Kriegsaffe No. 9
Pikachu f'taghn!
- Joined
- May 14, 2007
- Messages
- 126
- Reaction score
- 0
Pokemon is a damn fine game, we can agree on that, but what if one of the most fundamental aspects of it--the combat system--were changed? The current game is pretty basic: turn-based, Speed determines initiative, one action per turn, etc. Here we can sound off on different interpretations, either as dramatic as changing out combat systems to imitate another series', or as slight as a few alterations to the basic setup. A couple I've thought of:
1. ATB turns: Like a number of Final Fantasy games, a simple alteration to the turn structure would be an Active Time Battle gage. In one-on-one combat, little would change; the faster Pokemon would usually go first, moves that would make a Pokemon wait a turn or miss a turn slow down the ATB gage dramatically, and so on. A major difference is that very fast Pokemon, like Electrode or speed-form Deoxys, could literally run rings around slower Pokemon, attacking multiple times without retaliation. Obviously balance would need to be tweaked, perhaps by introducing new attacks that play off of the ATB meter or by decreasing the power of certain attacks.
2. Movement on a combat map. This would be fun--being able to move around a combat grid and launch attacks all around. You could do all kinds of fun things with this--environmental bonuses or penalties, at the very least. Imagine a Hitmonchan using a Mega Punch to send a Flying-type into, say, an electric generator, turning the attack from Normal to Electric and dealing super-effective damage, or a Toxicroak jumping into a pond to increase its HP each turn.
(To prevent abuse, I'd imagine only Normal attacks could get an element swap.)
3. Called shots! I've been playing Fallout 2 lately, and I think called shots are horribly underutilized in computer/console RPGs. It'd mix well with other combat alterations, too. Imagine being able to attack an enemy's limbs to weaken certain attacks, or just go for the head to try and increase your damage at a penalty to hit. A normal attack would be "to the torso" (or torso-analogue), a straightforward attack with no particular bonuses or penalties; the better the bonuses for hitting a particular area, the tighter the penalties.
Some attacks would interact in an unusual way, of course; a Thunder attack normally attacks the head or torso, so you couldn't target those regions for extra damage. Neither could you use Earthquake to hit a biped in the left arm. Surf is an area attack, so it'd hit all areas on a target, essentially a torso hit. That one move (I forget its name) will make the next attack always hit, but it can only go for a normal attack, not a called shot.
Personally, my mind is most abuzz at this potential, though obviously it'd be the hardest to implement.
Any other ideas or takes?
1. ATB turns: Like a number of Final Fantasy games, a simple alteration to the turn structure would be an Active Time Battle gage. In one-on-one combat, little would change; the faster Pokemon would usually go first, moves that would make a Pokemon wait a turn or miss a turn slow down the ATB gage dramatically, and so on. A major difference is that very fast Pokemon, like Electrode or speed-form Deoxys, could literally run rings around slower Pokemon, attacking multiple times without retaliation. Obviously balance would need to be tweaked, perhaps by introducing new attacks that play off of the ATB meter or by decreasing the power of certain attacks.
2. Movement on a combat map. This would be fun--being able to move around a combat grid and launch attacks all around. You could do all kinds of fun things with this--environmental bonuses or penalties, at the very least. Imagine a Hitmonchan using a Mega Punch to send a Flying-type into, say, an electric generator, turning the attack from Normal to Electric and dealing super-effective damage, or a Toxicroak jumping into a pond to increase its HP each turn.
(To prevent abuse, I'd imagine only Normal attacks could get an element swap.)
3. Called shots! I've been playing Fallout 2 lately, and I think called shots are horribly underutilized in computer/console RPGs. It'd mix well with other combat alterations, too. Imagine being able to attack an enemy's limbs to weaken certain attacks, or just go for the head to try and increase your damage at a penalty to hit. A normal attack would be "to the torso" (or torso-analogue), a straightforward attack with no particular bonuses or penalties; the better the bonuses for hitting a particular area, the tighter the penalties.
Some attacks would interact in an unusual way, of course; a Thunder attack normally attacks the head or torso, so you couldn't target those regions for extra damage. Neither could you use Earthquake to hit a biped in the left arm. Surf is an area attack, so it'd hit all areas on a target, essentially a torso hit. That one move (I forget its name) will make the next attack always hit, but it can only go for a normal attack, not a called shot.
Personally, my mind is most abuzz at this potential, though obviously it'd be the hardest to implement.
Any other ideas or takes?
Mystery Dungeon is my favorite Pokemon game to date (and it's not even a "real" Pokemon game!), and while it's missing a lot from the original games and I would not be in favor of it completely replacing the originals, it would be very nice to see the battle system ChunSoft employed imported into the "mainstream" Pokemon games.