COMBINING SONIC ELEMENTS WITH RPG ELEMENTS

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So, after playing Sonic Chronicles on the DS, I found myself wanting to make a Sonic RPG. However, I wanted to retain the most fundamental of Sonic elements: speed. Obviously, with a turn-based battle system, I couldn't really do much in battles, but during field exploration, I want to create something fast. I'm open to suggestions, but this is my favorite idea yet.

- You have three location types that exist on the world map: Action Stages, Adventure Fields, and Event Points.
- Event Points are simply one-time locales that proceed the story and contain a cutscene.
- Adventure Fields are simple RPG "towns" in a sense.
- Action Stages are the meat of the game, though. You play them out in traditional Sonic style. 2-D sidescroller. Jumping. Spindashing. Ring collecting. The key difference being that touching the enemy, instead of instantly defeating it will take the player into the traditional RPG battle mode.
- In essence, traditional Sonic gameplay with seamless movement into RPG-style battles.

Does the above sound good? Would you go about it differently?
arcan
Having a signature is too mainstream. I'm not part of your system!
1866
- The key difference being that touching the enemy, instead of instantly defeating it will take the player into the traditional RPG battle mode.


There are many ways you could possibly work this but I just don't see any way this could be done without completely annoying the player.
I have been trying to run scenarios through my head. I really don't want to seriously interrupt the action. Maybe if I make the battles insanely fast-paced? I hated that Sonic Chronicles was slow as shit. :\

You make an excellent point, though.
Invert your idea. Have normal explorations and you get into fights like a normal RPG. The fights are small stages where you have to spin yourself around and attack the enemies just like a Sonic game only with numbers. Action belongs in battle for a sonic game.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Point 1: Battles should be done on the field screen a la Chrono Trigger, not in a separate battle screen like most RPGs. Regardless of anything else you do, if your goal is the feeling of speed, this is absolutely critical. Feel free to ignore my other advice if it sounds too hard, but this one is not optional.

Point 2: Keep the field action going during battles. Just because you are fighting something doesn't mean you should stop running. Have both things happening at once. This can easily be done by having the player use one hand to move Sonic with the arrow keys (or the WASD keys), and their other hand to use abilities with number keys. Make sure the player can choose which ability is mapped to which number key. Being able to map abilities to number keys is not such a novel concept - all MMORPGs and most other modern computer RPGs do this.

Point 3: Obviously, this means that enemies will have to follow Sonic while he fights. Make sure they can all follow him, either by running behind/alongside him or by flying.

Point 4: If Sonic encounters and engages additional enemies before defeating the ones he's fighting, you need to know how to handle it. Ideally, they should probably join the fight. This will force the player to defeat enemies quickly before more show up.

Point 5: You need to come up with a way to discourage the player from standing still while fighting. Perhaps simply giving bonus points for how much they move forward during the battle.

Point 6: Using RPG Maker for this might be a waste of time, due to the platforming. You might consider just going with Flash or some other scripting language.
tardis
is it too late for ironhide facepalm
308
post=119939
Point 5: You need to come up with a way to discourage the player from standing still while fighting. Perhaps simply giving bonus points for how much they move forward during the battle.

Rephrase this- discouraging the player in any way is bad game design. Encourage the player to take advantage of the full range of movement of the character during battle. More speed, more movement, more excitement = better outcome in battles. It's a Sonic game- you should be able to win by being awesomer than your opponent.
What I would do is having only two location types: Towns and action. Just alternate between regular sonic stages and towns where you can talk, shop, sleep, whatever. I think Sonic is THE perfect action game, so I wouldn't want anything like "bumping into enemies and going to a battle screen", it would be a huge turn-off.

I'd also make towns in 2D sidescrolling, just to keep consistency. There's really no reason why towns shouldn't be sidescrolling.

It can work. You just have to find ways to connect what happens in town and what happens during action... for example, some NPC gives you an item that allows you to open a hidden area in action stage, and stuff like that.
post=120620
More speed, more movement, more excitement = better outcome in battles


Easy: More speed = more damage. I loved the feeling of ripping through an enemy and going on to the next one. I feel like traditional RPG Maker is ruled out due to static speed settings rather than gradual acceleration and tile based movement which would be way too restrictive for Sonic.
This sounds to me like Valkyrie Profile with much faster paced platforming. Maybe look at that for inspiration?
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
You know what I really don't understand is why so many people want to make Sonic fan games...
post=124374
You know what I really don't understand is why so many people want to make Sonic fan games...


Not only that, but they want to make Sonic fangames in a gameplay style that doesn't really suit highspeed action (in other words, RPGs)

I wish you luck Kitsune, but high speed action and number crunching stats are kinda polar opposites. Wolfcoder's idea sounds kinda interesting though.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Yeah, Sonic is quite literally the single worst choice you could possibly have made for a game of a different genre to turn into an RPG. Because if there's one thing that RPGs are absolutely terrible at, it's speed. You can probably make a Sonic game with an XP system, but you absolutely cannot make a true RPG that feels like a Sonic game.

Combining RPG combat and Sonic is like combining matter and antimatter. The result is annihilation - of your hopes and dreams.
If I were to design a Sonic game with RPG elements I would model it after Castlevania: Order of Ecclessia (DS). Towards the end of the game you get an ability that allows you to move really fast and rip through the weaker enemies. In this scenario, all Sonic would need is alternate abilities that he can use quickly while speeding and jumping through levels. He would need to level up and obtain gear, abilities, or whatever for progression, in order to defeat higher leveled enemies.

But as stated before, RPG Maker doesn't seem like a good platform for such a game.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
Not only that, but they want to make Sonic fangames in a gameplay style that doesn't really suit highspeed action (in other words, RPGs)


Yeah, Sonic is quite literally the single worst choice you could possibly have made for a game of a different genre to turn into an RPG


Yeah, why IS this such a common game type though? Sooooo many people try to make Sonic RPGs...
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