Posted

Dec 16th 2008

Mood

Weird

It's kinda odd how my thoughts tend to lead me to unusual yet intriguing ideas. This relates to the concept of "Sir Ataru's Magic Quest." (I'm considering changing its name to "Sir Ataru's Magic Adventure" since he has lots to look forward to.) In initial plans I had a sort of "second quest" that offered Sir Ataru a special sword that gave him amazing powers. In exchange, assist characters were no longer provided since your sword could do all sorts of stuff.

Then this idea happened.

You must remember that the adventures of Sir Ataru came from the mind of Pepper. This is the basis of inspiration for another character, Olive, who would present the whole adventure in a different way, as though it were some type of bizarre, half-plagiarized fanfic.

You'd think this might cause a swap, making Pepper the brave knight and Olive the kidnapped princess. But that's not exactly the case! In HER story, she and Pepper are guardian angels, and they descend to the kingdom after sensing a great disturbance. Rather than having a primary character and an assist character, the player controls both Pepper and Olive, but only one at a time; the active character shows in full form, while the other follows as a small wisp with tiny wings and halo. As for Ataru, Kira and Lina, they now play minor roles in Olive's reworked story.

The two behave somewhat differently. Pepper is the stronger of the two, making him suited towards situations requiring strengh or power. He uses a mallet to combat evil, while also using his own halo like a boomerang to either grapple certain enemies/objects, or to swing off rungs (not unlike Bionic Commando) in order to travel to other platforms above and beyond. He is able to hover-move for a short time (similar to Sketch, though not as fast or slippery), and he can swim underwater. Olive is lighter, but her abilities involve more range, so she's useful for striking in areas from afar. Her main weapon is a set of fuzzy dice on a strong elastic, and also wields the bow-and-arrow to hit enemies/objects at long range, and also creating makeshift platforms to scale walls. She can triple-jump and walk/run atop water. Both characters can wall-jump and guard, though the types of defense are different; Pepper's guard prevents lots of damage to his person, while Olive's weaker guard can also reflect some projectiles.

While Sir Ataru could equip different weapons to enable different special attacks, the special abilities of the angelic Pepper and Olive are set within special magic pendants hidden through the ravaged kingdom. The pendants enable different elemental abilities, and the abilities it grants depends on who wears it; both characters can't wear the same pendants, so you'd have to decide whose abilities for which elements work best for your tastes. It may be used for a strong attack for one character, while making for a great defense ability for another. I'm certain the storyline may make these treasures a plot point as well.

There's not much the two can buy with money, so the shops are of no real value. But they can earn rewards by achieving tasks set by villagers, and any items they would need would be strewn about so they can pick them up at leisure. Likewise, the weapons they wield are the only ones they use throughout their adventure. The overall experience, as a result, becomes less action RPG and more action platformer. For some, I think it's a welcome change.

Oh, and one other thought on this. In certain spots, traps have been set, and the active character may end up caught, becoming unusable. It becomes the task of the other character to free their trapped partner by confronting a troop of small enemies or perhaps a very tough foe. Once the conflict is resolved, the trapped character becomes free and is again usable. It's doubtful that you'd be allowed to go far without your partner.

It's an odd idea, but I really like the possibility, even if it does seem to mean making two of the characters fictitiously "dead." Hey, Olive's already a Valkyrie descended from above in Sir Ataru, so it isn't terribly different. ;3

--Malamite Ltd.
"Hey, at least it's not like that 'Messiah' game."