RMMV The Orphan of Time's Battle System

[Mordridakon]

The number one complaint of my first project(Quest to Score) was the battle system was boring and so the battles were boring. While there were more interesting battles, they all tended to come towards the end of the game, which was way too late as none of my beta testers ever got to them So for my second project, The Orphan of Time, I'm spicing up the battle system. I'm using a combination of Yanfly Scripts and Ellye's ATB.

I'm revolving the battle system around the ATB gauge and the main character Fera's ability to manipulate it by giving or taking ATB gauge from her, her teammates and enemies(Some of whom will do the same later on). However, I want the player to be strategic about manipulating so I'm going to limit the number of times per battle a manipulation skill can be used(this is where Yanfly scripts come in). For regular battles it may not be an issue, but for boss battles, it will.

Balancing is hard enough, so I'm just sticking with 4 characters for this project. The character set up is as follows:

Fera: Focused on gauge manipulation, but if you don't want to do that, she has some nifty TP-based attack skills as she's also a strong attacker. Her manipulation powers will be added at set points instead of being level based. Also toying with the idea of possibly allowing you to "buy" them.

Harold: He's the "hero class" gets some weak magic but his hook is his tp-based debuff attacks. Later on, when he gets an agility debuff, enemies can really be slowed(when combined with gauge manipulation). Will also probably get a taunt skill.

Fiona: The "healer." Will get a combination of heals, cures, buffs and an attack skill or too. Will make sure to give her an agility buff.

Raka: The "mage" He will get a set of elemental attacks that will power up through the game(thanks to a particular formula). Also will get a set of state attack(that will work on bosses).

So how does this structure sound? What needs tweaking on the conceptual level?
Oh and for those wondering, here's the plot:

Spoiler

In the year 3022EE, a long forgotten enemy has reappeared, but because magic is long gone from the land of Esteria, they are powerless to stop it. So a secret project is formed to send a young soldier, Fera Dyson, back 2000 years to defeat the enemy before it disappears. But she arrives in the past, she quickly learns she is an orphan of time, a person without a beginning, because due to the mechanics of time travel, her beginning no longer exists. Therefore, she gains strange powers. Dark forces are now conspiring against her and she must act quickly to defeat her enemy before history repeats itself.[\spoiler]

 

[onipunk]

I honestly think the bigger problem is your characters. They're just very standard. I would honestly look at redesigning their skillsets, looking at what twists you can put on it, what common classes you can combine, what new tools you can give them. I do like the idea of ATB bar manipulation but you need to design it into the core of the system ie. ask yourself "how will the enemies take advantage of ATB and how will the player take advantage of ATB manip to beat those enemies", and I'm not sure that the ATB manipulation alone will be enough to make the battle system exciting. More exciting than default, sure, but still not exactly something that hasn't been seen before.

 

[alcreator440]

Yeah your characters need work but I would focus on the main protagonist for now. The Orphan of Time concept isn't quite clear to me. So if anyone travels back to the point before they were born become an Orphan of Time? What exactly is an Orphan of Time and how does that make our protagonist unique? How will this journey arc the protagonist? How will Fera's journey affect the other characters and their arcs and vice versa?

If this is a story about Fera's self discovery then she either needs to be a character that's so sure and confident of who she is so when she does find out that she's not who she thinks she is the story will revolve around her coming to accept that fact; or she was always unsure of who she was but aspires to be something great despite her unknown background, then make the Orphan of Time something bad so she has to struggle with being something horrible and proving that she is an exception. The second point can be tweaked to where she arcs into becoming a villain due to being fed up with everyone treating her like a villain and accepts her evil Orphan of Time heritage, then a second unlikely protagonist/hero rises to defeat her, creating a twist. Overall nothing is grabbing me as it is right now.

I won't say anything about the battle system for now because I need to see it in action before I can give any kind of worthwhile feedback.

 

[Mordridakon]

Yeah your characters need work but I would focus on the main protagonist for now. The Orphan of Time concept isn't quite clear to me. So if anyone travels back to the point before they were born become an Orphan of Time? What exactly is an Orphan of Time and how does that make our protagonist unique? How will this journey arc the protagonist? How will Fera's journey affect the other characters and their arcs and vice versa?

The description wasn't the time or place to infodump complex time travel theory but essentially, in order to go back in time, you have to rewind time backwards to wherever you want to go, essentially erasing the future because it has hasn't happened yet. The Orphan of Time is essentially any backwards time traveler because they don't have a beginning, their beginning was erased, so therefore they just exist, existing both within and outside of time. A point is made that she is the only one recorded to go back in time up to that point. But that doesn't mean she was the only one(a central concern of the story later on).

If this is a story about Fera's self discovery...

Not really, the arc goes something like this

Spoiler

Its revealed Tyral is a time traveler(and Orphan) who vanished because jumped forward in time. Fera and her team jump forward in time and finds despite all she did to save magic, she ultimately failed to do anything(and has a boss fight with the guy who sent her back in the process). At first, she is distraught, but then is determined to finish her mission, so she jumps back to the point Tyral appears in the future and defeats him and then goes back in time to where her teammates are from in order to avoid a reality ending paradox(two of her existing at the same time).

The game is still in its infancy so I can change things if need be. But this is more of sci-fi story than a story about a spikey-haired angsty protagonist who discovers their true purpose zzzz....

 

[alcreator440]

The game is still in its infancy so I can change things if need be. But this is more of sci-fi story than a story about a spikey-haired angsty protagonist who discovers their true purpose zzzz....

Yeah but that spikey-haired guy is already more compelling of a story than someone jumping through time, defeating a boss, and jumping to another era. You have to make people be able to relate to your characters so they can care about their plight. People want to see characters grow as well. I'm not saying the random spikey-haired protagonist is amazing story telling or anything but I can already relate to it better than the characters you mentioned because myself, as well as everyone else has been at a stage in their life(or is currently at that stage) where they wanted to know what their purpose is in life. All you need is one line to make Fera's journey seem appealing and relatable in some way to me.

 

[Mordridakon]

All you need is one line to make Fera's journey seem appealing and relatable in some way to me.

Different stories appeal to different people. Make a story for everyone, you make a story for no one. I've had others say the premise was great so... I don't know. I'll add in a character arc, but its not going to be the main plot.
Thank you for your commenting though, it really made me think through things.

 

[alcreator440]

Different stories appeal to different people. Make a story for everyone, you make a story for no one. I've had others say the premise was great so... I don't know. I'll add in a character arc, but its not going to be the main plot.
Thank you for your commenting though, it really made me think through things.

I never said to make the story for everyone just make your characters more relatable. Your premise isn't bad, it just needs more meat on the bones.

 

[Mordridakon]

I never said to make the story for everyone just make your characters more relatable. Your premise isn't bad, it just needs more meat on the bones.

I find this odd, considering I haven't "written" the game yet and that's all bare bones description. So how can you claim my characters aren't relatable when I didn't even describe their personalities in the description?

 

[PixeLockeT]

The game is still in its infancy so I can change things if need be. But this is more of sci-fi story than a story about a spikey-haired angsty protagonist who discovers their true purpose zzzz....

Thank the stars. lol Those are the least relateable stories of all and I don't touch them with a 10-ft pole. XD Zzzz is absolutely right.

I'm not a fan of ATB battles, but you may want to give other characters some depth in mechanics besides your main that can impact a little bit that type of battle flow. Outside of main, the others seem pretty standard stuff, so much that the main's thing might feel gimmicky after awhile.

 

[Mordridakon]

Thank the stars. lol Those are the least relateable stories of all and I don't touch them with a 10-ft pole. XD Zzzz is absolutely right.

Well the reason I find them boring is because it is a JRPG standard trope that almost every game seems to do in some form, to the point that if I see it, I immediately stop playing. With my fiction background, I can write other kinds of stories that don't revolve around angsty, whiny teenagers who become adults by facing down space gods.

I'm not a fan of ATB battles, but you may want to give other characters some depth in mechanics besides your main that can impact a little bit that type of battle flow. Outside of main, the others seem pretty standard stuff, so much that the main's thing might feel gimmicky after awhile.

As I said in my trope thread I'm going to stick with standard, at least for this game, because I'm still a newbie at this really. I may take your advice and spice it up a little, though how I'm not so quite sure.
I know I'm sort of contradicting myself by doing a "non-standard" story, but that's because I'm an advanced enough writer that I can do a non-standard JRPG story. But with gameplay I'm going to stick with tried and true generally until I get more advanced.