COZZER'S PROFILE

I would have liked to help judging, but I don't think I'll be able to complete any of them. °°

The idea in itself isn't bad, but it creates two problems:
- The plot: if the side missions are related to the plot, but the player is not required to complete all of them, you'll have to take this into account during the next "main storilyne" mission.
For example, the major mission could change depending on if the players discovered the secret passage for the villain's lair in a side mission or if they chose to do something else instead.

- The difficulty: if the side missions are to be done in any order, they have to be about the same difficulty. And if the player gains exp by doing them, this means they'll get easier as he goes along.
A suggestion: instead of giving exp/equipment as a reward, make the changes in the major mission be the reward.

For example, let's say the next major mission is infiltrating into the Villain's Palace: a side mission will give the player a key for a treasure room inside the palace, another one will allow him to kill the villain's henchman so he won't be botered during the main mission, another one will gain him the trust of the townfolk who will cover for him, another one will make the villain dispatch part of his mooks to somewhere else...

author=Solitayre
Baron Nefarious probably isn't the final boss in the scene as described above. The point of this scene is that Nefarious is a challenge, but not hard enough to actually kill the player and ruin the scene.

Still, you seemed to set up that scene as some kind of climax; not for the whole story, but for a storyarc.

And I think making a "plot" climax coincide with a "gameplay" anticlimax would greatly hurt player immersion, as LockeZ said.

(I never quite got the difference between Yume Nikki and a bunch of .png files tied to a random number generator. But that's probably just me.)

author=Craze
As for "interrupts," um, =/.

Yeah, I know, it was a random idea. I tried to come up with other ways to spice up a bit the "enemy phases" (mostly as a thought exercise), but I don't think it can be done without undermining the system itself.

About characters, you said the game would have an artificier and his constructs as party members, for a total of ten characters with diverse skillsets, so still a high level of complexity.
Maybe the player could get/create them one at a time, spending at least a couple of battles after every "new entry" in the team, with a longer "training time" between having five and six members? °°

author=Solitayre
You monster.

Between this and the quote in your profile, I now imagine this article being read by GLADOS.

Anyway, I 95% support this article.
The only thing I don't agree on is the fact that Barion Nefarious not being strong actually works against the pacing of the scene. I mean, heroes don't prove they're badasses by only bullying mooks; they have to defeat other badasses.
So, you can give the player his power trip by making him curbstomp the mooks, then he can become a real badass by defeating the actually dangerous boss.
(And you put a checkpoint just before that, because it's true that boss battles immediately after cutscenes are bad)

The only ways I can see Baron Nefarious being weak as a good move would be if he were a really minor villain and/or if the protagonist/player already had to overcome the main difficulties of the quest and the "wedding" scene is just falling action.

An example of the latter: Baron Nefarious threw the protagonist into the Pit of Progressively Stronger Random Encounters, but he emerged victorious from the horde of monsters and he became strong enough to curbstomp the villaing against who he couldn't do anything before. In this case, the real "difficulty" is the Pit, and kicking Nefarious' ass is just a way to give some sweet regenge to both the protagonist and the character.

But Baron Nefarious isn't a joke villain and if you build up the "wedding" scene as the last showdown with him, then it being easy will just be disappointing.

Also, if you want the fight not to be dangerous, I think making Nefarious a gimmick boss would actually not ba a good idea: usually, during normal battles it takes a series of errors to lose; if you screw up on one turn, you have the opportunity to make up on the next one. In your examples, on the other hand, if the player makes ONE mistake (even just pushing the wrong button at the wrong time) during the turn immediately before/after the Gimmick Boss Attack, he has no hope of surviving.

Rather, if you want to make the battle easy, make it easy.
Baron Nefarious just cowers when it's his turn, or maybe attacks with a wimpy animation for 1 point of damage; maybe he tries calling other easily dispatched mooks (which after a while won't even come, after having seen what the protagonist has done to their comrades).
Make him shed all the "dangerous villain" act he put up when he had an army of mooks who protected him. Make him cry and whine everythime the protagonist attacks him. Make him try to bribe the protagonist with laughable offers.
If the battle is not supposed to be a equal fight but just a chance for the player/protagonist to vent his rage against the guy who made him suffer, go all the way with it.

Anyway, the rest of the article points out a lot of "less-obivious-than-they-seem" common mistakes. I like it very much.

(I hate when random chance is used too much myself, but Kentona makes some good points.
I'd say random chance has its places in RPGs, but it's very annoying when it's used outside of these places.)