[Discussion] Demo Plot Summaries

Here is what I like about everyone's summary (excluding my own because NO BIAS)

Anyways, one thing I saw consistent with almost all of our summaries is that the companion character is not a Mars adept, but a Jupiter adept. Veldarin even considered adding a utility psynergy using wind to cut things. I feel like this is a change that should be kept as it would make things extremely interesting. Another similarity that almost all of us have is having an introduction to the villain. I think that will be a good note to end off as it gives the player a cliffhanger.

Now onto specific things. PK's and Kainomad's scenarios (Kainomad's is not posted, so Here is the link to his) are the only ones where the characters "awaken" to their psynergy instead of having it beforehand. While this is a good idea, gaining powerful psynergy (in this case, psynergies equivalent) is something normally obtained through study and training instead of it coming naturally. This is something we'll have to decide, just note I am not way too heavily in favor, at least not that the beginning of the game. Perhaps this could come up later?

Capy's scenario involves a group of organized adepts. almost like a military force. Again, interesting idea, but I don't think that the "Radiant Vanguard" as he named it should be something right off the bat. Instead, I think the Radiant Vanguard could consist of the playable characters that the protagonist gets along the way, that way their force grows larger to combat the Crecent Company Antagonist. Speaking of, I like how the Antagonists are an organized group of many instead of 2-4 people. I think there could be potential there.

I do like Awec's idea for souls as they could be a possible replacement for Djinn. But because of that, I think we should hold off of having the players gain access to them, let alone a lot of them.

There also should be a boss at the end of the dungeon.

Now the biggest difference: Whether the Demo is a trial placed by the village, a tragedy placed by the villain, or an accidental discovery made by the protags. We are all kind of split on this decision but here's my thoughts.

A village trial/festival type thing should happen. Whether the characters know each other very well or not will be up for voting (I personally think not, because it'll make things more interesting).

An accidental discovery could happen, but we'd have to work it in somehow. Maybe something unexpected happened during the trial (Zeph's summary is kind of like this, so I am for that)

The villain doing their dirty work should not happen, at least not at the beginning of the demo. This is because I feel like the villains being shown at the end or near the end will leave a sense of suspense. Who are they? What are their plans? That sort of thing.


Overall, I think we should include Jupiter adept partner, introduce the villain (by any means) at or near the end, Boss at the end of the dungeon, Dungeon should be part of a trial, something unexpected should happen at the end of the trial, psynergies should be pre-learned, I really like the souls replacement as a replacement Djinn but hold off of giving them to player.

if there is anything else I missed from any of you summaries let me know. Sometimes that happens, as much as I hate to admit it...

okay i just read through everything so here are my thoughts on each individual scenario:

zeldafan

i like the name lior as a possible name. sounds cool and i appreciate the light based entomology. i also really like the idea of incorporating summons into the story. the summons you get from djinn in golden sun are just kinda there so it would be interesting to see them honored by the people or spoken about in some way during the game. i like the idea of teasing the villains. i can imagine the player getting to speak with them near the end of the demo or run into them. revealing them but only in a small part would be great for creating some tension and suspense.

fatalzeph

i really enjoyed your idea of introducing someone who isnt native to the town. i also liked the idea of having the two partners meet in the demo rather than be friends beforehand. it allows for less stilted dialogue such as them introducing themselves to the player naturally and we would see their relationship grow throughout the game rather than having missed them grow up together. i also think theres the potential for world building by having the character talk about their hometown a bit or other places theyve been since they have only just arrived in the village the demo takes place in. another idea i loved was the idea of combining psynergy. it could lead to more advanced and interesting puzzles down the road where the team would need to work together and it also gave me the idea for team attacks in battles. there isnt really something like that in golden sun so it would be very neat to see the team combine their strength in battle and unleash new attacks together than rely solely on djinn. im not too big on having the team wipe at the end of the demo but it could be worked in.

capy

i like the name tristan as a possible name. i also loved the idea of having a league of adepts that band together and act as guards or something similar. it might be a bit much to cram into the demo but it would be a good idea for the full game. it could work as a world building technique. being able to see other adepts that arent the main villains or the party work together and use their powers would be excellent. i also liked the idea of using a local town legend or rumor as the basis for the trial or ritual as it would give the chance to squeeze a bit of lore in. i also loved the name elementals for the djinn equivalent and the lore you provided for them. we could work with that and create something pretty great. lastly i liked the idea of an organized group of people as the villain as it has always been a small band of people in golden sun. it would be interesting to see a small group of adventurers stand up to a powerful organization and it would always be a threat looming over their heads.

awec

loved your lighthouse equivalent. i was also thinking of hotspots of psynergy but ultimately went with volcanoes as i felt they would have a strong tie to the world and the lore. it also gives me slight earthbound vibes. i can see the party travelling to different powerspots in the world and boosting themselves/ learning new techniques or psynergy at each one. it also reminds me of travelling to different temples in final fantasy x to gain new summons and solve puzzles. the idea of esprits is great too. i like the idea of very powerful adepts or beings leaving behind essences of themselves after death as it would be used as a storytelling point. the heroes finding the esprits of powerful, ancient adepts and gaining knowledge as well as their power. it also gave me the idea of the bosses in the game leaving behind something after being defeated that the party can use to power themselves up. like a giant fire dragon leaving its esprit behind and the mars adept using it amp his psynergy or learn a new attack like a fire spray. lots of potential in that idea and it would be nice to see the party growing stronger with each victory. i also liked the idea of allowing the player to experiment with classes early by giving them 1 or 2 djinns/ elementals/ esprits in the demo. that way they could change the psynergy they have available and test out the summon mechanic etc. it might make the random encounters in the first dungeon more interesting by allowing them to experiment right off the bat.

veldarin

i think the idea of a female protagonist is great and i agree with capy that we could think about adding a gender option in. i also liked the idea of travelling to the first village in order to participate in the trial/ ritual as it would give players a sneak peak of the overworld of the game and create interest in the world. overworld might be a bit much to develop for the demo but we could just work on a small section around the first village if we go with this route. i also think fist combat is interesting. we could go dark dawns route and have a lot of different weapon classes with skills and such and the party might be able to wield different weapons depending on their class. this might be hard to implement however because class changes based on the djinn equipped and lets say the main character is a warrior who wields swords but puts some djinn on to become a mage and then wields staves. if he were to use those djinn in battle he would lose his class and revert to a warrior but be stuck with a staff which warriors cant wield. it would definitely take some work but this is an interesting idea for sure.

pkwater

i liked the idea that one or more of the party members arent adepts. it would be interesting to see how they kept up with the rest of the party and it reminds me of lloyd or jeff from earthbound. being able to use other means to make up for not being an adept. this could be a bad thing tho as it would limit djinn and spells. i dont think non adepts can use djinn so it would mean less in the game and there would be no spells for the party member to use. class could be changed with items and they could make use of various gadgets and such. its a risky idea but i dont think it should be discounted because of that.

carthus

i liked the idea of awakening ancient powers. it gives me a kind of mother 3 vibe as its similar to going around and pulling needles to unlock power. its a fun idea and we could build on top of it and it gives us plenty of room for lore.

kainomad

i liked the idea of an icelandic locale for the first village. similar to imil in golden sun. i also thought playing with the idea of monsters that can pass powers onto the party would be fun and make for some interesting scenarios.

thats it for the scenarios but some overall thoughts i had were:

an interesting locale for the main village. instead of being a normal village we could come up with something more unique to separate it from other rpgs or villages in the game. i had the idea of the village being built into the side of a mountain for example. playing with different ideas could affect the way the story is told. we could have it start out in a floating village similar to skyloft from skyward sword for example. tons of potential for the locale. zeph's idea of having a partner from a different town got me thinking about having the demo take place in a town that isnt the main character's hometown. all of the suggestions up to this point have involved some ritual or trial taking place in the main character's hometown but i think it would be interesting to start in some other town. the main character couldve traveled there to participate in the trial there. it would allow the player to familiarize themselves with the town along with the ingame character, meeting new people, seeing new things, etc. it would also add a layer of mystery to our main character as the player would not know where he/she came from. the town could be talked about in the demo to create interest in it which would make it fun for the player to explore in the full game, learning the complete origins of the character and seeing where they came from. its a way to change up the trial formula and make it slightly more interesting. this idea also alludes to the game taking place in a larger world and gets the players thinking about other places/ locales. finally i think weve all pretty much unanimously agreed that its more interesting to use element combinations that arent venus/mars for the starting duo. i am fond of this idea and im leaning toward mercury/ jupiter for either of the two. it would also be very interesting if we decided to take zeph's idea of combing synergy. i can see a puzzle where maybe they need to work together conjure up a storm with their wind, water powers. it would also make for a fun team attack if we decided to implement those. those are my complete thoughts for now tho. lemme know what you guys think and if you have anything to add im all ears.

I like the idea of fighting other adepts in the trial. We could mix those encounters in with regular enemy encounters. That would make the fights a lot more interesting because you'd be dealing with enemy psynergy. I do think deciding on a main villian concept should happen soon as well.

I don't think making psynergy common is a good idea. It takes a feeling of being powerful and special away. When everyone is super, no one is, and all that stuff.
Fighting other adepts would be good, but not as common enemies, in my opinion.

You mean like my Necromancer idea?  :D