I always dreamt of creating a tactical RPG like Shining Force or Final Fantasy Tactics, but never believed I was capable of. Also, about ten years ago I had a dream about a game whose characters were Superman, Batman, Venom and John Lennon. The Lonely League is my shot at making both these dreams come true.

Our protagonist is Vince Heart, a pure hearted guy who is just trying to be a nice person in a world where kindness and empathy are becoming rare commodities. Vince is constantly bothered by how selfish everyone is. One day, a mysterious encounter changes him deeply, making him develop powers beyond his wildest imagination. And, as you may well know, with great power comes great responsibility. Whatever is wrong with the world, Vince believes he should do something about it. A series of bizarre events leads him to team up with Superman, Batman and John Lennon. This unlikely team is set on a quest to save the world. But saving a world that does not want to be saved will prove to be a lonely quest.

The progress of the game alternates between cutscenes and battles. There is no walking, no exploration, and the overall story is mostly linear.
Cutscenes play like comic book pages. Some of the scenes are passive, and in some of them you can make choices. Certain dialog choices give you status boosts corresponding to the choice you make. Also, some moments are played like small minigames, like tracking an enemy or trying to get a loan from friends.

Battle-wise, The Lonely League is a Tactical RPG like Fire Emblem, Shining Force and Final Fantasy Tactics. You control a small group of characters, but there is plenty of room for strategy and customization.
The main feature of the system is you are able to interact with map events, other than just attack them. Talking to enemies can have multiple effects. You can make them change their attack patterns, or in many cases get them to join your party for the duration of that battle. You can also interact with objects, activating, disabling or moving them, which can have environmental effects. Victory is not always achieved by killing every enemy on map, and most battles will have multiple paths to victory.



In terms of character customization, each character will have multiple classes to be unlocked throughout the game, some of them being hidden. Each class generates its own skill tree which in which player can spend XP to upgrade stats or learn new skills. There is no leveling up, and upgrades are stacked between multiple classes, so you can ultimately create a character that combines powers from different sources.



The tactical battle system is being designed pretty much from scratch, and this is supposed to be a long game, so final release might take a while. I do plan on releasing episodic demos with partial versions of the story in the meanwhile. I'm also making the system as detached from the story as possible, so it can be reused in future games.