Okay, so.
Some time has passed, i have found a script that lets me generate "Mystery Dungeon-style" levels among other handy ones, and i also honed my skills a bit by playing around with the program on a test game. I also thought about this whole "Roguelike JRPG" thing, and i have new ideas to bring to the table. (I've also been playing a lot of Roguelikes and JRPGs recently)
First off, i wanna talk about the format of such a combination of games.
With the previous idea that i had in mind, i thought that having a story in an Etrian Odyssey-like game with permadeath and random dungeons was pretty okay, as long as the mechanics get along well with it. I still think so, but i've also been thinking... Maybe a Roguelike doesn't need that much of a story to be enjoyable?
Could it be that some Roguelikes actually benefit from a rather simple plot as well? I think that the answer to that is: Totally.
For example, Rogue Legacy and The Binding of Isaac are both very good Roguelikes that are extremely addictive and enjoyable to play maybe also because there's just either a vague or simple story. In fact, most of that kind of games are composed of quick runs that rarely stretch more than 45 minutes, if you take your time. I've been playing both of the games i mentioned, and ended up thinking that maybe there was something wrong with my project, from a surface level at least. Looking at it from the designer's perspective, i think it's still very viable, but... Can i do better than that?
Can i take the mechanics i love from my favorite games and merge them together so they enhance each other? It's a very clear possibility actually.
So, another idea for a game came to mind: What if i mix Mystery Dungeon's level creation, some mechanics from The Binding of Isaac (Ergo Items that stack up and possibly create synergies), and the fundamentals of JRPGs (like a turn-based combat system and equipment/party member management)?
The result is this weird untitled game that i have yet to give a decent name to, designed to enhance both the Roguelike mechanics and the RPG elements. I actually have some concepts here, i'll post a photo of my doodles under here so you can kinda see where i'm going with this. (Sorry for the quality)
Let's talk a bit about this new game idea:
Basically, the thing with this game is that you're a... Well, let's say "knight", and your objective is to get to the top of these towers, while picking up items to strengthen yourself up before a fight with a big boss.
Your character only has a few "special move slots", and you start the game with either none, 1 or anyway not many abilities at all, but you can find new skills among other items while you explore, and equip them like armor (Which is also supposed to be in the game). You can also grab permanent stat-altering items that will spice up your run, and consumables like the classic Potions, Bombs and Keys and the sort.
At the end of each level, you'll rescue a Princess, that will behave like a "familiar" for the rest of your run.
You can't control the Princesses and they have preset armor and skills that you can't swap out, but even so, they offer a huge help, supporting you with various actions depending on their abilities and who actually is in your party. For example, a Paladin Princess can only Defend and Provoke the enemies to target her instead of you, but has high Health and Defense and sometimes counterattacks; a Hexer Princess uses either a Poison spell or an Attack debuff spell on every enemy, that are both really useful against swarms of enemies or bosses, but they both have some cooldown times; a Cleric Princess will use either a big Cure spell on one ally or a weaker version of it that affects all your party, but can't do anything else... I have quite a lot of ideas.
I also really wanted to keep a decent Story mode in this, because i enjoy making characters and stories a lot, especially if i have to write them for a game. I don't mind having more work if i enjoy said work.
What do you guys think of this new idea? In my opinion, it's somewhat easier to realize than the previous one, actually, and has the premises of being pretty fun... But that's just the designer's point of view, so i want to know what you think, what i should work on, what you think is good and what you think is bad, all that kind of stuff. That's all i have to say for now. I hope you don't think this thread is dead...
