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...what would your next Final Fantasy game be like?

I mean, what kind of system would you use, what kind of characters would you put in the game, what would be the plot about and how would you create a connection between your game and the previous ones? I'm not really interested in technical issues like how to program certain battle system or such, just the things your imagination, not knowledge, tells you about.

So?

This post has been edited by Silver_Zombie on 30th January 2007 16:14

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You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one...

it would be set on more than one planet for sure;
sort of like the star ocean 3 game.

the levels would go up to 255; with plenty of bonus dungeons and super high level bosses; also like star ocean 3

it would have the realtime battle system like ffxii only faster paced
with damage going up to 99,999 like star ocean 3

(john quickly writes Final Fantasy XIII over his Star Ocean: Till the End of Time box)

there job done; LOL

Well, been there done that. I've worked on quite a few ROM hacks and played at being Squaresoft for a while, and I've got my own game, freshly coded in C++, under my belt. And Endless Saga is certainly the kind of game I'd make if I were some big cheese game dev company.

I'm very partial to storylines that illustrate situations where the party doesn't come out unscathed and where I can use cliché things in such a way as to make them appear unique and new.

I would also loudly laugh in the face of people whining that "x" doesn't make sense in a game's system because it isn't realistic enough. "zomg hp maek no sense wtf r level? radnom encounters? zomg thies si not liek REAL LIEF????"

And I would never make an MMO, that's for sure! Good god!! XD

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

I think it would be good if character would actually "die" as well as being KOed. If you centre the gameplay around this it could be interesting. E.g. there's a love story between Mr White and Mrs Black (she's married). You "accidentally" let Mr White die because his VA is annoying, and so Mrs Black's vitality growth lessens but her Black Magic becomes stronger. Or there's twins (Parom/Palom anyone?) who fight together, using supporting magic. If one dies, the link breaks and the survivor then has to learn from a different book so to speak. Also you could potentially complete the game with a lone warrior - if all his/her friends are dead, s/he has the strength to do so. I think that would suit all gamers - some want a team, others like one or two master characters. You may also wish to keep certain characters alive on your next time round and see what influence they have on the storyline.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Set in a world similar to FFVI as the main world, with two other worlds complete with a fourth "netherworld" similar to the World of Darkness in DQVIII.

Level cap - 100 but with a bonus for each character when s/he reaches level 100

Damage cap - 99,999 which will be great for the upper level summons and some limit breaks

Primary character - A woman who is from an anicent race long thought dead by the outside world. She posesses knowledge of magicks that are widely considered to be lost or forgotten. Her weapon base is the sword with some knowledge of staves.

Primary antagonist - an ancient demon that was long though to have been vanquished.

Modes of transport - Standard airship with the ability/capability of being upgraded for travel to other worlds and over different terrains (i.e. mountains) as well as more stability with weather (i.e. sand storms in the deserts, blizzards in the arctic areas, rain, et al.), hirryu, chocobo, and train (for the earliest parts of the story).

Names of Worlds - Primary world is named Gaia. second world is named AEr'thra, third world is named Ithros, and the "netherworld" is called Necron (allusion to FFIX).

Name of Heroine - Illyria Vondreck

Name of Big bad - Zanyth

Moogle system - Moogles are present in every town, but this time they play the role of informant and scout. The one Moogle that has the largest role is Illyria's companion Muglow, a warrior Moogle that Illyria saved from enslavement. Muglow is like a counterbalance to Illyria in a lot of ways. Illyria is honor-bound to her destiny and she doesn't have much of a sense of humor, while Muglow is carefree and cheerful and as the story progresses, Muglow begins to rub off on Illyria and she becomes more cheerful and optimistic.

Chocobos - chocobos will have a huge presence in this one, as they will have thier own village, aptly named Chocoville. They will still say either "Wark" or "Kweh", but the ones in this village will have the ability to use human speech (which some of them will humorously comment on the way people ride them and even tell jokes).

Mini-games - A fighting arena where you can fight to gain new weapons, armor, and spells. An amusement park similar to FFVII's Gold Saucer where you can play games of chance to earn weapon/spell/armor/accesory upgrades as well as some rare items. And finally a vacation resort where you can go snowboarding, race cars, and fly hangliders and the scores from each of these will give you random items and maybe earn you exclusive airship upgrades if they are high enough.

Name of final Dungeon - Cleft of Oblivion, which can be found in Necron. It is comprised of every floor of every other dungeon ever explored in the game and if you've gone to all the optional dungeons (there are ten), they will be there too.

Basic plot outline -

Five hundred years ago the demon Zanyth was said to have been vanquished by a band of priests called The Order of the Black Sword. However, they knew not that the seal they placed on Zanyth was breakable. A year before the story begins, the seal is broken from within and Zanyth set himself free. Luckily he wasn't at full strength and we went into Necron to regain some of his lost strength. As the story unfolds, Illyria is sent on a mission to protect a sacred relic from a band of marauders not knowing that the very thing she was sent to protect is something that is capable of destroying the entire world. She delivers it safely to a mountain monastery and the head monk there regales her with the tale of The Order of the Black Sword. They tell her that the high priest of that bygone order is none other than one of her village elders. She returns to her hometown and talks with her village elders (one of whom is her older brother Ilros) and the high elder summons her to his bungalow and relays a prophecy to her and informs her that the one in that prophecy is someone she needs to find and helps them destroy "The Ancient Death"...however the high elder is unaware that he read the prophecy wrong and Illyria is the one in that prophecy (the player also is unaware till sometime right before the end).

Illyria sets out to find "The Chosen One" blissfully unaware that she is "The Chosen One" and along the way, she meets up with various people from across the three worlds and learns many difficult truths and musters the courage to face Zanyth and all his minions...as well as her destiny.



This post has been edited by LadyArmageddon on 30th January 2007 20:35

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Soul wrought of Terra infintum, I am here. I am Heaven's Dark Salvation

Ok, hear me out....


The next Final Fantasy would have a lead characterthat you would decide the look, name, race, gender, and class for. You could pick between any number of classes (jobs), and pick a class as a secondary specialty as well.

Your starting location would reflect your choices.

The story would be an epic tale, which would be along the vein of FFVI as far as taking down an Evil Empire.

The story arc would take you across the expanse of the entire world by boat, airship, chocobo back, and possibly a dwarven engineered land vehicle.

The final boss battle would not be against some kind of monster, but instead an epic battle against a general and his forces.... a massive battleground that you would need to fight through until you reached him and his personal cadre' of guards.

Whaddaya think?

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

I kinda like Hamedo's idea. At least you don't get the impression of a nigh invincible final boss that could've easily wiped you out right at the beginning... (sephi anyone? )

Developing his idea (Hamedo's), the world would be enourmous, there would be some "ancient" areas only reached by say (fantasy at work) using a gf or summon or aeon (which i would fancy a little more than just vehicles). For example, cruising on the back of leviathan to cross a sea, being protected by ifrit of a lava-filled cave/volcano, all of these actions would reduce the hp of the aeons slowly and these special locations would have special items or other aeons and such.

I'd add the "fatigue" stat to the character sheet as one would have to get some rest before travelling. The point is adding some challenge to the game by reducing power and/or defense/magic def/magic atk. It would make the battle sistem more believable with still enough room for some imaginative/fantasious actions in battle.

I'd feel inclined to create a romantic storyline, though optional, which could result in a marriage between the couple. This would be going far, but the game could even revolve around a war between two kingdoms which would at first seem like a regular conflict, but mid-game would reveal to have dark forces in between. The marriage i mentioned earlier could even be between the main character (some kind of general/captain for the army of one of the kingdoms) and a princess (???).

I would also have the choice to choose the side i'm in. If i enlisted for the darker side my actions would affect the world, changing the surrounding ambience and such. This happening as well with the light side.

Anyway, these were just some ideas that came to mind reading the previous replies. Some things would be workable, others not as much. Opinions?

Cheers

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And I would never make an MMO, that's for sure! Good god!! XD

I agree with all my heart.

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I think it would be good if character would actually "die" as well as being KOed. If you centre the gameplay around this it could be interesting. E.g. there's a love story between Mr White and Mrs Black (she's married). You "accidentally" let Mr White die because his VA is annoying, and so Mrs Black's vitality growth lessens but her Black Magic becomes stronger. Or there's twins (Parom/Palom anyone?) who fight together, using supporting magic. If one dies, the link breaks and the survivor then has to learn from a different book so to speak. Also you could potentially complete the game with a lone warrior - if all his/her friends are dead, s/he has the strength to do so. I think that would suit all gamers - some want a team, others like one or two master characters. You may also wish to keep certain characters alive on your next time round and see what influence they have on the storyline.

Seems like a weird idea to me. Okay, I understand why would you like to do that, but wouldn't it be a pain in the arse to create a storyline with that? I mean, it would be very difficult to justify characters' action in some places. Let's say the party needs an airship and there's only one guy, a womanizer, who has one. If all girls in your party are dead, he wouldn't agree to lend you the airship (and join your team, as he probably would if you had one still alive), so you would have to create a quest of some kind to steal it (which would be difficult if your thief is dead) or to find some substitute of an airship (like a Hiryuu or something). Of course, that would make the game absolutely wonderful (think of the possible storylines), but also very hard to make. If a was square-enix, I would probably consider the idea and, eventually, pay a lot of money to a guy who'll write a script which would allow party members dying and still everything would seem all right with personalities of the guys you could have in party.

Hell, you could even make it like one person could be in your team under one condition and a boss under another ;)

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The next Final Fantasy would have a lead characterthat you would decide the look, name, race, gender, and class for. You could pick between any number of classes (jobs), and pick a class as a secondary specialty as well.

Your starting location would reflect your choices.

Also difficult to do. I would rather create a number of characters you could have in your party and at the beginning you would choose as which one of those you would like to start the game. But at one point all of them would meet so the rest of the game would be the same, regardless of your lead character choice.

Quote

The final boss battle would not be against some kind of monster, but instead an epic battle against a general and his forces.... a massive battleground that you would need to fight through until you reached him and his personal cadre' of guards.

Not bad, though the general still should be a powerful bastard the party hates personally, not only because of his political views. I don't see a guy like general Leo being a final boss.

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You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one...

Quote

I'd feel inclined to create a romantic storyline, though optional, which could result in a marriage between the couple. This would be going far, but the game could even revolve around a war between two kingdoms which would at first seem like a regular conflict, but mid-game would reveal to have dark forces in between. The marriage i mentioned earlier could even be between the main character (some kind of general/captain for the army of one of the kingdoms) and a princess (???).

Why can't it be the other way around? Like a prince that falls in love with a warrior queen type? I'm sick of the princess/general love story.

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Soul wrought of Terra infintum, I am here. I am Heaven's Dark Salvation

Well, I'd make 57% of anime fans throw up in horror at the character designs and armaments... I've thought this through too much.

Characters: 20 is as low as it goes for main characters. Most if not all of your main party would be experienced soldiers fighting not for some shady rebel group but a national military, or even a multinational group.

They'd have a less pretty appearance than has been the norm: Scars, beards, even, gasp, sensible haircuts. Each character would actually have more than one set of threads, dress uniforms, civvies, different types of camo, disguises, etc...

More than 3 females for once, and each character would have an extensive back story. As would nations and pretty much everything else. You'd feel this was a world, not a game.

Characters would be more diverse than FF norms. That means ethnic minorities, maybe even different sexualties. They'd also have families, and there'd be no pussyfooting around some things that have been dodged in the past.

If I think it's cliche, it's gone. If I think it's tradition, it might live.

Locations and world map: The world map would sport numerous nations each with a number of towns accessable. And then the map itself would have dummy icons showing towns you can't actually enter, airports you can't land at, docks that won't let you in. Some larger side towns would have an option to shop/rest at them.

Borders: They'd exist. No longer would a mountain be blocking you off from going from Redland up to the Republic of Cake, but the fact the Redland Border Gaurds are standing at the tunnel allowing access there and asking for a passport or warrant to enter you don't have. Some nations would be mentioned but not actually entered as such. Just their capital and the side town thing.

Character skills: Characters could be trained in certain skills like Parachute jumping, driving, using certain weapons, etc... in minigames at the HQ or other training sites where you'd get a bonus to the training score. Simulations and written tests could be done elsewhere for lower scores. Some characters naturally would start with some skills learned. Use of a weapon type makes someone better with it as does extra training.

Weapons: Predomenatly firearms based with magic a rarity to offset the fact it would now be a lot more powerful. Swords and so forth would be available, but your characters can carry multiple weapons.

Weapons can also have modifications done to them: Suppressors, lights, lasers, reflex sights, scopes, different stocks attached, different magazine types, different ammo in the chamber...

Ranged accuracy would decide the damage done with weapons as well as the power of the round or it's use. For example, that MP5 won't do much to the guy in Kevlar, but the MP7 with an armour pericing bullet is going to ruin his day. Especially with that Red Dot on the top making you more accurate...

Carrying stuff. Ammo is limited, and so is space. Various load bearing equipment would be needed, and in times where you're needing it hidden, you'd be restricted to things easy to conceal. No huge machinegun hidden in hammerspace with infinite ammo, you'd have a suppressed handgun and a half dozen magazines.

Hang on, what if you run out of ammo?: You can nick the enemy's guns, duh.

Grenades?: Yep.

Combat system: Would be semi-turn based and actually be a bit like a cross between Inquisitor and FF10 in some ways and probably play like Tactics a little. Characters have a certain number of actions per turn, and can walk, run, take cover, aim, just fire, cast magic, etc... But rather than IgoUgo, it's IgoIgoIgoUgoUgoUgo all of it plays out in a combat turn with each character getting a speed rating. Say you have 2 of yours and 1 bad guy. Character A has a speed of 5 this turn, going first. His actions take precedence over Bad Guy's and anything he would do that conflict with A's can't be done.

Ranged and close combat would occur.

The flow of it all would see each action play out, any events causing changes to actions would be mostly automatic if you wanted it to. Say character A kills the bad guy in his second action phase, rendering the bad guy's next two actions impossible and cancelling them. Or, his first was to charge at the bad guy, and try to kill him with extreme prejuidice, also known as an axe. Bad guy's second action is cancelled as he prepares to defend himself. Sadly, this could mean he just shoots character A in the face rather than taking a few potshots at character B. The end result hopefully is something playing like an RPG in terms of what you're doing, but with the pace of an FPS as it happens. It also add's a more tactical edge as you'd need to be second guessing what's going to work and what isn't. And of course, trying to guess what the enemy will do...

Vehicles: Ranging from your whole party riding chocobos and bikes, to a jeep, to a helicopter, to a plane able to land on short runways, to a dropship like a thunderhawk gunship from 40k.

Vehicles in battles: Yep, that could happen. Set peices may involve a semi minigame on choco/bike, or a chase, or even a dogfight or strafing enemy postitions before you land on them.

Battles: Generally in pretty large locations.

Random encounters: Your party should never be troubled by them, because all they'd have to survive your superior firepower is stauses and resilleince. Except the bigger ones. And the magical ones.

Summons: Select few characters could do this.

"Job classes": Skills would blur most classes, but only a few characters could really lead a party. In additon, only a few could really use magic, and one or two could summon.

Enemy vehicles: Bring the other kind of RPG, because you'd fight them.

Enemies: Since you fight either as one nation's forces or a multinational coaltion, you'd be up against terrorists and enemy nations. The main enemy would not in fact ever fight you: he has lackeys. He's got more important things to do than fight you lot. He's a busy man with an invasion/global domination plan underway.

Final boss: Along the lines of Hamedo's end fight, probably more of a symbolic affair with your team finally storming the presidential palace of the evil republic of Cookies as allied troops are moving into the city, and your folks simply have to kill the few loyal soldiers left assuming they don't just surrender straight off. Probably following some huge battle involving multiple parties and a whole heap of cool things to have done beforehand. Something like a two hour long fight through the enemy capital to reach the palace, fighting there on land, sea, and air. And borrowing toys along the way.

In summary, it might be a global war on terror or a fight against an invader, but the former does give more plot versatility. Multinational lets there be a wider scope for infighting and access to a wide variety of weapons. Romance would be secondary at best, and maybe just the male lead shagging someone after a few drinks too many.

And there would be blood, and nasty effects of magic and such.

Come to think of it, plan B is sort of the above, but an FF8 sequel. It's definetly broke, so perhaps I could fix it by making it grow up a bit. And giving it multiple endings and even multiple paths through the game. Win win situation, after all, either I ruin the original for the five people who liked it or redeem it partly for the rest of us...

This post has been edited by Del S on 30th January 2007 19:48

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

Well for a start they could have the option to have multiple endings, which are strongly influenced by the players actions and decisions. Not too many endings, because I know Square like to put a lot of work into their end movies, though I'm sure they could find a way to make different endings share some scenes without too much effort.

But maybe the choice to be a bad guy as well? And choices throughout your story which allow you to change your mind. I know it sounds a little like BLack and White probably, but I think it would be worth a try. I think the Square team have the talent to make it work.

Also have difficulty settings, with either a hard, or super hard mode to unlock by completing the game, thus rewarding players who wish to play the game many times over.

I would make sure the sub game/s are damn fun and addicitve like the FF8 one.

Fighting your way through to a general and his elite guard sounds cool to me. But I think it would be nice if somehow you had fought him once or twice earlier in the game and had a taste of just how tough he can be, perhaps he had killed a fair few particularly tough warriors you know of. Always helps to up the fear and excitement before the battle I think.

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'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'

Quote (Silver_Zombie @ 30th January 2007 19:09)

Seems like a weird idea to me. Okay, I understand why would you like to do that, but wouldn't it be a pain in the arse to create a storyline with that? I mean, it would be very difficult to justify characters' action in some places. Let's say the party needs an airship and there's only one guy, a womanizer, who has one. If all girls in your party are dead, he wouldn't agree to lend you the airship (and join your team, as he probably would if you had one still alive), so you would have to create a quest of some kind to steal it (which would be difficult if your thief is dead) or to find some substitute of an airship (like a Hiryuu or something). Of course, that would make the game absolutely wonderful (think of the possible storylines), but also very hard to make. If a was square-enix, I would probably consider the idea and, eventually, pay a lot of money to a guy who'll write a script which would allow party members dying and still everything would seem all right with personalities of the guys you could have in party.

Hell, you could even make it like one person could be in your team under one condition and a boss under another

It would only go as far as the developer could achieve. And it might not be as hard as you think. Something as important as transport, like you say, would be given a large number of choices. However minor areas like going to said womanizer's house would only have three outcomes - him in your party, never joined, and dead. Each way would give a different speech or item - simple. Now the complicated bit would be if what happened in his house influenced another aspect such as a boss fight or how to access a castle. That would mean the story would unravel in branches from the first decisions you make (depending on who's in your party). If that were the case it would be 100x harder to make but 100x better to play. I'd live with the simpler plot, you're right it would be wonderful .

Supposing that was the plot/gameplay system fairly sorted I'd make the actual content of the plot along the lines that usually make a good game: resistance, desperation and betrayal. The resistance would be your average Returners or AVALANCHE, with Baku leading them; no harm in that. By desperation I mean that you're always on the back-foot against seemingly unstoppable enemies, but without the Beatrix-style "story battles" that we all love... Betrayal speaks for itself. Only that it doesn't turn into one like

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

Kain's or Cait Sith's.

The developers should have the balls to make a character really go against you. Then, near the end, you can win him over again should you have his lost love in tow; cheesy but good; and what you expect in a Square-Enix game. To avoid contradicting myself I'll say: he's a challenge to recruit.



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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

First order of business would be to get Nobuo Uematsu back and get Yoshitaka Amano on the lead of character design.

Secondly, a remake of Final Fantasy IV is due. ^___~

Then, I'd probably cut all the ridiculous techno-guns-and-high-tech-gadgetry stuff from further games and get back to what this was originally about: Fantasy.

Perhaps some new, more creative game mechanics as well, who knows. The heart of the game is the plot, really, so that would be my main concern.

This post has been edited by Ronin on 30th January 2007 20:29

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"Some fight for justice. Some fight for law . . .
. . .Cecil, what will you fight for?"
~KluYa

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First order of business would be to get Nobuo Uematsu back and get Yoshitaka Amano on the lead of character design.

We're agreed on the first part, but not the second.

In my opinion, Amano is overrated. I'd much rather see something fresh than his work again. We're all familiar with it.... it was something new and exciting to see at one time.... now it feels decidedly old-hat. Blaze trails, don't backtrack old ones.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Amusingly enough, a lot of people forget that "fantasy" does not mean "medieval."

There's a few things I'd do if I were at SE, and not just game-releated things.

- I'd get the damned FF team to settle on a system once and for all, as well as a main theme. If anyone wanted to stray from the concept, I'd force them to label their game something else.

- I'd abolish narcotics use during working hours. If anyone is caught violating this, I'll beat them with a stick while yelling about orphans and espers that turn into motorcycles.

- Scratch that. I'll ask the janitor for ideas. They will potentially be better than any other dev's.

- I'll hire a historian to verify plots and storylines to make sure they make any sort of sense.

- I'll impose a five year hiatus on the use of the name "Final Fantasy." The company will just have to survive on other concepts. Concepts that could use some more attention.

- I will find ways of legalizing murder for the FF8 devs.

- In accordance with the above, I'll make sure there are no more FF8 incidents. The hard way.

- I'll fire marketting. First thing. Despite the CT goldmine of opportunity they were sitting on, Square never did make a third CT. That's a huge load of cash they deliberately ignored. :x

- In accordance with the above, my first projet will be a new CT.

- I'm bringing back Tetris. Cross me and die. This is happening, and nobody can stop it.

- Every friday will be tacky tie day.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

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Every friday will be tacky tie day.

That is tooo funny!!!

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Soul wrought of Terra infintum, I am here. I am Heaven's Dark Salvation

Sorry, Del, I just don't see some of your ideas. I mean, the borders and passports are a great idea (if there's a war between countries you would have to complete a quest to get from one country to another), but with all those machinery, guns, hovercrafts and God only knows what else, well, like Ronin said:

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Then, I'd probably cut all the ridiculous techno-guns-and-high-tech-gadgetry stuff from further games and get back to what this was originally about: Fantasy.

That's more like it. But okay, those are your ideas. It's not like we're making a FF game ;)

Also, Sweetdude, I see it more or less like this:

You have a knight, a thief, a female white mage and a monk in your party. You need to cross the ocean. You need a vehicle.
Situation a) everybody is alive, you go to a womanizer with an airship and everything goes well, except for the fact that the guy won't join your team, because he doesn't like the thief guy, he would just stay in the airship.
Situation b) white mage is dead. You have to steal the airship, because you want get a Hiryuu, because it wouldn't allow a thief with his dark heart riding on it (or something like that), you have to fight the womanizer as a result.
Situation c) white mage and thief are both dead - you can ride a Hiryuu (after completing a quest to get one, that is). You can't steal an airship without a thief.
Situation d) only thief is dead - you can get a Hiryuu or the airship along with it's owner who would join your party now that thief is dead.

Knight and monk being dead or alive don't affect this particular issue. But!

In situation a) on the way to the other side of the ocean the thief quarrels with the womanizer (over the white mage, perhaps). During their fight one of them touches something he shouldn't touch and the airship crashes on an island. There they have to complete a quest to get Leviatan to take them across the ocean. If the thief dies during this quest, womanizer joins the party. If he doesn't, the womanizer would just go away on the other side of the ocean.
In situation b) they can simply cross the ocean, but they can also stop on the island to get Leviatan.
In situation c) Hiryuu is too tired to cross the ocean, so it will have to rest on the island. There you can get Leviatan.
In situation d), depending on your choice, you would get the same as in situation b) or c).

And it will all pile up during the game.

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You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one...

I actually posted like I was making the perfect RPG, which, since I'm making it and I'm perfect, it must be so. Anyway, here are my concepts I would flesh out all crazy-like:

01) Split-path Storytelling

A good RPG will have inherent replay value, but by branching off (in arcs or complete change-ups) the player can experience twice the story of a linear one. Fluency is key, which is why disjointed mission-based quests and throwaway scenes can leave one feeling like his time's been wasted.

02) Fighting Realism

Not in the sense that people have to see scratches and blood marks, really, but fighting requires maintenance. Two traits I always liked were blades getting duller (Vagrant Story) and guns running out of ammunition (Wild ARMs 2), which peppers battle with any fighter would go through without sacrificing enjoyment. Most of the time it only increases entertainment and strategic value.

03) Randomized Battle Actions

This works better for strategy RPGs, but could probably be applied to stand-and-wait types as well. One thing that dissuades people from playing is that they're always at an advantage, whether it's in-game or they just know things inside-out. Adding in things beyond one's influence is like throwing someone a curveball -- the mind should never be sleepwalking through the fight. Things like cave-ins, landslides, floods, and fires are all good ways to change elevation and troop tactics. Tactics Ogre Gaiden encompasses this to a degree by having water levels rise in the rain, then ebb when the storm passes; and if it's snowing out, the landscape hampers movement for those without special shoes, although burning the ground remedies this. Having a constant x-factor to deal with can keep people comin' back for more, long after the enemy AI craps out.

04) Worthwhile Extras / New Game +

Although auxiliary to enjoying a game, the whatzits and cool features obtained through special feats/gameplay are always welcome. Some games have rankings, unlockable maps, map editors, bestiaries. One game even has a voice modulator, so if someone doesn't like so-and-so's voice, a player can change the tone and tenor so that it's not so squeaky, annoying, etc. The grandaddy of post-game unlockables is the NGP, though, and can add time to replaying if done correctly. "Buying for the extras" isn't something many people necessarily look for when buying, but when developers treat the players, there's often no reason to stop playing.

05) Multiplayer Function!

This can make up for nonexistant enemy intelligence, being able to square off against like-minded individuals who can really provide a challenge. Map editors can usually be thrown in the mix here for riotous killin' times , but even those that add in a taste of such things (lookin' at you, FFIX) can give a new twist to the same old drudgery. RPGs can be party games, too, if given a chance.

06) "Stuff" that does "Stuff"

This is more of a needling thing, but when collectables and equipment are bland old tools for killing/shelf-sitting, players can get in a rut or worse, a routine. Which is why in a perfect world (created by me, of course), there would be no sword that just had +1 attack and cost extra, it'd have some kind of feature that made it worthwhile to get. Doesn't matter if the add-on's passive or battle-ready, but there's no sense in giving people things to deliberately skip. Catering to perfectionists is alright in some degree, but I really can't stand items that are basically readymade for rotting.

07) Soundtrack'D

It's a little against-the-grain, but one of the thing that makes me return for a second game is the soundtrack, in that I may even class it above gameplay or sidequests or plot mechanics. The tracks should be crafted as standalones, completely un-derivative of others (unless reprisals which should not be constantly used as a 'theme' -> yuckbarf), and diverse/flavored. Fr'instance, I can't really stand FF7 but I replay because the OST's crafted with some masterful artifice -- the time spent on 'em pours out easily. Relegating a soundtrack to 'elevator music' doesn't really go up my alley, but eh, some things don't need to be incredibly memorable if other aspects pick up their slack.

08) Un-archetypin'

I yearn for some of this, although it's mostly a mythical, far-off dream that's always out of reach. How can a character be created without numerous done-befores, with the family killed by so-and-sos, the cold-'n'-calculating hero whose heart is frozen, the damsel in distress who has secret powers, blahblahblah. I really have no solution for this one, since this runs beside a 'good storyline', but it'd definitely be nice. Attempting to pinpoint aspects that've never been done before isn't a recipe for success necessarily, but at least someone tried.

My first step would be to get rid of conventional characteristics, like the sword-wielding male hero, the staff-using girl-sidekick. Personally, I'd give the hero/ine a bayonet, make the man just as strong and capable but in a 'walk beside the lead' kind of way, and cut out the romantic undertones and do something other than a church/organization/secret ninja clan/personal army/ambitious sealed power regaining strength/bungling villains sort of thing. What? Dunno, but if one is staving off convention and can't think of something, at least going for what's underused is an attempt at breaking some trends. I'd always like to see capable villains failing in ways other than the heroes stopping them, like their own plans going wrong, something random happening, etc. -- heck, have three of four different antagonist/hero parties in the same game! Yeah, that'd be awesome if done right.

---

Anyway, I can't think of anything more than what I probably said last time (map editor, class ascension, rehashed comments I put here). I like the idea of environmental conditions affecting battle, too -- random things can rewrite a person's interest.

This post has been edited by Shotgunnova on 30th January 2007 21:12

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It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck can change

great Ideas Shotgunnova

What I would love to see is when you buy new armor...HAVE IT BE SEEN! The one thing I hate more than anything is seeing the same default sharacter when I have new armor equipped! And taylor-make it so it look different on each character.

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Soul wrought of Terra infintum, I am here. I am Heaven's Dark Salvation

Quote (Silver_Zombie @ 30th January 2007 21:04)

Also, Sweetdude, I see it more or less like this:

You have a knight, a thief, a female white mage and a monk in your party. You need to cross the ocean. You need a vehicle.
Situation a) everybody is alive, you go to a womanizer with an airship and everything goes well, except for the fact that the guy won't join your team, because he doesn't like the thief guy, he would just stay in the airship.
Situation b) white mage is dead. You have to steal the airship, because you want get a Hiryuu, because it wouldn't allow a thief with his dark heart riding on it (or something like that), you have to fight the womanizer as a result.
Situation c) white mage and thief are both dead - you can ride a Hiryuu (after completing a quest to get one, that is). You can't steal an airship without a thief.
Situation d) only thief is dead - you can get a Hiryuu or the airship along with it's owner who would join your party now that thief is dead.

Knight and monk being dead or alive don't affect this particular issue. But!

In situation a) on the way to the other side of the ocean the thief quarrels with the womanizer (over the white mage, perhaps). During their fight one of them touches something he shouldn't touch and the airship crashes on an island. There they have to complete a quest to get Leviatan to take them across the ocean. If the thief dies during this quest, womanizer joins the party. If he doesn't, the womanizer would just go away on the other side of the ocean.
In situation b) they can simply cross the ocean, but they can also stop on the island to get Leviatan.
In situation c) Hiryuu is too tired to cross the ocean, so it will have to rest on the island. There you can get Leviatan.
In situation d), depending on your choice, you would get the same as in situation b) or c).

And it will all pile up during the game.

I'm glad you're seeing eye-to-eye with me. It's quite difficult to explain so that's rather gratifying!

As much as I like the example you've given, I'd still say it wouldn't have to be so complicated. Realistically, it'd take the developers masses of time to create a 40+ hour game with so many different variables. I'll just say, I would love it if it was possible, but here's a different version:

Quest = need to get to the opposite island
Situation a) you have a male Thief in your party without any female character
- you could steal the ship
Situation b) you have a female character in your party
- womanizer would let you use his airship
Situation c) you have no thief and no female character
- you'd have to pay to fly the Hiryuu
None of these instances allow you to recruit the womanizer, that could possibly come later if you bring X+Y to him.

You see, I feel the branching storyline must always have a purpose. In your case: it saves money to use his airship. But then on the next time through you'd want to see the scenes you missed. And now to use my own example:

Quest = speak with resistance sympathiser inside enemy castle (these really aren't very inspired...)
Situation a) you have a male or female Knight in your party
- you could use him/her solo to infiltrate and speak to the informant (s/he passes-off as a guard)
Situation b) you have a male or female Monk in your party
- you can use him/her to pass-off as a pilgrim needing shelter (I'm laughing) and thereby speak to the informant
Situation c) you have no Knights or Monks in your party
- you'd have to storm the castle! Even if it is just one guy!

I've tried to lower the outcome possibilities. Either way, you'll get the information. Also the area remains unfriendly no matter which route you take. And it can be done with one guy or with four. Situations "a" and "b" avoid much difficult fighting and are fun in their own right. Therefore they're a better option in the initial play-through. Actually, I'd bet a lot of people would still just storm the place because it sounds better!

*Note that I say "you could", I'd give the player the option incase they'd already seen the Monk version and so on. There'd be a good bit where said class would say - "I've got an idea!" and then the replies would be:

1- Let's hear it!
2- Sit down please.


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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

I won’t get into too-huge detail about what could be my “dream FF game”, but I’ll put a few ideas out that I wouldn’t mind seeing. Here’s what I might call my “dream system” of character customization:

1. In this game, anyone can equip any weapon, but no one uses it quite the same way; fighting styles, proficiency levels, and equipment weight should all be important factors.

One annoying trend nowadays is having characters in RPGs being only to equip one type of weapon. That’s BS. Sure, Giggles McHealer might not be the character best suited to use the Axe of Burnination, but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be allowed to hopelessly drag it along and make futile efforts to lift the thing. What we need is having every character able to wield every weapon, but each character not necessarily wielding each weapon the same way. The physical strength of the character and the weight of the weapon also need to factor in, but I want those weights and strengths to actually matter. If there’s a weapon that’s simply too heavy for a character to lift, then in combat, they should be visibly trying and failing to wield it. Sure, there are games with “build” and “constitution” stats that affect speed and stuff when heavy weapons are equipped, but not often enough does it matter enough to be noticed in-game.

But that’s not all I have in mind. Let’s say for argument’s sake that there are twenty weapon types. Each weapon type has maybe up to ten; each style represents a specific method of wielding the weapon (i.e. how the character looks when he/she uses said weapon type in combat) as well as a separate arsenal of special attacks for said weapon. Each character would know at least one style for each weapon type (even if it's "hopelessly confused novice"), and then have a level of proficiency for each weapon; characters can learn new styles and raise their weapon proficiencies as the game progresses, but it’s a very large investment of gold/experience/whatever to do so, so the player would be best served using the styles and proficiencies he gets at the outset to the best of his/her ability.

When characters earn experience points, they can wield the weapon less awkwardly, learn new attacks and skills for the style and weapon they have equipped, and maybe get some extra bonuses in other marginally related statistics or skills unrelated to the equipped weapon and fighting style. Also, the higher a character’s proficiency with a given weapon, the faster they learn new things. This kind of system is highly customizable: each character can use any weapon they please, but players are discouraged to go too far from a given character’s comfort zone; this way characters have a large degree of customizability while still possessing an identity and uniqueness in combat, especially if a character uses a style that only they can use for a particular weapon (i.e. Protagonist O’Destiny is the only character that can use the special yo-yo techniques that have been a part of his family for generations).

2. The game’s magic system works similarly to the weapon system, but with some significant modifications.

I would extend the system of weaponry to the game’s magic system, with some important differences. Instead of weapons and fighting styles, there are different magic types. Each element of offensive magic (i.e. fire, ice, electricity) is a separate magic type, each type of support magic is a separate magic type (i.e. healing, barriers, status effects), and a bunch of other special abilities are separate magic types (i.e. psychic powers). Any character can still potentially learn any spell in the game, but each character also has a proficiency stat for each magic type, so characters with higher proficiency in fire magic would learn fire spells much more quickly than someone with a lower level of proficiency. Proficiency levels also would pair up with intelligence/wisdom/spirit/whatever statistics to determine how effective spells are, how quickly they can be cast, and how much MP they cost – higher proficiencies mean better, faster, cheaper spells of a particular magic type.

However, this time learning attacks is more complicated. Each magic type also has a specific “rune chart” for learning spells (if you think that this might be inspired by FF X’s sphere grid, FF XII’s License Board, and other similar systems, then you’d be right). What I’m thinking is that each magic type will have a large vaguely circular chart that contains each spell available for that type. You earn magic experience in battle by using magic to defeat your enemies, and you can cash in these magic experience points at any time you choose (this is different from my proposed weapon system, in which you can only gain experience for the weapons you have equipped at the time). The spells at the exterior of the circle are easy spells that can be learned at any time. As you go deeper towards the center, spells get more expensive and more powerful. You also need to learn more than half of the spells on the chart’s outermost “orbital” before you move in on the next-best tier of spells, and so on. This way, characters can learn spells at any order they choose, and depending on which magic types they invest in, they could become a master of a single element or spread out their knowledge onto many different magic types.

However, that’s not where the complexity stops. There would only be a maximum of fifteen or so spells for each magic type. That doesn’t sound like much, but that’s also the beauty of the system. Instead of having spells like Fire 1, Fire 2, Fire 3, and so on, spells might be set up like Fire Ball, Fire Stream, Fire Wave, or Fire Dragon. Whenever a character casts a spell, they can “charge it up” as much as they like, spending more MP and sparing a moment or two to empower any given spell. That way, low-tier spells, when powered up sufficiently, can be useful throughout the game. The differences between spells isn’t just how much damage they do, it’s the range of enemies they hit, how many hits are made, and the nature of the spell itself. Also, characters with higher proficiency for that magic type can charge up spells more quickly and spend MP more efficiently. Wow, the more I talk about these proficiency stats, the more important they get….

3. The game sports an action-oriented battle system with customizable shortcuts for special attacks / magic.

Turn-based battle systems will always have a special place in my heart, but that’s not where the RPG genre should be going. Controls are getting smoother and game engines are getting more impressive, and the next great FF game needs to represent the best of the realm of RPG battle systems.

My perfect system for my dream game has action that never stops, or at least never has to stop. Ideally, by using combinations of buttons, you can program dozens of spells into shortcuts in the form of button combinations. If you have, say, two buttons on the controller made to be “combo-starter” buttons, and then use any combination of ANY buttons on the controller to be “combo-finisher” buttons, then you have limitless possibilities on what you can do in combat without accessing any menus. When you’re wandering around in combat, you’d just use one of those two starter buttons to initiate an attack, and then you’d press two more buttons (which could be any button on the controller you please) to perform the attack. This way, your character only stops for as long as you’re inputting the combo.

But since there are only two buttons as combo-starter buttons, you have the rest of the controller to deal with movement, menus, camera, switching player-controlled characters on the fly, or what have you. You could even set up your attacks for one character so that a certain combination of buttons has another one of your characters (one that you aren’t currently controlling) use a spell. I really can’t see how this system would work controlling more than one character in a party at a time, but ideally this game would have party setups of at least four, with solid AI on your other party members helping you out.

So those’re my ideas. Damn, I’ve been writing this for almost an hour. Time to go back to studying.


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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Quote (LadyArmageddon @ 30th January 2007 18:11)

What I would love to see is when you buy new armor...HAVE IT BE SEEN! The one thing I hate more than anything is seeing the same default sharacter when I have new armor equipped! And taylor-make it so it look different on each character.

If I ever made a game, I would definitely do that. It bugs me so much how you can't see what the armour looks like on the characters, only in these little 100x100 pictures.

Now, if I ever made a game, it would be a disaster. I'll just make sure that everyone knows that I'd suck really hard before I start laying down my ideas.

#1~ I'd definitely have it Seiken Densetsu 3 style. I absolutely love that game and the "choose your character" thing. I'd have the six different characters you could start out with, plus you could choose two ar three partners. Each character has their own beginning, arch enemy, and final boss. The storyline itself would be the same for each character, just with a few tweaks to make it more fitting to each character.

#2~ Lots and lots of sidequests. I can't live without them and it seems like too many games today have little to none. I would have ones that are fun and show a lot about the characters.

#3~ I would probably have a lot of emphasis on the characters. I don't like games where it just says, "Their mom and dad died and stuff.". I like ones where the past is a mystery and.... I don't really know how to describe it. I like it when I feel like by the end of the game I know the characters inside out. The characters also have to be pleasing to my eyes. Go anime style!

Those are just a few ideas I felt I needed to get off my chest.


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Why, hello guys! Haven't been around here in a loooong time!
http://dragcave.net/user/LadyTwi
http://www.backloggery.com/ladytwi

Quote

#2~ Lots and lots of sidequests. I can't live without them and it seems like too many games today have little to none. I would have ones that are fun and show a lot about the characters.

#3~ I would probably have a lot of emphasis on the characters. I don't like games where it just says, "Their mom and dad died and stuff.". I like ones where the past is a mystery and.... I don't really know how to describe it. I like it when I feel like by the end of the game I know the characters inside out. The characters also have to be pleasing to my eyes. Go anime style!

Yup, I also hate games with no sidequests and characters with silly backstories. When there's a boss fight coming, it's more fun to do a sidequest to get some more EXP than to just walk around the country looking for some random encounters. Also, I think in my ideal FF game Espers would be optional, that you could get them only by doing some sidequests.

And Sweetdude again - you're trying to make it simplier while I think the more combinations possible, the more enjoyable the game is. Let's say you can choose the order of people in your party. You have to go into a castle to talk with a spy.

Situation a) the knight is the first in order - you pretend to be a guard, find the spy and everything works fine.
b) the monk is first - you pretend to be a wandering scholar, you can enter the castle, but you will get some guard to show you around, so you'll have to kill him silently to talk with the spy, you'll also have to stay overnight in the castle, so you could spy a little by yourself.
c) the thief is first - you will find some back door to break into the castle by night, you will find the spy, but later you will be spotted and you'll have to kill the whole army to get out of the castle - according to your actions the spy dies, so later along the game he wouldn't help you anymore, or he survives or joins your party.

Also, with all combinations you will also get the possibility of just killing all the guards in a daylight just to get the information. My point is that by taking a certain path at this point, you may influence the story later on. That's more fun. And, come to think of it, I think it wouldn't be so much of trouble doing so.

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You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one...

Quote (Silver_Zombie @ 31st January 2007 10:50)

Also, with all combinations you will also get the possibility of just killing all the guards in a daylight just to get the information. My point is that by taking a certain path at this point, you may influence the story later on. That's more fun. And, come to think of it, I think it wouldn't be so much of trouble doing so.

Well, it already influences the story I think. If you do a dangerous raid into their castle the chances of success are far less than moving in as an imposter. As I've said, centre the game around players' deaths. If you lose one or two guys you'll lose some opportunities later in the game. The story wouldn't develop in the same way. I'll agree with you again that more possibilities means more fun, but essentially you're giving more means to the end result. If you imagine the castle as a chapter: your outcomes don't influence the rest of the story in any way other than who you have in your party; just like mine. However, your actions and selection of party members influences the chapter itself and its resolution. I'm saying you're correct, it should have more than three avenues of play available, but that only changes events within the chapter.

I like the idea that the informant could join your party. But there could be a choice of keeping him in the castle as a spy to pass you information via chocobo or something. The information could influence another chapter or set up a secret quest - e.g. your leader assigns you to bribe the crooked Lord that the informant speaks of.

a) bribe him with the leader's money
- release a rebel Wizard to join your party
b) fight the guards
- also releases him
c) keep the money!
- you sacrifice his life to fill your pockets

Now you can see that the outcome of this episode is that you could possibly have a Wizard in tow which unlocks new approaches to some chapters. Also it wouldn't just be characters that could influence the story. E.g. keys and information can lead to other routes. Again, to not contradict myself, I'll say that these are few and far between. But useful none the less.

The jist of this entire post is to say: we're actually along the exact same lines.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Well, if I were Square-Enix (holy muffins, I'm a whole company now! =O), before I made anymore games, I'd try my hardest to do something about translating the rest of FF:U.

When that was all said and done, I would happily proceed to come up with my game.

First and foremost, my game would be heavy on character interaction. I'd have something like the Z-conversations in Tales of Symphonia so the characters can bicker, chat, flirt, angst or whatever while they're travelling... because you can't tell me that when they're out lost wandering the world (because the player can't find where they're supposed to go next) that they're doing so in silence. Also, when you examined an object of importance, the main character wouldn't be the only one with a comment. There'd be an affection system and, obviously, you'll have the option of how you'll make the main character react to things the other characters say which will determine a couple of cute little scenes later in the game, like the date in FFVII. That way, you'll get to really know all the little details about the characters since, in games, the only other time characters really talk is during cutscenes and those tend to be related to the main storyline.

I'd also have lots of sidequests to get cool items, magic, and hidden scenes.

My main character would be young, in his teens, but unlike a lot of teenage protagonists, his age would show. He'd be naive, innocent, and idealistic, as well as slightly incompetent. =P I hate when the teenage protagonist is zOMG teh 1337est swordzman EVUR!1!!1! I figure that with a personality like that, there'll be plenty of room for him to develop into a 'real' hero between the beginning and end of the game.

The antagonist... hmm... I'm not so sure. Maybe some kind of diety who's sick of the world and wants to destroy it to create a new one? (oh noes, it's Homura!) I dunno. Anyway, the heroes would kick his ass in what I'd take special care to make a challenging and climactic battle... 'cause easy peasy final bosses are disappointing.

As for character designs, most of you are going to hate me for this, but the tradition of cool, sexy and/or cute costumes in place of practical ones will probably continue. I'd totally get Nomura to be the character designer because his character designs are pretty. =P So there.

My magic and ability system would be more like FFIX's where only certain characters can learn certain things.

...that's all I've got.

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Come with me so I can show you how to live
Burning the candle at both ends
I’m gripping at the walls around me
Don’t complicate it
I’m addicted to this life
I’ll be your token of attention
All my lies come down to this
-Orgy, "Beautiful Disgrace"

Actually, in addition to my game idea in an earlier post, if I were Square-Enix I'd have more interaction of the longtime fans, because they are the bread and butter of the industry. I would also give them more input in the direction the company and its many flagship series go. We as fans pretty much don't have a direct impact on which direction SE goes or where Final Fantasy goes. That would all change if I were in charge!

First, the fans would have more say and in turn we would make better products that the fans would appreciate because they know/knew that they had a hand in the production.

Second, I'd make things less region specific as far as extras and exclusives. In America, we don't have half the things that Japan has...which to some of the hardcore gamers in America that is like an insult. Are American (or European) gamers less worthy than Japanese and other Asian gamers? C'mon people a gamer is a gamer and money is money!

Third, a basic soundtrack will be included in EVERY game with a full soundtrack to be released later on worldwide. I am sick of OST's only being available in certain esoteric stores in the States and the only other way to get them is to import (and pay exorbitant import fees).

Fourth, a strategy guide to be released in conjunction with each game and it will be made by the us and not a third-party. Meaning...we will offer more content as well as show you better strategies to complete puzzles and face boss monsters.

Lastly, no more staggered release dates!! There will be translators and localizers working simultaneously with the developers to translate and localize the games while they are being made. Meaning, that a Japanese gamer will be playing the latest Final Fantasy at the same time a British or American gamer...on release day!

I know, I am very ambitious and none of these are even feasable, but If I were Square-Enix that is how things would be.


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Soul wrought of Terra infintum, I am here. I am Heaven's Dark Salvation

I would buy Monolith Soft.

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THE HOFF

Aren't we getting a little off topic? ;)
Tell me about the plot! The characters! The world!

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You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one...

I'd like to see a Final Fantasy game return into its old school roots mixed with technological elementals. All I'm seeing these days is the idea of Shiva becoming a motorcycle to portable remakes of stashed Squaresoft+Nintendo games being constantly re-released.

They really have run out of interesting characters and storyline ideas. If I'd give my tip for characters, I'd have atleast up to four-eight characters(four to a party), each with a backstory that doesn't take up a whole hour of the game, but proves to show the reason the character is that way and not just the lame, immature "BECAUSE HE DESTROYED MY VILLAGE" bs.

As for plot, I don't want any wimpy love stories or anime-like plots in my dream FF. I'd like to see a more simplistic plot that can even be the fabled "save the world/crystals".

For gameplay, I'd keep it the same as FF5's. I'd also keep it ATB.

The graphics style would be 2Dish with very richly detailed backgrounds. 3D would have too much loading times.