So like, have any of you heard of Phantom Brave?
It’s a unique RPG with the mechanic of imbuing objects with spirits to fight by your side. Released on PS2, Wii (my favorite!), PSP, Windows and Switch.
(A screenshot of gameplay from the Steam page)
What really intrigues me is its movement system, where action takes place on a grid-based battle field but movement and combat is explicitly non-grid based; each turn, your character has a radius of movement they can move anywhere they like, as long as its legal. They can also use attacks that don’t strictly stick to a grid either, as can be seen by the screenshot: the blue sphere is the range of the attack, and if there’s something in the sphere when you attack, it will get hit.
The whole reason why I brought this up is because I want to make a RPG like this game, with a grid-based battle field but non-grid-based movement. And of course, both enemies and protagonists can get fat.
Some ideas:
Your characters have a Full Stat. If your character’s Full Stat fills up, it means he’s stuffed to the gills. His sprite will show a giant belly and he will be unable to move or attack… but over time the Full Stat will decrease until it reaches manageable levels and your character can move again. Even when Full, the immobilized character can use items and healing. But if all your characters are Full, game over.
Some enemies can fill up your Full stat (slimes will shove themselves down your throat in a suicide attack, some might chuck food at your mouth), but consumables can also fill up that stat as well (i.e. eating food items such as an apple or cake can heal you a little but also fill you up).
VORE! Certain enemies can be eaten by certain characters. This fills up the Full stat a lot, but takes an enemy out of the fight… somewhat. Your character will be given a “Vore” status effect that indicates an enemy has been devoured. As long as that stat remains, the enemy can “Struggle”, unless there are circumstances that the enemy does not want to leave. Once the stat runs out, that means the enemy has been digested.
Post-combat weight gain: After a battle, your Full stat will be used to calculate the amount of weight you’ll gain. Characters who are stuffed after the battle will gain more than characters who only have half their Full stat filled or nothing at all. The more weight you have, the more different your character’s playstyle will be; say a rogue character gets fat: he will lose speed and movement range, but will gain defense and a boost in attack power.
Immobility? No problem! Maybe some characters can gain so much weight they can’t move in battle… but as long as their health is not 0, they can fight! Mages that use the mana in their fat for super powerful spells, tanks that draw enemy ire and can take a lot of damage, there’s a lot I could do with this idea…
Oh, and make the characters animals, cause I personally want fluffier characters over human characters.
That’s all for now, thanks for listening to my TedTalk 