A Question of Balance
One of my biggest influences with this game is Shin Megami Tensei's Press Turn System and I love the high risk/reward aspect that comes with how the games enemies can (and do) exploit the same weaknesses you can. But- one of the biggest aspect to this is the customizability of your party of demons to be able to exploit those elemental weaknesses.
So the question then becomes: How can I build a realistically scaled system and build that High Risk High Reward gameplay into i my game without massive scale creep?
Mock me up, daddy.
I was speaking also with a friend about this project and he asked an innocent question and now I'm reconsidering my whole battle system concept.
My original idea was to have a Match-3 style attack phase, that in hindsight is actually very similar to Puzzles and Dragons, which I'm increasingly unhappy with the more the idea sits. I don't like the chance and randomness that it would add to the system, but making each enemy a defined match board that's the same every turn means that there's only one optimal path and it'll get old quick.
The other ideas I have, prompted by my friend's comment, is to:
Alter the defense phase ala Undertale, but with a micro rhythm game instead of the Danmaku-style dodging
To introduce some sort of SMT 3 Press-Turn inspired system with elemental affinities.
Do something inspired by FF7’s Limit Break system, also facilitated by a micro-rhythm game. It also allows me to adjust difficulty and accessability far more easily via the timing windows and rhythm maps.
Currently? I don't know and that's okay.
I'm still working on ideas and beginning to build a prototype and I want a satisfying gameplay loop before I even start looking at the writing more than just some loose ideas. Because if I can't figure out how to make this all fit, then I'm just sanding the serial numbers off of Earthbound and MOTHER 3's mechanics and I want more then that.