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Once we’re done with our current projects and have some money saved up, I’d love to take a few years, maybe hire an extra person or two, and make something truly amazing – an RPG that could stand toe to toe with the classics of the past.
Now I have a pretty good idea of what I’d like in a JRPG, but I was curious to see what others thought on the matter and so I posted the following question on my twitter account: “JRPG fans – what would your ultimate JRPG be like?” I got dozens of responses – many from individuals who work in the video game industry – and the results were interesting.
Below, I present to you the 5 most common elements I saw, in roughly their order of popularity.
1. Control of a Well Written Plot – This was by far the most common element I saw in the responses. Fans want a strong, well thought out plot, but they also want to have some say over what happens.
2. Turn-based battle system – There was a lot of variety in exactly what kind of battle system they wanted (the Grandia, Shin Megami Tensei, and Final Fantasy series were all brought up many times) but one thing was clear – many fans miss the days when turn-based combat was the norm and not the exception.
3. Complex, intricate LV-Up system – Job systems and skill systems were especially popular.
4. Exploration – Players wanted huge worlds with the freedom to explore. No wonder Xenoblade and popular Western sandbox RPGs like Fallout and Skyrim review so well!
5. More adult plots – Fans that grow up on JRPGs in the 80s, 90s, and beyond are now adults and want to be treated as such.
So taking this feedback and my opinions into consideration, here’s a rough premise I came up with.
World is a mix of fantasy & science fiction. Main city in the world is a dystopia ala Midgar that wouldn’t look out of place in Shadowrun. Outside the city, there’s a dangerous wilderness that’s mostly unknown to the civilized world. Main player is a computer that gained sentience and corporeal form (can choose to be either male or female). Main plot has various branches – do you side with those who would use your powers? Go on a quest of self discovery? Seek the quiet life that no one will let you have? There will also be various optional major plot lines ala the Elder Scrolls series guild quests.
Party composition and party member relationships would have an effect on dialogue, plot, available dungeons, etc. None of this “Chie has pledged her undying love to you but her dialogue and actions are still exactly the same in all major plot scenes” nonsense.
Combat will be turn-based and probably loosely based on the Grandia series. LV-Up system would be kind of like the Materia from FF7 except each character has one exclusive Materia that can not be unequipped and individual Materia can be customized ala the Sphere Grid from FF10.
Lots of exploration possibilities. To keep difficulty in control without removing the player’s feeling of progression, each area will have a possible LV range however the LV choosen will be based on things like the player’s progression when they first go to that area. For example, an early area might have a LV range of 1-10 so if you go there right at the beginning, enemies will be permanently locked into LV1 and would stay that way for the entire game. However if you didn’t go there until the end of the game, the enemies would be locked at LV10 (even if you’re say LV50 – still want to make the early area feel like an early area). Conversely, a late game area might have a LV range of 50-60 so if you went there early, it’d get locked into LV50 which might still be way more than you could handle.
2D pixel art and an awesome soundtrack. ’cause that’s just how we do things here.
And now for a quick Q&A:
Will this actually be made? Beats me. Keep in mind that we’re not going to be starting any new projects for a while (gotta finish what we’ve already begun first!) and I scrap ideas almost as quickly as I come up with them so there’s no guarantee this idea will ever turn into anything.
Why do you keep mentioning other games? Don’t you want to be original? This isn’t even at a design document state. Mentioning other games is a quick and easy way to give everyone a general idea. Once a game is further along, that’s when you can start talking details and how to make it more unique.
Aren’t you afraid someone else will steal your ideas? Not particularly. They’re just ideas. Taking these ideas and turning them into an actual high quality game would take a talented team years of work. Plus these ideas are just a starting point – if you gave these ideas to two talented designers and teams, you’d end up with two drastically different games in the end.
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Let's say you want a certain area to be perceived as dangerous if a player reaches it before a certain point in their development. Instead of locking enemy level at player level exactly you could call for enemy level to be player lvl +2 (where player level + 2 does not exceed the area level cap). So if the in-game lore builds up a certian area as being particularly nasty you can have players encounter it and reinforce that reputation through 1st hand experience. Or maybe you want the reverse to be the case because the player has picked up some hidden item. An extra check for said item and suddenly enemies in the area are player level -2.
And that's just from 60 seconds or so of thinking about it. Suffice to say I think it's a really neat tool for making the play experience unique for the user. Nice work.
I also miss the Turn Based Battle Systems from back in the days. Especially the Final Fantasy Series had always great challenging battles for the player.
I am currently developing a 2D RPG Engine for iOS and Android in C++ and Open GL and I am pretty far already. Level Editor and Script Engine are working and right now i am implementing the Battle Engine.
The problem with this type of games is the crazy amount of assets you need, together with a great story and great level design. And also not a lot of sprite artists have the skills to draw like these guys from back in the days. I am searching like crazy for people who are willing to draw but most of them are at this angry birds stuff :-)
Well, time will tell. I wish you will go on. Take a look at my stuff, maybe its interesting for you: http://howtomakeitinamsterdam.wordpress.com .. i have a gameplay video online!
Will the art-style be eastern or western?
This is usually the deal-breaker for me, yes the mechanics do matter, but when I see anime faces with giant swords and spiky hair i cant really follow the "well written adult plot" no matter how good it is.
It would be like watching Citizen Kane as portrayed by Micheal Cera or Adam Sandler.
On westarn art-style can be something like Battlefield Heroes, Team Fortress 2 or Leisure Suit Larry, while on eastern you can get the lines of Vagabond, the Kill Bill animated scene and some of The Animatrix shorts: The Second Renaissance / Detective Story / Beyond.
Another option would be to save the game whenever the player has to make an important choice, thus allowing the player to go back in time and choose the other option.
Granted, I don't play as many JRPGs as I used to, but I still enjoy one from time to time. Dragon Quest VIII's monster arena game was cool. It encouraged you to explore the world and collect monsters and form unique monster teams. White Knight Chronicals also has some interesting ideas about building your own town.
I did pick up an indie title called Pier Solar not too long ago that was developed for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Hard little title but it brought back some fond memories. :)
I love turn based. This idea that things have to be so un-abstract and it must feature combat maneuvering are nothing more than developer's fashions. Menus work great and one of the best selling games of all time (Pokemon) is a classic menu-driven JRPG modeled after Final Fantasy Legend.
The PS1 Arc the Lad games are another example of games that try to simplify controls in an effort to speed up the gameplay.
The biggest thing is that rather than require the player to open up a menu to do everything, attack is mapped to a button. So you can just run up to enemies and press a button rather than having to select Attack and then a target from various menus.
Consider Advance Wars' menus vs it's predecessor, SFC wars (people in the west might say SNES wars.). Every time you move a unit in SFC wars, you are presented with that unit's entire menu, which then takes a second or two to draw, and another second or two to navigate to the option you want- usually "wait", because you didn't have anything to attack, but attack was the default option. Advance wars' menu only shows available options, and the latency in menu flyout was virtually eliminated. (and no more pesky turns that involved moving 22 units: "move, A, uparrow, A. next unit, move, A, uparrow, A. next unit...")
Should an RPG give you an "item" button if you don't actually have any combat usable items? Should an RPG give you a defend option if you don't have a shield? How many menu layers or button presses should it take to achieve a given result? Is the option you're offering the player even an option? Is the option such a no-brainer that you should simply assume he'll want to do it and put it first?
The question isn't "Which is better", the question is "This breaks or slows down the player's immersion, what can I do to fix it?"
In my opinion, JRPGs today are weakest in points 4 and 5: exploration and adult plots. I certainly didn't appreciate Final Fantasy XIII's narrow, corridor-like environments and cardboard-cutout towns. And I agree that many JRPGs today have plots that seem childish to me.
It does seem that there are fewer new turn-based RPGs. Lately, I've been thinking that a studio could profit by taking advantage of the shortage of turn-based RPGs. A good studio could make a lot of sales by satisfying demand. This reminds me of the 2D fighting genre. For a few years, there was a major shortage of 2D fighters. It appeared as if gamers were only interested in playing 3D fighters like Tekken and Virtua Fighter. Then Capcom released Street Fighter IV, and all of a sudden, now there are many 2D fighters (Mortal Kombat, BlazBlue, King of Fighters XIII, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Street Fighter X Tekken). A good turn-based RPG could revitalize the genre the way Street Fighter IV revitalized the 2D fighting scene.
I'm getting tired of "real time" action combat. Sometimes I feel my reflexes are bad and I could accidentaly select the wrong action, which is why I long for turn based combat. It gives me time to think about my next move. I don't mind that it's "slow".
I remember when I played Chrono Trigger on the DS, how it would be great if there was an RPG made with today's tech but with similar story depth and character depth. It seems story and characters don't get much development lately as devs seem to focus on the "pretty" or making things "faster".
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93036357
It is also set in a sci-fi fantasy world and has a pretty similar story as you proposed although it might not seem so at first! ^_^
Also forgot to mention that you can also check out our two completed Alpha Kimori games at: http://www.AlphaKimori.com
Thanks! ^_^