When the world was a different shape. When time moved at a different speed. The space between dimensions was easier to navigate.

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This article is my vision for the concept of what could be used to build a single-player RPG game for PC or home console.

Consider this my contribution to the #archdruid community contest they are running.

You can participate in this contest by reading about the rules here: https://steemit.com/archdruidcontest/@enjar/contest-describe-your-dream-game

The Story

Outside of Castle Stardust, a knight in shinning armor kneels down beside a stream of pure starlight. She tosses a flower into the stream, making a wish that she might one day find a true friend. A loyal companion. Honest and caring. A friend she can always trust. One who will not die.

She was very sad because her younger sister had recently passed away due to a malign sickness. An unknown plague was spreading through the world. The cure had not yet been found.

From beyond the transparent walls of the Astral Plane, the Immortal heard her prayer. It stepped out through the river onto its four hooved feet. The unicorn knelt before her. It allowed her to pet its mane and they rode together through the misty meadows of her beloved land.

Telepathically, the Immortal imparted to her a request of its own. The unicorn, along with the other Immortal beings were disappearing from the world. There used to be many unicorns running free in the Astral Plane, but now there are none to commune with. It knew that it was the last of its kind. Yet there were others like the unicorn still hidden in various dimensional pockets, alone, and waiting to be found. Phoenix, Griffin, Sphinx, Manticore, Aurochs, and Giant. Something is stealing them away from the world. The unicorn asks the young Defendress Starla for her aid and friendship to undertake an ambitious quest together.

The Characters

Starla

Defendress of Castle Stardust. She is a knight and skilled rider. She is the sole defender of her homeland, and ancient ancestral castle in the clouds of the night sky. Her preferred weapons are polearms: javelins, lances, spears, and halberds. With the last unicorn as her spirit guardian, she is searching for the last of the mythical Immortals, so that they might be saved from oblivion.

Mala

Pilgrim of Indigo Dunes. She is a monk. A skilled martial artist. Her quest, to search for the voice that calls to her in her dreams. She is on a pilgrimage to the ancient shrines, seeking answers. Mala prefers to fight unarmored, which makes her very quick in battle. As a practitioner of the ancient rites, a divine dance, she is able to harden her skin, increase power, and hone the mind with the strength of a diamond.

Vixie

The Grandarcher of Melodia Forest. Protector of a former forest paradise. Disharmony has disrupted the balance of her lands. Once, even the lamb had no reason to fear the lion in her lands. Melodia has become a place of nightmares. Tamed beasts have become wild hunters. Her quest, find answers to solve the great riddle. An expert with the bow and arrow. Unparalleled aim at distant targets. With the harp, she can sing lullabies, able to calm most beasts. The bow-harp allows her to infuse musical spells into her her arrows. Vixie also knows some of the ancient healing magical arts.

Quorro

The Ronin. Once a mighty Samurai Swordmaster, now a disgraced and disfigured man. He and his twin brother stood side by side as equals. Captains of the Royal Guard to the Emerald Empress. When Quorro failed to protect her Royal Majesty from the poisoned dart of an assassin, he took the blame for his cowardice to take action sooner. His brother slashed his face, and banished him from the broken empire. With the empress dead, the country has also broken into various dishonorable factions vying for the throne. Quorro seeks redemption for his sins, and a second chance to restore honor to his lost home. His favored weapons are the katana and wakizashi. While mounted he uses the short bow while mounted.

Jacques

Master of the Puzzle Staff, and ancient weapon passed down for generations from father to son. A shepherd and farmer, as their ancestors have always been. He learned to cultivate the land, and thank the Immortals for the rains and sunlight that helps the crops grow to nourish his family. Friend to livestock, he adapts to protect his flock. Even hundreds of miles from home in unknown lands, he knows the land. With the recent famine that has beset his homeland, he is on a journey to save his mother and sister from starvation before their flock dies and their rations runs out. Why have the Immortals ignored his offerings for rain? Jacques must renew the lands so that future generations will have food to live on. His weapon, The Puzzle Staff is transformable. It can become a shepherds cane, nunchucks, grappling hook, chain, and many other useful tools and weapons. Scattered across the world are various attachments to the puzzle staff. Recently Jacques has become a treasure hunter, searching for clues to find all the missing pieces.

Thornex

The mercenary known as Thornex "Black Eye" wields an axe, hammer, and shield. He has an inky black gemstone where his right eye ought to be. Tavern tales claim it was a kracken the plucked out his eye, so he killed the kracken and took its eye for his own. Thornex calls no place home except the open seas upon a mighty ship. Taken from his family at a young age, he believes it was plundered and burned down long ago. Once he was slave on a ship, but it was boarded by pirates. They took him in as his own, valuing his superior size, strength, and colorful wit. Ever since, he is friend and enemy of various pirate lords, eventually proving his worth as a free man. Thornex has salvaged a few fragments of an ancient map. There he believes he will find a legendary treasure if he can located the missing map pieces.

Gameplay

This would be a classic RPG, though modernists prefer to call this style JRPG. Similar to the early Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy games. Turn based encounters with some live-action battle elements similar to Tales of Symphonia and Chrono Trigger. Turns can be automated. Battles can be made easy or hard based on the make-up of the party members.

Each character would be discoverable along the course of the adventure around the world, and add helpful advantages in getting to the difficult to reach locations.

The basic world map would have random encounters. Players will not be able to see opponents approach. Reduce or increase random encounters by using items or spells to change their odds, or equip an accessory that affects encounter rates.

On the world map, the player can travel to cities, cave entrances, boss lairs, castles, and eventually gain the use of an ocean vessel that can be rebuilt later on to travel underwater and through the air.

Dungeons

With only a three person party, dungeons can be dangerous to explore. Even worse, you'll have to ditch your other three party members at the nearest town. They are waiting at the shrine to teleport you out of danger in case you fail.

Dungeons will have challenging enemy encounters, bosses, traps, and hazardous terrain. There will also be treasure chests, secret doors, mazes with obstacles, and various puzzles to solve. Some dungeons will have to be revisited later on in the quest in order to have the tools to solve its puzzles, to get deeper into the dungeon.

The Puzzle Staff, a unique artifact wielded by one of the playable characters can be used as a swinging rope, grappling hook, and battering ram to help trigger certain obstacles to move inside the dungeon spaces. Without Jacques as a member of the party, they will not be able to use the Puzzle Staff abilities in the dungeon. Sometimes this will be necessary, and other times will be optional (for instance, to disable poisonous gas that slowly eats away at the party's hit points)

Level Advancement

Characters will have only one primary class (Knight, Monk, Archer, Ronin, Shepherd, and Mercenary), which allows them to learn various weapon attacks. Class advancement allows characters to equip advanced weapon types at later levels.

Additionally, characters will be able to bond with each of the Immortals. Initially the Immortals will only bond with a single key character. The linked character can summon their Immortal to perform a Divine Attack Ability during battle. The Immortals will unleash more powerful damage attacks after special bosses are defeated.

Mid-Game Advancement

Once all the party members and Immortals are found, an epic boss battle will change the story direction. The Immortals now in their final Ancient forms, they will use up the extent of their powers to defeat their foe. The Immortals disappear.

The party learns each Immortal is locked inside a gemstone, representing the source of their power. They will have to defeat bosses across the world who have stolen the gemstones, and restore the Immortals to their former powers.

Once the gemstones are found, characters will be able to equip them to passively learn spells and spell-like abilities to make their weapon attacks more fantastic. These abilities can be learned by gaining experience and also by wandering the game map. Spell-like abilities can also be learned that use more than one character together, performing a two-player or three-player single devastating attack pattern on a single enemy or group of enemies. Gemstones can be equipped by any character, allowing them to specialize in any type of element they want. Each gemstone teaches unique spells to each character, so a knight might learn Lightning Bolt, but the monk will learn Thunder Clap.

When enough experience using the gemstone has been obtained, the Immortal will be free to use again during battle. It will start over in its juvenile form, and must be leveled-up to unleash its more powerful attacks in battle. Additionally, instead of waiting many turns to unleash a Divine Attack, players can choose instead to combine the Immortal powers with the active character, so they continue to fight each turn together, as one. Divine Union prevents the character from using their normal attacks and techniques, but they will gain new auto attacks, buffs, healing, critical hits, etc, and it will be awesome to watch them animated in battle as they make attacks together as a team. After a few turns in battle, the Immortal will become tired, and they will return to the Astral Plane to recover before they can be summoned again. Once the Immortals advance to their highest levels, they will be able to stay in battle longer, and won't have to rest for as long.

Battles

Battles will be both a mixture of live-action turn-based encounters. Three player characters against an assortment of enemies. Advantageous/Disadvantageous arrangement on the battlefield will be randomly determined by factors such as luck, and gemstone affinity with the enemies. A party with high luck and gemstone affinity to the enemies in the area are more likely to get easier opponents too.

Movement

Characters can move at any time closer or further away from the enemy, line up enemies in a row or line, or move closer to allies to trigger defensive auto-attacks or get closer to beneficial spell effects. Movement across the battlefield, and choice of turn actions can be controlled automatically to use certain battle tactics as selected in the tactical settings prior to combat. Alternatively, when played on a console, multiple controllers on the system will allow player 2 and player 3 to control the other two characters' movement and actions during combat.

Camera can be controlled in settings or manually to allow for the best view angles during combat.

Attacks

Basic weapon attacks can be performed in real-time using manual button operations for attack, jump, block, dodge, and hold/throw. Alternatively, the same attacks can be performed automatically. Automatic attacks rely on the Tactics style chosen in the settings.

Normal attacks will use the equipped items to perform standard attacks. Plan ahead major battles for what gear you need equipped, because you won't be able to change your gear during battle.

Proximity to other enemies or characters may have a random chance of triggering a block, reflect, absorb, healing, type of effect. These type of innate random quick actions are determined by the items equipped (ie. the Red Ring turns fire damage into healing).

Free Actions

When not attacking or performing a turn action, characters can also pause the battle at any time to use an item, change tactics, or flee. In a single player game, it is also a free action to switch freely between controlling any of the three active characters at any time. Any character not actively controlled will perform automatic actions according to the Tactics set for battle.

When fleeing a battle, all three characters must successfully take attempts to flee. This allows for the possibility to solo encounters, by sending unwanted party members to flee.

Turns Actions

Every turn in battle is traced by how quickly their speed score allows them to react for the next turn. Turns for each character have a recharge time before the next turn can start. Each character can choose one option on their turn: Special Technique or summon a Divine Ability. Summoning an Immortal to perform a Divine Ability can only be performed when enough time in battle has passed for the Immortal to rest and recharge their abilities.

Special Techniques

Technique are a battle action that can be chosen to release a weapon attack with a unique ability, or a magical attack with elemental damage. Some techniques use a combination of weapon and magic. Combo techniques allow characters to team up their attack with other characters, for extra damage effects. Combo techniques require will cause the characters to remain stationary/ vulnerable until all associated characters have locked-in the Technique on their turn. Wait for the opponents to move in line, and release the attack. A well-aimed Combo will cause a lot of critical hit damage, debuffs, and display cinematic action animations.

Choosing Strategy

Each character of the party will be the best in battle in certain situations and against certain opponents. For instance, one character might be able to easily tame animals in battle, steal rare items, or use healing spells that are necessary to survive an encounter with various hit-point-sapping effects. Using the right combination of characters, battles can be hard or easy. Learn the enemies' weaknesses in the various dungeons and lands to better determine which party members can most easily defeat them.

Equip the gemstones of the Immortals to different players, to unlock new magical abilities. Sphinx might have stronger attacks inside a dungeon maze, while Phoenix can cause a devastating firestorm when in a forest. Each Immortal has elemental damage that could be a blessing or a curse against certain foes.

Saving

Game saves can only be performed at designated locations. Every city and town will have a shrine you can save at. Dungeons will have limited hidden locations that can be found for saving, such as before a boss.

Getting lost in a dungeon and running out of mana and healing items, could set you back to start the dungeon over.

When you die, you'll return at the save location.

From a save location, you can also cast a spell to quick travel to other save locations you have used.

You can only change party members by talking to them at the town you last saved at. It takes all three of the unused party members to magically teleport your ass back to safety every time you lose a battle. That is why you cannot use more than three characters in battle.

Inventory

My dream game will allow you to store as many items as you want in town, but not when you are walking around on the world map or in a dungeon. Changing equipment during battle won't be an option, and you'll only travel with the equipment you plan to carry.

Unequippable items (such as healing potions) that can be used during battle have no weight restriction, but you will be limited by how many things fit in your bag once you leave town. When the bag is full, any items found can be teleported to town for you, or put in your bag if you agree to teleport something else back to town. You can't have items teleported from town to you.

The best healing items are going to be rare, and cannot be purchased. They can be stolen or found.

Arrows run out eventually. Weapons get dull and need to be sharpened at town eventually. Armor also gets damaged and loses effectiveness if it is not repaired. Even though items can be damaged, they can always be repaired to full effectiveness, so they can never be ruined or destroyed.

The Puzzle Staff is a unique weapon in the game. Various unique artifacts found can be permanently equipped onto it to enhance its weapon style attacks. It never has to unequip any of these pieces, making it the most versatile weapon in the game.

Story Goal

Find the source of the evil that is spreading through the world, and defeat it. Restore the Immortals to their fullest potential to heal the world.

Sources:

• Photo 1: Pixabay
• Photo 2: Pixabay
• Photo 3: Pixabay
• Photo 4: Pixabay
• Photo 5: Pixabay
• Photo 6: Pixabay