I've been really bad at replying to these! Busy with other stuff, I guess. I have been reading them, though!
I believe a system like Belief where you have a fixed party would work better, I imagine that also makes battles feel more varied and up-hill, it's more exciting to go into battles without a whole roster of fodder to fall back on. It also makes winning over enemies feel more impactful when you're actually evening the numbers, rather than starting out on a level playing field and trouncing them.
I do wonder whether to maybe have the protagonist, and then each area has like one party member who joins you for that island until you beat it, and you start each island on your own again. They won't follow you across islands because "Oh, I'll be busy converting more people", or "We'll be busy building your Temple in the Nexus", or "Eww, I'm not going to this FOREIGN ISLAND, that's GROSS." or whatever! People you recruit can still be won over to your side, but they don't actually join the party. Maybe some of them populate the central hub?
I think it's best to just keep the game's plot light and fluffy and silly, something between Belief and CBC. I think it's important that none of the stuff is all that coherent or anything like that, you want it to be a quick game after all, it's best to treat it overall like a gag game and crank up the whimsy and goofy.
You also wondered before on how to tackle island order. I did think, maybe you have the REAL island first as the tutorial area, and then you unlock LEVITALITY and GRAVITOOM both at once, after you finish those two, you get DISCORD and HARMONY, and when you beat those two, you get the final island ABSTRAL? Sort of a mix of linearity and non-linearity, and it also neatly pairs together the elements.
So it's like this:
R -> L + G -> D + H -> A
Of course after you beat ABSTRAL you go back to the NEXUS TEMPLE you've been building and you use the power of BELIEF to summon your GOD you've been convincing everybody to worship. And then you and all your party members fight against GOD and insult and flirt with it until it decides to convert to your religion, and the protagonist becomes GOD instead.
It is a JRPG, after all! I feel like it'd be a shame to not end the game by convincing GOD that it should worship you instead, and it actually working!
The ruminations about how to handle battle intros sound good, I think you were onto something good with Belief, it's a good baseline to take ideas from.
I like the diorama approach! It feels tidy and neat. Kinda reminds me of Memody's little scenic areas, too. I like Memody!!
2
Tobias 1102~9M
How dare you not comment on every one of my blog posts! I always reply to everything that I should, and in a timely manner too!! (Ha, I wish.)
I do appreciate your comments though!
I've been thinking about this over the weekend, and what I've come to believe is probably the best way to go about allies is essentially the same as what you described here, where each area has one named character who joins you for it but doesn't follow you beyond it. I have some thoughts about why they wouldn't leave their area, too; I'll probably write another blog post to work through some more ideas.
It's Viscereal now, not Real anymore! I like a progression like that - which blends linearity with some choice - conceptually, though it'd make it tricky to balance things so that each of the paired elemental areas were challenging enough, maybe. I imagined each of the areas would have three sub-areas to explore in any order, so maybe that could be enough...?
I'd planned something basically like that as the typical-JRPG-like progression of the endgame! Though if I revise my ideas yet again, it might not be relevant anymore. I'll write another blog post.
I believe a system like Belief where you have a fixed party would work better, I imagine that also makes battles feel more varied and up-hill, it's more exciting to go into battles without a whole roster of fodder to fall back on. It also makes winning over enemies feel more impactful when you're actually evening the numbers, rather than starting out on a level playing field and trouncing them.
I do wonder whether to maybe have the protagonist, and then each area has like one party member who joins you for that island until you beat it, and you start each island on your own again. They won't follow you across islands because "Oh, I'll be busy converting more people", or "We'll be busy building your Temple in the Nexus", or "Eww, I'm not going to this FOREIGN ISLAND, that's GROSS." or whatever! People you recruit can still be won over to your side, but they don't actually join the party. Maybe some of them populate the central hub?
I think it's best to just keep the game's plot light and fluffy and silly, something between Belief and CBC. I think it's important that none of the stuff is all that coherent or anything like that, you want it to be a quick game after all, it's best to treat it overall like a gag game and crank up the whimsy and goofy.
You also wondered before on how to tackle island order. I did think, maybe you have the REAL island first as the tutorial area, and then you unlock LEVITALITY and GRAVITOOM both at once, after you finish those two, you get DISCORD and HARMONY, and when you beat those two, you get the final island ABSTRAL? Sort of a mix of linearity and non-linearity, and it also neatly pairs together the elements.
So it's like this:
R -> L + G -> D + H -> A
Of course after you beat ABSTRAL you go back to the NEXUS TEMPLE you've been building and you use the power of BELIEF to summon your GOD you've been convincing everybody to worship. And then you and all your party members fight against GOD and insult and flirt with it until it decides to convert to your religion, and the protagonist becomes GOD instead.
It is a JRPG, after all! I feel like it'd be a shame to not end the game by convincing GOD that it should worship you instead, and it actually working!
The ruminations about how to handle battle intros sound good, I think you were onto something good with Belief, it's a good baseline to take ideas from.
I like the diorama approach! It feels tidy and neat. Kinda reminds me of Memody's little scenic areas, too. I like Memody!!
I do appreciate your comments though!
I've been thinking about this over the weekend, and what I've come to believe is probably the best way to go about allies is essentially the same as what you described here, where each area has one named character who joins you for it but doesn't follow you beyond it. I have some thoughts about why they wouldn't leave their area, too; I'll probably write another blog post to work through some more ideas.
It's Viscereal now, not Real anymore! I like a progression like that - which blends linearity with some choice - conceptually, though it'd make it tricky to balance things so that each of the paired elemental areas were challenging enough, maybe. I imagined each of the areas would have three sub-areas to explore in any order, so maybe that could be enough...?
I'd planned something basically like that as the typical-JRPG-like progression of the endgame! Though if I revise my ideas yet again, it might not be relevant anymore. I'll write another blog post.