Well I was first introduced to Roguelikes when I played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (yes, Pokemon). I've been scanning through the thread and this game looks amazing! The trading system sounds intriguing; being able to share items with your friends to help them out. In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, upon completing a dungeon / completing a mission, you return to the overworld and you keep the items you've obtained. I quickly downloaded a Rogue port and played it and it seems there isn't this added overworld and the game is just the dungeon. Will Spirit Hunter Mineko have this overworld where you can bring items from previous dungeons into newer dungeons (where the trade system comes into play)? Anyways, definitely a day one purchase for me.
I'm looking forwards to this game. My suggestion: Make permadeath a choice every game, and have seperate online scoreboards for permadeath and otherwise games (or just have scoreboards for permadeath games and no other type). For me, most of the fun of a roguelike isn't about trying to complete the task it sets out, but how far I get and what I accomplish. In other words... A roguelike is played in most cases as an RPG for a high score (with an overarching goal that is difficult to achieve). Some of the best experiences with roguelikes I've had were in ignoring the established goal and just exploring the "wilderness". Dwarf Fortress's adventurer mode has no established goal at all, and the persistent nature of the randomly generated world it provides is awe inspiring in it's preserved details. I once cleared a cave out of kobolds, only to come back 2 in game weeks later in the game's winter season to find that the kobold chunks and blood were still there, rotting away. a month later the bones were still there and the bloodstains were still there. All this was visible using the look command. The cave's length was splattered with red letters, dots, and symbols along it's gray walls.
Exactamente! This is what I'm hoping this game's post story dungeon will be. I hope one of these post story dungeons will NOT ALLOW the player to bring in any items (other than some default food ration or a real basic survival item like a healing potion). Not just because I want the insane difficulty but because, just as Link sort of hinted at, I want to play a game where everybody is starting on a completely even level and that your survival, beyond buckets of luck, is based on your skills and not simply what kind of gear you were able to hobble together from previous runs. I hated this aspect in Shiren with many of those post story dungeons as you were EXPECTED to be pre-equipped up to the hilt before you entered. There might still be some sort of post story dungeon for the item buffing/equipment hoarding to have some ultimate challenge with the game's best gear...I'd still prefer more cases of where I need to hobble stuff together from what I could gather on my current run with nothing but what I find or beg/borrow/steal from the dungeon shops. I think beyond the tedium of gearing up for these dungeons, a lot of the early gameplay feels so rote without the normal fear (okay, these guys can't touch me, time to eat my first food ration, etc.).
Seconded. After I completed Pokemon Mystery Dungeon I only played the Zero Isle Dungeons (equivalent of this post-game dungeon), where you couldn't bring in items, and you were put back to level 1.
Those were my favorite dungeons in the PMD games as well although, grrr, while I give Chunsoft all sorts of credit for cleverly melding the two game systems so it could both be following the basic tenants of the Pokemon and Mystery Dungeon series of games, I think there were many instances where these two worlds just didn't mesh well. Like in these post story dungeons, while the game eventually allows you to bring in any of the game's characters, so many of the pokemon don't really hit their stride until the 20th-30th levels which renders them pretty useless in these post story dungeons where they had to start from scratch.
I used to love that game! It introduced me to rogue-likes too. I agree about the overworld area adding personality to the game (Who am I kidding, I loved the whole game to pieces). I'm not sure if it will work with the storyline here though, but it would be really cool. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and the Shiren games remain some of my favorite rogue-likes.
Wow, sorry I haven't had a lot of time to catch up this thread in the past several days! Short burst mode: Second update to Rogue Touch in the past ten days (actually 3rd if you count the mistake made in v1.51) is nearly ready for submission with all kinds of iOS 4 and iPhone 4 enhancements, and a new potion type that you can form a love-hate relationship with. Been having some interesting offline discussions with people about Spirit Hunter Mineko and "motivators" other than food- as you know we're abandoning the cliched "eat to live" of most roguelikes here. Instead there are many, more subtle layers to motivation here- like an onion (or an ogre? ). Despite all that, you will still be free to ignore all common sense if desired. Mineko can be played in many ways! I'm enjoying the discussion on post-game activity you are having quite a lot, and have some things to add... will be returning later this evening to do so!
Wow I sure am ignorant, never knew that Mystery Dungeon was a roguelike...well it was pretty fun so it makes me more excited for this!
I think it would be neat if each dungeon has it's own dungeon specific motivator, along with other ideas integrated into the gameplay to keep you moving. Something like your idea to beat sundown in the forest as an example--if you don't go quick enough through the forest areas, day turns to night and all monsters take on a nocturnal/shadow trait where they suddenly give out only 1 experience! Or at night a new monster comes out that is very difficult to kill and begins to stalk you and swarm you if you aren't careful. You should also put in an achievment or badge system on the leaderboards, so if certain requirements are filled when you finish the game you are given a badge. If your most killed monster was bunnies, you get the bunny killer badge. If you spend lot's of time going slow and grinding, you get a sloth badge. If you beat the game without using stored equipment, a clean run, you get a special badge. Stuff like that. Basically I think a complex variety of motivators would be really ideal. Give us carots, onions, and maybe small sticks.
How about a minotaur that follows you after a certain time? Roguelikes often have a slightly maze-like feel, so a minotaur chasing you through the level might fit really well! You could even make a seemingly useless item called "twine" which does only one damage when thrown at a normal monster, but when thrown at the minotaur it stuns him, giving you time to escape. (This plays off the myth of Theseus, an ancient Greek hero who uses a trail of twine he left behind to escape the minotaur's maze after defeating it.)
I'm still hoping it'll be a Mystic Musk Ox. And it's the Mystic Musk Ox Musk that makes you immune to it!
A musk ox/minotaur hybrid(muskinotaur?) would actually be ridiculously awesome! Anyone played the Sly Cooper games at any point? Search "Jean Bison" in Google Images.
That would definitely put this game at the top of my list! Maybe a beastmaster hat or magical whip that gives you an x% chance of recruiting a monster after defeating it? Depending on the monster the percentage would be different. Also depending on the monster would be whether you could ride it, it could heal you, or even provide ranged support. After a (floor, dungeon, set amount of time) the monster would then escape. Reusable mounts could be included too!
y not oo that's awesome idea N. Cabot, reminds me of Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis but maybe not kill it but weaken then "capture" kind of like pokemon, makes taming monsters harder
