Am in the process of planning a prototype for my future game but am stumped on what can be done battle system wise.
I’ve considered the Persona Elemental weakness system but am not sure that is the right fit for a short 2 hour JRPG.
ATB is one option but am not familiar with those mechanics. I am considering using the TP meter for Limit Breaks/Ultimate Moves though.
What battle mechanics are you using in your projects?
My stuff is all action side so I don’t have a turn based system to offer, but for a 2 hour run I think I’d pick one mechanic and build every encounter around it instead of running a full elemental chart. TP into limit breaks is already something the player is working toward in every fight.
What’s the hook for the game?
And as for me, I’m trying to make a tactical jrpg, heavily inspired by FF tactics, arc the lad and fire emblem.
Well it’s set in an Urban Fantasy Setting I’ve made for my OCs, It takes heavy inspiration from Touhou Project’s Gensokyo, only this world is in a modern/contemporary setting. The gimmick is that here within an urban city called Elysium there exists Monsters, but like cutesy and human-like monsters.
The Veil (a magical filter that keeps normal people from knowing that monsters exist among them) helps keep the supernatural beings and magic on the down-low.
To keep the balance between the Monsters and Humans a gamified fighting code was made, It’s called the Player’s Code and is referred to in universe as “PVP” Basically my world’s equivalent to the Touhou Spellcard Laws. These rules usually keep the monsters and humans from wiping each other out.
The first game am working on in this universe (which am calling Flow State, after a gaming concept) is basically about my OC Ryan recruiting random monsters/people to join his DnD group. Pretty weird but I guess that’s the vibe am going for. He would challenge monster girls (and maybe some boys if I want to later) and use the PVP rules to rope them into playing DnD with him. He’s not doing it for romance reasons he just didn’t want to use his usual friend group because they drive him crazy.
I plan to structure these games similar to the main line Touhou Games, 1 Dungeon 1 Dungeon Boss per chapter.
I took a lot of inspiration from Skies of Arcadia and my idea for my battles is that every actor shares TP as a resource, and your strongest moves all use at least some TP. I even made an entirely custom TP system for it, where every character, instead of gaining TP through actions or damage, gain it per turn, based on their total level!
(this took a while to make lol)
A small demo of what I’m talking about. Notice the TP bar never desyncs except for when a move that uses TP is currently being performed:
Personally, I think that what Baz says it the right thing. Pick one mechanic you find interesting, and build around it. It doesn’t just work for the short games; it gives your game a sense of identity if it does that one thing instead of a variety, I think.
I haven’t got a finished project out yet, but one thing that I enjoyed about the Saga Frontier games was not having to heal after battle (you always go into battle with full health, and lots of mana/skill recovery between battles), except LP (Life Points) - different from HP (Hitpoints) - most characters had at least a few LP, and some super powerful enemy attacks drain them. But there are characters with minimal LP and high health, and other characters that are just designed to get knocked down over and over and over. (They get up again after battle, so long as you didn’t teamwipe.) It’s an interesting mechanic. It also lets you do your own super powerful attacks that drain LP (Only recovers at a save point / campsite / inn), but then you’re trading some of your defense for offense.
One thing that they did not have implemented, but I would implement, would be characters that automatically expend LP to stay in the fight, effectively having a second wind - and also tanky characters that just collapse if you ever dip into it, due to how low it is. (Making them vulnerable to extremely powerful attacks, though maybe not caring much about the regular mobs.)
Anyway, it’s basically two or more HP pools with some different aspects to them. Mix in mana shields and suddenly you’ve got a really intricate system. Mix in conditional defense, like a skill or trait that while your tank has full health, all resistances rise by 80% and nothing but health can be damaged, and suddenly a new strategy emerges centered around healing him and keeping him at full health before powerful attacks, emphasizing clearly small mobs in an extended boss fight, so that they can’t take him down from 100%, etc; introduces lots of strategic elements to a fight. Make him the Wall.
Once I figure out how to mix enough ideas together into something that just feels right - then I’ll put out a game.
