The Amazing Fantastics - A Turn-Based Superhero RPG

My name is Bruce and for the past few months I've been working on a game that brings Final Fantasy-esque gameplay to the world of superheroes and super villains. The game is called The Amazing Fantastics and is being developed for PC.

In this game you'll build your own team of super-powered allies to protect a city against the looming threat of crime and villainous foes.

Art Direction
The Amazing Fantastics will combine comic book-style cutscenes with 2D graphics in-game.

Gameplay
The Amazing Fantastics will feature combat that is turn-based and requires you to time and execute moves correctly to increase their efficiency!



Cutscene


Screenshots
Settings foes ablaze during a prison break.

Collecting crafting materials.

Defending against a fire grenade.


Main Theme
https://soundcloud.com/neon-arkade-games/the-amazing-fantastics-main-theme

This game is still very early in development. I'm open to feedback and suggestions. Please see my signature for relevant links. Thanks!

Combat Preview

At the beginning of the game you'll select your superpower. Will you choose super speed or the ability to control fire? Trailer coming soon.
Battle in a blizzard.

Prison guards in your way? Hit 'em with an energy bomb.

Outnumbered but not outmatched.

Here's my two cents. I really like the idea of superhero themed RPG. Being able to select your superpower? Awesome! The only superhero themed RPGs I'm aware of are the X-men Legends games (Action RPGs), Champions Online (MMO- yuck), and Freedom Force (2002 Real-time tactics RPG) and its (2005) sequel. I personally have a strong preference for turn-based tactical combat and to my knowledge there's never been a turn-based superhero RPG, but…

TAFUniverse said:

Gameplay
The Amazing Fantastics will feature combat that is turn-based and requires you to time and execute moves correctly to increase their efficiency!

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That is not turn-based. The appeal of turn-based combat is that the player can take as long as they want to decide on the best course of action; think about the various skills their characters have, and plan out what tactics to use… When you introduce twitch-based gameplay that relies on a player's reflexes… well, then the outcome of battle is no longer based on strategy / tactics. If you want to make an action RPG, then make an action RPG. If you want to make a turn-based game, then make a turn-based game.

I'm guessing your hope is that this will somehow appeal to both fans of turn-based combat and people who tend to think turn-based combat is boring and want something more "action-packed" but it won't. And if it's anything like quick-time events (QTEs)… no one likes those.

To reiterate my preference is for for *tactical* turn-based combat; where you move your characters in battle / positioning matters. I do understand why people think standard JRPG style turn-based (a la Final Fantasy) is boring. Because it usually *is* boring. Tapping a button to simply select "Attack" over and over again to breeze through random encounters (occasionally using a healing item or spell) is not fun. (Of course frequent filler combat is rarely fun, regardless of the combat system).

Don't know how far along the development is and don't actually expect you to change your battle system just because of my comments… But IMHO putting twitch based mechanics into a "turn-based" battle system isn't going to make fans of either TB or action RPGs happy. Some will of course tolerate it but I'm never seen this kind of hybrid system done well. I'd rather play a straight up action RPG than a series of "simon says" button mashing aka QTEs…

I get what you're saying.

Have you ever played any of the games in the Mario & Luigi series or Paper Mario series? What are your thoughts on them? In The Amazing Fantastics the player will not rely on their reflexes because successfully completing the mini-games only provides small bonuses. For example, say you have 300 HP and a move costs 7 HP to use. Successfully completing the mini-game may reduce the cost to 5 HP. Is 2 HP enough to dramatically change the course of battle? Maybe those 2 hit points will add up to something big over time but skilled players may find that bonus negligible while less experienced players may find it helpful. The idea is that the mini-games won't punish players for messing them up and will only serve to help.

I could, however, add a mode that's specifically for more skilled RPG players. This mode will skip the mini-games completely. What do you think?

I don't like to play people who spend 24/7 in gym instead of having an actual, real life. Okay, to be precise, people who use steroids because one can't have enough of biceps, right?

TAFUniverse said:

PC

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Scratch whatever I said.
For me these two letters mean instabuy when it's made.

TAFUniverse said:

I get what you're saying.

Have you ever played any of the games in the Mario & Luigi series or Paper Mario series? What are your thoughts on them? In The Amazing Fantastics the player will not rely on their reflexes because successfully completing the mini-games only provides small bonuses. For example, say you have 300 HP and a move costs 7 HP to use. Successfully completing the mini-game may reduce the cost to 5 HP. Is 2 HP enough to dramatically change the course of battle? Maybe those 2 hit points will add up to something big over time but skilled players may find that bonus negligible while less experienced players may find it helpful. The idea is that the mini-games won't punish players for messing them up and will only serve to help.

Click to expand...

Haven't played any of those Mario games. The game I've played most recently that seems to do something similar is Joe Dever's Lone Wolf. I play it on my tablet, but it was recently ported to PC (Steam). Combat is turn-based (ATB specifically). Whenever you do a special attack , you have to do a QTE to increase dmg (and sometimes to reduce dmg when an enemy is attacking you). It is still possible to succeed if you are terrible at QTEs, but I just find the whole thing makes combat tedious.

I don't dislike the QTEs because my reflexes aren't the sharpest, (I can do most of them most of the time) it's that it feels like busywork intended to distract from an otherwise mediocre combat system. Ironically their attempt to make combat more exciting just makes it more drawn out & repetitive.

TAFUniverse said:

I could, however, add a mode that's specifically for more skilled RPG players. This mode will skip the mini-games completely. What do you think?

Click to expand...

Giving your players options is (almost) always a good thing. That's probably the mode I'd prefer to play your game. The most important thing to me is that it is fun and doesn't feel like work; I'm not a fan of mandatory grinding, fetch quests, etc. I like combat where there's some sort of tactical decision to make. If you have enemies with different strengths and weaknesses this could be rather interesting.

Will player characters have companions (either temporary or as permanent party members)? I tend to find turn-based combat is much more enjoyable with a few characters to control… And it would make battles much more tactically interesting if , for example, a supervillain is vulnerable to fire but immune to cold attacks.

My preference is usually for some type of action points based combat, but it sounds like your plan here is to have special abilities drain a small amount of HP. That might work fine but I generally don't like it when the most successful strategy in an RPG is to horde a bunch of healing items… and being arbitrarily limited in how many healing items you can carry (as is often the case with a lot of older RPGs) isn't really a good way to balance this.

It's certainly a challenge to create an where there's a good balance of items (I find most RPGS tend to give too much healing items / loot in general to the point where).
Perhaps HPs regenerate over time or when you reach certain points? so that you aren't strictly limited in how much you can use your special abilities by how many healing items you can find / craft.

daveyd said:

Will player characters have companions (either temporary or as permanent party members)? I tend to find turn-based combat is much more enjoyable with a few characters to control… And it would make battles much more tactically interesting if , for example, a supervillain is vulnerable to fire but immune to cold attacks.

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There will be temporary and permanent party members. I've got two characters down so far.


The guy on the left will have fire powers or super speed depending on which ability the player chooses. I plan on and have concepts for about 20 playable heroes including an African healing goddess and a young female ninja. The player's party will consist of 6 members with 3 of these characters battling at a time. Fighters will also have elemental strengths and weaknesses but I haven't implemented this feature yet.

daveyd said:

Perhaps HPs regenerate over time or when you reach certain points? so that you aren't strictly limited in how much you can use your special abilities by how many healing items you can find / craft.

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Heroes will be able to defend, reducing the amount of damage they take for a turn while also replenishing a bit of health to help offset the HP drained by using special moves.

New Artwork

Woah. The new artwork looks so polished. Great stuff!