Crystals: Legend of the Sword

Since a lot of work on Crystals is going on behind the scenes, I figured I’d share some information about the game design itself. It might even be a little educational for those newer to game making. And with Crystal's large cast of characters, I felt it makes them a natural starting point for discussion.

Initially I was targeting a cast size similar to that of Final Fantasy VI, which would be 14 characters, to properly facilitate multi-party dungeons and a cast "reboot" of sorts for the start of the second game. However, as I refined the identity of each character, designs were discarded and recombined into new ones. And after a hundred redesigns I had enough material for 26 different characters. I'm not sure how many of them will ultimately make it into the Crystals series, but at least 15 already have plot points, so 18 or so seems like a safe bet at this point.

Riyu serves as the main character for the first game. However, his character design isn't finalized yet, so I'll be starting the discussion instead with Alex, Riyu’s evil brother.


Alex

Design

Alex is the initial party’s black mage. His spells are slightly atypical in that most cause a status effect in addition to raw damage (a more pure magical damage dealer joins later). Despite being a powerful mage, Alex can equip swords like Riyu, giving the party some interesting flexibility in terms of physical fighters. This makes him a useful damage dealer at any time in any battle. More importantly, though, it keeps him viable throughout early dungeons without me needing to give him a massive starting MP pool. Ultimately, though, his magic remains his biggest asset and the one relied upon most by players. He’s a bit brittle as a character, but not so much that Riyu’s pathetic “first aid” skill during the early parts of the game won’t be sufficient keep the party alive.

Skills and Abilities

Alex’s passive is Alternator, which makes him deal extra damage if he alternates between physical and magical attacks. Combined with the fact that all MP using characters have end-of-battle passive MP restoration, this means that even during random encounters Alex has a reason to use magic. Despite Alternator, Alex’s best DPS remains spamming black magic.

Alex’s active is Dark Wave, which, as some of you may have guessed, is a carbon copy rip off of Cecil’s Dark Wave ability in FF4. Dark Wave costs a percentage of Alex's maximum HP in order to deal damage to all enemies. The early game in Crystals is lacking in AOE spells, so this gives the party an option for handling something like six Goblins right from level 1. The HP cost of the ability early on is also meaningful, since the party lacks a dedicated healer. And later, when healing is readily available, it gives Alex another avenue for MP conservation. For the purposes of Alternator, Dark Wave counts as a physical attack, allowing Alex to continually blast AOE abilities if the player wishes.

Officially, Alex's primary skill is Black magic, but it’s more a combination of effect magic and conventional damage dealing abilities. This aspect of his character wasn’t planned so much as just morphed from how I structured his spells in the original demo. I like it, though. Balancing status effects is always a challenge because it’s easy to have them either too strong or too weak. By attaching a damage component, it makes the ability more relevant (damage + status effect) without needing to make truly abuse status effects.

Story

Alex will be a key player for the first game. Questions surround his actions, and it is unclear how long Riyu can hold back others from passing judgment. His negative outlook on life runs counter to the optimistic Luna, and add a conflicting element to the trying-to-do-good Riyu. Since he shares a backstory with Riyu, he acts as an effective avenue into the protagonist’s history, particularly with regards to the brothers’ relationship with their missing father. His physical attack prowess fits in nicely with him as somewhat a town bully and a successful fighter in an early-game tournament. From a story perspective, Alex's ability with a sword despite his natural magical talents is related to his desire to be able to wield the Excalibur.