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Child of Light - more battle mechanics, writer discusses trying to create something new
The following comes from a Polygon interview with game writer Jeffrey Yohalem...
- combat system is based largely on that of Grandia 2
- sneak up on enemies in order to gain an advantage in battle
- dropping in on them from above or behind will let Aurora attack first
- battle takes place on several raised platforms
- these were inspired by the designs of opera sets
- bottom of the screen shows a bar that tracks the amount of time between each combatant's attack
- small pictures of each combatant will move along the bar as they prepare to attack
- at the end of the bar is a smaller bar colored red
- characters that are attacked while their picture is in the red zone will have their attack "interrupted"
- this resets the charging time
- script dialogue is structured like an epic ballad, with every second and fourth line rhyming
"Battles are based on cleverness, not dexterity — they require a lot of logic and strategy. You win fights and earn rewards based on cleverness. We wanted to create something minimalistic that would welcome new [JRPG] players in. We wanted to show people how we felt with the games we had growing up, and we feel there's an audience out there who has never played a game like this. Then there are people who miss games like this. We wanted to create a deep, passionate story and world that would welcome new players to this type of game.
Video games are still in their infancy, so this might not prove true on the future, but I feel gameplay evolves through society, not an individual. I think it's difficult for an individual to create a fun game, let's say — it's something that evolves organically over centuries, like chess. It takes time to develop these rules, and I think we have a toolbox of mechanics that we know are fun and interesting and as designers we play with those mechanics.
If you go off and create something that doesn't build on that any of those, it's difficult to create something that people enjoy playing. It's great to create something from nowhere, but most of the time you make that thing and then players go, 'We like what you're trying to do but we'll stop after five minutes.' We know here we have something people miss and that people love. We can build on it."
Link
- combat system is based largely on that of Grandia 2
- sneak up on enemies in order to gain an advantage in battle
- dropping in on them from above or behind will let Aurora attack first
- battle takes place on several raised platforms
- these were inspired by the designs of opera sets
- bottom of the screen shows a bar that tracks the amount of time between each combatant's attack
- small pictures of each combatant will move along the bar as they prepare to attack
- at the end of the bar is a smaller bar colored red
- characters that are attacked while their picture is in the red zone will have their attack "interrupted"
- this resets the charging time
- script dialogue is structured like an epic ballad, with every second and fourth line rhyming
"Battles are based on cleverness, not dexterity — they require a lot of logic and strategy. You win fights and earn rewards based on cleverness. We wanted to create something minimalistic that would welcome new [JRPG] players in. We wanted to show people how we felt with the games we had growing up, and we feel there's an audience out there who has never played a game like this. Then there are people who miss games like this. We wanted to create a deep, passionate story and world that would welcome new players to this type of game.
Video games are still in their infancy, so this might not prove true on the future, but I feel gameplay evolves through society, not an individual. I think it's difficult for an individual to create a fun game, let's say — it's something that evolves organically over centuries, like chess. It takes time to develop these rules, and I think we have a toolbox of mechanics that we know are fun and interesting and as designers we play with those mechanics.
If you go off and create something that doesn't build on that any of those, it's difficult to create something that people enjoy playing. It's great to create something from nowhere, but most of the time you make that thing and then players go, 'We like what you're trying to do but we'll stop after five minutes.' We know here we have something people miss and that people love. We can build on it."
Link