Author Topic: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)  (Read 32708 times)

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #165 on: June 13, 2013, 11:57:10 pm »
To add, I like the time traveling element in which levels can be manipulated via time travel. Can't get past a large cliff? Travel to the far past and plant some trees, which when returning to the original time will suddenly have a group of trees you can climb up to get over the cliff.

Have 3-4 time traveling era's (prehistory, middle ages, steampunk, and future). Throw a little bit of Secret of Evermore in there, too... Perhaps his item takes upon a different form in each era, with different functionalities? Perhaps in prehistory it's a grappling hook / whip; in the middle ages a magical alchemy device, in the steampunk era a digging claw, and in the future a short-range teleportation device.

Obviously the item would play a role in solving puzzles as the main character jumps to and fro through time. And perhaps there can be two branching parallel universes, much like Radiant Historia.

Just a few thoughts.

Mr Bekkler

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #166 on: June 14, 2013, 12:10:41 am »
 Steampunk is always good!

tushantin

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #167 on: June 14, 2013, 04:01:16 am »
I think the name is obvious. Time Break. As in Chrono Break, but without the copyright or intellectual property attached to it.

And yeah, it's pretty much gender-reversed CT but whatever it sounds cool.
Ahahahahaa! I love it! LET'S DO THAT!

Also, Time Break is a neat idea! We could even go the Latin-Dutch combo: Tempus Breken! Why? Because it springs to mind "Tekken" so Tekken lovers would also give it a go for no reason whatsoever.

Brilliant ideas so far, Bekkler! Love the mash-ups. Though I'd like a bit of difference here: The Prince of Water-elemental Healing can now Kick-Box Bare-Fisted, Muay Thai style if we don't have pre-historic settings (no need to rip-off the original CT). Why? Because Water doesn't need a weapon; when concentrated, it can tear the CRAP out of even a metal armor. The Red-Headed Swordswoman could wield Double-Blades (when "upgraded" later in the game) or Shield (Default), whose primary element is Fire, signifying Passion, Love, Hate, Anger, and Destruction (and this time, it's the DAMSEL that saves the Prince from Distress, not the other way around). Tobias? He'd be the Electric type (and hence the Light-Bulb, which he totally didn't invent).

If we've got a Robo equivalent here, I know precisely the story here: In the future, Vacuum Cleaners have their own intelligence and sentience, but they're just as programmable as a human brain. The "newer models" have a Nazi-esq superiority complex, ending up bullying a previous Prototype model, which goes to the dumpster. That's when Tobias and his invention-stealing trait comes in; somehow, he begins to sympathize with that vacuum cleaner. Somehow, he develops empathy. He wonders how heartless even humanity can be, despite the Gods they've become, that they barely care for what they create (Read: Endangered species, anyone? Lesser creatures?). I mean, has no one ever read Lifehacker in the future to realize that even the most out-dated toolsets can be re-engineered into something more efficient than the model via MacGyver-style creativity?

That brings me to Tobias Edison idea. I've always thought of him as some sort of a love-child between Lucca and Magus. In other words, I'd think he'd be the Big Bad of the Middle-Arc of the story, just as Magus was. When the player comes to the Future, everyone knows that Tobias is a notorious invention-thief, and is probably ripping time apart for his own agenda, which is why the Government wants to support you to bring him down. However, after you beat Magus / Tobias, this is what happens:

Quote from: Tobias
Create a Time Rip? Fools! I merely SUMMONED a Time Rip!

...wait, that actually means the same thing, isn't it?

Basically, Tobias did what he did, not because he was evil, but probably had a Hypothetical Sister to save (aka, a Freudian Excuse).

Which reminds me, something I needed to be honest to everyone here:

Tobias Edison is actually an existing character of my Real-Life Fan-Fiction in High Fantasy universe, a short-story I made elsewhere once. The story's protagonist is actually Oli Einstein, who discovers the laws of relativity and goes into a time-travelling adventure, and making companions such as Ivan Newton and Tobias Edison, eventually confronting the Big Bad by the name Nick Tesla (the REAL Magus of the story). The team then traverses through Tesla's creepy castle, and beat him... only to find out that Tesla wasn't the real villain. The villain was Edison all along, who used Einstein and Newton to steal Tesla's greatest inventions, and create trouble in Time and Space. Einstein, Newton and Tesla must now time-space travel to fix what's broken, by forming an Avengers team through Time, ranging from Archimedes and Da Vinci to the modern DeGrasse Tyson and Kaku. And they go all in a Sciencey adventures across Space-Time.

(Yes, you can guess I was fan-girling all the while writing that silly story) I was hoping to one-day turn that into a full-fledged game. I just don't have the opportunity yet. XD


Where Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest had several iterations and something of a mythology built up, Chrono Trigger had no precursor and thus its architecture was literally an amalgam of what the developers thought would be cool and mesh well.
Speaking of cultural influences....

I think most would agree that CT was inspired by the Linearity of Time Travel that was prevalent at the time the game was made. Basically, the people assumed that, "time is a strict progression of cause to effect", even though it might have been a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff. This assumption is what brought us CT, which only had a linear perspective of Time. However, when Cross was in the making, what inspired the story and gameplay was the Schrödinger’s Cat theory, where changing time doesn't re-write it, but actually "splits" Reality in two (hence the different worlds in CC). Hence, Cross retconned the idea, which indirectly also points that the Ruined Future in CT timeline isn't actually erased, but still there; rather, Crono and co created a newer, more prosperous reality for themselves.

But these days we have better perception of Time (and Space-Time / Universe) itself, and the most modern and culturally significant ideas come from String Theory and other latest developments. So I'd say, rather than taking inspiration from CT, we could dig deeper into the source itself, and String Membranes and such latest stuff would be the best place to start, as it gives us both Time and Dimensions in a simpler format.

I'd encourage everyone here to watch Michio Kaku's documentary series called "Time" -- all four episodes, starting with Daytime.

Quote from: Kaku
The mind of God (aka Universe) may be Cosmic Music, resonating throughout eleven dimensions in hyperspace.

...Which essentially makes Music Composers such as Yasunori Mitsuda equally important for making the CT / CC feel.  8)



Anywho, the reason I suggested Platformer was because -- as I was born in the Third World -- I grew up playing nothing more than NES while everyone in the First World had already moved on to Playstation (and even then we couldn't even afford a duplicate, Chinese bootlegged NES console with multi-game cartridges, but my parents somehow managed it). Suffice it to say, games such as Kickmaster and the like would engross me for hours on end. Nintendo and such companies pulled off master-pieces at such times and played dangerously. Despite the limitations of game-design and gameplay, or any good technological advancements in art, they stuck to simpler means of production and still create compelling games.

Case-point for Kickmaster: Story is simple enough, where the Protagonist's older brother dies in combat, and he's seeking revenge against the Magical Forces that threaten his kingdom with Super Taekwando Kicks that Chuck Norris couldn't have done better. But it wasn't the story that engrossed you, but what added to the story in the first place -- Atmosphere. We became the protagonists, and felt his conflict through every stage, so almost every area we passed we were scared to know what was out there, and that itself brought a sense of adventure. Magic was strange, mysterious and scary. Even though not a word was spoken on-screen, somehow we knew what the story was about, and how it was proceeding, with each boss we encountered. (Not to mention the best soundtracks the game had, especially the Boss stages which scared the crap out of me)

If we are to make a game, then we need to do what Kickmaster, Shadow of the Ninja, and even Contra Force (and heck, even Angry Birds) did it correctly. But we don't have to go the Platformer route. However, there's no doubt that it was the Platformer idea that actually gave a worldly feeling to those games -- Kickmaster and KAGE (Shadow of the Ninja) portrayed travelling worlds infested by demonic and magical armies, while Contra Force took us to Anti-Terrorism battlefields from Warehouses to Ships to Cities to On-Top-of-A-Freaking-Aeroplane.

Chrono Trigger and Cross did that correctly too, but only via Bird's Eye perspective with RPG. No matter what platform we use, we just gotta keep the world in mind.

And lastly, as for the gameplay genre, I don't see anything but RPG working for this concept. A side-scroller might work as a game with Chrono characters, but nobody is going to play it and think "man this makes me feel like I felt when I played Chrono Trigger/Cross the first time".
When utunnels (the GOD of Game Engines and hacks, such as OpenBOR) and I were working on a Platformer / Beat-em Up version of Radical Dreamers, we had one idea in common: To relive the Chrono experience in a brand-new way, rather than rehashing the same-old. What did RD and CC have in common? They were completely different games, with entirely different means of playing, to the original CT, and still somehow carried the same "feeling of adventure". We took that core concept and put it on Radical Dreamers FZ, and make sure the players would have no choice but to say, "man this makes me feel like I felt when I played Chrono Trigger/Cross/Radical Dreamers the first time", with one difference: RD is now FUNNY, LIGHT-HEARTED and ACTION PACKED as CT was.

The reason the project never got off ground was mainly because lack of artists on our team (mainly Sprite-Artists), hence why I'm pushing for a more 3D game because I know I can do the models, and we'll just need another modeller for Stage / Area assets. In either case, I'm looking forward to recreating the old RDFZ game into an original now (commercially) as I still have the previous project assets, including all the hard-work utunnels did before.

Steampunk is always good!
Heck, Steampunk could be our new Zeal!
« Last Edit: June 14, 2013, 06:21:25 am by tushantin »

alfadorredux

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #168 on: June 14, 2013, 08:22:27 pm »
Okay, so, messing around with the mashup...

[Game opens with a black screen and a loud THUD. A bedroom flickers into view, in such a way that it looks like someone is opening their eyes. The overall look of the environment is steampunk/19th-century-gone-mad-ish. Lying in the bed is a young woman with red hair. Sitting on her legs is a young boy.]

[Boy]: Good morning, sis! Sheesh, trying to get you up in the morning is like raising the dead! Were you practicing again last night?

[Young woman sits up and stretches.]

[Young woman]: It's the only time I can. And you know, some day you're going to miss the bed, jumping off the dresser like that.

[She looks at her clock, an elaborate assemblage of gears, sparky things, tubes of liquid, etc.]

[Young woman]: It isn't even time for breakfast yet. Why did you get me up?

[Boy]: Dad wants you.

[Young woman]: For what?

[Boy]: Dunno, but he was cursing a blue streak earlier, out by the barn. Mom was talking about making him wash his mouth out with soap!

[The young woman gets out of bed.]

[Young woman]: Okay, tell him I'll be down in a minute.

[As the boy runs out of the room, she picks up a katana from the floor beside the bed and belts it on. The player now has control and can poke around the room. Maybe she has an allowance hidden somewhere? There's a hallway with a couple of other doors (not openable) and a staircase down. The ground floor has four rooms: kitchen, dining room, living room, and a sort of workroom/storage area. The moment the player reaches the bottom of the stairs, the cutscene takes over again, and the character is taken into the kitchen, where a man wearing overalls and a straw hat and a woman wearing a simple dress are waiting for her.]

[Young woman]: Morning, Mom, Mr. Carter. [Boy] said you needed me for something...?

Mr. Carter: 'Fraid so. And won't you please—

[Young woman, interrupting]: Look, I know how you feel, and I'm glad Mom's happy with you, but I had a father, and you aren't him.

Mr. Carter: —not wear your boots in the house? Your mother just gave me hell for that.

[Young woman]: Ulp.

[Mother]: Dear, language...

Mr. Carter: Sorry. Anyway, the tractor just gave up the ghost, and I need you to go to [town] to find someone to fix it.

[Young woman]: You could get someone from [other town] in half the time it would take me to walk all the way to [town] and back.

Mr. Carter: ...except that the bridge washed out when we got hit with all that rain yesterday. It'll take weeks to fix it, and in the meanwhile, there's no way to cross north of Sandler's Ford. You're our only hope.

[He winks.]

[Young woman]: (Well, it beats weeding the garden.) Okay, then, I'll go.

[Mother]: I packed a lunch for you.

[Young woman]: Thanks. [She takes the lunch, but sets it aside on the kitchen table.] I'll get going in just a minute.

[She leaves the kitchen and goes into the living room, entering an alcove at the back that contains several framed black-and-white photos, an incense burner, and a few other seemingly-random objects like a pistol and some folded articles of clothing. She picks up one of the photos, which depicts a young man in a military uniform, wearing a katana and a pistol at his belt. He has medium-coloured hair that might be light brown, dirty blonde...or red.]

[Young woman]: Sorry, Dad, I don't have time to burn any incense today. I'll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise.

[She sets the photo down and bows to it and the other pictures. Control is returned to the player, who now has access to the entire house, the farmyard, and a slice of overworld bounded by a river to the south and east, and a forest to the north and west. (If the player remembers to pick up the lunch, it acts as a hitpoint-restoring item.) The broken river bridge and inaccessible town on the far side are clearly visible. The town the player is supposed to go to is just as clearly visible on the far side of the forest, which is a dungeon with low-level foes. Two or three screens in, she hits a large clearing...and suddenly the lighting fluctuates.]

[Young woman]: What the—?

[She draws her sword as a spitting, sparking portal appears in the middle of the clearing. A man stumbles through it and falls face-first to the ground. His clothing is torn and in a visibly not-from-around-here style, probably involving a cape. He wears wide metal bracelets on his wrists, each with a large crystal inset, and his hair is white, but shading out to purple at the ends. As he collapses, a small object falls from his hand and rolls away into the leaf mold.]

[Young woman]: Hey, are you okay?

[Something growls, and several pairs of eyes flicker into visibility at the edge of the clearing.]

[Young woman]: Ladon lizards?! Oh, hell, that's right, lightning ticks them off, and that thing... Guess I'll just have to get rid of them!

[Boss battle, 3 x Ladon lizard. When it's over...]

[Young woman]: Phew, that was a pretty good workout! Now let's have another look at Mr. Mystery here.

[She circles the unconscious man.]

[Young woman]: Well, if the lizards didn't wake you up, you're probably down for the count, my friend. Fortunately, you don't look that big, so I might be able to carry you out of here before you become something's lunch. Let's get you over onto your back, now...

[She tries to touch the man, but he jerks away.]

???: Estak? Sidar mu Liara—

[Young woman]: I'm sorry, I don't understand.

[He grabs her by the wrist. The clearing flickers out, and we get (if possible) a brief FMV sequence showing a group of mages duking it out with a bunch of very large robotic things that look a bit like AT-ATs from Star Wars. We also see a young woman with hair that shades from silver to blue, and a hand with a wide crystal-studded wristband reaching in her direction, and hear someone screaming "Liara!" as she is pulled away into a dark vortex. Then the clearing comes back.]

[Young woman]: What the hell was that?!

???: I...am...sorry. It was...necessary...that we...communicate. I—

[He faints again.]

[Young woman]: Well, you're just a bundle of mysteries, aren't you? Okay, come on, ups-a-daisy...

[She manages to get him up on her back, and carries him out of the clearing. For a moment after that, we just see the empty location. Then a shadowy figure slips out from among the trees, grabs the small object that fell from the man's hand, and makes off with it.]

-----------------------------------------------------

What can I say? The idea was gnawing at me all day at work, so I figured I should write it out.

idiotekque

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #169 on: June 14, 2013, 09:19:41 pm »
I still feel that a top-down RPG is the way to go. Spiritual successor can mean a lot of things, but as you venture further and further from what the game was... I think you start to lose the point of things. As far as the graphics go, what graphics akin to newer Pokemon handheld games? Where the environment is 3D, but the characters are 2D sprites within that 3D world.

I've recently been playing the heck out of some games made by an indie developer called Carpe Fulgar. Specifically, Fortune Summoners and Chantelise. Fortune Summoners is how I could see the platformer genre working for this project. Here's a video of some gameplay. Basically it's a mashup between platformer, action RPG, and fighting game (trust me, it's not a button masher). The game makes use of a 2D sidescrolling plane while still creating a world that you both get familiar with, and also have fun exploring (deep dark dungeons and the like, which are unnerving).

On the flipside, Chantelise is a 3D hack-and-slash ARPG, but rather uniquely, it uses 2D sprites for the characters and enemies (not bosses, from what I've seen so far), while the world is 3D. Here's a gameplay video of that (you may want to skip ahead). The game is excellent as well, but like Fortune Summoners, is very difficult.

Just some ideas for the graphical and gameplay style, I suppose. Loving the last couple posts. Full of great ideas and brainstorming.

alfadorredux

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #170 on: June 14, 2013, 09:28:20 pm »
Xenogears also used much that setup (2D sprites, 3D world). So it can be made to work in an RPG, and even look professional, so long as you limit the camera angles. Just don't zoom in on the sprites, as Xenogears made the mistake of doing in some cutscenes. ;)

idiotekque

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #171 on: June 14, 2013, 09:33:20 pm »
To be honest, I'll admit I'm biased towards sprites. Games like Guilty Gear X2 #Reload still make me drool, and Chantelise has stirred up my love and appreciation for the art style. It's just such a nice, clean look that can keep the retro vibe while still being modern.

I've done spriting myself, but nothing serious...

Mr Bekkler

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #172 on: June 14, 2013, 10:09:34 pm »
 Love the writing, Alf!

tushantin

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #173 on: June 14, 2013, 11:10:23 pm »
Chantelise and Fortune Summoners offer interesting gameplay elements! However, we need to keep in mind that we need something simple. Something achievable. And still have the depth of story without actually dabbling in too much story.

That said, we can't have 2D sprites either, unless we actually render them via 3D. That's because currently we don't have any sprite artists available, save for TheMage who is either busy or may not be interested (and I'll need to ask Alcyone too, but she's kinda busy too). If we take the Platformer route, there are tutorials for it. If we take the 3D route + Action route, maintaining controls for hand-helds will be difficult (unless you wanna target for Win/Mac/Linux and Consoles). If we take the 3D + RPG route, then we'll need a way to devise a battle system which may or may not resemble CT or CC, or something entirely original.

Would you like to control one-character fighting modes and switch between them, or would you prefer to use all three at the same time?

Anywho, I thought I'd share this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAagK8DXnEA

That's Radical Dreamers -- Forever Zero. No original sprites yet, save for a few of Kid's, because utunnels and I (well, mostly utunnels) were working on the core engine and polish the game-mechanics before moving towards the harder parts. The idea was to "re-imagine" Radical Dreamers as a Fighting-Heist like game, where the final stage would be Viper Manor. The reason being, we wanted to go through the story all the way from Kid-meets-Serge to the end of RDFZ, where Lynx and Pollon (Manly Harle) seem to mastermind their adventures from the shadows. We also wanted to have an RD equivalent of Glenn, Zoah, Karsh, even Norris, along with his friend Chuck (whadya know...) and older brother William Ishito (Crimson Echoes).

Anywho, take the incomplete idea from that video, and let me know what about it inspires you. Maybe we can incorporate something like that with an RPG? Maybe we could get some idea for a Hand-held?


P.S.: Who is Liara? And that monk-prince guy, is he who I think he is? Prince of Zeal-esq Steam Punk era?
« Last Edit: June 14, 2013, 11:12:03 pm by tushantin »

idiotekque

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #174 on: June 14, 2013, 11:21:19 pm »
Fortune Summoners and Chantelise are actually fairly simple games. The gameplay of FS is rather complex for a sidescrolling game, but both games are fairly simple (I'd probably say Chantelise is very simple). I haven't done any research about Carpe Fulgar, but I know they're an indie developer.

As for having no spriter... that does suck, lol. A big part of me feels like game needs spriting to keep that Chrono feel. I suppose CC didn't have sprites, but if you wanted a CC feel... you'd need beautiful, hand drawn maps. I feel like that's one of the top three factors that make CC what it is (speaking visually, of course, since that is a notable point). Then again, isn't it safe to say we're missing more than a spriter on this project? Looking for outside help seems like it's gotta happen one way or another.

Character control... If the game was a side scroller similar to Fortune Summoners, I'd say one at a time. The AI in FS is quite good, and you can customize your companion's tactics, so mages will stay back, be conservative, just heal, rain hell down, etc. It works very well. The gameplay of FS is what's keeping me addicted.

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #175 on: June 15, 2013, 01:55:46 am »
Nice, this is really coming up, even if it's still on the concept board, and it looks like it's moving over to gameplay. I better keep a better eye on this then now that it's moving slightly out of plot-talk...

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #176 on: June 15, 2013, 08:37:42 am »
If we can scrape together enough artistic and programming talent of some sort to put together a demo (making cautious use of sites like opengameart.com is also an option), we then have a solid base for a fundraising campaign on kickstarter/indiegogo/etc. College/university students in artistic fields are often willing to work comparatively cheap if it gives them a project for their portfolio, and some of them are very good. The plot scrap I wrote would require art for 2 PCs, 3 NPCs, at least 2 monsters, and 6-10 locations depending on how the interior of the house was split up.

We'll still need some 2D art regardless, for the menu (and possibly dialogue portraits).

In terms of mechanics, what we have to be careful of is taking too much inspiration from any one game. That being said, elements of CT's battle system have been used by games from other studios—Suikoden has multi-person joint techs, most strategy RPGs have area-of-effect stuff, etc—so we may be able to produce something similar without stepping on too many toes. CC's battle system, on the other hand, is largely unique in my experience.

@tushantin: Well, I kind of tagged the "modern" era rather than the "Zeal" era as the steampunk one, although I don't think there's much in what I wrote that wouldn't let us shuffle them around (might need to have something other than a tractor break down, and turn the photo of the father into a painting, that's all), but otherwise you're pretty much right. "Liara" is the childhood sweetheart he got separated from in his tumble through time, who ended up in some other era.

tushantin

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #177 on: June 15, 2013, 12:45:54 pm »
"Liara" is the childhood sweetheart he got separated from in his tumble through time, who ended up in some other era.
....but then it turns out that Liara is more bad-ass than the brother. (Sorry, couldn't help myself; I don't like over-using the "helpless damsel" idea, even though I like them in their unique ways...) This is also coincidentally where we could pull a Jacuzzi Spot (Baccano!) who, despite being "cowardly weak" in the group, faces his fears with sheer will to show exactly how dangerous he can be (seriously, Jacuzzi kicks ass in the last-half of the series).

Alfador is right on one end: We shouldn't be constrained by inspirations, and instead use them to propel us on our exploration and practicality. See, if CT developers had our technology back in the day, they would have shaken heaven and earth to not rely on 2D graphics and instead opt for giving us the best possible experience (in fact, their game engine was a breakthrough in SNES contemporary technology). Chrono Cross and Radical Dreamers did not even bother remaining close to the same engines and graphics; they were their own separate games, but still had a similar "feel" with their unique sense of adventure going on. And that's all despite the fact that they are part of the same series. The artists paid special attention to innovate rather than be left behind with what the Poets often call The Anxiety of Influence.

Chrono Trigger: Resurrection, hence didn't care about sprites, so long as they can respect the aesthetic theme, and went on ambitiously to create a 3D engine. So if we hinder ourselves with the needs restraining ourselves impractically (such as using 2D sprites for computer game, instead of device) then we would be going the opposite direction to the original developers of CT. And we're not even part of the Chrono series, despite it being a "spiritual successor"! So what obligations do we have anyway?

That said, we can make a completely different game, but have the same feel to the story. It would just require really clever people to pull that off.

@tushantin: Well, I kind of tagged the "modern" era rather than the "Zeal" era as the steampunk one, although I don't think there's much in what I wrote that wouldn't let us shuffle them around (might need to have something other than a tractor break down, and turn the photo of the father into a painting, that's all), but otherwise you're pretty much right.
Haha, the reason I thought Steampunk would make an excellent "Zeal-esq" era (though not necessarily in Antiquity) is because it can MAKE THINGS FLY powered by steam! Think about it: when harnessing such power, the people thought they could even go to the moon. So perhaps they built their own Space Station in the sky? An island or something that could revolve around the Earth's orbit without falling?

The era ends when they discover something even more powerful: Electricity, or even Nuclear Energy. But the problem was that, after the Steampunk era, people didn't dare to dream, because the Steam Station in orbit essentially went through the same fate as Zeal did when it summoned Lavos, causing countless casualties. I think that's where we could also have a King Zeal type villain, who is too ambitious for his own good, but isn't actually wrong --  in fact, his defeat wouldn't mean his dreams have ended, but simply "transferred" to the common folks, inspiring others to dream big but also evaluate risks involved to think practically. A fine line between Blind Ambition and Nay-saying Scepticism, that would eventually lead to a "prosperous" future.

[youtube]FVPBOKd3Cu4[/youtube]
« Last Edit: June 15, 2013, 12:49:35 pm by tushantin »

idiotekque

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #178 on: June 15, 2013, 08:09:58 pm »
Problem is, I think fully 3D graphics aren't a great option unless we could create something as graphically beautiful as a newer Final Fantasy game, or TERA, or Far Cry 3 (especially concerning the faces), etc. That's out of our reach, so whatever 3D graphics we had would honestly look more dated than well done spriting, in my opinion.

I'm all for going outside the box, but it all depends. What about an SRPG approach? Think XCOM: Enemy Unknown with swords, bows, and magic.

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Re: Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)
« Reply #179 on: June 15, 2013, 10:48:25 pm »
I personally don't think 3D graphics add anything of significance to an RPG. (That doesn't mean that I don't think they're a viable option—just that they're not innately better than 2D for this particular purpose.) 2D doesn't have to be tile-based backgrounds and super-deformed sprites—those parts really are artefacts of the limited capabilities of the old game systems. We could use large sprites rendered from models (having models does make animation easier, and a few tweaks and filters can make the results look more in tune with hand-drawn sprites), and more artistic backgrounds like the ones in Cross.

SRPG... Mmph. In the end, a turn-based SRPG is really just an ordinary RPG where location and terrain have been made important in combat. (They do tend to have what I call "degenerate maps"—overworlds presented as lists or graphs of locations rather than freely explorable space—but that isn't a requirement, and anyway there are some non-SRPGs that do the same thing.) Not impossible, but it requires a different style of planning for the combat engine, with more attention to distances and area effects.

@tushantin: I still like the idea of her becoming General Liara (or Special Ops Commander Liara or President Liara or something). We could even, if we wanted to be truly evil, make her the Mid-Boss.

I also kind of like the idea of having a love rectangle: Liara, the prince, the redhead, and one more character form a set of possible romantic pairs, and the player influences who gets whom.

If we're doing steampunk space stations, why not go the full distance, with geosynchronous stations and steam-powered space elevators? (The physics would strain credulity, mind you, but magic could close the gap.)  Something to think about, I guess.