Apparently it just took Falcom a long time to figure out how to do level systems
Faxanadu's levels did *nothing* to the player's benefit other than making you start with more gold after you game over, and makes enemies harder
on the other hand, Ys's levels did way too much to the player's benefit--one level too low for an enemy and you do zero damage, one level too high and you one-shot them
-F
@Felthry
It was the early days of action RPGs, and I can't entirely fault them for trying out new concepts... but I was furious at the time, playing them... both were rentals.