​Daily Debate: Should Future Zelda Games Implement a Level Up System?

Leveling up your character in video games has been an entertaining element for many since the 1980’s. In fact, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link had a leveling up system: upgrading magic, health, and attack damage. We saw the return of this system in Hyrule Warriors, but on a more complex scale. Do we as a community want the ability to level up Link in future Zelda titles such as Zelda U?

Some might say that leveling up systems are just designed by video game companies to force the player into spending more time than they originally would playing the game, specifically to improve their character’s stats. It is precisely this element in Hyrule Warriors that creates such replay value, but some gamers may not like to relive their games that often. It could become annoying to have to improve your character by focusing some extra game time on just that.

On the other hand, leveling up Link could become a very fun activity for some players. This is what I believe made Pokémon such a success, because they were one of the first video game franchises to add this way to reward play time. Some gamers are more than delighted to spend that extra hour every so often to improve their character’s stats.

What do you think? Should future Zelda titles implement a way to level up Link? Would this increase annoyance during future Zelda games? Let us know in the comments.