I figured I'd match the ambitious games already in the chamber, with what essentially is Pokémon, but my own IP! I'll be wearing some of the inspiration on my sleeve, as it were. To help differentiate it though, I plan to lift some mechanics from Final Fantasy:
Other Features
Storyline
The Monsters
Additional Aspects
- Team is limited to 4 monsters; all 4 are out simultaneously.
- Will use Active Time Battle (Wait).
- Mana-esque replacement for Power Points. Can be regained when resting, from items, or from victory (only 25% for Victory).
- Conditions stack and may synergise (e.g., if a monster is bleeding, they're more likely to be poisoned from attacks which cause Poisoned).
Other Features
- Level-ups come easy, but defeating each Gym-leader equivalent ups the level cap; you cannot outlevel the Gym Leaders.
- Tools replace the HM system from Pokémon; don't have to teach your monsters specific skills just to progress.
- In addition to Gym-equivalents, there will be repeatable mini tournaments based on a singular type (you can only bring that type). Which depending on your placing, can reward items (some specifically suited to that type), with 1st place awarding you with a monster of that type you can't get elsewhere.
Storyline
- Branching Storyline (a bit like the quests from Fable 1, when you can defend or attack; you can join the bad guys at this game's Nugget Bridge equivalent).
- Your rival is the inverse of you; they choose the other option (a bit like Whisper from Fable).
- Proper Dialogue options unlike Pokémon. This could tie into the branching storyline; possibly talking people into or out of doing monster battles.
The Monsters
- Each monster has mild degree of stat randomisation; 10% bonus, 10% penalty, split randomly to each stat on wild encounter. These changes modify that monster's max-level stat values, which their current level is a % of.
- Unique to each specie of monster, is a Trait (think Passive Ability). These are usually positive, and often the monster could've had a different trait instead.
- There is a list of quirks, which are mostly mild negative effects. These are available to all monsters, and each monster has between 0-2 of them. An example would be Kleptomaniac (If this monster is not holding an item when they're readied, they will steal one randomly from an adjacent ally -- overall a mild effect, as held items will be plentiful throughout. But it can be made into an advantage, if the Kleptomaniac holds an item consumed on use, and they only have 1 adjacent ally who could be holding a replacement item for the Kleptomaniac).
- Type Shift: Each monster has 4 types available to them; one of these is the Mundane variant. Mundane-types can be shifted into another type. This is irreversible. It can change some of their learnable skills, their ability, quirks, stats and appearance. This will trigger naturally upon level 50, but can be declined (player gets the choice between the 3, or can decline it like an evolution in Pokémon). Alternatively, the player can use an injection on the monster to trigger the Type Shift on demand, including at max level.
Additional Aspects
- I'm a big fan of the first gen games, and always wanted to do a remake my way. So a piece of end-game content, after defeating the League (Elite 4 equivalent) and capturing all monsters. Is fighting the last, legendary monster... who will fight you as if they were a trainer, with the same monsters as you, but better (think Mewtwo Strikes Back).
- Optional Rules: I'm a big fan of nuzlockes for added difficulty, so I plan to program optional rules into the game, such as the Nuzlocke rules, and some others.
- I plan to have about 150 monsters like in Gen 1 (not counting the 3 Type Shifts per monster; Type Shifts aren't a massive change - more akin to an evolution, but their stat total doesn't really change).