This battle system. Options

[Reshiram//Exe]

So, after looking over my ideas, I've gone from people in mechs, to people hunting demons with swords, to people with the basic equvilent of lightsabers. My mind is a dangerous thing indeed.

Anyway, so I decided to ask for critique on this battle system idea.

I should give a brief summary of the plot so it makes sense. A group of people learn/are born with the ability to use their soul as a weapon blah blah. Only others with the ability to use such a thing can see them, although everyone technicially has the ability to use it, they don't know how. In order to use it the character has to focus their mind only on fighting. That should be enough, and that sounds really cliche and boring, I know.

You have HP(which is your health, duh ) and Mind Strength, which is how much the character is focused. It's also used for special skills. At the start of each battle, it starts at a threshold of 10, and goes up to a Max of 999. The higher your Mind Strength, the more damage your attacks do, I havn't decided yet how this will work, maybe increase base damage by a percentage or something. Attacking with anything but a standard attack will reduce your Mind Strength, but you will lose HP for using regular attacks. During the start of each character's turn, they gain MP/Mind strength based on a stat. Obviously, then there are skills, which drain your mind strength, but deal more damage than Standard attacks whilst not deducting your HP. You can also choose to 'Pour' your soul into your weapon which for a limited number of turns your Mind Strength will be set to 1000, however you cannot use skills during this time, and when it runs out your character will be unable to act for several turns.

Should your Mind Strength reach 0, be it through spending more than you have avaliable on a skill, being comboed(which I will explain later) by an enemy or just running out somehow, you will lose your concentration and lose your next turn. If your HP reaches 0, you will faint/die/combust/be knocked out whatever you want to call it. If you are revived by a skill, your mind strength will start again at the base of 10.

And combos, there are 3 types: Duo, Trio and full party. Should be obvious. Whilst combos don't take any HP/MP to perform, you will have to wait till specific moments to do them, such as knocking your opponent's weapon out of their hand. Even though a combo may involve 2/3/4 characters, it only uses 1 turn, the turn of the character performing the combo. As such, Combos are helpful for ending battles with various lesser enemies you may encounter. You cannot use a full party combo against some bosses, which is explained by a plot point early on but is mostly due to perserve difficulty.

And sort of similar to the Persona series, if you hit an enemy with a certian attack, or their weakness, different things will happen. Performing a Jumping Attack against a blocking enemy will give you the ability to knock their weapon out of their hand, for instance. Other times, against bosses, this can be negative, as well as hitting an enemy resistance. When you defeat an enemy for the first time, it will automaticially become updated into your Notebook/Diary, wherein you can read about it.

And finally, you have the option to simply block, which will double your defence until your next action. comments, anyone? Also the way equipment would work would be pretty normal except for the weapons. You cannot change your weapon, unless a specific story event gives you a new one, spending time in the labatory and taking mental tests can give you the foresight to change your weapon, but it's name will be the same, pretty much through the entire game. I.e: it's called Fenrir and it's a Gun, you can go take a few tests in Sword Play and practice sword play and it will turn into a sword, but it'll still be called Fenrir. Then at a later date you decide you want it to be a bow, go and practice archery and it'll evolve into a bow.

This post has been edited by Reshiram//Exe: Jul 5 2012, 04:15 PM