RPG Maker Forums

ever since deciding that i wanna make my first game in RPG maker, I've wanted the first game in my (hopefully prosperous) game series to actually have 3 seperate stories with 3 main characters in 1 whole game. (and then sometimes separating the party members from 1 another and playing as the main villain for 1 section) but im worried that it might not be a good idea.

on 1 hand, i could pull a pokemon and have 3 separate versions of almost the exact same game but with different characters, locations and enemies. that way people can play as who they want right away instead of having to wait for the section that lets them play as their favorite people.and it would be much easier to make since i wont have to do much programming. AND id make more money that way. but then the 3 games would be shorter than i want them to be (i was gonna do 12 chapters in all so that would mean each game only has 4 chapters.) and some people might find it tedious to buy all 3 just to get a full experience and i might be seen as one of those money loving crap spewing big guys like EA.

(EDIT: everyone seems to be taking that paragraph the wrong way. i was implying that i could do the 3 separate stories in 3 separate games so as to not overwhelm the player with too many characters and stories and/or fill up their hard drive with content.

pokemon probably wasn't the best example to use. i would've said fire emblem fates, but i know nothing about those games so i just went with what i knew. i meant that the core gameplay would be the same seeing as all 3 would be made in rpgmaker. i would've had different locations, characters, stories, enemies, ect.

also, i wasn't in favor of doing an EA where i release the same game 3 times just so i could get some ca$h. even if i did go along with that idea, i wouldve sold each game for like 4$ anyways. hope that cleared things up a bit.)

but on the other hand, i could combine all 3 games and make the game much longer and have many things to do like collect all the weapons and outfits for each character, fill up the bestiary, and experience every character interaction moment. but then every chapter i'd switch to the next main character and that might ruin the flow of the story. (i would try to make things somewhat resolve quickly to prevent cutoffs however.) also it would be absolute H311 for me to program it all. since the 3 characters all have separate inventories and party members. (unless there is a plug-in that could help) i mean, i could try to give an option before you begin to play through whoever's story you want first, but then the climax at the end where all the characters meet up will be kinda confusing since you don't know these people too well.

also the characters who were in the other person's party might not be the same level as you'd want them to be since you'd have no control and i would have to set them at the expected level and give them passable weapons. (which might defeat the purpose of trying to collect as many weapons as you can for each character.) either way could work and either way could fail. so if any veteran RPG makers out there could help me out here, it would be great.

i want my game to feel like something different from regular RPGs and yet still try to remind people of the good ol' days back in the early to mid 2000's with its art style (which i haven't worked on at all ) if anyone could help, i'll promise that if i succeed that i'll mention you helping me make my game almost perfect. ill be asking for more input in other posts when the time comes to it.


PS sorry if i posted in the wrong category again. still getting used to these board things.