Woooooo! It's a dev update and I'm so happy to see it. First off - the 3d models and battle system look visually great. I had previously expressed my concerns about the departure from 2d but those have been laid to rest and I am definitely sold on this new direction. The battle UI is also very appealing, I understood what everything was but it comes off as more modernized than the original Mardek visuals. One small thought about it: the reaction bar could perhaps be moved to the gap to the right of the ally health bars; as it stands now it's place in the middle of the screen is somewhat jarring.
As for mechanics, it's funny that you bring up Morrowind, which is one of my favorite games of all time. As you may know, there have been no shortage of people who claim that "Morrowind had it all right" and that Skyrim was "dumbed down." Though I liked Morrowind's more traditional RPG approach to player growth, I will admit that half the time, I still to this day don't really know what boosting each stat does. I think the original Mardek did a good job of being relatively clear on what each stat was and what it did, even with a large amount of different stats. It appears to me that in this new rendition, body is like a combination of STR, VIT, and base HP, mind takes over for SPR and base MP, and then the speed stat just takes over for AGL. I feel like this could be a good change, and the idea of skills costing body points to use or dealing either body or mind damage is definitely interesting. It also seems like there are some new fun mechanics like taunt, which would have been welcome in the original Mardek series.
Other ideas I like... having a smaller pool of skills that can be upgraded is a fantastic idea and one that would have fared well in the original series. There were *so many* skills in Mardek and often many went were made obsolete like Sharla and Donovan's first spells, or were never really used in the first place. I also think using food as opposed to potions could be good. The many potions of Mardek worked because that game was parodying other RPGs, so having "chocolate milk" and "god piss" was hilarious because of the setting. Having food take more or less of a turn is also really cool and innovative. That food-eating gif is terrifying though.
The last point I want to touch on is about progression, itemization, and choice. One thing I really enjoyed about Mardek was how itemization choice worked: you had a very limited number of item slots to work with, and a big part of the game in my opinion was choosing the right items for the area you were in. There were totally legitimate (and sometimes hilarious) strategies, especially for the bonus bosses, that involved using the right combo of items, usually ones that boosted resistances, to completely cheese a fight. I hope that some of this gameplay will return, as it was really fun. Going back to the Morrowind vs Skyrim analogy. Morrowind had many more OP, powerspike items than Skyrim, but in Skyrim there was almost no choice to it. In Skyrim you get items that have small, only positive bonuses, and you keep those until you get something marginally better. Conversely, certain Morrowind items really *meant* something. To bring it into terms of this game series, take something as simple as the fire pendant. A cheap, easily acquired item could literally make you immune to magical fire attacks. But it was at the cost of using an item that boosted stats, or gave health, or offered a passive auto-buff. Now maybe that's a bit extreme, but it means you make a choice, and in my opinion that is good gameplay. The same applied for reactions - having limited RP and needing to choose what reactions you want to use was really effective gameplay and I hope it returns in some sense. I think some of the simplifications you've made to this current battle system can be applied to this sort of gameplay, but I do want to caution against simplifying to the point where there is no choice. Instead, consider offering "power spikes" through itemization, skill upgrades, etc, but at the cost of something else. This can greatly increase the game's replayability value as well from a gameplay perspective, as you will have multiple "builds" to try out on various characters. Honestly, this might be getting out of the scope of this specific dev blog, but I do believe it's something worth considering. Anyway! Thank you for reading another rambling comment of mine. This game looks like it's already shaping up well, and I'm excited to see what's next.
4
Tobias 1104~4Y
Interesting that you say the reaction bar in this position is jarring, since this is where it was in the original MARDEK! The space at the right of the current status circle things would be an odd choice, since there can be up to four of those so that space is variable, plus less horizontal space gives less precision. Where it is now feels like the only place it'd really work, to me.
I'd forgotten about the silly potions like "God Piss" (the name of which is misleading, since it's never been near a real god)! Makes me think I could add potions as a subtype of 'food'...
I forgot to talk about equipment etc in this post, whoops! I'll probably do something like I did in Taming Dreams. I'd forgotten about how I handled it in that until just now, but I like it and think it could work for this.
Essentially, rather than having stats in the traditional sense, weapons could have a Passive skill that'd always be in effect (could be something like '+10 Body damage', or '20% chance of [status effect]' on hit), plus a Reaction skill that'd take effect on top of the reaction bonus for the action you were using. Maybe? Shields could be similar, though the reaction would apply defensively of course.
Rather than having a bunch of different armour items to equip, instead characters could have a limited selection of carefully designed Outfits, which would change their appearance. Each one might offer both a Boon and a Drawback. So Mardek for example might have his Casual, Cherub, and Seraph outfits... though plot stuff might prevent you from switching between those for him in particular. Even without manual choice between them, the way the character would play would change accordingly, so that might spice things up a bit.
Each character could also equip up to three 'memento' items, which might be unique to each character, relating to specific memories of theirs. In Taming Dreams, I see that mementos granted action abilities, so that's a possibility! What I was thinking before I looked back on this was that each memento could grant a passive skill, which might be more complex than just some simple stat boosts. Like, say, 'counterattack whenever Deugan is attacked', or something. And of course you'd only be able to equip three at a time, so you'd have to make a choice about your character's build.
I've not given that as much thought as I need to just yet though; I'll need to devote some time to it later.
1
JohnnyBoi45~4Y
I see why the reaction bar wouldn't work on the right - I guess the only difference with the original is that the screen was set up to allow a bit of space for the bar, so that it was below the characters, not on top of them.
For this equipment system, would that mean that skills and reactions could no longer be mastered? I don't know how Taming Dreams' system works so I can't really comment on it. It could be really interesting! A lot of items in Mardek existed for the sole purpose of mastering a skill. Take the blood opal, for example. Aside from the reaction it teaches, it's almost entirely useless as a standalone item because very few enemies inflict bleed. But in this new system, if it only works while equipped, that's a choice you'd have to make if the HP-draining effect would be worth what other items can offer. Then again, that's a choice one has to make in the original series to spend those 4 RP on the Drain HP 10% reaction as opposed to, say, Accuracy +50%. Mardek did have a slight problem with power creep due to the ever-accumulating skills and reactions, so maybe this is a good move? The idea of having interesting unique passive skills is great as well!
1
Tobias 1104~4Y
Ah right; I just had to check the game myself to see the positioning, and it is indeed under the characters. I suppose I see this as the '3D equivalent' of that positioning though? And having it layer over the 3D scene adds an appealing kind of depth, in my opinion. But as with everything, subjective perspectives vary!
When playing through MARDEK recently, I actually disliked items that 'forced' me to keep them equipped just to learn a skill (especially one I wouldn't even use just for the sake of completion), so I want to avoid that. In Taming Dreams, I don't think you mastered skills? Honestly I can't remember! I suppose it was more like Pokemon abilities, where you have a set number and can replace them, but can't accumulate a list, and a lot of strategy comes from what you choose to fill the limited slots with.
I vaguely remember that you could gain permanent boons from using the miasmon many times, so perhaps I could do a similar thing? That is, you don't need to use skills to learn them as such, but if you use them enough, you can get some permanent stat boost not necessarily related to the skill? It's one thing to add to the ideas pile.
1
JohnnyBoi45~4Y
First of all, thanks for replying to my many comments - gonna try and cap this off now. I will definitely get used to the new reaction bar placing. I agree on your point that it was sometimes annoying to keep items on for the sole purpose of skill mastery, especially passive skills which often took forever, so this feels like a step in the right direction. The permanent boosts from using certain skills enough sounds like a good idea to revisit though, especially if characters feel like they end up plateauing progression-wise. Limited skill slots also seems like a solid move so you don't end up with characters like Gloria or Legion completely overshadowing ones like Donovan or Sharla just due to their sheer versatility.
As for mechanics, it's funny that you bring up Morrowind, which is one of my favorite games of all time. As you may know, there have been no shortage of people who claim that "Morrowind had it all right" and that Skyrim was "dumbed down." Though I liked Morrowind's more traditional RPG approach to player growth, I will admit that half the time, I still to this day don't really know what boosting each stat does. I think the original Mardek did a good job of being relatively clear on what each stat was and what it did, even with a large amount of different stats. It appears to me that in this new rendition, body is like a combination of STR, VIT, and base HP, mind takes over for SPR and base MP, and then the speed stat just takes over for AGL. I feel like this could be a good change, and the idea of skills costing body points to use or dealing either body or mind damage is definitely interesting. It also seems like there are some new fun mechanics like taunt, which would have been welcome in the original Mardek series.
Other ideas I like... having a smaller pool of skills that can be upgraded is a fantastic idea and one that would have fared well in the original series. There were *so many* skills in Mardek and often many went were made obsolete like Sharla and Donovan's first spells, or were never really used in the first place. I also think using food as opposed to potions could be good. The many potions of Mardek worked because that game was parodying other RPGs, so having "chocolate milk" and "god piss" was hilarious because of the setting. Having food take more or less of a turn is also really cool and innovative. That food-eating gif is terrifying though.
The last point I want to touch on is about progression, itemization, and choice. One thing I really enjoyed about Mardek was how itemization choice worked: you had a very limited number of item slots to work with, and a big part of the game in my opinion was choosing the right items for the area you were in. There were totally legitimate (and sometimes hilarious) strategies, especially for the bonus bosses, that involved using the right combo of items, usually ones that boosted resistances, to completely cheese a fight. I hope that some of this gameplay will return, as it was really fun. Going back to the Morrowind vs Skyrim analogy. Morrowind had many more OP, powerspike items than Skyrim, but in Skyrim there was almost no choice to it. In Skyrim you get items that have small, only positive bonuses, and you keep those until you get something marginally better. Conversely, certain Morrowind items really *meant* something. To bring it into terms of this game series, take something as simple as the fire pendant. A cheap, easily acquired item could literally make you immune to magical fire attacks. But it was at the cost of using an item that boosted stats, or gave health, or offered a passive auto-buff. Now maybe that's a bit extreme, but it means you make a choice, and in my opinion that is good gameplay. The same applied for reactions - having limited RP and needing to choose what reactions you want to use was really effective gameplay and I hope it returns in some sense. I think some of the simplifications you've made to this current battle system can be applied to this sort of gameplay, but I do want to caution against simplifying to the point where there is no choice. Instead, consider offering "power spikes" through itemization, skill upgrades, etc, but at the cost of something else. This can greatly increase the game's replayability value as well from a gameplay perspective, as you will have multiple "builds" to try out on various characters. Honestly, this might be getting out of the scope of this specific dev blog, but I do believe it's something worth considering. Anyway! Thank you for reading another rambling comment of mine. This game looks like it's already shaping up well, and I'm excited to see what's next.
I'd forgotten about the silly potions like "God Piss" (the name of which is misleading, since it's never been near a real god)! Makes me think I could add potions as a subtype of 'food'...
I forgot to talk about equipment etc in this post, whoops! I'll probably do something like I did in Taming Dreams. I'd forgotten about how I handled it in that until just now, but I like it and think it could work for this.
Essentially, rather than having stats in the traditional sense, weapons could have a Passive skill that'd always be in effect (could be something like '+10 Body damage', or '20% chance of [status effect]' on hit), plus a Reaction skill that'd take effect on top of the reaction bonus for the action you were using. Maybe? Shields could be similar, though the reaction would apply defensively of course.
Rather than having a bunch of different armour items to equip, instead characters could have a limited selection of carefully designed Outfits, which would change their appearance. Each one might offer both a Boon and a Drawback. So Mardek for example might have his Casual, Cherub, and Seraph outfits... though plot stuff might prevent you from switching between those for him in particular. Even without manual choice between them, the way the character would play would change accordingly, so that might spice things up a bit.
Each character could also equip up to three 'memento' items, which might be unique to each character, relating to specific memories of theirs. In Taming Dreams, I see that mementos granted action abilities, so that's a possibility! What I was thinking before I looked back on this was that each memento could grant a passive skill, which might be more complex than just some simple stat boosts. Like, say, 'counterattack whenever Deugan is attacked', or something. And of course you'd only be able to equip three at a time, so you'd have to make a choice about your character's build.
I've not given that as much thought as I need to just yet though; I'll need to devote some time to it later.
For this equipment system, would that mean that skills and reactions could no longer be mastered? I don't know how Taming Dreams' system works so I can't really comment on it. It could be really interesting! A lot of items in Mardek existed for the sole purpose of mastering a skill. Take the blood opal, for example. Aside from the reaction it teaches, it's almost entirely useless as a standalone item because very few enemies inflict bleed. But in this new system, if it only works while equipped, that's a choice you'd have to make if the HP-draining effect would be worth what other items can offer. Then again, that's a choice one has to make in the original series to spend those 4 RP on the Drain HP 10% reaction as opposed to, say, Accuracy +50%. Mardek did have a slight problem with power creep due to the ever-accumulating skills and reactions, so maybe this is a good move? The idea of having interesting unique passive skills is great as well!
When playing through MARDEK recently, I actually disliked items that 'forced' me to keep them equipped just to learn a skill (especially one I wouldn't even use just for the sake of completion), so I want to avoid that. In Taming Dreams, I don't think you mastered skills? Honestly I can't remember! I suppose it was more like Pokemon abilities, where you have a set number and can replace them, but can't accumulate a list, and a lot of strategy comes from what you choose to fill the limited slots with.
I vaguely remember that you could gain permanent boons from using the miasmon many times, so perhaps I could do a similar thing? That is, you don't need to use skills to learn them as such, but if you use them enough, you can get some permanent stat boost not necessarily related to the skill? It's one thing to add to the ideas pile.