Diablocide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkwRbHnohRY
Valkyrie Profile 2. Truly epic theme.

So, today's problem was Protector III. It's a big update to one of my favorite games. Protector III is a really awesome take on the tower defense genre, featuring one of the best character advancement systems in any RPG... except this isn't even an RPG! You can make a poison mage that excels in speed and inflicting max HP degens. Sweet.

According to WIP, the Arian Wild battle system is almost ready for me to start working my magic, especially if a few YERD scripts fit into it well (otherwise WIP will have to spend more time getting instants and cooldowns - vital parts of the Krazuman gameplan - to work). AW is of a higher priority than Diablocide, but the latter is what you're here for, right? Let's talk Essence.

Essence replaces equipment in Diablocide, much like Accessories are the only equippable items in Final Fantasy X-2. Essence is convenient for both the player and myself for a multitude of reasons. Most importantly for me, it allows for the creation of a bunch of nifty items that can all be equipped at once believably; while I haven't really explained this in-game yet, Essence is just the metaphysical form of artifacts that can be "attached" to your Soul. As such, you can have three "helms" on at once! For the player of a game that requires you to micromanage fourteen individuals all at the same time, having the normal weapon/armor/head/body/accessory/orb/book/ring/statue/etc. slots becomes a daunting task. Being able to equip items in any slot you so choose (as long as you have the Soul) greatly decreases the amount of thought that needs to be put into "I WANT TO SHIELD PRINCESS FROM ICE!"

Essence provides not only for slot-based sanity, but due to the way it works with your Soul it functions as a balancing and then a game/story integration piece. The system is balanced because your Soul only has the capacity for so much stuff to be on it at a time, so you can't load up Princess with four Greycaps (SP +50) when you start getting them around level 6-11. I want the player to use all of their characters, not a set super-four - Vanguard EXP and rebattling is there if you want to make an elite troupe. Essence also works to incorporate the fourteen Souls into the gameplay (albeit incorporeally... oh, I slay myself). It's a subtle tool that shows that I'm not just randomly capitalizing words and then forgetting them.

Essence is fun to make, fun to get, and fun to feel the effects of. Each piece is powerful (at least when you get it), so it makes a real difference on whoever gets it. It's a beautiful system, one which is taken most unceremoniously for Arian Wild.

Gotta catch einherjar~