Hayate no Gotoku! Dream Apocalypse

I’ve decided to scrap the speed discrepancies as a balancing factor for the characters. Ayumu was too slow to not be annoying, and Hina’s speed was totally superfluous. Notice I’m talking about the walk/dash speed as oppose to the cooldown of the characters(which handles the time it takes before a character can attack again after he or she have already done so). Instead, I introduce a new stat that every character will receive (actually, several, but more on that in a bit.), stamina! (This stat will “replace” the happiness stat, more on that in the second paragraph) Keep in mind that this stat will only be relevant during battle. Dashing causes a character to continuously lose stamina and not doing so will cause a character to continuously recover stamina. When stamina is fully depleted, a character will be no longer able to dash, and can only choose to sit and wait for his or her stamina to recover. The max stamina of a character will increase as he or she levels up, at different rates of course. To even further differentiate the characters, the rate in which stamina recovers and depletes will also be distinguished. Ayumu’s slowness can be translated to fast stamina depletion, but she’ll also recover her stamina quickly as well (which kinda translate to her insane metabolism :) ), and Hina’s speed can be translated to a slow depleting stamina bar; being able to dash significantly longer than the other characters can be used as a means of defining her agility/speed/endurance to stay in the fray fresh. Nagi can have both a fast depleting and a slow regenerating stamina bar, but at the same time, she could gain a boat load of stamina to add on to her max stamina each level. There’s really infinite amount of combinations I could use with this system to add depth to the game and individuality to the characters.

As for the happiness stat, it isn’t necessarily gone, but invisible. That’s right, I’ve decided to make the stat a secret one. Stamina will be seen along with Attack, Def, etc. (which makes more sense anyway) and happiness will be kept track of in variables the player cannot see. You will be able to go to a certain area to get a better idea of just how happy one of the potential lucky ladies is, a.k.a. the Love Master’s Kasumi Aika’s place. She will act as the love mediator similar to the random lady in every pokemon game that checks your pokemon’s “secret” happiness stat and gives you clues as to just how much more you need for that next affection convo.

This brings to the last thing that I am changing, hopefully for the better. There will be gift items that only specific characters like, and gift items that certain characters don’t like very much. For example, a particular gift can yield high “happiness” points for Hina, but could yield as little as 1 for Nagi. This causes you to be much more careful as to who to give an item, and gift management in general, and it also adds yet another layer of mystery in the happiness stat. I will take suggestions as to what kind of gifts certain HnG girls will like and dislike in the forums. The words of real HnG fans will be invaluable in this endeavor.

Keep in mind that none of this is set in stone, and I value the words of those who play this game, because that’s essentially why I’m making (well, a majority of the reason) this game. So any feed back is wholly welcomed.

On a side and unfortunate note, one of the members of the forums brought a particular glitch to my attention that isn’t by any means game breaking, but it sure is game changing. I am not sure if I will fix it in the future, due to the fact that “fixing it” might equate to turning the entire battle system upside down and inside out. For those curious, the glitch makes the game virtually as easy as the press of a button.