MERLANDESE'S PROFILE

You mean push it to the right? I was wondering about the gap between storages, and whether the gap is too big or too small.

The "Category" stuff (and everything attached to the item description) is actually a Details section connected to each individual item. Those little stamp images change depending on the item you're selecting. Right now the images aren't perfectly aligned to the item. That's why this juice is a weapon type. XD

I have page after page of handwritten and digital notes made first and during the development. If I can get the basics to work on paper/"paper," then I'll develop.

author=Zachary_Braun
Of course RPGs have symmetry in battle systems... if effort has gone into balancing the enemy encounters with the player's progress up to that point. Hell, you could even introduce an algorithm which calculates the party's strength and adjusts the party's opponents' strength to match.

They may not be apparently symmetrical, but there is symmetry. That's the whole goal of a well-balanced game. Superficial concepts like HP quantity don't matter, as long as the challenge of reducing that quantity to 0 is balanced out for the player.

I think that confuses the terms "balance" and "symmetry." If both sides wiegh the same they are balanced even if they aren't symmetrical.

Whether a system should have balance or "a-balance" is not even a good question; of course the system should be balanced properly. Final Fantasy XIII is a well-balanced game, but if you controled the enemies you would no longer be switching paradigms or focusing on the entire system of staggering and juggling opponents. This is because the battle system is asymmetrical. You may both be an even match, but how you are playing is not a mirror image.

(Or maybe FFXIII is a bad example, since I can't recall it well, but that shouldn't interfere with the heart of the concept being outlined.)

One way to split how battle systems are implemented in RPGs is whether the enemies follow the same rules as the player. If they do, they are symmetric types of gameplay. The other: asymmetric.

In some strange trend, board games are "more unique" if everyone plays asymmetrically, whereas the majority of RPGs are built around that asymmetry almost by default (and if that sounds farfetched, look at the default battles systems in RPG Makers).

A classic example of asymmetry showing its face is in Chrono Trigger when you fight Magus. He has massively inflated stats, especially HP. But when he joins your team, those stats reduce immensely so that he can fight the way your team fights. It becomes apparent that even though you both have the same names for stats, you and your enemy aren't playing by the same rules.

Counter that with a game like Final Fantasy Tactics. This is of its own "Tactics" genre, sure, but it's an easy example to use. The battles are more symmetrical, like chess or go. Even though you can fight enemies that have massive stat boosts, it feels evident that all of the moves that your enemy makes are constrained to the same laws that govern your team even if they've leveled up WAY more than any individual member you have.

When you play or design a game, do you have a prefence? Which is better and in what situations, and how far can opponents be altered before it feels like they have different rules than the player? Does one style feel more "fair" or more "fun" than the other?