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My olde JRPG idea. basically retro Final Fantasy playing out in real life.
This isn't really an IJBM as much as it is just me thinking back about an idea I used to have.
Back when I was in high school I had this crazy idea wherein myself and various people I knew in high school were to become characters in a JRPG. Premise was something along the lines of "if people suddenly gained magical/fantasy powers what would life be like?". The plot was approximately as follows: In the prologue chapter, the characters are in high school, where the debate team is a bunch of arrogant pricks; the protagonist and his allies defeat them in battle. Fast forward about ten or twenty years, this school-age grudge has become a major political feud in the country, and both sides gear up to fight each other again.
Yes, it was really silly. Well, the debate team did include a number of elitist assholes at the time, the kind who are dismissive if they don't know you and you're some little guy who isn't an overachiever at school. So this was basically an epic(ally silly) dramatization of it.
It included various plot points such as
* fighting rivals for love interests - complete with music from Pokémon GSC
** and then fighting said love interests, to play with the Defeat Means Friendship trope - complete with music from Mega Man X3
* fighting the coast guard (in ship-to-ship combat using only ranged attacks!) as they're trying to detain a bunch of shorebound illegal immigrants - complete with music from Final Fantasy VII and Pokémon TCG, musically connected
* storming a fortress vaguely modeled after Magus's castle from Chrono Trigger, but guarded in part by a faction of antagonists who join your side then if you defeat them or join much later if you don't
* having an expy of Tellah (from Final Fantasy IV) be the designated character to die midway through the plot, featuring a blood feud between him and a major antagonist, having his daughter carry on the fight (a la two characters from Final Fantasy V). Said major antagonist is an expy of Exdeath.
* featuring a major big bad with an assortment of the-dragons (some ten of them!)
** which included Agatha, Serges, and Violina, expies of Agile, Serges, and Violen from Mega Man X2
** Serges: a wizard, whose battle theme is the B.O.X. battle theme from Metroid Fusion
** Agatha: a fencer with a western/cowboy flair, whose battle theme is the Serris battle theme from Metroid Fusion
** Violina: a very brutal fighter whose signature weapon is a legendary extra-wide war-hammer known as the "T-Bone", whose battle theme is neither the Nightmare nor Ridley-X battle themes from Metroid Fusion, but something I still haven't decided on
** as well as an expy of Kefka, who would callously destroy the boat with all those refugees while you were too busy fighting the coast guard.
* Main antagonist is said expy of Exdeath. His schtick is being a gigantic arrogant dick while backing that up by being well and truly powerful enough to kick your ass seven ways to sunday. (This is something I've always wanted to see in a villain--loud, arrogant asshole who actually backs it up with his own power.) Unfortunately, he is rather boringly named "Dick", in part after Dick Cheney.
* the antagonists would have all the traditional legendary weapons, such as the Excalibur, Longinus Spear, and more. The ones you protagonists end up getting are all non-traditional, and all based on more recent...*ahem*..."lore": the Spoon (FFIV dagger), the Masamune (CT broadsword), the Vampire Killer (Castlevania whip), and others.
* bonus bosses included such characters as:
** Osama bin Laden (to be found in a south Asian cave, not in a sleepy suburb, however)
** Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Death, and Satan (the boss rush at the end of Hell. Death, notably, gets absolutely NO battle music. Just silence. Hell's theme is the Black Omen theme.
* God (the bonus dungeon for this boss is a gigantic mountain. It contains various angelic bosses, including one wielding a really cool-looking sword, named Saint Joyeuse, who is named after a TA I knew. The battle itself has a variation of Renaissance's "A Trip to the Fair" as its music, and a background that scrolls from night to day and back to night as the battle progresses.)
* elemental system: basically Pokémon's, plus some more. Here's the full list: 1. non-elemental, 2. fire, 3. water, 4. electricity, 5. plant, 6. ice, 7. fighting, 8. poison, 9. ground, 10. air, 11. psychic, 12 bug, 13. stone, 14. spirit, 15. dragon (most likely to be removed), 16. dark, 17. metal, 18. magic (generic magic or something? I never decided), 19. sacred, 20. light, 21. sound, 22. star. I am not, EVER, trying this again. (Also, making "magic" an element is a bad idea.)
** Whether individual people can have elements, weaknesses and resistances included, is something I hadn't made up my mind about.
* Spells/moves were basically culled from various RPG sources I knew of at the time. It included everything from staples like Fire, Ice, and Lit to cool specialties like Dark Bomb and Psyball (my name for the "ball" attack that Mewtwo used in the first Pokémon movie, a move later said to be Shadow Ball), to less-famous ones like Lit-Bolt (originally an item in FFIV) and Nuke (now the most powerful poison-element attack). Of course, Meteo is, as per FFIV tradition, THE legendary most powerful magic spell.
** They were divided into several types of targetting: single, all (targetted), line (define two points), ray (define one point and it comes from caster), and area, and dividable. One key feature would be this: standard low-level spells, such as Fire, Ice, and Lit, are all divisible. These spells are typically learned by wizard-class characters. It is implied that this is standard magic curriculum, which is why it works like this. Nonstandard spells, such as Lit-Bolt, are not dividable. Higher-level standard spells (such as Fire-3, Ice-3, and Lit-3) are still dividable, but they are VERY expensive in MP cost--you really pay for the ability to do targetted spell dividing. Part of my reason for this was to try to come up with a reason for people to continue using lower-level spells, though I don't think this is the best idea, honestly.
So, basically, this was a mashing-together of various "how can I make the most interestingly dramatic scene" out of given situations that I encountered, along with my attempting to incorporate various...whatever I found cool at the time. I mean, this is coming from yours truly, who decided that it would be awesome if the Super Mario RPG cast fought the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, backed by the boss battle theme from the MMPR SNES game.
Feel free to incorporate any of these ideas to your games you're working on. I'd be honored.
Back when I was in high school I had this crazy idea wherein myself and various people I knew in high school were to become characters in a JRPG. Premise was something along the lines of "if people suddenly gained magical/fantasy powers what would life be like?". The plot was approximately as follows: In the prologue chapter, the characters are in high school, where the debate team is a bunch of arrogant pricks; the protagonist and his allies defeat them in battle. Fast forward about ten or twenty years, this school-age grudge has become a major political feud in the country, and both sides gear up to fight each other again.
Yes, it was really silly. Well, the debate team did include a number of elitist assholes at the time, the kind who are dismissive if they don't know you and you're some little guy who isn't an overachiever at school. So this was basically an epic(ally silly) dramatization of it.
It included various plot points such as
* fighting rivals for love interests - complete with music from Pokémon GSC
** and then fighting said love interests, to play with the Defeat Means Friendship trope - complete with music from Mega Man X3
* fighting the coast guard (in ship-to-ship combat using only ranged attacks!) as they're trying to detain a bunch of shorebound illegal immigrants - complete with music from Final Fantasy VII and Pokémon TCG, musically connected
* storming a fortress vaguely modeled after Magus's castle from Chrono Trigger, but guarded in part by a faction of antagonists who join your side then if you defeat them or join much later if you don't
* having an expy of Tellah (from Final Fantasy IV) be the designated character to die midway through the plot, featuring a blood feud between him and a major antagonist, having his daughter carry on the fight (a la two characters from Final Fantasy V). Said major antagonist is an expy of Exdeath.
* featuring a major big bad with an assortment of the-dragons (some ten of them!)
** which included Agatha, Serges, and Violina, expies of Agile, Serges, and Violen from Mega Man X2
** Serges: a wizard, whose battle theme is the B.O.X. battle theme from Metroid Fusion
** Agatha: a fencer with a western/cowboy flair, whose battle theme is the Serris battle theme from Metroid Fusion
** Violina: a very brutal fighter whose signature weapon is a legendary extra-wide war-hammer known as the "T-Bone", whose battle theme is neither the Nightmare nor Ridley-X battle themes from Metroid Fusion, but something I still haven't decided on
** as well as an expy of Kefka, who would callously destroy the boat with all those refugees while you were too busy fighting the coast guard.
* Main antagonist is said expy of Exdeath. His schtick is being a gigantic arrogant dick while backing that up by being well and truly powerful enough to kick your ass seven ways to sunday. (This is something I've always wanted to see in a villain--loud, arrogant asshole who actually backs it up with his own power.) Unfortunately, he is rather boringly named "Dick", in part after Dick Cheney.
* the antagonists would have all the traditional legendary weapons, such as the Excalibur, Longinus Spear, and more. The ones you protagonists end up getting are all non-traditional, and all based on more recent...*ahem*..."lore": the Spoon (FFIV dagger), the Masamune (CT broadsword), the Vampire Killer (Castlevania whip), and others.
* bonus bosses included such characters as:
** Osama bin Laden (to be found in a south Asian cave, not in a sleepy suburb, however)
** Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Death, and Satan (the boss rush at the end of Hell. Death, notably, gets absolutely NO battle music. Just silence. Hell's theme is the Black Omen theme.
* God (the bonus dungeon for this boss is a gigantic mountain. It contains various angelic bosses, including one wielding a really cool-looking sword, named Saint Joyeuse, who is named after a TA I knew. The battle itself has a variation of Renaissance's "A Trip to the Fair" as its music, and a background that scrolls from night to day and back to night as the battle progresses.)
* elemental system: basically Pokémon's, plus some more. Here's the full list: 1. non-elemental, 2. fire, 3. water, 4. electricity, 5. plant, 6. ice, 7. fighting, 8. poison, 9. ground, 10. air, 11. psychic, 12 bug, 13. stone, 14. spirit, 15. dragon (most likely to be removed), 16. dark, 17. metal, 18. magic (generic magic or something? I never decided), 19. sacred, 20. light, 21. sound, 22. star. I am not, EVER, trying this again. (Also, making "magic" an element is a bad idea.)
** Whether individual people can have elements, weaknesses and resistances included, is something I hadn't made up my mind about.
* Spells/moves were basically culled from various RPG sources I knew of at the time. It included everything from staples like Fire, Ice, and Lit to cool specialties like Dark Bomb and Psyball (my name for the "ball" attack that Mewtwo used in the first Pokémon movie, a move later said to be Shadow Ball), to less-famous ones like Lit-Bolt (originally an item in FFIV) and Nuke (now the most powerful poison-element attack). Of course, Meteo is, as per FFIV tradition, THE legendary most powerful magic spell.
** They were divided into several types of targetting: single, all (targetted), line (define two points), ray (define one point and it comes from caster), and area, and dividable. One key feature would be this: standard low-level spells, such as Fire, Ice, and Lit, are all divisible. These spells are typically learned by wizard-class characters. It is implied that this is standard magic curriculum, which is why it works like this. Nonstandard spells, such as Lit-Bolt, are not dividable. Higher-level standard spells (such as Fire-3, Ice-3, and Lit-3) are still dividable, but they are VERY expensive in MP cost--you really pay for the ability to do targetted spell dividing. Part of my reason for this was to try to come up with a reason for people to continue using lower-level spells, though I don't think this is the best idea, honestly.
So, basically, this was a mashing-together of various "how can I make the most interestingly dramatic scene" out of given situations that I encountered, along with my attempting to incorporate various...whatever I found cool at the time. I mean, this is coming from yours truly, who decided that it would be awesome if the Super Mario RPG cast fought the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, backed by the boss battle theme from the MMPR SNES game.
Feel free to incorporate any of these ideas to your games you're working on. I'd be honored.
Comments
* single: single target, duh.
* all: targets all enemies/allies.
* area: targets an area on screen, such as the Dark Bomb and Napalm spells. In an improvement from CT, make it so that you can target a spot of your choice rather than being forced to center it on a given target.
* ray: choose a target; the ray hits everything between you and the target, the target, and everything beyond the target too. Example: the Slash spell.
* line: choose two targets; the line hits everything between and beyond these two targets, inclusive. Example: the Line Bomb spell, but if you could move the line around more than just horizontally.
* divisible: can choose between single-target and all-enemies/allies target. Common in FF games such as FFIV through FFVI.
For example, a "Triad Thunder" spell (Volt Catfish's signature weapon in Mega Man X3), if aimable, can be aimed by simply aiming one of three rays.
Sounds like a cross-shaped target zone could be aimed like an area spell.
That said, I hadn't seen any such spells when I came up with this game idea. And no, I haven't played Disgaea DS. Is it any good?
What's it like?
Because they are innovative and better than the ones I don't have yet.
Summons. I never liked how traditional FF made them basically the same as magic spells.
Here's the new idea:
* Summons are divided into tiers. These are not tiers of effectiveness; they're tiers of gameplay.
LOW TIER: These summons stay on the battlefield until they run out of HP or are dismissed by the summoner. However, these are generally lower-level creatures, such as goblins.
MID TIER: These summons stay on the battlefield for a more limited time. They're also stronger creatures in general, such as basilisks, but they're, say, limited to three turns or something. I might change this category to something better, since this is a rather lackluster category.
HIGH TIER: These summons stay on the battlefield long enough to do their thing, and then leave. So, maybe one turn or something like that. This includes ones like Bahamut.
I think I want to tweak the mid and high tiers to be more interesting. I don't want summons to be the same as magic spells, and that's the aim of this. If you have a better idea, please do suggest.
Also, I was thinking of having the one summoner character have most of the summons, but have a few other characters have their own special (and single) summons.
Anyways, I really like your idea, Glenn. I also had an idea involving summons, although I haven't decided exactly how it would work yet. Half of it would be a strategy game would be summoner mode, where you control the main character, a summoner. You'd be able to move around the battlefield, but not attack. Instead, you could pause at any time and give your party of three summons orders to do specific commands, even giving them multiple commands to fulfill. The moving around the battlefield would be key, since the goal for both you and the enemy is to defeat the opposing summoner.
The other half would be an action game, where you take control of one of the summons, and certain button combinations would pull off certain attacks. The other summons would be controlled by AI; however, they will fulfill any commands given to them in summoner mode first. Thus, by carefully switching back and forth between summon and summoner mode, you can create long combos (although I imagine it would have to have damage scaling like in a fighting game to prevent it from becoming too broken).
Also, since the goal is to kill the summoner rather than summons, instead of health the summons would have Breakthrough gauges that could be built up by attacking quickly and chaining combos. Once it's full, the summon falls over and cannot be used again until it's breakthrough gauge empties.
Story wise, I haven't thought about it as much, except that perhaps in this world summons are the only form of magic and summoners are very rare and tend to use their magic to gain power, so they are feared everywhere. The gameplay is probably a bit too ambitious for my own good, but so are most of my ideas...
Or games where a high powered machine with weapons that can destroy fighter jets and buildings can be destroyed with just a sword if you spend enough time killing wolves and gaining XP.
You could try adding Summon Charges (as in, 5, where the tiers each get a certain amount of charges) like you can summon a couple low tier monsters, or one high tier monster.
As for summon charges, it seems like that would basically make it like MP.
Anyways, me and GMH talked last night and I decided to settle on something considerably smaller scale for whenever I start my first project: a strategy game (think Final Fantasy Tactics) where the summons of Final Fantasy are the playable characters. I even have come up with three for each of the twelve attributes in FFXII (Fire, Ice, Thunder, Death, Soul, Earth, Poison, Non-Elemental, Gravity, Water, Wind, and Holy) so I want to implement GMH's idea of low-tier, mid-tier, and high-tier in some way. My main problem, I imagine, will be making each summon unique with 36 of them...
For mine? I've abandoned the idea after realizing that I'm not going to come up with a coherent plot to my satisfaction.