This is the question many players have been asking about Brighter Shores. It’s already understood that the game is divided into Episodes, with each unlocking a new area of the map and new professions, each with unique game mechanics. But how does this process actually work? And what happens to your combat progress—will it be lost?
Amid these doubts, the developers of Brighter Shores issued a clarification. In this post, we’ll explain how progression works in the game across Episodes.
The Developers’ Statement:
According to the note published on Steam on November 8 they stated:
Introduction
One of the design aspects of Brighter Shores that has generated a lot of discussion is our decision to have a separate combat profession for each Episode. So, I thought it would be important to explain our reasoning for this and the changes we plan to implement based on player feedback.
First, I’d like to reassure you that all your hard work leveling up your professions will NOT be erased, reset, or rendered irrelevant when you start a new Episode!
When you reach Episode 2, Hopeforest, four new professions are introduced: Explorer, Woodcutter, Gatherer, and Carpenter.
Your professions from Episode 1 remain intact and are still useful whenever you’re in Hopeport. You’ll notice that you’ll regularly return to Hopeport to use and continue leveling these professions. However, while in Hopeforest, you’ll predominantly rely on the professions available there, which may feel a bit unusual at first.
The Reason Behind This Design
We designed Brighter Shores to be enjoyable for players who want to spend hours per day as well as for those who can only play a few minutes daily. This means that, over time, some players will reach much higher levels than others!
However, when introducing new Episodes, we want everyone to have fun. If there were a single combat profession for the entire game, and monsters in Episode 5 started at level 100, for instance, players who play a lot would already be far beyond that level. They would find it too easy, skipping much of the early part of the Episode and having little to do afterward. Meanwhile, casual players would find it too difficult and unable to participate in Episode 5.
Some games attempt to solve this by applying a level cap, which is raised with each update, and then “boosting” all characters to the level of the latest content. This avoids players falling too far behind. However, this approach results in a lot of “dead” content with every update, and boosting new players undermines the achievements of existing players. It also means players are stuck at a level cap with no further progress possible.
Other games solve this by having game content “automatically adjust” to the player’s level instead of having fixed levels. However, we don’t like this because it means leveling up doesn’t feel rewarding or unlock new content.
So, we designed Brighter Shores differently. We opted for what we call a system of “breadth and depth.” It’s not our intention for you to “complete” Episode 1 and then move on to Episode 2, never returning to Episode 1 again.
Instead, it’s relatively easy to progress to each new Episode (breadth), but even when you reach the latest Episode, there is still plenty to do. You can, at any time, revisit any previously unlocked Episode and continue leveling up there (depth). Each Episode also includes tougher side quests for this purpose. These quests are intended for players who want to invest more hours, offering an extra reason to continue progressing in earlier Episodes. Over time, we plan to add even more challenging side quests so that your Guard level in Hopeport remains useful for a long time! The difficulty of a side quest is indicated by its star rating.
Episodes are also deeply interconnected, so you’ll often find yourself going back and forth between them. For example: You might use your combat skills from Episode 3 to hunt monsters for potion reagents. You can then take those reagents back to Episode 1 to craft potions to use in Episode 4. When you reach Episode 3, you can also start crafting your own weapons, which can be “tuned” for use in any of Episodes 1 to 4, making preparation for Episode 4 easier.
Give It a Chance
I should mention that all our testing shows that, once you get used to it, unlocking a new combat profession from time to time becomes quite enjoyable. The early levels of professions are usually the most fun since you progress much faster, and everything feels fresh and new. We want players to experience this sense of novelty whenever a new Episode launches, rather than only when they first start the game.
If you still don’t like the idea of multiple combat professions, you can, of course, choose an Episode you enjoy and focus predominantly on combat there. When we add leaderboards, we expect focusing on a specific profession or Episode to climb the rankings to become a common strategy.
What Are We Changing?
Based on feedback from those who find the reduced emphasis on Hopeport professions disorienting while in Hopeforest, we’re making some changes:
- We’ve already made the first change! We’ve updated the level displayed next to your character’s name to show your total level across all professions and Episodes. This avoids it confusingly dropping to zero when you’re in Hopeforest and highlights that nothing has been reset—your previous progress remains relevant.
- We saw a player suggestion to add special content that requires multiple combat levels to complete. For example, a boss that you need both a high-level Guard and Explorer to defeat. We think this is a great idea and will definitely add such content in the future.
- We obviously need to better communicate our “breadth and depth” system. Not only do some players mistakenly believe that progressing to Episode 2 makes their Guard skills useless (which it doesn’t!), but some are also trying to complete all the Episode 1 side quests before even starting Episode 2, making the experience tedious! This post is the first step to addressing that, but we also need to better communicate this in the game! We’re open to suggestions on this!
- One plan is to display difficulty ratings on the main questline as well as side quests, so players can see that continuing with the main quest first is easier than completing all the side quests. Maybe “Episode” isn’t the clearest word to describe the different sections of the game? We could switch to “Area” or “Zone,” but we still like emphasizing the episodic nature of the story.
Conclusion
We hope this clears things up. Being able to add new Episodes to the game that everyone can enjoy without creating large amounts of “dead content” is very important! We believe our “breadth and depth” design achieves this, but we may not have explained it very well!
Our Opinion
Balancing an MMORPG to appeal to both casual players and “tryhards” is no small task. Many MMORPGs have seen their communities dwindle to the point of closure or maintaining a server for only a handful of players.
When it comes to MMOs, you’ll agree that their appeal lies in interacting with other players—whether in combat, trading, or simply chatting. Thus, when an MMO loses its player base, the game essentially loses its purpose.
On the flip side, there are positive examples of MMORPGs that have remained popular for decades, receiving regular updates. Part of the “formula” for this success involves balancing with the addition of new content, which Brighter Shores aims to achieve.
We believe the developers are aligned with the community and genuinely want the best for the game. Therefore, while it may feel odd at first, we understand that this system is vital for the game’s long-term success. But what about you—what do you think of this system?