SaGa 4 (FFL4): The Far Ages

Hello everybody,
After the re-theme of the project, i thought it would be a good idea to tell you about the new features and concepts i am working on. This is the last time i will be talking about the re-theme and i won't repeat this again:

The game background world switched from the "Fading Suns" RPG setting to the old gameboy RPG series called "SaGa". This was done due to graphical limitations, time and complexity reasons. All "Fading Suns" related ideas are kept for a possible future project. This project, originally title "monochrome gameboy style RPG" will be a remake of the good old SaGa series called SaGa 4. I try and do my best to continue the old game in a way i think they deserve it (please not that Square decided to discount the old saga series and modified both the setting, gameplay as well as the naming in their future titles - they cannot be compared to the first three (2) SaGa titles anymore).

Finally i like to add that this won't be a quick-n-dirty fangame, as i try to make it a worthwile RPG experience. I do these blog posts to show you that - despite the oldschool graphics - there is a lot of depth under the hood of SaGa4, making it worthy to be called "SaGa4". Nuff said - onto the glorious Character Selection!



OVERVIEW
In SaGa4, you start the game with only one character (representing yourself) and then build your party by hiring up to three additional characters at pubs, guilds and less obvious locations. The first character is selected in a 4-step process, a luxury you won't have when choosing your companions - as you have to take whats currently offered on the hero market. This also means you have the most freedom in selecting your starting character. Lets go through the selection process step by step:

1/4 SELECT RACE
Im sticking with the good old SaGa setting and all the original races have a comeback. In addition there will be two new races in the game - explained later. But, there are a few changes, as not all of the mechanics related to Mutants and Robots can be ported well to the RPGMaker2k3. Your main character can be one of 4 possible races, the other two races can only be included in your party as hireable members.

HUMAN
The oldest and most numberous race. Their skills are generally well-balanced. They can use most items and do well in all aspects. Best for beginners, best allrounder.

META
Short for "Metahuman" and similar to the good old Mutants, the name was changed because they work a bit different than in the old SaGa titles and I wanted to reflect that in their naming. Genetically engineered race created by humans. Meta's feature superior mental abilities but lack physical strength. Not suited for close-combat.

CYBORG
Similar to the old Robots, but adjusted to be playable as main-char. This human/machine crossover lacks mental powers, but cyborgs are very durable and their unmatched accuracy makes them perfect for firearms.

BEAST
Beasts are similar to the good old Monsters, but they function a bit different then in the old SaGa games and i wanted to reflect that in their naming. A race suited to the extreme conditions on alien planets. Beasts are powerful but cumbersome and prefer close-combat over firearms or magic.

The ones who still remember SaGa1 and SaGa2 have already seen that there are two of the original races missing: Monsters and Robots. These races will still be in the game, but won't be available to your starting character. This is because I don't want the main-char to be a shape-changing monster nor a equipment dependent robot. You can hire both Monsters and Robots as your other party members, as they do not focus the plot on them. The main character has to be somewhat constant as he is the protagonist (and so to say the "center") of the game.



2/4 SELECT ELEMENT
This is a relatively new aspect that was introduced in SaGa3 (FFL3), where all characters where aligned to one of the four elements. I like that idea very much and expand it to provide more choices, depth of gameplay and tactical possibilities. Basically each element gives your character a small starting attribute bonus, together with faster growth-rate and a higher maximum attribute value. But this comes at the cost that each element is naturally weak against the attacks of another element. Elemental attacks are not too common in the beginning of the game, but later on you should think twice about how to fight what kind of enemies.

Please note that one more reason why i changed Robots into Cyborgs is, that they are aligned to an element too. Something that is still okay for a Human/Machine crossover but not soo realistic for a pure machine anymore. And yes, the hireable robots will feature no element at all - making them completely neutral.

FIRE
The element of agression and brute force increases a characters strength but is weak against water based attack and abilities.

WATER
The element of wisdom and firesight increases a characters intelligence but is weak against air based attacks and abilities.

EARTH
The element of growth and balance increases a characters defense but is weak against fire based attacks and abilities.

AIR
The element of movement and camouflage increases a characters agility but makes him weak against earth based attacks and abilities.



3/4 SELECT GENDER
This is more a cosmetic issue as there are different player graphics for every gender. But there is also a small attribute impact whether you choose your main character to be man or human. Another reason to turn Robots into Cyborgs was that they can also be male or female as their core once was human. And of course, hireable robots will be genderless.

MALE
Males are a bit stronger than female characters, but they are not so agile on the other hand.

FEMALE
Females are a bit quicker than male characters, but they are not so strong on the other hand.

4/4 SELECT NAME
Finally you can choose a name for your character. All hireable characters have a pre-set name, but you can change that too when you add them to your party.

CONCLUSION
This system is quite universal, as i planned to use a similar concept for my original "Fading Suns" idea as well for one or two other projects. I played a bit with random creation systems or tarot like character creation and they all sucked. Finally simplicity was the key: To let the player clearly decide who his main character will be I got the maximum out of the concept. Its both easy to script for me as a designer and makes a lot of fun to use as a player. You always know what you will get and it adds some replay value to the game.

Below is a chart showing all the different aspects of character creation (It allows you to create 32 differently flavoured characters by the way). Most of the time you will try to make a character who is strong in one field, even stronger by choosing the right element and gender. But sometimes its also fun to make a more unorthodox decision. The game never becomes unplayable, no matter wich character you create - but it can be harder to beat with one combination and easier with another.

I have not explained eating meat, installing robot parts and gaining/loosing mutant skills as well as the other specials in this post. This is another subject i will talk about in my future blog entries. Stay tuned until then!

Thats all for today, thank you for reading this lengthy text. As you can see, this "seemingly oldschool monochrome gameboy cartridge" has quite some advanced mechanics under its hood - despite the retro graphics!

PS: Attribute values are subject to change during playtesting.