Oh no, Not the Red Monkey! - Enemy Variety

[BloodletterQ]

"Ah, palette swaps, we love to hate them. Oh wait, that slime from two dungeons ago came back and got stronger."

Common criticisms of RPGS I suppose. Let's say you're limited in the graphics department and want to stretch it out. Therefore, palette swaps. At which points does it get annoying and at which points can the constant repeat of enemies be less tedious as each one would require a different strategy?

How do you spice up your monsters or lack of monsters?

 

[Trihan]

I think on the whole you shouldn't have palette swapped versions of enemies until at least two distinct areas after the last swap of it was encountered. I think sometimes it can actually be helpful, as it provides a sense of consistency and facilitates your players going like "Oh, I fought a different kind of this thing before, what did I do to beat it again? Oh yeah!"

 

[Demi_Fiend]

Pallet swaps can work out pretty well as long as they aren't overdone. For example, you might have a basic "Blue Slime" that is fought at the start of the game. Later in the game, you might encounter another slime, but this time it's red. Simple stuff like that is okay, especially if you lack the resources to make original battlers. If you overdo it however, the player might get sick of seeing the same enemies over and over.

 

[The Stranger]

I wholeheartedly agree with @Trihan . A lot of non-RPG Maker games also palette swap enemies; Arcanum did this and gave them new names. Palette swapping isn't an issue, it adds diversity to a game without making your wallet cry. You just have to space them out a bit so that players don't notice them in a bad way.

 

[Trihan]

Final Fantasy X actually does this pretty well. Pretty much every area has a slightly differently-coloured version of the fast dog thing, some kind of armoured lizard, a bee, a flan, an elemental, and an ahriman type. This is helped by the fact that each type of monster is the specialty of a particular character (Tidus is best for fast monsters, Wakka for fliers, Lulu for flans and elementals, Auron/Kimahri for the armoured ones). In addition to the palette swaps, sometimes they add additional features like horns and larger sizes, but the principle is the same.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I think palette swaps are forgivable as long as something changes about fighting the actual enemy. Different elements, skills, etc. I think as long as it's not leaned on overwhelmingly and that a new challenge is given to the player, what's the harm? I'd definitely try to sway the balance heavily to new enemies but limited resources are a reality for many game designers.

 

[BloodletterQ]

@Trihan FFX is exactly the model of thought of for palette swaps done right. Alternately, I thought Fire Emblem being that enemies are in different classes and I can think of my monsters as different classes themselves. Therefore the same strategy on Besaid Island's Flan can be applied, albeit with some variety, on the Highroad. Aescetics, this ironcally prevents monsters from being otherwise clones. I probably won't change enemy designs but expect the skeleton you encountered earlier on to be much tougher when you see them again.

 

[ShadowHawkDragon]

As has been said, recolours/variations can work if done well and/or spaced far enough apart.

In Breath of Fire 4 , there are several memorable enemies with their own gimmicks:
The platypus creatures who often skip their turn unless the commander-type orders them.
The giant mask creatures who enter a defensive stance that negates/reflects magical/physical damage.
The 'Nut people' who evade physical attacks at a high rate but die easily to magic.

These are only some of them but each of these have at least a second variant with slightly tweaked properties but still have these core gimmicks/behaviours. Usually they are far enough apart that it doesn't feel like you are fighting duplicate after duplicate but not too far that you forgot how to fight them.

 

[Fernyfer775]

To add variety to the palette swap, I also go the extra step and slightly change the size of the enemy graphics. For example, the Green Slime you run into has 3-4 different sizes, and each one will have slightly different stats (usually, the bigger ones have higher stats, and provide more exp/gold). Like many others have said before me, I don't necessarily think using the same battler with a different color/palette is the problem, it's how you do it.

 

[Rayhaku808]

This is the third time this year I've seen a palette swap topic in this place...... what can I say differently this time?

I like how Mario does it. They don't usually do a color swap with the big exception of the red and green koopas. How all the enemies work are set, but they add the same thing to a bunch of them. Like they give wings to everything that you see in the first 3 levels of a Mario game.

 

[C-Unit Studios]

I actually like pallete swaps sometimes as long as they aren't the same ones over and over again. If done right they can actually add to the diversity of the world if there are small edits added to there appearance. Kind of like how the new pokemon games have different variants of the same pokemon based on what region they are in. I also think that to justify a pallete swap you need to change how the unit battles by giving it new moves or changing its strengths and weaknesses.