LOCKEZ'S PROFILE

If your game isn't set on Earth then it doesn't really matter. I mean it's not like your world's style of architecture has to precisely match any specific Earth style. If the style's close enough to Earth architecture to be recognizable then it helps viewers connect to it and think of it in a more traditional fantasy sense, but it's not actually necessary.

And if you have steam-powered robots, or magitek lasers, or lost ancient technology, or airships (especially of the propellor-boat variety), then really anything goes.

When I play games and they have things like Moomba villages or the Lifestream or the entire script of Chrono Cross, it's pretty easy to tell that hallucinogenic drugs were heavily involved.

Actually I would say that the total number of video games ever made which were created while not on any form of drugs or alcohol is probably a single-digit number. Shit that would NEVER be allowed into movies somehow makes it into every single commercial game I've ever played.

It's possible to use the same mechanics as a battle uses, but make it be, say a dance contest. The "enemy" is simply the setting or event.

Each turn in battle you are given an option between several different dance moves you have learned, and depending on the setting and the music and the crowd you're performing for, you might get bonus effect from pirhouettes or from salsa moves, which are essentially elements. Doing a certain move might have a random chance to inflicted "wowed" status on the audience, if your flourish stat is high enough compared to their jadedness stat. Different clothing you can equip before you begin dancing could also influence how skilled you are, granting stats such as flexibility, moxie, rhythm, and memory, and some styles of equipment could be more appropriate for certain settings.

You could do the same thing with commands during a motorcycle riding sequence. The event acts by turning sharply or by sending a semi to cut you off, and your success is controlled by what action you take in response, as well as by your stats such as nerves, balance, reflexes, and engine volume.

This shouldn't ever mean there's just one correct action, but rather, it should play out roughly similar to an RPG battle - different commands you can choose have different levels of effectiveness and can improve with your stats. It should probably have equivalent ideas to elements, hit points, buffs, debuffs, etc, though the unique way that these ideas played out might make them almost impossible to recognize as standard RPG elements.

Regardless of whether you build a system like this or not, your goal should be to create a system that does not have battles, but is still interactive and strategic to the same level as an RPG. If you make a "game" that simply removes all the interactive parts, you should just make a movie instead. If your interactive parts don't really resemble the interactive parts of an RPG, then what you've created isn't an RPG; it's probably a sim game. Which isn't bad, but don't call it an RPG.

Sometimes I like classical tragedies just as much as happy endings. Where the protagonist's fatal flaws ultimately cause his end.

A nice midpoint is an ending where the main characters die or fail, but despite their death or failure they still fulfill their most important task. In an RPG where you're trying to save the world, this is probably as close to a tragedy as you can usually get. Since a tragedy is supposed to trace the path of how humans cause themselves to suffer, not actually destroy the world. Lufia 2 did a good job of this. Mother 3 was a really ballsy exception and I loved it, but it's pretty hard for most games to get away with an ending like that. They only pulled it off by not actually spelling out what happened. But if it's your favorite ending, then I assume that means you figured it out.

If your game ends with the good guys winning, it's important to me that you don't just go on and on about how happy everyone is. FF4 for example had a terrible ending: it went on for like 20 minutes showing how wonderful each character's life was turning out a year later. We don't care! That's not what the game was about! The game was about Cecil, Golbez, Baron, and the moon. Those are the elements that should have been the focus of the ending. Sidequests and substories have no place in the ending - they should be wrapped up before you get there, so that the ending feels really important.

God, you're the worst recruiter I've ever met in my life.