HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

Instead of game overs, you lose a portion of your money and return to a safe place. You won't lose any banked money. You can also accrue interest from opening certain treasures (I currently have this as one of a few random procs from opening treasures, but this is something that I might toy with still).

@Ratty: Man, giving Bomberman online capabilities would be great. I'd love to see some 40-man bomberman matches.


For some reason people seem to hate this game, but I have a soft spot in my heart for the Lennus series (the first one was ported over to the states as Paladin's Quest). That series had a really cool aesthetic, soundtrack, and world, and some neat progression, character, and combat mechanics that would be awesome to see further evolved. I recommend both games in the series for rpg aficionados, but Lennus 2 is a more polished experience if you want to hunt down the translation.

Also, I agree with Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger, the Soul Blazer trilogy, and Phantasy Star.

Edit: And, yeah, E.V.O. was pretty sweet.

@Gretgor: What about something to increase mobility? I don't know if there's a term for this, but the skates in Wild Arms and the ability to roll using Rand's field ability in Breath of Fire 2 create an impromptu avoidance game for the player. It's like a self-imposed mini-game that makes traversing the area faster and more fun. I'm not sure if that'll fit with the tone of your game, though.

You'll naturally unlock the soul tear scenes as you progress; they occur pretty late in the game. If you're having trouble beating a Nightmare Dimension level, just get further into the game; the later levels are pretty close to end-game difficulty.

I figure the easiest way to explain is to just give you a bird's eye view: