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IF We Got a Sequel....


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Pretend that Nintendo is willing to make a followup to TMS, ignoring that the first wasn't that profitable. What would you want from it? 

 

My desires:

The franchise is big enough at this point that I think they might be best picking three games to represent via Mirages- one Japanocentric, one Internationalist, and one that is recent. Unless 3-6 are internationalized by that point, then two games will work.

Setting: Keep it in the same human world as TMS at about the same, set at about the same time, maybe a few years before or after. The location however would be outside of Tokyo- either somewhere else in Japan, or aboard in Europe or North America. Japanese male foreign exchange student to serve as the rather quiet MC works for me if they just have to do that. The Mirage world that invades the human world this time is different though. I was thinking Jugdral-Fates for a European setting, and Elibe-Tellius for a USA set game, but this could very easily change as new games get released.

Keep the focus on the arts, the popular entertainment industry is fine, but they can add the other arts as well if they want. And they can keep the plot rather lighthearted, but do cut down on the bit of meaninglessness that happens after Chapter 1 of TMS until Yashiro joins post C4 and the plot starts going places again. Perhaps make all or some of the dungeons a blend of the real world location and an FE country. So you have a shopping mall with the sands and oases of Nabata inside it.

Do keep that TMS style and flair- that is essential to the spirit of the game, and I rarely say that of aesthetics in JRPGs.

 

Gameplay:

The size of the Cast in battles can be kept to 3, and the turn-free character swapping midbattle is also very good. However, do not lock the Lord/MC character into every single battle, that was annoying and limiting when I could only field three characters in the first place.

For playable characters, 7 works well in gameplay and for narrative's sake, but they need to be spiced up a little more. We could benefit from a dedicated supporter based on the Singer/Dancer FE classes. A playable dragonstone user would be nice. And if Tellius was one of the repped games, well I would want a Beast/Bird Laguz Mirage! I could see up to 9 PCs, but they can stop there, any more is too much. Atlus knows how to make balanced large casts of playables- well their Etrian Odyssey department does.

Include the ability to accelerate/cut to the damage dealt on Sessions- that'd be a great quality of life improvement.

Make it so Spirit and Body Skills that deal damage can trigger Sessions so they're better elements to use. Lullaby Song will not trigger a Session, which would end the Sleep inflicted, because it doesn't deal damage. 

On that, Duo Arts could keep their randomness, or they could get their own SP-like gauge for more consistency. Or, Duo Arts become a type of Special Performance, and some then become usable outside of a Session, while some are usable only during a Session. Some Special Performances would then become capable of being used only during a Session- basically collapsing the two concepts into one with the difference being how many characters are involved, an SP is a solo, a Duo Art (or even Trio Art) is more than one person involved. To compensate, SP becomes easier to generate to be able to use them more, with a balancing nerf to Duo Art power.

Maybe make it so certain class changes alter the class attributes of the character? Like for a Seliph Mirage, you have the choice between Knight Lord, which makes him a Horse unit, gains more Str and Def, Lance techniques only usable as a Knight Lord, and loses the Lance weakness in exchange for gaining a second elemental weakness. Or, you can go "Crusader Lord", which gives more Magic, Res, and Spirit/Almighty techniques (the idea being based on Seliph's Minor Naga Blood), and which keeps Seliph as an Infantry unit. A hypothetical Altena could be able to class change to Wyvern Lord or to the Horse-riding Duchess Knight. Not all characters need class-attributes to alter with one of their class changes, but it would make representing all FE unit types a little easier and more plentifully.

Some games do this, although not many I play, and it could complicate things too much, but maybe add a gird to battles? Or if not a gird, hexes or circles? Just to make positioning matter, since FE is a Strategy RPG.

Play around with what classes get what weapons. Although it can largely be fixed for the player to maintain consistent weakness on everyone, consider making enemy Mirages capable of coming in Armor Axe or Armor Lance, instead of always giving Itsuki and Yashiro an advantage on Armor units. 

Edited by Interdimensional Observer
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The idea I had was for it to kind of work like P1/2 Personas:

Every character has three Mirages: One to start with, and two more they gain through plot/sidequests, and they can change Mirages once per turn/at will.

For example, if we're going with Elibe/Tellius, the MC (let's call him... Yamato) has Ike for his starting Mirage, then, after some plot developments, he also gets... Percival as a secondary, and then... Pent as a tertiary.

The best friend (Touma analogue) could get Wolt, then Oscar, and finally Nolan.

You get the point.

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If we got a sequel then I'd be seriously considering that the execs at IS/Atlus have a combination of some sort of psychosis and being thoroughly out of touch with their fanbases.

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8 hours ago, Kysafen said:

If we got a sequel then I'd be seriously considering that the execs at IS/Atlus have a combination of some sort of psychosis and being thoroughly out of touch with their fanbases.

What do you mean?

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I'd like if characters could share carnage based on weapon type and equip multiple different weapon types ala Fire Emblem. Would make the promotions feel more unique too.

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I wouldn't mind if the sequel features other kinds of music industry for the sequel. Either a classical music/opera/ballet scene for a European setting (say Berlin, Paris, or Rome) or jazz/musical for an American one (say New York City). Ayaha Oribe could come back for the former, as she was a part-idol/part-opera singer, while Barry Goodman reprises in the latter, and be revealed to be the fictional grandson of Benny Goodman. Actually, in the latter's case, some of the more jazz-influenced music from Persona 3-5 (eg the jazz arrangement of Like a Dream Come True from P4D) could also return as Easter eggs too. 

Edited by henrymidfields
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  • 4 weeks later...

For the plot, actually put some Fire Emblem stuff in there...

For the gameplay, given the RPG nature of the game limiting the cast to around half a dozen, I actually think reclassing could work really well for it. And not like the promotion system they had before, actual reclassing where each character has around three classes they can fight as. Not necessarily exclusive classses either. We could have two pegasus knights or cavaliers (although everyone's story default class should probably be different). Assuming a cast of seven and two alternate class options, that would give us 21 different characters to use in terms of gameplay which would spice things up much more (we didn't even get any Fighters, Clerics or Wyvern Knights in TMS, not to mention interesting stuff like Dancers and Manaketes). Especially if you can change classes during combat, Final Fantasy X-2 style. An on that subject of changing things, let the main character switch out. That was the one real blemish on what was otherwise a fantastic gameplay system the game had. 

I think sharing the weapon pool instead of giving everyone unique weapons would work well too. Skills are learned from weapons, so getting a new weapon with a really good skill would make a competitive item for you cast. Should I teach my lord this great new wind spell, or my myrmidon? Of course maybe for the sake of consistency in skill sets, some skills should be locked out of some classes. Okay, I'm basically saying make the weapon/skill system be Final Fantasy IX, which it basically is already aside from all characters having unique weapons. I'd also like it if characters had multiple weapon types, like the cavalier could equip swords and lances like in OG Fire Emblem. It would make each unit more varied at would give much more control over game flow given how important the weapon triangle is.

Edited by Jotari
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On 16/7/2018 at 7:38 AM, Jotari said:

For the plot, actually put some Fire Emblem stuff in there...

For the gameplay, given the RPG nature of the game limiting the cast to around half a dozen, I actually think reclassing could work really well for it. And not like the promotion system they had before, actual reclassing where each character has around three classes they can fight as. Not necessarily exclusive classses either. We could have two pegasus knights or cavaliers (although everyone's story default class should probably be different). Assuming a cast of seven and two alternate class options, that would give us 21 different characters to use in terms of gameplay which would spice things up much more (we didn't even get any Fighters, Clerics or Wyvern Knights in TMS, not to mention interesting stuff like Dancers and Manaketes). Especially if you can change classes during combat, Final Fantasy X-2 style. An on that subject of changing things, let the main character switch out. That was the one real blemish on what was otherwise a fantastic gameplay system the game had. 

I think sharing the weapon pool instead of giving everyone unique weapons would work well too. Skills are learned from weapons, so getting a new weapon with a really good skill would make a competitive item for you cast. Should I teach my lord this great new wind spell, or my myrmidon? Of course maybe for the sake of consistency in skill sets, some skills should be locked out of some classes. Okay, I'm basically saying make the weapon/skill system be Final Fantasy IX, which it basically is already aside from all characters having unique weapons. I'd also like it if characters had multiple weapon types, like the cavalier could equip swords and lances like in OG Fire Emblem. It would make each unit more varied at would give much more control over game flow given how important the weapon triangle is.

For a game about performing arts, not getting a mirage based on FE dancer was a massive mixed oportunity, the agent lady could have been the dancer or Tsubasa herself even.

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