring ranks in a military command structure and getting real world weapons that real life soldiers would use. It's a stretch but it works for me. But also in the campaign, things like the the heartbeat sensor in the snow level with Price.

Valkyria Chronicles...at least I think so...

@BabyChooChoo said:

Valkyria Chronicles...at least I think so...

Not really. You go to the training field to upgrade your classes, but it's never explained just how they get upgraded, gain new abilities and such. This is especially confusing when you can train the engineer class to get better at engineer stuff in the training field, which makes no sense.

I really appreciate when along with a narrative coherence of upgrading theres also a visual change in your characters outer appearance to go along with it. One of the things I liked in Bioshock 2 was how the weapons got the little add ons when you upgraded them, instead of just stat increases.