Troubleshooter has respec at the foundation of its systems and it's excellent.
While I agree it's an excellent game, I don't think respec is the foundation of it's systems. The most important system of droppable passive skills you slot in, is functionally a type of equipment. I can't recall how (or if) it's justified in game, but if it were framed as say, modules on some kind of robot or cyborg, nobody would bat an eye at being able to swap them in and out. Troubleshooter's actual class/talent system can be respecced, but it's a really trivial part- you're only respecing between a few either/or type of options, or switching classes entirely. And I don't count the class switch because you aren't getting that xp back to spend in a different class- you have to level up the new class from scratch. Once you've levelled both you can switch styles to suit the loot you've picked up along the way, and I think that too is fine. Being able to shift a character from 'archer mode' to 'frontliner mode' is reasonable, provided you had to learn both things to begin with, and aren't just magically transferring that shit over. You can make an argument this is superficial (you could achieve the same effect by giving class xp twice as fast so you master both types as quickly as you'd master one and then respec to the other) but that ignores the tradeoff of the middle phase where you could either be an expert at one thing or be adaptable and proficient at both. That's an interesting choice to make, provided relevant challenges exist.
One thing I've never seen in a game is the idea of a partial respec. That is, you can respec your last 5 or 10 levels but no further, like an "undo" button. This gives you the freedom to correct a buildcrafting mistake but still restricts how much you can change. Has anyone seen that?
Tales of Maj'Eyal does this. I think it's only the last one or two levels, but it's enough to at least trial a new spell and see if you want to invest in it further, and see how changes to skills and stats actually shake out in real combat. I'm fine with this too honestly; it makes little sense narratively but it retains the aspect of being invested in your character. "I'm succeeding because I played well." That's the feeling you want from a game. You might get that by changing your character build to adapt to a fight, but that can be accomplished with things like equipment while still retaining permanent aspects of your character.
If you think respecs are a great idea, ask yourself this: Why stop at skills or whatever? Why not let the character race swap too? Or swap classes entirely? "Gee, warriors aren't good at this fight, I'd rather be a wizard" kind of defeats the entire point of having classes to begin with. Throw in turning all your gear into gold at full value and being able to buy whatever kind of item you want on a whim while you're at it. Again, there are games where that kind of drastic shift can be justified, where your party members are disposable or whatever. But to argue all games need that kind of mechanic is insane.
Another problem with respecs is it dramatically restricts the kinds of skills you can put in the game. You can't put something like 'character gains more max health on level up' into a game where you can then spec out of that, and again, that sort of skill (Battle Brothers has something like that) makes for an interesting risk/reward, now/later decision for the player to make. Imagine a game like Civilization if you could just 'respec' your tech tree because you suddenly decided you were done warmongering. That's how a lot of rpgs with a respec feel to me. It robs me of meaningful choices and turns everything into a fleeting optimization problem with no long term consequence- and usually amounts to a lot of tedious busywork in the process.
You are a retard if you think I have time to play through a game from 0 again just because I didn't know what's actually good and fucked up my build. Imagine playing Owlcat's games without a respec, and realizing after 100 hours that your character is struggling. Why would I ever waste time playing a gimped character? How is that fun?
So just turn the difficulty sliders down. You clearly don't care about challenging yourself if you feel that struggling isn't fun. What's the difference between your character having 3 more AC and the enemy having 3 less To hit chance? Nothing except 'hurr durr number is big.'
>It's so much fun to waste your time!!
If the game isn't fun with anything except an optimal build/playstyle, it should have just been a movie instead, because you never really had a choice to begin with. Shitty rpg mechanics don't justify respeccs any more than shitty level design would justify giving everyone noclip.
