As is typical of any RPG, turn-based RPGs often present your character progression through a leveling system. The most traditional version of this system, and the one you'll see in virtually every RPG on the market, is where you gather XP until you reach a threshold, then you get a stat boost, a skill point, or both through which you can improve your character and party members.

These next turn-based RPGs still feature a leveling system to some degree, but they put a fun and entirely welcome twist on the genre standard. They may not be reinventing the wheel (although in some cases, they aren't far off), but they each display an innovative take on one of the RPG genre's most tried and true mechanics, and they may even have some lessons to offer any new RPGs that are still gestating.

We'll start with the system that inspired this list: Final Fantasy 10's Sphere Grid. The idea isn't all that revolutionary by today's standards—Path of Exile's system works in largely the same way, albeit without companions in the mix—but back in 2001 it was a major watershed moment for RPGs and video games in general.

Final Fantasy 10 turns 25 soon, and what it changed matters, but what it meant at the time might be even harder to get back now.

There are technically two progression systems in FF10: the Sphere Grid and the Expert Sphere Grid. The standard Sphere Grid works like your typical skill tree. The big thing with the Expert Sphere Grid was that each companion character's skills were contained within one big, unified tree.

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