SPEJOKU'S PROFILE

author=LockeZ
The physical character's combos - when you say the player needs the resources for a combo, do you mean that you gain enough action points for a combo if you don't take a turn the previous round? Or does it use some other resource? How often is the player going to have the resources they need?

About how many rounds does it take for the healer to run out of MP if she's healing, and how many if she using attack magic?

I'm thinking that waiting until the right time to unleash your burst damage against the boss would probably be a good way to add strategy here, as one character has a charge-up period and the other has a cool-down period. I just need some more details to figure out how long those really are.

The basic combo skills have four inputs. Think up, down, left, and right. and when you push the button, he'll do one of those attacks, to a maximum of four regular hits per round. if he activates a skill by inputting the right command (like up up right or something) the skill will activate and deal damage on top of the combo damage, even if he hasnt use all the possible moves in the round. so if he has four inputs and does up up right, it'll instantly activate the skill and he'll lose that final input.

The physical character uses MP for his attack skills and each hit of a combo restores like two. the attack skills he uses cost around 10 to 20 mp, so he'd be able to use skills a lot at the beginning, and if he just uses base weak attacks he'd be able to recharge enough to throw out a skill about every two turns.

The healer, if we assume 100 mp, healing skills use 20 and attack skills use around 30, while the recharge skill would give her 30ish points as return. Her attack skills hit harder than the physical character's skills, but she cant use them as frequently.

this is a fantastic thread. I salute your boss making skills! These sound really really fun.

Could I request one? I'm trying to think of cool mechanics for a boss at the end of one of the first dungeons, and nothing comes to mind.

Here's the main player systems:

The characters act immediately after you select their moves, and then its the enemy turn. I'm using Yanfly's combo system for one of the characters. (now that I think about it, its really similar to xenogears' deathblows except that you don't have the whole weak/med/strong attack thing to worry about)

2 player characters. First one is a physical powerhouse who's able to do around 3 very weak attacks per round (that each have their own "element") and another combo skill on top of that (provided he has the resources for it). His skills by this point would include a moderate damage skill thats basically a two hit attack, a weak aoe, and one that increases his attack for the next round. He does around double the damage as the second character if neither use skills.

The second character is the healer, and she has some healing and elemental bomb style skills. Her skills do more damage than player 1 but they are more expensive and she doesnt have combos to add to the damage. Her main mechanic is that though she burns through her mp really quickly, she can regain a portion at the cost of severely reducing her defence and attack and not attacking for a round. the regain mp skill also has a cooldown.

The boss I was thinking could be like a cyborg chimera, where you got a rat fused with some sort of octopus or something terrifying and mutated like that. Maybe a grapple state and mechanic? I don't know. I want it to be more than just a damage sponge, and I want it to emphasize that the player needs to strategize to win.

oh no....

Rest in Peace, Sir Pratchett. Your stories have at least changed me for the better.

author=Sailerius
And I think Earthbound definitely failed in that regard. I've tried to play Earthbound so many times but the beginning is so boring that I've never gotten past it.

Have you tried Mother 3? The plot is much more involved than Earthbound's but it has similar themes and settings. Imo it starts out quicker and is better than Earthbound mechanically in many ways.

Using Mother 3's start, you begin with the twins playing peacefully with some dinosaurs and they get attacked by a mole cricket. The world is definitely started as strange, but the twins interact in a very realistic way. Then you change perspective to Flint, who is asked to help out with a fire. The prologue is much much shorter than earthbound and it's mundane/fantastic comparison is more in the characters interactions and in the way the characters treat the world around them. There's more fantastic present in the "mundane" portion, but the mundane part is the most important part of the plot.

Man, the first few minutes of the game are the hardest to get through, especially if you have a heavily story laden game and want to provide backstory. As amazing as persona 4 is, the only way I actually got through the three hours of cutscenes before you can actually play the game was through strong writing and little mysteries to keep interest.

exposition is hard. The dragon quest games pretty much ignore it, for a few of the games its like a zelda or mario game where your plot is "stop bad guy" rather than something more personal. But torneko will forever be my favorite dq character.