4 replies to this topic

[StrongJoshua]

Hey all

As my summer (and for however long after that) project I am going to be programming a fire emblem-like game! Because of my recent introduction to LibGDX, which is an amazing Java development framework that allows you to program once and it automatically converts it to a desktop, HTML5 (unlikely I'll use this one), Android, and iOS application, it will be available to all those devices! I don't have anything worthwhile to show yet as I don't have much time to work on it until school ends (June 12th!!!), but I do have some of the story and the characters to share; that is, if you want to spoil it for yourself (Note that what I pasted has no formatting as I wrote it in Google docs and did not feel like re-adding all the bolding and underlining).

Reverse Blade Characters (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Hovnik
Description - The ambitious, rancorous leader of the band of rebels standing against the Letzniyan government.
Starting class - Rebel
Encounter - Prologue

Lancil
Description - One of the soldiers who was being held with Hovnik and is now part of his rebellion.
Starting class - Lancer
Encounter - Prologue

Fhiyet
Description - The pickpocket who freed Hovnik and the others in his cell.
Starting class - Pickpocket
Encounter - Prologue

King Tyran
Description - The king of Letzniya.
Starting class - King
Encounter - Final Chapter

Reverse Blade Storyline (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Story Introduction

Setting - None; fading images and text.

Text
The two rival kingdoms of Freiboda and Letzniya have always competed for military prowess, wealth, and territory.

However, until a decade ago, there had never been an actual conflict between them.

That changed when young orphan prince Tyran of Letzniya became of age to rule his country, instead of the chamberlain who had done so after the previous King's untimely death.

It took an entire month to discover the spies... By then it was too late. Tyran knew near everything about Freiboda.

Soldier count, emergency battle plans... Everything that needed to be kept secret from other countries.

The spies were found and executed, but Tyran had received enough information; he declared war.

It was a brutal slaughter. Without a single strategy unknown to Letzniya, Freiboda did not stand a chance.

Once Letzniya took control of Freiboda it imprisoned all of Freiboda’s soldiers and set a curfew upon the country. It is not hard to interpret that this is their means of stifling a rebellion. However, little does Letzniya know that it will take more than imprisonment to stifle the abhorrence toward it and that a simple cell will not contain the ambitions of a revolutionary...

Prologue

Setting - Prison cell, night -> Prison camp, near camp edge, night.

Intro
Hovnik awakes, once again, in his prison cell. He isn't alone, however. There are other prisoners in the cell with him. This cell is one of many throughout the prison camp. It houses prisoners of the past war. Strategically, the prisoners were held separate or in pairs within individual prison blocks. Each block contained one cell with one or two guards. Within the camp there are several blocks, but the prisoners rarely are allowed to see each other, in attempts to prevent a revolt. These prisoners have been tortured and mistreated in various different ways multiple times, so Hovnik and his cellmates have acquired an additional loathing of their captor, beyond the patriotism that they still held for their kingdom.
This group of companions has bonded in misery and fellowship that extends farther than their sharing of a common homeland. It was built by the ruthlessness of their captors and their will to get revenge!

Dialogue - Pre
Prisoners are standing together toward the back of the cell. Guard 1 is watching the cell’s door.
Lancil - “How much longer are they going to keep us locked up here?”
Hovnik - “They better not let us out, for their own good…”
Guard 1 - “How you holding up in there?”
Hovnik - “...”
Guard 1 walks up to Guard 2, who is watching the jail door.
Guard 1 (Now speaking to Guard 2) - “I feel bad about not being able to help out yesterday because I was sick, so how about I hold up the fort in here while you have some fun for a few hours?”
Guard 2 - “Are you sure you’ll be okay alone? I don’t have to go.”
Guard 1 - “It’ll be fine! I only have to watch one cell; what could go wrong?”
Guard 2 - “Really, you’ll cover for me? Thanks, I owe you one!”
Guard 1 - “Nah, you owe me nothing, you already did enough.”
Guard 2 - “I’ll be back in a few hours, make sure you keep an eye on those two, they’re a rebellious pair!”
Guard 1 - “I know all about them, don’t worry. See you later!”
Guard 2 leaves and Guard 1 walks back to the cell.
Guard 1 - “You two, come here.”
Hovnik and Lancil go to the cell door.
Guard 1 - “What do you think of the Letzniyan government, umm… Hovnik?”
Hovnik - “Why do you want to know?”
Guard 1 - “Just tell me, with all your personal bias, it will not be used against you.”
Hovnik - “Very generous of you… Lancil and I detest Letzniya’s royalty for the obvious reason you suspect. They took over our country and imprisoned any who fought against them or opposed them in any form. Our entire country lives in fear!”
Guard 1 - “I assume you would do whatever you could to get your country back.”
Hovnik - “Wouldn’t you like to know…”
Guard 1 - “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Guard 1 removes his helmet and other disguising armor.
Hovnik - “Wh-what?”
Lancil - “Who are you?”
???? - “I am Fhiyet.”
Fhiyet - “And I was also a prisoner of war, but the guards did not see me as much of a threat, so I managed to steal their keys and get away. That was a few days ago and they think I got away, but I did not want to leave on my own, so I drugged a guard yesterday and stole his uniform, hoping to break other prisoners out while I could. I’ll help you get out if you allow me to join you in your quest to take back our country!”
Lancil - “Hovnik, can he be trusted?”
Hovnik - “If he couldn’t, why would he help us escape? It would be much easier for them to just keep all of us prisoners locked up. I say we take this opportunity while we can!”
Fhiyet - “Alright, sweet! I got you some weapons and bandages, should we need them. it’s night so we should be able to sneak out of here. Follow me, I found a break in the camp wall! It’s a little small, but we should all be able to fit.”
The three leave the prison block and head described gap. However, as they are about to reach it they turn a corner and run into a pair of guard wolves.
Fhiyet - “Ohhh no… We better take care of them quick before they alert the entire camp!”
Battle starts!

Dialogue - Post
The three are at the edge of the camp.
Hovnik - “Well that wasn’t too tough”.
Lancil - “You think? And it’ll probably only get worse if anybody heard that...”
Fhiyet - “Yeah, we better hurry, let’s get out of here quick! I’m afraid some guards may have noticed.”
The three leave the camp.
Prologue End.

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I have someone who might be able to make music for me, but I need ideas! Naturally I already have a good idea of the direction I want this game to go in, but what features from the actual Fire Emblem games should I definitely consider including and what could I possibly add to make the game even more appealing?

[Fire Blazer]

Sounds cool, I have some ideas but I'm kinda reserving them for my own game, haha. In a general sense though, I'd go for adding some sort of major gameplay twist/element though--like Pairing Up totally changed FE13, for instance. Something big that will really change strategy, and preferably something that can be used for enemies too (I thought FE13 would've benefited from a special boss or two where the enemies could also pair up--that would've been hella epic IMO, haha).

[StrongJoshua]

Would adding 2 new weapon types that bridge the gap between physical and magic attacks count as a radical gameplay twist? Because that's what I had planned to do anyways.

[Mercurius]

A few games by Idea Factory tend to have "mixed" attacks where physical and magical attacks are combined, usually providing the benefit of allowing primarily physical units to bypass enemies that have physical immunity when they are at low health.

A problem with that though is that those attacks tend to be really inefficient because of low magic or physical stats (even when you do them with a mage and a physical, the mage's STR and the physical's INT will cause the damage values to kind of suck anyway) and the same goes for hybrid characters in general(who have both meh STR and INT). When you consider adding an element like what you've mentioned, I think there should be a high level of attention toward how it affects the game, and keeping it balanced.

I wouldn't really think of it as a big twist or anything that really captures the attention of gamers though. When Fire Emblem introduces a feature they didn't have before, it's usually only because the other games in the Fire Emblem series didn't have it that makes the fans take notice.

One thing I'd like to add as an idea to implement is the use of an uncommon (in videogames) weapon as the primary weapon of the protagonist, like a crossbow or musket(assuming this is a medieval flavor game) or something instead of the usual sword. A sword could still be a side-weapon or something, but when someone that's mainly an archer or something takes the spotlight it really puts people off guard, though it might also have negative consequences due to a potential level of unfamiliarity or people thinking that they didn't get what they came for even though it's such a minor thing.

Also, remember to keep gameplay conventional even if you're going to try spicing it up with uncommon features, trying to be too original tends to alienate audiences, though it's a real hit and miss thing. I don't really think you'll have a problem with that since you are trying to make a fire emblem-like game in particular though.

[StrongJoshua]

Added to the story! But don't read it if you don't want the story to be *somewhat* spoiled for you (somewhat because it's only the intro and prologue). I'd love feedback/critique!