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[madebynewt]

Hello everyone!!

First before you can give me your opinion, please be a fan of Platformer and RPG games as the question relates to both genres

What do you think of a Platformer game, that plays just like a platformer. But when you touch an enemy, you are sent onto a battle screen that is just like a turn based RPG battle sequence?

The battle system would be very simple with minimum customization. But ability to learn magic powers, use items as weapons, healing and physical attacks. Up to 4 members in party.

The closer I've seen is paper mario, but that's a lot of exploration elements on that and it's 3D. This game is 2D like old school ones.

The rest of the game plays just as an old school Platformer like Mario, Sonic, etc.

What do you guys think of adding this little twist to the game?



Thanks in advance everyone! :-D

[konjak]

Well, it feels like a valid and spacious area that can go either way depending on the specific factors of the design.

So, sure, it can be good. Personally I rarely like RPGs though.

[handCraftedRadio]

I think it could make a fun game, but I would be shocked if it hasn't been done before...

[Terry]

I think it's a fairly decent way to mix the genres, and with the right implementation could work really well. But there are probably better ways to do it that don't involve changing to a different gamestate. However, they'd likely involve switching the emphasis to platform elements, and I get the impression that you want more of a focus on RPG elements.

You should give Final Vision a shot if you haven't already. It's a good example of an indie game that mixes Platform and RPG elements that was released recently.

[Blaster]

I've seen this done to pretty neat effect on a (suprisingly really good) Dragonball Z game for gameboy. However, the platforming aspects were non-existant, it just borrowing the side-on perspective for moving from location to location, and the change in gamestate for battles also made a lot of sense--it just heightened the dynamic nature of the battles. I think I'm going to have to track that game down again.

But, that is, I can't imagine you getting a good, classic platformer out of this idea. The switching of scenes, the constant change in pace between jumping about and going through a turn based battle would be pretty jarring I imagine.

If you were to throw this directly into your examples of Mario or Sonic, half of the platforming elements disappear as you're removing half of the obstacles (the enemies). The other half, like jumping between moving platforms or over bottomless gaps, I would not want to be interupted mid-jump with an rpg battle sequence.


Like said, there would be better ways to implement RPG elements rather then through some sort of change in gamestate.

To be honest, one thing that really bothers me in classic RPGs, is when they throw a puzzle element in there, while continuing to interupt you with constant random battles. It would be like this, but worse--very frustrating.

[madebynewt]

Yea I don't know. If you guys go on my webpage, that's the project I was thinking in implementing this on. But I may not as you guys brought a good point onto the whole breaking the platforming experience...also, i'm almost done with the levels, only bosses needed after that and off course, graphical improvements and cutscenes. To add such battle engine in the end of the project would be too much.

Any thoughts on that? and thank you guys for replying to my message :-D

[madebynewt]

I think it's a fairly decent way to mix the genres, and with the right implementation could work really well. But there are probably better ways to do it that don't involve changing to a different gamestate. However, they'd likely involve switching the emphasis to platform elements, and I get the impression that you want more of a focus on RPG elements.

You should give Final Vision a shot if you haven't already. It's a good example of an indie game that mixes Platform and RPG elements that was released recently.

That's different because the attack is real time.... but that is neat

[Xander]

I think part of his point is that if you took Final Vision and made all the battles turn-based... then you could maybe see what you were left with in terms of platforming.

The closest I could see to being like this is the Valkyrie Profile series. Which had a great battle-system but at the same time featured a rather neat platforming element where you had to freeze the enemy into crystals and then swap around their positions in order to reach extra items and weapons. I don't really know if you could further complicate the platforming elements beyond that.. but I'll be interested in seeing where you might try to take it.

[Montoli]

If you can find it, try to play a copy of Valkyrie Profile.  (I hear the PSP remake is decent, if you can't locate the crazy-hard-to-find PSX version.)

It was very similar to this - You run around in dungeons that are (nicely drawn and animated) platformer levels.  You meet enemies paper mario-style:  If you hit them with your sword, you get first attack in battle, otherwise if they hit you, they get first attack.  4-person parties, and a kind of neat battle system involving magic, skills, etc.

Definitely worth a look, (since it's an awesome game) even without the direct relevance to this conversation.

[madebynewt]

In my website, there is a video of the game. I may just keep it as it is for this installment, and work on something new for the sequel

http://www.madebynewt.com

[Aik]

The Spirit Engine has the same basic system you describe.

Just make the gameplay more interesting than that though. *walk walk walk - boring turn-based battle ... walk walk walk ... non-interactive dialogue ... et cetera*

Personally I'm not a fan of jRPG style combat. Turn based can be great, but when done like that - bleh.

[Jimbob]

The Spirit Engine has the same basic system you describe.

Just make the gameplay more interesting than that though. *walk walk walk - boring turn-based battle ... walk walk walk ... non-interactive dialogue ... et cetera*

Personally I'm not a fan of jRPG style combat. Turn based can be great, but when done like that - bleh.

Ouch. As far as I can remember, the battles in The Spirit Engine were more real-time and not that boring at all... 

[Aik]

Hmm, really? *goes to check*

...

Okay, so they are real-time, but a peculiar sort of real time that for whatever reason makes me think 'turn based'
Much to my surprise it's also not jRPGish in the slightest. Odd, seeing that I only downloaded this a week or two ago and first played it then. Admittedly I didn't play it for very long, but you'd think I'd remember simple details like that...

I stand by my 'boring' comment though

[madebynewt]

Yea Since i'm so almost done with the current game development, I will not do this for the current project. But I'll look into perhaps doing something like Paper Mario for the sequel. :-)

[gnawingonfoot]

Nifty idea, but I personally would prefer to keep my platform RPGs  more like the later Wonderboy games.