#29. Gi Megami Tensei, Part 2: Small Step with Protagonist

Gi Megami Tensei is on. I'm not joking... yet.

I know, it's been such a long time since I posted anything on this alleged workshop of mine. I've been minding my own business... er, that is to say, my other own business, and as I focus more on my real life my own project went... well, just look at the posting dates and it says all by itself.

So... where was I? Oh yeah, I'm here to prove that I am making some progress, contrary to some (including, well, my) beliefs. I've been writing stuffs for Gi Megami Tensei, a fangame project based on Shin Megami Tensei franchise, and I decided to start with something small, yet something so important - the protagonist. So here we go:

- Our protagonist for Gi Megami Tensei will be an everyman in Kichijouji, Tokyo. Sometimes oldies are goodies, just like in I.

- Both Shin Megami Tensei and Digital Devil Story, the novel on which the game is based, depict their respective protagonist as their own designer of COMP. Now that we have smartphones and Google Glasses, we practically have our COMP ready-made in 2015. But I want this particular COMP I'm intending to give to the protagonist handmade, just for tradition and, well, cool. Perhaps it's a science project. Who knows?

- The gender of the protagonist will be multiple-choice: players are given both male and female, and is to choose one of them. This I have explained before, but I want it this way, you choose one of them and the other becomes your partner for the rest of the game. Perhaps the other one, the Neutral Hero, is your partner for a science project.

- Speaking of COMP, let's talk about its feature. I want to stick to the most basic features of COMP: summoning demons, talking to demons, analyzing demons. This is the three key features of COMP since I, so let's call it 'vanilla'. In SJ and IV, we are introduced the concept of Applications for COMP, powering up COMP as game progresses. This is nice and all, but maybe it was too much in IV, really. I mean, doubling demon stat boosts and fusing demons even powerful than the protagonist? C'mon.

- Oh, and here's an idea: make some slots for skills in COMP, and set skills for protagonists to use. I was inspired by oh-so-free skill setting system of DDSAT, loved it, and came up with this one. IV's Demon Whisper system also helped me, but again, maybe it was too much for protagonist whose whole concept is 'everyman'.
Here's some ideas for COMP skills: -kaja skills, -nda skills, Charge (Power Charge), Concentrate (Mind Charge), immune skills, Pierce (for Phys and Gun, respectively; both of them will be too broken), Skill Link, Demon CO-OP.

- Equipment will be categorized in five: Sword, Gun, Bullet, Armor, Accessories. This concept is based on Persona, especially 3 and 4, and perhaps 5, as long as the trailer shows me right. I was rather disappointed in DDSAT that guns are next to useless, and wanted to keep it one of the main arsenal of protagonist. Here's a philosophy: in Gun attack, damage is based on Gun itself, and the side effect (inflicting status ailment and stuffs) is based on Bullets.

So far, this is all I've got, but tell you, I'll be back with more ideas. End transmission.


So far:
 - Gi Megami Tensei is On.
 - Gi Megami Tensei, Part 1: So, Where Should I Begin?

#28. Another Miss... Another Hope

Okay, last time I made a careful suggestion on Persona 5, I wasn't even half sure of myself. And, as we all know, Atlus just knows how to make it cool. Dang, that was awesome. Persona series was not well known for its action sequence, and the newest series just breaks that in the coolest way possible. Further news revealed that Social Link is deleted in 5, but even that makes sense in picaresque mood of the game, and the protagonist (more commonly called 'Chair-kun', for some reason) using gun and transforming himself into his persona reminds me of the older SMT games.

Only... There's one thing missing in the game. My assumption. Yup.

But that means... Hey, I can own that one, right? I can make useful of Hercules-protagonist ideas, right?

So it settles then... I'll be working on this idea for next few weeks, if my patience serves me right. I'm so looking for this new Persona series! End transmission.

#27. A Rather Careful Assumptions on Persona 5

I love Persona series. You should've known it by now.

So last time I remember gushing about how my birthday wasn't on November. Persona 5 is ready to deploy, yet all we know about it is a) it's about freedom; b) the protagonist is a second-grader in some high school in Shibuya, contrary to how 3 and 4 was far away from urban area; c) it's bloody red. There was this Wild Mass Guessing that it's based on Greek mythology, mostly because of how Q used a certain event featuring very Greek symbolism.

You know what, I have another assumption on 5. So here we go:

Persona 5 may be based on Greek mythology, to specify some more, the myth of Hercules.

We all know that there must be something very, very Greek going on 5. While I was working on my Gi Megami Tensei stuff and some other fanboying I thought if 5 is going to be Greek and talking about freedom, then legend of Hercules is very plausible. Here's why:

a) Born as a bastard child of Zeus, Hercules lived quite a miserable life, mostly because Hera found him very, very irritable. The result is lifetime slavery of his own fate, accomplishing twelve labours, fighting godly wars, and living as a tragic hero. This could be used as a metaphor of seeking freedom in the midst of oppression - freeing oneself from one's own fate.
b) Hercules is famous for his Twelve Labour, given by Hera (via Eurystheus) for killing his own family. Now we all know that twelve months makes a year, and in 3 and 4 the player is given a year for the entire storyline. Maybe each Labour comes per a month, as Arcana Shadows did in 3.
c) This might be rather suggestive, but Persona series have used goddess figures for final boss (The exception being 2). There was Pandora and Snow Queen in 1, Nyx in 3, and Izanami in 4. If my theory is correct, the goddess figure for 5 - the True Final Boss behind all this, and the greatest enemy of Hercules - would be Hera. This matches the certain event in Q, which caused my brainstorming in the first place. (Abandon all hopes[on spoilers], all ye who enter the link.)

Well, it's all just another Wild Mass Guessing, so don't take it seriously. Unless - and it's really, really improbable, I know - it's correct. Who knows? End transmission.

#26. Non-Action Game, Anyone?

Just one more thing...

Here's a quick idea for random videogame, heaven and hell know which. So this Five Night at Freddy's was a nice game, using robots for horror, exquisite mood-making, challenging gameplay, all was well put. One of the thing I really liked about the game was the gameplay, notably how the player is a non-action protagonist like any other first-person horror games. Yes, FNAF is a first-person game, but instead of wandering a conveniently abandoned and downright spooky settings, he just sits in a janitor's room, watching cameras and closing doors as haunted robots crawls toward him. It was another fascinating part of the game, since it fits to the setting, and it gives the player the message: You cannot escape from this place. You are to stay here, in your room, and one miss and the robots out there will kill you. Talk about horror!

So this non-action protagonist stuff crawled its way into my mind, and here's what I came with: you, the protagonist, are a dweller, or hikikomori if you speak Japanese, unwilling to leave your room. There's no one but you in your room, and your only way to contact with the others is your trustworthy computer. You may search in the internet for some informations or plot coupons, or play some mini-games if you're not focused enough, but whichever way you will chat with anonymous "friends" in IRC or other equivalent stuffs.

Perhaps you may find someone who asks you why you are alone in your room. Perhaps you may hesitate if the world "out there" is by any means meaningful to you. Perhaps your past crawls unto you and asks you what would've been the best choice back then. Perhaps this is a story of hopelessness, trauma, schizophrenia, agoraphobia, and psychological horror. Perhaps this is a story of yours, or mine.

I know, I'm not the first to come up with this format, but at least I have my format to work on.  As if I've got nothing else to do, hah. Special thanks to FNAF, Digital: A Love Story, and Steins;Gate for inspiration. End transmission.

#25. All's Well... So Far

Been a month... actually it's a tad more than a month, but still. I was busy and lazy, and I'm taking my days off, which is about an hour and a half left to go. So this will be a quick report on how my works are in progress. So here we go:

Kriegspiel: Scrapped. For now. After I spent my spare times for a week or so I found out that, well, making all-new board game was no for someone inexperienced like myself. Storyline is another problem, which will be discussed later on. So rest in peace, Kriegspiel, until next brainstorming.

Gi Megami Tensei: Not scrapped - actually it's almost done on the beginning end and the finishing end. The problem is, what should come between them? Writing a storyline is one thing, but the other is how to realize it into a videogame. I'm not a programmer, yet, just an amatuer writer and a director-wannabe. Starting as a fangame was not a bad idea, it's just that maybe I bit off much, much more than I can even chew. Still, I found that some people are quite interested in my notes of how to make a SMT fangame, so maybe I can assure that someone, hopefully more than one, out there is with me.

Dogma: Nakian and I shared some more discussions and brainstormings since then, but hey, it was a huge project, too huge for just him and me. The concept of the game is there, but the problem occurs on how to make it into a 4X-esque videogame. Nakian's idea was, making a prologue for how this particular faith came into being, applying surrounding environments with it, and starting there. Recently I found this awesome game called Endless Space - maybe this is how we should approach. Faithfully, of course.

Other stuffs: I'm helplessly delusive, I admit. It's just that, my brain just can't stop thinking up something weird for novels, videogames, anime, or whatever. If you're familliar with Discworld, I started to overlap myself with that poor duck. Bah, better pull myself together, I'm still in my service and it's still an year left to go.

Other than that... Nope, nothing more. Gotta go, and I'll keep my fingers crossed to post anything (and I mean anything) within a month. End transmission.

#24. Idea Storm!

Okay, before I really part for like another month, I really have to write this down somewhere. I was doodling with Yu-Gi-Oh! format, making original card ideas and stuff, and got somehow funny and tried to benchmark Duel Terminal settings. I haven't written anything sci-fi enough, but I managed to merge Cthulhu Mythos and sci-fi settings, and tell you this, this is one interesting setting. So I decided: I'm taking this out of Yu-Gi-Oh! format and making this as original as I can.

Here is the synopsis, if anyone's interested:

We all know the parallel world exists, at least theoretically. Here is the world where parallel world do exist, and a group of "precursors" have thrived through the infinite worlds. One member of such precursors have wandered around the infinite worlds, and arrived this particular sector where a highly advanced civilization has fallen down to ruins. In this ruins this curious wanderer discovers a hidden library full of digital terminals, each containing a ghastly information and technology, so hideous and disastrous that no mortal is supposed to discover, or know at all in the first place. The terminals, dubbed "Thaumas" for convenience, have messed up the poor precursor's mind and soul, and as a result this once brave and bright adventurer has transformed into a gloomy, mad oracle of total destruction and a mere puppet of Thaumas... and something sealed within them. As soon as this monstrous fall has reported to the precursors the world will never be the same, as a newly lit blaze of war will consume the precursors, the Thaumas, and everyone within the infinite worlds.

Wow, did I just wrote this embarrassing stuff? Hope I can make better of this, or at least good of it. End transmission.

#23. Trust Issues

Long time no post... again. Expect this for next 12 months, my service is far from over. So I've been working whatever concerns me, when I came up with another slice of idea. So here it goes:

RPG is all about trust, isn't it? You, the Protagonist, trust your comrades, recruiting them for whatever reason the plot requires you, buying them items and equipments with your pocket money, and even saving their arses whenever the boss battle goes too marathon or just plain insanely difficult. The game encourages you with trusting your party members, giving them their own storyline, interaction features with you, and even directly affecting the gameplay. See Persona 3 and 4 for how it's elaborately done.

And here is the twist: What if it isn't? What if, hey, we cannot trust our party members?

So this will be an idea for mock-JRPG genre games, taking features and cliches from your typical JRPG and twisting it into something completely different. You will take control on your comrades, but beware, any false moves or undesirable actions and they will turn their barrels to your back. My suggestion of the setting is Westerns, where outlaws and low-life scums make a quick alliance for a game of pokerino and breaking it down for a penny or two too short.

Of course, I'm not the only one to come up with JRPG with trust issues, and in fact there is a JRPG game that introduces this feature, although it plays it straight, rather than twisting as I did. (It's called Criminal Girls, if anyone's interested.) Guess there really is nothing new under the sun, heh.

Other than that... not so much. End transmission.