ZFGC
Projects => Discussion => Topic started by: Koh on April 15, 2015, 04:31:19 pm
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This is mostly a public opinion survey about a game design aspect my game development partner and I have thought would be a great implementation for most of our games.
So, the idea we want to work with is that at the start of the game, the player gets to choose whose perspective they wish to follow of the main characters. In other words, they choose who they want to play as, and only directly control that character through the whole game, as well as experiencing the story from that character's perspective. So this means, for example, when the party members split up for whatever reasons over the course of the game, the player gets to experience what the other characters were up to at that point in time, if they play the game as a different character.
We feel this would add an extra great layer of replayability, as well as giving all the characters a chance to shine in their own right. But I can also see the skepticism some people would have about playing through the whole game again, and experiencing like 70% of the same content again just for the sake of the above. What are your thoughts? This survey will help us think about this design choice more.
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So would this be like in FF7 choosing to play as Tifa instead of Cloud? That could be cool, but what happens if you choose someone like Aeris? Does the game get cut short?
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I could see the worry in that regard, lol. But we wouldn't have you playing as a character that gets shafted somehow before the game comes to a close.
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I love the idea, but you talk about this limitation of replaying the same game over and over. That doesn't have to be the case. You could have it so that the players only meet at small points throughout the game. Give them entirely separate backgrounds and stories. The game would then be about thier path / desires / story until the ending where it comes together. Meaning the game would be 90% different with each character. It could be that when you play as x you only meet character y on a few occasions etc (because the storylines dont cross).
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The one thing I don't want to do is having a select screen pop up so you can experience all the characters point of view at the same point in time. This style of game story telling makes the game feel disconnected to me, because instead of continuously experiencing the plot from someone's perspective, you're jumping all around bits and pieces from different character perspectives, and the flow is destroyed.
But I have read the posts so far, and there are some interesting notions presented. Thanks for the replies so far guys, and to any future ones.
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I like it say if the party only splits of for a little bit in the entire game, then if you get to play through each persons perspective separately for just that one stage in the game. Can't really think of any examples right now, but I have a feeling it happens quite a bit in rpgs. Playing as say ashley for a bit in rs4 also comes to mind. I also loved how the end credits of the skyward sword showed the story through zeldas perspective. Definitely a good thing to think about if it can be done well. The new fire emblem game (if?) too deals with this in quite an extreme way of having you pick one side or the other of two warring nations and playing through the entire game from that side, and having to buy the other game (or get it as dlc for cheaper) if you then want to experience the other, because of how different they two stories actually are., apparently
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I like it say if the party only splits of for a little bit in the entire game, then if you get to play through each persons perspective separately for just that one stage in the game. Can't really think of any examples right now, but I have a feeling it happens quite a bit in rpgs. Playing as say ashley for a bit in rs4 also comes to mind. I also loved how the end credits of the skyward sword showed the story through zeldas perspective. Definitely a good thing to think about if it can be done well. The new fire emblem game (if?) too deals with this in quite an extreme way of having you pick one side or the other of two warring nations and playing through the entire game from that side, and having to buy the other game (or get it as dlc for cheaper) if you then want to experience the other, because of how different they two stories actually are., apparently
Agreed. The game that comes to mind right now is Seiken Densetsu 3. What I liked about it is depending on the character you pick, you go through the story differently, and the end-boss varies for which ever character you play as. As the story continues on with your choice of character, you see how it unfolds, if you didn't play as the other choices, you see how the story is different and or somehow crosses with the characters you didn't pick to begin with.
Chrono Trigger is another example, the end-game is the same, however, you can choose to go through the story how you want, with or without certain characters, or progressing in the game differently, which results in different endings.
I myself wish more games go about this path. Games that offer choice is a plus lol, you can go about it differently than the next guy, and the end-result varies for anyone who plays the game, mainly if the game has multiple endings that are good or bad (game overs).