game design: very similar to "tales of the abyss" for the 3ds meaning the world and battles will take place on two different engines both of which are completely rendered in 3d but done in such a way that you dont really have to worry about panning the camera Control Scheme: world: -virtual joystick for movement -when you move close to an object or NPC that you can interact with, a pop up icon will appear on the bottom right section of the screen by default -top left: an icon to open menu -top right is a mini radar which when you tap on it brings up a full screen map where you can set waypoints combat: synopsis: -even though the combat will have a similar look and feel as "tales of the abyss" im completely redesigning the combat system for a more fast-paced streamlined experience movement: -VJ bottom left -when an enemy is about to attack you a small icon will appear above the left VJ tap on it before the enemy hits you to dodge -no "free jumping" -alternatively once you level up you will have the option to parry/deflect certain attacks. when you can do this an icon will appear above the bottom right "action stance" button tap on this pop up button to parry/deflect which will also stagger the enemy leaving them wide open for an assault attacking & techniques: -there will be an icon on the bottom right that represents "attack stance" -tap and hold to initiate an attack stance which will open up a VJ around your thumb that represents a hotkey of 4 assigned techniques -techniques are basically combos and artes similar to how they look and feel in the tales games -when in attack stance you can not move instead the left VJ will be used to switch targets (left & right) and alter angle of attack (up and down) -to attack you must first go into an "attack stance" and initiate a technique by moving your thumb up, down, left or right to highlight and your character will commence to attacking -there will be no auto-moving to close in on your target. when you are in range the "attack stance" icon will flash always make sure you are in range otherwise your character will be swinging at air and completely open to attacks until the combo runs it course (especially if its a long combo) -technique will varry in the amount of attacks they have some will only have two attacks in them that loop over and over again others will have 3-6 attacks (possibly more) -some techniques will initiate immediately others take a few secs to get started -once you level up you will be able to "cancel" combo by simply lifting your thumb off the screen -when initiating a technique you are basically doing an endless arte or combo while in mid combo you can use the left virtual joystick to switch targets on the fly. you can also use the left VJ to alter the angle of attack to sweep enemies into a knockdown (some powerful techniques later on in the game will be able to instantly kill an opponent that is knocked down if you initiate it before the enemy gets up) or knock an opponent in the air and set up a devastating juggle or switch to an air specialized technique and watch your character leap in the air to unleash chaos on your enemy. -in essence you can do endless combos without ever having to tap you simply slide your thumb up, down, left or right to highlight the technique hold it and voila -however there will be a stamina bar that depletes when using techniques similar to how it works in dark souls (the stamina bar gets larger as you level up) -there will also be sudo-techniques (variations of basic techniques depending on if the enemy is standing, in the air, or knocked down) and forbidden techniques that are learned after landing X amount of hits with a certain technique and then landing a chain of techniques to activate an extremely powerful move these are basically similar to burst arts altered arts and mystic artes from the tales games -when in attack stance you will automatically block/guard when an enemy hits your character but it will deplete some stamina and still do minor damage but only if you are not initiating a technique -there is no "items" instead there is a rune icon at the bottom between the VJ and the attack stance. mash this icon as fast as you can to replenish hp and stamina -you can also replinish stamina by running away and not getting hit or initiating any attacks for a couple secs -the stamina bar will recharge much faster if it isnt completely drained when it completely drains there is an additional penalty X amount of ms for the recharging process to kick in staggered: -if you completely drain your stamina bar and get hit you will be staggered a penalty for spamming and not using your head. when staggered you cant move or do anything for X amount of milisecs and tapping the rune has no effect until stagger wears off and thats about it for the initial ideas
additional ideas/thoughts: -party members? -personally i would rather focus on increasing the total amount of enemies in the game as well as increasing the amount of enemies the engine can handle simultaneously during a battle and fine tuning the gameplay and battle mechanics to absolute perfection -if it turns out the engine and platform (and staff) can handle the load then i would definitely focus on having at least 1 party member as an automated NPCs during battle (so the gamer doesn't feel "alone") -best case scenario: if the the engine still holds up well then the next goal should definitely be focusing on real time party member switching but only if it genuinely enhances the gameplay/combat experience -perhaps you can limit the scope of the story and have 2-3 different characters to play as and have these stories intertwine and connect forming interesting plot twists similar to how the resident evil series would go from leon to "whats her name?" regurgitating the same content but with subtle changes and a different story line multiplayer mode: -i would definitely focus on hacking away at the engine in attempt to facilitate an online survival mode where two players can link up in a endless battle that progressively gets harder -be able to revive fallen partners and get power up drops -keyword "action RPG co-op survival mode" -i doubt player vs player would be an enjoyable experience on face value most likely not worth the effort time and resources needed to develop and maintain the operational costs without some serious hacking and creativity involved. -"monster arena" where combatants are matched up as random monsters from the game? additional thoughts: -a vast world to explore complete with towns, an over world and dungeons -ridiculously challenging optional boss fights (way tougher then the final boss) -secret characters? -cant forget the Easter eggs story/plot thoughts: i would focus on an open non linear side quest heavy experience consisting of small realistic conflicts/crises preferably emotionally griping and dramatic that coalesce into a chain of events gently nudging the gamer towards a core story/theme.... and dont forget an underlining "mystery" that slowly gets revealed. ill go over a combat scenario in step by step walkthrough next
why no items? i would rather focus on real time action strategy using items throws a pause in the action and feels more like cheating. i recently played dark souls which incorporates a stamina bar and a "flask" concept for health as well as a "bonfire" concept to level up save/checkpoint and replenish the flask. i would like to utilize the stamina bar and a similar concept to the "flask" which i called a "rune icon" in my initial post. i wouldnt worry about bonfires though since the battles and world are on different planes instead when a battle is finished your HP is automatically replenished. to add an extra element to the runes perhaps you can find stronger more powerful runes in the game. however there can still be equipment and loot to find perhaps you learn some powerful techniques from equipment like how you learn abilities from equipment in Final Fantasy 9. also when you level up you learn techniques and if you use a technique X amount of times you learn the "sudo" version of it as well. but you can only have 4 techniques equipped at a time and a large part of the strategy/fun of the combat experience will be equipping and using sets of techniques effectively in battle. techniques: -techniques that i imagined in my initial post were mostly a mix of melee attacks and combos but in theory you could have magic and other long range attacks and possibly even summons and super powerful magic attacks as techniques as well *although it would have to be tested to know for sure weather it would enhance the experience or not -you can only have 4 techniques equipped at a time - a key part of the strategy is deciding which techniques to equip and using them effectively in battle -when using techniques you need to be mindful of its range how many hits each technique has, how long the animation takes to initiate and play out, how much damage the hits of the technique inflict on the enemy and how much stamina the technique depletes -some techniques might not even be offensive but more like teleportations? combat scenario walktrough: -when you start the game you will have 1 technique equipped by default -you enter battle the enemies are on one side and you are on the other -run towards the enemy with the VJ when you are in range the attack stance button will flash -tap and hold the attack stance button to enter attack stance the animation from non attack stance to attack stance should be quick and fast (as well as from attack stance to non attack stance) -slide thumb up to highlight and initiate the basic technique and hold your thumb in that position and watch your character begin to unleash back to back 2 hit slash attacks over and over again on your enemy -you pretty much destroy the first enemy but you have to back off a little bit because your stamina gauge is almost empty lift thumb off the attack stance and run away to a safe distance dodging if need be until your stamina gauge is refilled enough and you are ready to plan out your next assault -keep in mind if you spam the game will severely punish you with the concept of "staggered" meaning if you go all out in an assault and completely drain your stamina bar to empty and happen to be hit by an enemy when the bar is completely empty you will be staggered for x amount of seconds -also being hit by an enemy not only reduces HP but also the stamina bar -by utilizing dodge (and "block/parry" later on in the game) you can position yourself for an effective assault go into attack stance unleash a few techniques back off a bit dodging or running around again to get an ideal assault position then go into attack stance and unleash another chain of techniques. -sometimes especially for boss battles you will need to retreat and put some distance between your character and the enemy and mash on the "rune" icon to replenish health chaining techniques: -once you learn new techniques you can go from one to the other on the fly by simply by sliding your thumb from the currently used technique to another -this is done by tapping and holding on the attack stance button going into the attack stance which will open up a circle around your thumb with 4 slots to equip 4 different techniques. -some techniques initiate quickly and can be chained together on the fly going from one technique to another with no pause in the animation others take a few milisecs to begin -its important to equip a good balance of techniques to facilitate interesting combos of techniques -techniques will not cancel each other out you can only switch from one to the other after the first technique is finished technique types: 1) basic 2) power 3) strategic 2) sudo 3) special/forbidden basic techniques: are the basic techniques in the game consisting of attacks that range from different amounts of quick slashes, a couple of attacks that are thrusts (good for closing in distance on an enemy) and a few odd ball techniques that are neither slashes nor thrusts more like 360 spins slashes or a jump in the air and drop down attack on enemy just to name a few. the basic techniques are quick to initiate and are easy to chain together going from one to another without any pause in the animation and they are good to combo with after a power technique or use primarily set up an opening for a power sudo and/or special/forbidden technique power techniques these techniques are strong powerful super moves that take a few secs to initiate as the character has to do a chant, focus chi, or do hand signs (for example) first and then after this initial prep phase is completely the attack will initiates and the super move is unleashed. as you level up you can learn an ability that is called power guard that will prevent enemies from interrupting you when trying to unleash a super move. with this ability equipped then enemy would have to hit you two or three times or hit you with one of their own power moves before the cast can be interrupted strategic: strategic techniques are moves that are not attacks per say and more like dashes, flips, rolls, teleportation ect they are quick to initiate and easy to chain with both basic and power techniques. *not to be confused with dodge/deflect/parry in which are abilities you must activate when not in attack stance mode sudo: -variations of basic power and special techniques that initiate in the place of a basic power or special technique depending on the condition listed on the technique. there will be sudo versions of most all basic, power and special techniques that will initiate in its place if you happen to catch an enemy off guard walking, initiate attack while enemy is currently attacking in the middle of a combo, or initiate the tech while the enemy is blocking/guarding, or initiate the tech while the enemy is knocked down on the ground, staggered, or in the air. these sudo techniques are more powerful variations and can not be equipped to be used on the spot. instead you must use your head and set up the right conditions with strategic, basic and power techniques and then launch the corresponding technique when the ideal conditions are met and viola thats how you do a sudo technique special/forbidden these are the deadly special most powerful moves in the game. there are 4 versions and they are also un-equipable techniques initiated by chaining combinations of basic, power strategic and sudo techniques together in succession without leaving attack stance, and without being hit. there will be 3 key techniques used to initiate the special/forbidden technique at the end of the combo. 1st version: the first version is the easiest to pull off. its key technique is a basic technique and requires a combo: any basic, any power, and the key basic technique in succession in order to initiate. 2nd version: is challenging to pull of as its key technique is a power technique and requires either any basic, any strategic, any power, and the key power technique in succession. the other way to do the 2nd version is any strategic, any basic, any power (except key), and the key technique. you will have to have 1 basic technique, 1 strategic technique, 1 power technique and the final key power technique equipped to do the combo. the main reason its challenging is because you have to pull off 2 different back power techniques and since power techniques have initiation time that leaves your character wide open for attack thus canceling the combo 3rd version: the key technique here is a strategic technique and is a bit more challenging of a combo to pull off because it requires a sudo variant then power back to back this combo required is: any basic, any sudo, any power, and the key strategic technique in succession. the 4th version: is the final ultimate attack and is the hardest to pull off because the key technique that must be initiated is a sudo technique of a power tech. there are two ways to pull this off the 1) any basic, any strategic, any power, and the key sudo technique off of a power technique must hit the enemy after which the ultimate move will be unleashed. the 2) is any strategic, any basic, any power, and the key sudo tech required. thats basically the highlight of the combat experience which should be unique in its own right simply because movement and attacking are completely separate from each other which should provide an exhilarating action strategy experience thats easy to pick up and understand. also just had another idea to expand on the basic combat experience i will highlight that in my next post
a way to incorporate the elemental spirits/magic prevalent in the tales series into the combat experience utilize the rune concept: -basic rune (which you start off with) -earth rune -fire rune -water rune -ect when you find a new rune you have to equip it and use it in battle x amount of times to unleash the spirit of the rune. once the spirit of the rune is unleashed you have a new companion to utilize in battle that will support you in several ways. as you level the runes up each spirit leans new support techniques they will learn a total of 4 support techniques as well as play a part in the chaining of techniques needed to unleash a powerful forbidden technique which can not be equipped and must have all statuses needed met before it can be unleashed in battle (not an easy task) so lets say you come across the earth rune first. now that you have the earth rune equip it and go into a few battles continue to mash on it throughout a few battles to unleash the earth spirit dwelling within. which will pretty much annihilate the enemy (unless its a boss in which it will just do massive damage and wait to play the mid battle cutscene until you have beaten the boss) once you unleash the first spirit a mid battle cutscene will play out. mostly your character will be like "whoa what the hell just happened" and the spirit will introduce itself and give you a brief tutorial on the concept of support techniques. once you find additional spirits it will just be a nice little introduction of a new spirit each time you unleash them. the spirits will have their own personalities some will show off others will be spunky and goofy and others will be polite and professional and all like "i look forward to serving you master i am the spirit of X" support techniques: -are not techniques within themselves but go together with attack techniques altering them and adding additional moves and elements to the technique -for instance "earth wall" lets say that this is the first default support technique you learn in the game and its parameters are "unleashed after 3 successive hits". meaning you have to equip and use technique with at least 3 hits or more and land at least 3 succseful hits before the spirit will come out in real time and trap an enemy in an earth wall in mid combo while you are still attack the enemy thats how cool these support techniques will be when the spirit learns a new support technique the spirits icon will flash and you can view the parameters needed to do this new technique in mid battle by tapping on the spirits icon pausing the game or wait until you are finished and view the new technique in the menu. however you can only have 4 support techniques equipped at a time. like stated above support techniques and their animation will play out in realtime mid technique no pause in the action and at no stamina cost to the character. however this will also create a new interesting dynamic between using the rune for hp regeneration in mid battle and using the rune for support techniques. spirits will have mp rather then stamina and when used up will be completely useless and need to be replenished somehow. when you finish a battle the mp will be slightly refilled but in order to completely top it off perhaps you need to find the corresponding element like earth water, fire, ect in the world and hit the interact icon a interesting spirit cut scene will play out on the first one but successive mp refills will simply flash bright and have a sound representing that the mp has been refilled so you don't have to watch the same cut scene each and every time. once unleashed the spirits will level up just as your character does and there's also the idea of a secrete evolutionary step you can take to unlock even more powerful support moves by finding sacred earth water wind hidden within the game usually at then end of a long drawn out side quest arch just to elaborate on how deep the idea can go: -there will be the basic elements fire water earth and wind -shadow or the spirit of death and light the spirit of life -but also secret rune containing the spirit of time and space -the spirit of gravity and the spirit of lighting -as well as the default rune containing a secret spirit that you have use a TON of times and basically your soul will call out the past lives and then you now have a new support spirit "your own spirit and its past lives" which will have more of a clone melee feel to it as in when you equip this rune and meet the parameters the one possible support technique could be reincarnation of clones that will appear near each and every enemy unleash havoc on them in addition to battle techniques spirits will be helpfull in the world as well offering the ability to open up new areas as well as fast travel later on in the game (by acquiring the secret spirit of space and time) and of course have a personality and play a part in cut scenes side quests and also offer advice and tips on occasion as well
with the concept of spirits you wouldnt need to worry too much about party members instead i would focus on temporary NPCs and multiple story lines and characters that intertwine in interesting ways especially ones that have the same rune/support technique concept as the spirits but done in new interesting ways such as a monster trainer kind of way (i will think of a 3rd concept after i finish detailing this one) once you complete the story arch from the main character you unlock the next character with whom you might have encountered on a couple of side quests or brief moments in the core story arch this mysterious character's involvement and relationship to the main character can be a rivalry or mysterious enemy or family member perhaps and this will come to light in the 2nd playthough except now you have a new character to play as with new techniques to learn a brand new interesting concept instead of spirits. also there would ideally be subtle differences in the world map and dungeons and new side quests and content sprinkled on. instead of a 2nd playthough being the exact same experience but with accumulated stats and harder enemies the concept of new playable characters will be more interesting. this new character would be a monster tamer and begin the game with a default pet with a basic technique already learned and the innate ability of "capture" aside from the default pet which is always with you, you can only have one beast captured at a time. in order to catch a new beast you must release or store the one you already have captured. storing is ideal as beast accrue xp just like your character does so perhaps the concept of farms could facilitate storing and retrieving captured beasts. first you will have a personal farm that you can upgrade and in most big towns there will be a farm where you can rent stalls to deposit monsters when you want to capture a new one. once you upgrade your farm enough you will be able to store and retrieve beasts to and from your personal farm and the immediate town farm and vice a versa (as well as retrieve beasts from different towns in case you left a beast hanging somewhere) but until you get that upgrade you have to go all the way back to locally retrieve the captured beast.
to capture a monster you must equip the default pet to the monster cage (maybe the monster cage can be upgraded?) and k/o all other monsters on the battle field and damage the one you want to capture a little bit or all the way to hp critical first. once the monster is ready to be captured the default pet icon will flash over and over again tap the icon to bring up a menu which is usually the menu where you can view the equipped beats techniques and parameters that must be met to unleash the technique but if you have the default pet equipped and a single monster left alive slightly damaged or in hp critical this will bring up a capture menu instead or rather flash with the option to switch from the default menu to a capture menu on a new page or tab. the capture menu will have an image of the monster you are trying to capture with ??? instead of stats (perhaps as you level up you have better preview stats of the monster you want to capture) under this info box there will be 3 options with % listing out the chances of succesfull capture. capture options: -1) capture by k/o (least chance of success) -2) capture by trap (usually the one that has the best chance for capture) -3) capture by dodge/block/parry (only slightly more successful then capture by k/o) tap on the option you wish to use and the menu will close and the game will resume however the pet icon will look different now and represent the option you have chosen. capture by k/o is typically the option with the least chance of succses unless your default pet is maxed on levels. if you choose this option you simply have to hit the enemy one or two more times and when k/o'd you will go straight to the victory animation sequence if success the monster will be shown trapped in a cage (possibly different music will play too) if not it will be just the normal animation (and default victory music). if you picked capture by trap you have to set traps on the battle field by tapping on the default pet's icon (which i imagine will be on the top or mid right slightly above where the block/parry pop up icon will appear. above the pets icon there will be a number representing how many traps you have to use. the amount of traps you can set will depend on the pets level (as your pet levels up you get to use more traps). when you place a trap on the battle field a glowing circle will appear (dont run over these circles or you will capture yourself in your own trap) you can set multiple circles on the field at once (or perhaps you have to level up first). when a circle is set you have to lure or lead a monster into the circle. when they walk through the circle a cage will fall down on the beast. if the cage misses or the beast goes into an attack mode prior to entering the circle and hits the cage it will just bounce and break then disappear and the glowing circle representing the trap will fade away. if the cage hits the enemy it will trap them inside and shake around. sometimes the monster will break out of the cage upon which the cage bounces and disappears and the glowing circle representing the trap fades again. but if it is success the match will end and its on to the victory sequence (with beast capture variations). and the last option trap by dodge/block/parry which typically has just a slightly better chance then capture by k/o) but on the other hand it is very flexible in that you can just keep trying until it works and not take a chance and end the battle with a k/o or have to bother with traps. when you dodge, block or parry you use up stamina so you got to be extremely careful here. when this option is selected the pets icon will turn into a ninja (perhaps) but be greyed out. each time you dodge/parry/block successfully the icon will slowly fill in with color. continue to fill in the color until its completely solid and do 1 or 2 more dodges/blocks/parrys and the pet appears next to the enemy turns into a cage and tries to eat them (or some kind of interesting animation like that). if the pet is hit while it is attempting to capture the beast the capture will fail and you have to start the process over again. not to mention sometimes for really high leveled beats they will break out of the cage and once again you have to start the process all over. when the capture is succsesfull its off to the beast capture victory screen when a monster is captured succsessfully open your menu to see it in the beast cage but it doesn't immediately become your ally. you have to tame the beast first. its completely different from unleashing spirits tho. you have to tame a monster by equipping it with a collar & chain. there will be tons of different kinds of collars and chains to find & purchase. for instance the collars will have levels "leather collar", "iron collar", all the way up to the very rare "diamond and adamantium collars. basically the collars are important because each collar has different attributes some collars only allow for 1 support technique to be used at a time but allows the beast to gain 2x the amount of XP others allow for more then one technique to be used but hamper the amount of XP that the beast accumulates. its a give and take system that will be highly addictive the idea of chains is similar but not as complex. each chain equipped to the beast can only be used X amount of times or rather for x amount of battles. the better quality chain (leather all the way up to diamond) the more times you can use the chain. if you are not careful the chain will break in combat and your beast will run lose on the battle field sometimes running away completely othertimes turning on you and attacking you along with the rest of the monsters on the field and last but not least the beast may just wander around with randomized AI being attacked and randomly attacking or just running away all the time. but be careful if you don't finish the battle quickly the beast can be killed or all of a sudden decided to flee being lost forever. once you finish the battle the beast will automatically return to the cage and of course you should immediatly equip a new chain or the default pet instead if you dont have a chain. the default pet is the only pet that doesn't require a chain or a new collar. it will already have a collar on by default and the option to equip a chain will be greyed out or removed. but you can still find/purchase new collars and equip them to your default pet to allow for more support techniques to be equipped or xp to be earned faster. so in that regard its best to keep a good stock of chains and always look out for new collars. the beast food comes into play for replenishment of the beats hp and mp (or you can automatically replenish their hp/mp at farms. each beast will have a set amount of mp and hp. it must be given food and depending on the type of food it may replenish both of those parameters or just one. however food can not be feed to beasts in battle only when not in battle. when you catch a new beast equip a collar and a chain and and view its support techniques and the parameters needed to activate the support tech and its ready to go. side note: there could also be a "tamed" ratio that must be met before it can be used in battle. just another side note: there could also be an evolution process as in once the beast has X amount of experience points you must feed it or do a certain action before they will evolve into a new more powerful beast. once evolved all of techniques it has already learned will become more powerful and it will immediately learn a new technique. each monster will have its own unique set of support techniques all of which have parameters that need to be met in order for the technique to be initiated (a la x successive hits/dodge/damage-taken/monsters defeated in succesion. or only activates when staggered ect). there will be melee specific monsters to capture, magical beats to capture that affect enemies with poison and other status effects (speaking of which i need to make another post regarding status effects in general) and of course powerful mystical beats that were once boss battles (how epic would that be?) that have both support techniques and summon status as well as different effects on the world (a la opening new areas activating special side quests and cut-scenes ect). beast summon status: some beats can be summoned into battle although nullifying their support technique. a summons is more like meeting a set of parameters rather then an ability you can manual initialize such as landing X amount of hits on an enemy and landing 1-3 successful support techniques on the enemy in a chain without getting hit ect ect ect and voila the monster will appear in the battle similar to when the chain breaks although it will still be completely tamed and its AI will be spot on. however there is a danger that the beast might be ko'd in battle although you dont lose it you just need to rehabilitate the beast in the cage by feeding it a special kind of food or something to that effect. in order to activate the summon status you have to have a certain collar equipped and the beast itself must have this innate ability (not all beast will) before you can activate a summon in battle. and thats it for the beast tamer character/2nd play though concept. right now im going to brainstorm additional ideas for new characters that could be unlocked after 2nd playthrough or purchased via DLC and playable only when the main characters arch is completed. i also need to consider status effects and will detail how they will work without any items being able to be used in battle.
status effects will be temporary and most of the effects can be guarded against via equipment, ability, or spirit/beast ability. list of negative status effects: -poison: drains x amount of hp over x amount of secs and goes away -confusion/berserk/sleep: lose control of your character for x amount of secs; getting hit will release your character from the effect. -stoned/frozen will turn your character into stone or ice where movement speed is severely reduced and (when frozen you take constant damage) any hits your character takes when stoned or frozen does massive damage. you have to work your way and break out of the stoning/freeze effect. -burning/fire: your character will take constant damage and you lose control of your character for x amount of secs while he/she is rolling around trying to put out the fire you learn abilities through equipment and as you level up similar to how they work in FF9. but you only have a set amount of ability crystals and have to equip abilities. choose wisely elemental negative status effects will be nullified when you have the opposite elemental spirit or (beast) equipped. the spirit or beast will simply come out and immediately heal you positive status effects will be set via equipment and abilities and also by initiating certain techniques or support techniques that have positive after effects some support techniques might also have negative status effects against your character and depending on the personality of the spirit or level of the beast they will refuse to initiate the technique until you have immunity set against it or do it and project you until it wears off or do it and laugh at you and then run off.
now that the concept of "support techniques" has been established i have to reconsider special/forbidden techniques to incorporate support techniques into the mix. for starters support techniques that play out will not interrupt the combo requirements needed to pull off one of the 4 special/forbidden techniques per say but they may alter the circumstances so that its harder or easier to pull them off while on the subject accidentally doing a sudo in place of a basic/power/strategic technique will also not throw off the combo the only way sudos effect the special/forbidden technique is when its actually required on a side note: the combo requirements will need to be tested and are subject to change nothing is set in stone at this stage. *adding 1 final ultimate technique that is basically the same as the 4th version but requires at least 1 support technique to initialize during the combo. it is more of a sudo version of the actual final move itself then an entirely different one and basically it will be the final move but with an added elemental damage bonus and slightly different animation heres a sample scenario of technique chains with a support technique: *leaving sudos out for now (also you can turn sudo versions off/on in the technique menu) techniques equipped: -2 basic -1 strategic -1 power basic techniques: 1) is a flurry of 3 slashes 2) a simple thrust attack strategic technique: - a backflip that will put distance between you and the enemy power: -demon soul (for lack of a better name) basically character will focus chi into the equipped weapon and force energy into the blade until it starts shining thus creating a catalyst chain reaction that stirs accumulated energy trapped in the blade to coalesce with your characters and is basically released in one swing as a wave of energy that will travel all the way across the battle field. equipped rune: earth rune with earth tomb and earth wall support techniques learned & equipped -earth wall will initiate after being hit 3 times and basically the earth spirit casts a wall in between you and the enemy which will sometimes cacel out their combo as the enemy has to hit the wall 1-2 times to break it before they can hit you. -earth tomb basically encases enemy temporary in an earth tomb trapping them in a shell of earth leaving them completely open for additional attacks (although the damage you inflict will be slightly less then what you would normally inflict) 3 enemies on the field two small gnarly looking wolves and a big wolf that is the battle "mini boss" which is to say if you take out the battles mini boss first some of the other monsters will flee on occasion. start scenario: -the two wolves immediately start running after you while the mini boss in the background starts rearing and pounding the ground giving the wolves stat boosts -you choose to immediately enter attack stance and wait until the wolves come to you -you use your left thumb to target the wolf on the right slide your right thumb up highlighting the basic thrust move and your character thrusts towards the wolf on the right -thinking ahead you immediately switch from thrust to flurry so you character begins doing a flurry of attacks immediately after the thrust -after two attacks on the first wolf the earth spirit comes out to encase the wolf in a tomb and you switch targets to the other wolf right as it leaps in the air to attack you -your timing is a little off so the wolf hits you and cancels the earth tomb and bounces off of you and knocks you back a little bit and the other wolf is already moving towards you to attack -you slide your thumb to highlight the backflip barely dodging the wolf's attack and putting some distance between you and the wolves -your slide your thumb to do another thrust flurry combo on the wolf closet to you -you land 3 hits on the wolf and the earth spirit encases it in an earth tomb -the other wolf attacks you before you can hit the wolf trapped in the earth tomb -in the meantime the chief wolf has started moving towards you -you are hit 3 times and the earth spirit creates a wall to cancel the wolfs combo and the wolf trapped in the tomb is starting to break out -you slide thumb to do a backflip then slide thumb to initiate demon soul -the move barely gets out before you are attacked and does huge damage to all enemies killing one of the wolfs and pushing back the other two -you switch to do a couple backflips release attack stance before your stamina gauge empties and tap on the rune a few times to replenish hp/stamina the enemies recover and start running toward you -you run towards the small wolf a few steps tap and hold attack stance and slide thumb for thrust killing him on impact -you release attack stance and right before the cheif wolf begins an attack tapping on the pop up dodge button and your character rolls to the right switfly dodging the attack -during the roll you tap on attack stance and when the animation of roll finishes your character immediately goes right into attack stance -you slide thumb for a backflip and this point the chief wolf has already turned at you and starts attacking but you have just moved your thumb to thrust so when your character lands after the backflip you immediately thrust to hit the enemy canceling its combo and causing the wolf to stumble back a bit -you go into a flurry and on the 3rd attack you slide your left thumb up and hit the wolf in the air a bit and the earth spirit comes out to cast a earth tomb on the enemy. -you slide your thumb to prepare another demon soul -the earth tomb fades and the chief wolf hits the ground and recovers and begins moving toward you as your characters lifts the demon soul embedded sword in the air as the cheif wolf closes in and lifts its paw up to do a power attack -before the attack connects your character brings the blade down and swings it like a bat unleashing an energy blade wave that connections and hits the enemy at close range doing massive damaging ending the battle -off the victory screen
might need to incorporate a command input confirmation when sliding thumb from one technique to another such as a sound or vibration letting you know that you have switch from one technique to another definitely needs to be tested though and if it turns out to not be an effective input method it wouldnt be too hard to design an alternative
