Own
Moderator
So I was playing Epic Battle Fantasy 4 and I noticed it did something that a few other RPGs I've seen have done. Added a special area that somewhat breaks the rules of the game. It's a completely optional area where enemies are always level and stat-adjusted to be on par with you, meaning it's a tough but fair fight whether you're level 1 or 99.
And I thought, well, something vaguely like that might be interesting for Story Mode.
The Stomping Lands / Grindhalla: An area of illusions that exists half within the realm of Grindea and half within the mind of Collectors themselves. Collectors who want to prove themselves go in, finding themselves surrounded by foes they've slain in the past lurking around every corner. These phantoms award no experience, but the area itself holds many treasures that no other Collector has claimed before - probably because most who have entered never returned, lost to wander it's halls forever. The more you have explored within Grindea, the deeper you can venture into this realm of challenge.
Design:
- Enemies are put at the level of the highest leveled player, gaining stats to be a fair match, similar to Arcade Mode. Even a lowly Rabby can be as fearsome as a Yeti, if treated lightly.
- Any enemy that has been unlocked in the Bestiary can spawn within the rooms here from the enemy pool, allowing for unlikely combinations. Wisp+Empowered Ice Knight+Helloweed+two Boar? Sure.
- Enemies award no EXP, to prevent an endless feedback loop of killing enemies at your level, getting tons of EXP, leveling up, leveling up the enemies and on and on to level 99. Also so players doing low level runs can go through the area without having a bunch of levels forced onto them. Maybe enemies can drop cards / items, though? Or have a higher chance of dropping cards / items?
- Enemies have a much greater chance to spawn as Elites, or always spawn as Elites? No junk mobs here.
- Given the theme of illusions, each screen is a large area styled after a specific area from the game. You start off in the Pillar Mountains, across bridges and into caves. The next large area Evergrind Forests, a maze-like area with many dead ends, some of which have chests. Pumpkin Woods beyond that, which has many clusters of groves dotted throughout it that can only be accessed by walking through the trees - like the chest to the Blindfold. The Flying Fortress beyond that would require solving a much more complex Mirror Phasing puzzle to solve than was in FF in order to enter it, requiring you to actually have it to enter here. Maybe you teleport throughout many, many different floating islands spread out farall over the place, trying to find the correct sequence of islands that will lead you to Seasonne. Finally Season Temple, requiring solving a complicated puzzle using all three season orbs in to enter inside of it, or season orbs spread out all across the area requiring hitting to unblock different paths to find the true exit.
- You can't teleport out of this area. Nor can you proceed to the next area if there's an enemy aggro'd onto you, but you can retreat.
- Dying here has consequence. You lose EXP? Or gold? Or maybe your game stops auto-saving, it resumes saving when you get back to the exit and leave. No making a dash for the chests and kamikazing. If you die, RIP earned loot/cards/progress. That might be too punishing, though.
- Minibosses have a rare, rare chance of spawning? Elder Rabbys, Bossling, Block, etc.
This would probably require entirely too much coding time for an optional area that gets harder and expands the further you get into the game, but it's a nice thought.
And I thought, well, something vaguely like that might be interesting for Story Mode.
The Stomping Lands / Grindhalla: An area of illusions that exists half within the realm of Grindea and half within the mind of Collectors themselves. Collectors who want to prove themselves go in, finding themselves surrounded by foes they've slain in the past lurking around every corner. These phantoms award no experience, but the area itself holds many treasures that no other Collector has claimed before - probably because most who have entered never returned, lost to wander it's halls forever. The more you have explored within Grindea, the deeper you can venture into this realm of challenge.
Design:
- Enemies are put at the level of the highest leveled player, gaining stats to be a fair match, similar to Arcade Mode. Even a lowly Rabby can be as fearsome as a Yeti, if treated lightly.
- Any enemy that has been unlocked in the Bestiary can spawn within the rooms here from the enemy pool, allowing for unlikely combinations. Wisp+Empowered Ice Knight+Helloweed+two Boar? Sure.
- Enemies award no EXP, to prevent an endless feedback loop of killing enemies at your level, getting tons of EXP, leveling up, leveling up the enemies and on and on to level 99. Also so players doing low level runs can go through the area without having a bunch of levels forced onto them. Maybe enemies can drop cards / items, though? Or have a higher chance of dropping cards / items?
- Enemies have a much greater chance to spawn as Elites, or always spawn as Elites? No junk mobs here.
- Given the theme of illusions, each screen is a large area styled after a specific area from the game. You start off in the Pillar Mountains, across bridges and into caves. The next large area Evergrind Forests, a maze-like area with many dead ends, some of which have chests. Pumpkin Woods beyond that, which has many clusters of groves dotted throughout it that can only be accessed by walking through the trees - like the chest to the Blindfold. The Flying Fortress beyond that would require solving a much more complex Mirror Phasing puzzle to solve than was in FF in order to enter it, requiring you to actually have it to enter here. Maybe you teleport throughout many, many different floating islands spread out farall over the place, trying to find the correct sequence of islands that will lead you to Seasonne. Finally Season Temple, requiring solving a complicated puzzle using all three season orbs in to enter inside of it, or season orbs spread out all across the area requiring hitting to unblock different paths to find the true exit.
- You can't teleport out of this area. Nor can you proceed to the next area if there's an enemy aggro'd onto you, but you can retreat.
- Dying here has consequence. You lose EXP? Or gold? Or maybe your game stops auto-saving, it resumes saving when you get back to the exit and leave. No making a dash for the chests and kamikazing.
If you die, RIP earned loot/cards/progress. That might be too punishing, though.- Minibosses have a rare, rare chance of spawning? Elder Rabbys, Bossling, Block, etc.
This would probably require entirely too much coding time for an optional area that gets harder and expands the further you get into the game, but it's a nice thought.