#cool game mechanics

[theparrybutton]

Sequels to RPGs and how they handle progression

One of the most story-rich, narrative-heavy genres in gaming. The kind of games that don't leave many stones unturned, trying to tell full, complete stories with the lore of the setting explored to the last letter. As well as a definitive ending waiting for player, after they defeat a dark deity, or a guy trying to become one, or just a guy who's a huge asshole. Endings that give the world and it's characters a happy conclusion. But what about games that just... don't do that? Games that, while giving you a complete story, still leave out many secrets, red herrings and unresolved plotlines? Games that are made with the intent of following themselves up with a part 2? How do they handle game-to-game character progression? All this growth the player has built up over the course of their long journey?

Game sequels are usually completely different worlds with different mechanics, and even if they're set in the same world and star the same characters, the different mechanics can require character progression to be reset, leading to funny explanations (if any) like Dante selling his weapons to pay rent, or Adol Christin losing his stuff because of constant shipwrecks. RPGs are in the same boat (no shipwrecks here). These game sequels don't interact with their predecessors whatsoever because of that, aside from maybe giving you extra goodies if they detect save data. And even sequels that ARE direct continuations to previous games don't interact with prequels for various reasons. Such as, like mentioned above, having completely different game mechanics, a brand new cast of characters (who would naturally have to start from 0), and/or setting the sequel years after part 1, aging the old cast and effectively "rusting" them. For example, Final Fantasy X-2, despite starring characters from the original FFX, has no data transfers whatsoever, due to different game mechanics. But there are outliers, and there have been different ways sequels have interacted with their prequels, so let's look at a few examples.

Now, Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is your typical case of a RPG sequel. Brand new cast of characters, set years apart from Path of Radiance (part 1 of the story), and also released on a different platform! Despite that, through the usage of GameCube memory card slots present on most Wii models, the game allows you to transfer your clear data of Path of Radiance which can affect various functions in your Radiant Dawn playthrough. For the most part, save transferring will affect characters from the first game in a minor way, due to those characters appearing much later in the story. Transferring will only give +2 to the stats a character has capped by the time they hit Level 20 on their promoted class, with a few exceptions to certain characters. One such character being Sothe, a sort of guardian figure to Radiant Dawn's new main cast, and as such he is present from the very start. In his case, his Level 20 stats by the end of Path of Radiance will carry over directly to Radiant Dawn, overwriting his base stats that he would have without save transfer, even if some stats are lower than his base stats. (Pictured below: RNG-blessed Level 20 Sothe in Path of Radiance and no-transfer base Sothe in Radiant Dawn)

Interestingly enough, the other Fire Emblem sequel game(s), Mystery of the Emblem and it's DS remake don't have any interactivity with their Book 1s. The only difference being that in Mystery of the Emblem SNES, Marth gets a special icon next to his name for just one chapter. This type of data transfer, fully carrying over character levels, is very rare in RPGs, and there's only one RPG series I can think of that does this.

The Trails series, or simply Kiseki, is a very unique series, due to it's 12 and counting games all being set in one, continuous timeline, happening one after another, with some games even happening at the same time as each other. This is because the series is cleanly split into different story arcs, each arc set in a separate in-universe country, so even here we run into the case of new games starring new casts. But the games within those arcs have interesting approaches to save transfers.

For example; Trails in the Sky SC and Trails to Azure, sequels to Trails in the Sky and Trails from Zero respectively, allow you to fully transfer the stats and levels of protagonists Estelle and Lloyd, allowing both to start at a higher level than they would otherwise, as well as having alternate versions of certain scenes, affected by how much side content you did in the prequels. Beyond those two games, a constant between all Trails sequels is that characters retain all of their abilities and the level cap is raised, due to the sequels having a much higher starting level for progression consistency. Characters will get upgrades to their old abilities on top of new ones, and if part 1's level cap was 50, in part 2 it would be raised to 100, with the characters' starting level being above 50. (Pictured below: Rean's average endgame level in Cold Steel 1 and Rean's level cap in Cold Steel 2)

And that's very cool. Not a lot of games care about character progression from previous games and yet here's a series of RPGs that put care and attention to their stories so much that they even maintain character progression consistency.

Now for something completely different, with the way the data is transferred being the unique part.

Two GBA games! But how is that possible? Save data is saved on the carts, not on the system itself! Here the developers used the ol' reliable method of passwords, with password length determining what you get to transfer over.

Short "bronze" passwords only transfer custom character names and certain event flags. Moderate "silver" passwords transfer full character stats from the original Golden Sun, as well as bronze transfers. And now the fun, stupidly long, 260-character "golden" passwords, which on top of previous bonuses, also transfer every item the party members had in their inventory by the end of the game, including exclusive items not present in Golden Sun Lost Age. A huge reward for the patient gamer who managed to put in all 260 characters correctly.

Or, y'know, you could just transfer over through the Link Cable, like a chump.

These were some of the examples of how sequels to RPGs handled character progression, if they bothered to at all. While it is a bit of a bummer that more games don't do this, it's understandable why sequels ultimately decide to separate themselves from their predecessors, even if they are direct continuations. But that's a topic for another day.

[gallusgalluss]

a light oh so bright

[jeeaark]

I was always befuddled how such a mindflayer can be so hard to trust while ultimately having simultaneous goals as the team. Then I finally saw their stats in the other timeline.

It all makes sense now.

I am forever bemused by this this lower-than-the-average-squid-charisma disaster of a mindflayer.

I can only surmise that when the Emperor said Stelmane was the face of their business-partnership, it was not only meant literally but charismatically as well. Squid buddy's got the brains, none of the suave. If Emps tried rebuilding the Knights of the Shield without another business buddy, it might've been a tad difficult if morals were concerned huah.

[taldigi]

look at what you did, you took a perfectly good catboy and gave him severe PTSD

[proxentauri]

if i had a nickel for every time i played a remedy game that featured courtney hope’s character trying to get to a world-altering polyhedron in a universe where humans wear special harnesses to survive a world-ending threat, i’d have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's sure weird that it's happened twice

flipped version & process beneath the cut!

beth deserved so much better...please quantum break sequel where she's happy :) please remedy...the IP is worth it i promise I'LL fucking come back for her

[emberglowfox]

gave gods most edible animal simulator a try again

[shovson]

@hypersoft-fest week 3: detective stories

IT TAKES TWO

After an impromptu race briefing in Shov's hotel room, Jenson and Bono are woken up by a loud banging on the hotel door in the dead of night.  They open the door and discover an equally anxious Rubens and Riki that meet them with odd and worrying news.  Almost the entire paddock is missing. Engineers. Drivers. Team principals. Team heads. Car designers. Gone. With only twelve hours until the race begins and the press catches on, the surviving pairs must investigate the whereabouts of every missing person in order to ensure they're found safe and alive.  With Jenson and Rubens leading the charge, Riki and Bono hope to help push their drivers in the right direction before time runs out. Every second counts. As the four dig deeper into the mystery, they uncover a web of crimes and corruption behind the motorsport they exist in and begin to answer the question: in Formula One, who really wins?

[edward18]

Takutanuva was a character I was never quite satisfied with in his varied looks across the Bionicle franchise, so the other night at work I found myself doodling ideas for what he might look like if he ever showed up when I did Bionicle stuff =)

Also did a review of Bionicle if anyone wants to watch that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slpHB4OLWTA

More stuff's in my gallery: https://www.deviantart.com/warahi/gallery

Discord's over here if anyone wants to hang out and chat or anything: https://discord.gg/zxCJbHz

Patreon's here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=49390038

Always open for commissions ^_^

[chaoticlad]

Please don’t jump me for thinking swsh’s leaders are 10x better than sv PLEASE-

[presiding]

high chaos/low chaos/join the chaos in my dishonored 2 rewrite

[triglycercule]

murder time trio should get to all experiment with dead bodies. why? because they can and it would be cool (okay but seriously i'll provide an explanation). all these freaks are scientists. i think it would be cool and funky if they all got to experiment! except morbidly and bloodily because none of them are right in the head now

killer like has his whole thing with wanting SOULs for some unspecified reason??? i'm just gonna steal the common interpretation that it's so he can find a way to fix his own soul through coding. but like,,,, what does he do with the desd bodies??? all the fellas he stole those souls from??? well this is where dust and horror come in

it's One Panel and i'm ABSOLUTELY reaching here but there's a (single) panel in horrortale where horror's pulling apart some sort of human limb like an arm with a device. why? what for? i dont fucking know at all man like papyrus said why is he always doing something weird in his room. anyways i'm just gonna guess its probably for rationing in horrortale (but it could also be that horror just felt like ripping apart an arm. for scientific purposes. or because he did this after ripping off aliza's arm so maybe he's doing some sort of recollection reflection or something i dunno im not a professional on this man). killer could totally send all the already dead HUMAN bodies horror's way for horrortale's food situation. maybe horror likes to dissect the humans yk maybe he's not just the type of bash (a head open) and dash. monsters dust so you cant see their guts but humans dont so horror gets prime time first hand experience on the human body! and then after he's done poking around in the brain he can give the meat and organs to papyrus for him to do his specific spaghetti confectionery

but but but what about the monsters that killer takes the souls from! surely he doesn't just take from only humans (dude idk if he actually does take from only human or monster. probably not right? he needs to study BOTH types of code so he can be most informed) so he must also take monster souls. and fortunately for dust (i do NOT think he'd quite like handling gore) monsters don't leave behind bodies or blood or allat they leave behind dust. hah. dust experiment with dust. i think its already a headcanon out there that dust likes to study dust. i cant exactly recall WHY exactly but maybe it's for sentimental reasons or just something to do to pass time between resets. so killer can just pass on whatever dust he gets to him and he can put it under his little microscope and be a little nerd what a GEEK. give this guy glasses and remove all his teeth but one i guarantee you he'll look like 🤓

and once again i hear you cry out but but triglycercule! why would killer even give the dead bodies and stuff to horror and dust in the first place??? erm number one because i said so silly. jk. and number two (if we're going in a nightmare's gang context here) it could be as a way for killer to gain horror and dust's trust. a way for them not to tattle on him for stealing souls for some unknown reason. maybe there's somehow important coding information left behind in the bodies/dust (because that's literally what utmv is made of) and killer wants dust and horror to do that work for him for some reason. maybe just a way for him to get rid of evidence maybe if theyre buddy pals and close enough just as a gift. i dunno man there's a bunch of reasons as to why he could possibly do this. i just really liked the thought of the trio all wearing fancy lab coats and goggles and i was like damn how can i make this a real possibility

[artemistorm]

Attention Everyone

I love Linked Universe Sky. That is all.

[treepan0]

don't worry, I managed to finish a drawing at least

I was just messing with color pallets, which is always fun. a bit wonky but he's still cute--

[scamperin-shroom]

The Ultimate Yapper

I drew these back when I was playing Ocarina of Time. 20 years later and Navi still manages to get on my nerves. I couldn't wander off in peace for a second without her telling me my main objective. Please, Navi, I want treasure first. Zelda is a strong girl. She can wait a few more minutes 🥺

I don't hate Navi btw haha. I admire her character and what she represents

[clansocreations]

Me: and now for another round of…

Brain: 🎶 Hades, Hades, hear my petition please:

My name is Ulysses, I seek to bury, my fractured memories 🎶

Me: Wrong story buddy. He’s in a teenage rebellion. He wouldn’t ask Hades for shit

Brain: 🎶 Did you ever wonder what it’s like, on the underside (way down under) on the underside (way down under) on the other side of his wall 🎶

Me: that’s where he lives….

Brain: ALL I HEAR ARE SCREAMS!

Me: NOOOO

[necrotic-nephilim]

thank you for the tag, @sasheneskywalker!!!

rules: answer and tag nine people you want to get to know better and catch up with.

favorite color: it changes regularly, but currently, a dusty/greyish purple

last song: Maps by The Front Bottoms

currently reading:

Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver is my current fiction read and i *hate* it with my entire being. don't read it.

Postcolonial Astrology: Reading the Planets through Capital, Labor, & Power by Alice Sparkly Kat is my current non-fiction read and so far, it's very good

i'm reading a lot of comics at the moment, but my main read is Manhunter (2004) which so far, is very good, i highly recommend. i'm also planning to read Midnighter (2007) and Black Widow (2014).

currently watching:

The Acolyte has been my most recent fixation so that's just on loop rewatching over and over in the background. a lot

i've been watching Pennyworth which is far better than i expected it to be, i'm really enjoying it

i also started Invincible, which i've been enjoying

idk if it counts but i've rewatched Madame Web a concerning number of times in the past few days.

currently craving: i'd kill for an Italian Cream Soda from tea2go rn

coffee or tea: tea. i used to be a big coffee person in my teens but my chronic illness doesn't like caffeine and it *really* doesn't like coffee so i just drink tea now, but i do love tea

hobby to try: the unrealistic hobby i'd like to get into a fanfiction binding, but that takes materials and resources i do *not* currently have. i think a more realistic answer is i've been meaning to get into marvel comics more.

current au: tbh the main AU i'm working on is a Lance Brunner-centric Post-Crisis fic where i'm completely rewriting his origins to make his death as Robin more significant but still something no one talks about, leading to the ressurection of Jason also reviving Lance and Jason going on his little spree, having no idea he's not the only dead Robin. i've figured out all of the backstory and how i want to characterize Lance, but the actual plot of the fic i'm still working out. i'm leaning toward Lance/Dick as a ship, but i haven't decided. i have so many notes and ideas though and i think it's funny to take a random one-off character from a random 60s comic and actually turn him into something substantial and how he'd shape the Batfamily. trust me i'm so close to infodumping about it here everyday.

i'm also working on a *really* messed up unhealthy Damian/Tim fic, where Damian purposefully breaks the timeline so Tim was never Robin and Damian was the third Robin instead. but when Bruce "dies" Damian realizes he has no idea where to start with finding Bruce so he has to go to a civilian!Tim for help, who has no idea the timeline was changed or that he was ever Robin in a different world. it's gonna be fun and fucked up and full of Damian's jealousy complex over Tim.

i don't know if i can come up with nine whole people to tag for this since i'm still new here but i can try: @searchforahero @divine-dominion @kevin-day-is-bi @kerakeriza @deepwithintheabyss

@maryshellyswife @alicemaem @justmyshittyspace @sandmanwhore and yeah that's all i got.just tagging some mutuals/ppl i see on my posts a lot!!!