Yeah, I like the idea of a riddle or two. Sounds interesting.
The slave idea sounds not so bad either. Maybe what can happen is:
- Slave character puts a barrier around Alexander's fortress / castle / whereever he is. You have to fight him to enter. Being a slave, he has no choice but to fight you off. Enter Miguel-styled fight.
- You beat him and run into something styled like the Viper Manor of Radical Dreamers (it's more creepy than that of Cross I find).
- From there, you have to crack another barrier (like in CC - the place you get the Dragon's Tear and swap bodies - name escapes me). Maybe for each part of the barrier to break you get sent to a parallel universe / time where you have to do some quest that satisfies a riddle to the room. Upon completion, you fight a sub-boss.
- That goes until you complete x-number of rooms. The barrier breaks.
- You enter and fight the last battles with the Masamune Alexander, followed by a more sinister version - Shadow Alexander. Hell, maybe storylinewise he kills one of your characters between the two battles. No healing though, makes it harder, more challenging, etc.
- Maybe that knocks Masa and Mune out (or maybe they're already out of commission, who knows). No one said the heir to the MasaMune HAD to be good.
- Upon defeating him, they lock up the MasaMune in a cave, which Radius and Garai eventually come across, years later (or days, who knows). Maybe that could be an extended ending.
Again it's an idea for end of game dungeon. A long one, but quite a rewarding experience. All we have to worry about now is in game mechanics, dungeons, rest of story, etc.
I do like the idea of riddles though. We definitely have to work with it. I got one for "finding" Alexander...
*Where to look to find the final boss (first time you figure it out and "meet for the first time" - as enemies at least)...
Built in stone and etched in fire,
When you died is new desire;
Find the sword and find the man,
When you do, you will be damned.
Reasoning behind it...
* Stone is dreamstone
* Fire is lavos shell ("La means big, vos means fire" to quote Ayla)
* Died refers to when Crono dies in Ocean Palace
* Sword is something more obvious to the player, it's the MasaMune
* The man, of course is Alex, and it shows that the final boss is not a woman (could have been Vera, maybe they suspect a Porre woman)
* Last line speaks for itself.
Might be hard to figure out, but more clues can be given if needed.
Anyways, comments, ideas, etc?
Edit:
From there, you have to crack another barrier (like in CC - the place you get the Dragon's Tear and swap bodies - name escapes me).
*Just remembered that was Fort Dragonia