I'm sure you've seen this before: Spikyhair Shinysmile, teenaged amnesiac of few words but prodigious fighting skill, sets out to discover his past and along the way gathers a band of oddball companions and uncovers a heinous plot to recover some artifact of the lost golden age and foil it to save the world, possibly bringing a return of the golden age along the way or at least preventing whatever caused it to fall from happening again.
Of course you have. It's the story of at least 80% of every RPG video game ever made.
My question is how to put together a plot line to not merely avoid this tried and true and horribly overdone formula, but subvert and perhaps mock it a bit as well, without descending into twee or complete sociopathy.
My initial idea is to have the protagonist begin as the local Super-Emperor of Everything but everyone else has lost their memory, and therefore everything is falling apart, let alone anyone recognizing your authoritah. I'm divided over whether there should be a semi-standard system of character upgrades framed as brushing the rust off your personal skills now that there aren't legions of soldiers to obey your every whim, or if character generation should end with abilities and skills and super final attack sure-kill secret moves mostly in the state they'll be throughout, aside from equipment upgrades and so on. Probably a blend would be best there, but the right balance point would be critical.
Finding and dealing with the cause of the problem is the end of tutorial mode, or at most the first chapter, but there is no reset button involved; the rest of the game is... I dunno. Getting people's skills and purpose restored to keep the infrastructure lashed together enough that the world doesn't go completely post-apocalypse-grimderp? Build your armies anew and reconquer the setting with the help of various super-weapons only the MC remembers how to use? Something less widespread, basically becoming the bandit-king of a city state to maintain your own standard of living (and incidentally that of your immediate followers) and watch the world beyond the reach of your hands burn?
Is it actually necessary to send the player out to do hero stuff in order to have gameplay value? I'm not seeing a whole lot of options that actually sound engaging, and cliches become cliches because they resonate with people over and over; Tropes Are Not Bad and so on.
Of course you have. It's the story of at least 80% of every RPG video game ever made.
My question is how to put together a plot line to not merely avoid this tried and true and horribly overdone formula, but subvert and perhaps mock it a bit as well, without descending into twee or complete sociopathy.
My initial idea is to have the protagonist begin as the local Super-Emperor of Everything but everyone else has lost their memory, and therefore everything is falling apart, let alone anyone recognizing your authoritah. I'm divided over whether there should be a semi-standard system of character upgrades framed as brushing the rust off your personal skills now that there aren't legions of soldiers to obey your every whim, or if character generation should end with abilities and skills and super final attack sure-kill secret moves mostly in the state they'll be throughout, aside from equipment upgrades and so on. Probably a blend would be best there, but the right balance point would be critical.
Finding and dealing with the cause of the problem is the end of tutorial mode, or at most the first chapter, but there is no reset button involved; the rest of the game is... I dunno. Getting people's skills and purpose restored to keep the infrastructure lashed together enough that the world doesn't go completely post-apocalypse-grimderp? Build your armies anew and reconquer the setting with the help of various super-weapons only the MC remembers how to use? Something less widespread, basically becoming the bandit-king of a city state to maintain your own standard of living (and incidentally that of your immediate followers) and watch the world beyond the reach of your hands burn?
Is it actually necessary to send the player out to do hero stuff in order to have gameplay value? I'm not seeing a whole lot of options that actually sound engaging, and cliches become cliches because they resonate with people over and over; Tropes Are Not Bad and so on.
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‎noli esse culus
‎noli esse culus
