Crossroads of Time and Space. (Aka: Tide's Super Awesome IAQ thingy)

[Tide]

Because it is all the rage these days.

Actually, this little pet project of mine has kind of been an ongoing thing for like 4 years now. It took a while to sort out some of the elements but at least I now know what I want to do with it. And hopefully the rest will work themselves out from there. I wasn't really sure whether or not to post it, but since Djinn has been very eager about it, I'll make a separate topic for it. DJINN I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY.

This topic is going to be cut up into bits and pieces at a time. Why? Because my original document holding this stuff is also in bits and pieces. Counting on me not to be lazy and regularly updating/formatting is probably a bad bet~

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Overview

Battle System
Battles are set over a SRPG-type map. As such, typical SRPG elements are also present, such as range and terrain. Characters take their turns on a CT based system, attempting to accomplish the specified objective on the level. The level continues until either the objective is met or the failure conditions are met.

Attacking
Free-Flow Combo System:

• Each character has varying different physical attacks. In battle, these attacks can be chained together, continuously hitting the enemy to deal more damage, meter and stun.
• The number of attacks that can be chained together varies depending on the characters designated attack grid. A character’s attack grid varies in length, determined by their maximum Combo Link.
• Each Link can hold three commands at once that can then be selected by the player. Unused commands in the same link are skipped over once a command from that link is used. In this way, the next set of commands are brought up until the character reaches the end of their grid.
• Attack grids reset themselves every turn, but they do not reset during an attack normally:

        - If a character manages to stun the target during an attack string, the attack grid is refreshed and all links act as if they are unused.
        - If a character is willing to pay 50 diverse points, they can refresh the attack grid to reset the links as if they were unused.

• Grids refreshed in this way simply loop back to the start.
• Attacks that combo have a few advantages:

        - Each increasing combo hit raises the damage of the next attack by 1%. Therefore, long combo strings can result in much higher amounts of damage
        - Hits in a combo cannot be guarded, evaded or parried once they connect. [/list]

Hit zones and Guarding

• Some attacks are noted to be either High or Low. This indicates the targeted zone area the attack aims for, which can effect defensive abilities

          - Parrying for example is zone specific. As are certain counter abilities
          - If an opponent chooses to counter, some attacks have Upper body invincibility or lower body invincibility, allowing them to completely bypass the opponent’s attack.

• If an opponent manages to hit the backside of the opponent, the entirety of the attack will go through and connect (ie: “Cross-up” type attacks cannot be blocked; they must be evaded)

Guard Crush

• An opponent who chooses to defend normally (ie: as an actual action) will auto-block high-low regardless to the hit zone
• There are two ways to bypass this:

          - One as mentioned is to use attacks that have the potential to cross up and slip behind the opponent
          - The other is to use attacks that have greater chances of breaking the opponent’s guard (or Guard Crushing). Once a guard is crushed, the enemy will be stunned temporarily, allowing the attacker to unload a full attack chain at 1.5x the damage.

• It is not easy to Guard Crush and may require successive attack strings before succeeding.
• Enemies who have been Guard Crushed will be easier to guard crush again

Evasion

• Characters who have not chosen to defend will get a chance to evade attacks as they strike
• If an attack is evaded, and a character has the “Counterattack” ability, they will be able to counter on the same action with their own attack grid
• Counterattacks deal higher damage than normal (1.25x) and increases the length of the attack grid by +1

Base Stats
• HP: The amount of damage a character can take before being KO'd.
• MP: The amount of mana available for special attack commands (Originals). A larger MP score allows more frequent usage of Originals
• ATK: Determines the damage from physical attacks, techniques, and skills
• DEF: Reduces the amount of damage a character takes from physical attacks, techniques and skills
• MAG: Determines the damage from magical attacks, techniques, skills.
• RES: Reduces the amount of damage a character takes from magical attacks, techniques, and skills
• RFX: Battles are CTB based. RFX helps determines the quickness of the character. A faster character may be able to act twice before a slower character can act once.
• EVA: Used for physical attacks and associated abilities. Determines the character's chances of evading an attack.
• HIT: Used for physical attacks and associated abilities. Determines the character's chances of hitting with an attack

Other Stats
• Move: Battles take place within relatively small grid sized areas (10x10 to 15x15 being the max). Move determines the number of tiles a character is able to cross in a single turn.
• Jump: Determines the elevation of tiles characters can jump up to. Higher number means a unit can jump over higher terrain.
• Stun: As characters take damage, they may become stunned if attacked continuously. This determines the maximum amount of stun damage a character can take before entering Stun status.
• Stun Recovery: At the end of each turn, a portion of the stun gauge is restored. This determines the speed of stun recovery. Stun recovery typically starts off slow, but will gain acceleration momentum the longer a character avoids taking damage.
• Diverse Meter: A meter located at the very bottom of a character’s battle portrait, underneath the HP and MP bars. The size of the Diverse Meter varies depending on the character.

Diverse Meter
Represented as a gauge underneath a character's HP/MP bars. Diverse metre is consumed for Diverse Actions, Super Arts and EX (extra)-moves. The Diverse Metre builds up when a character performs an action, takes damage, evades, upon triggering certain specific skills, or fulfilling battle conditions. A "Normal" Diverse Metre can be split into 4 parts, with the maximum point value at 100.

Super Arts
After reaching a certain point in the story, characters will be able to utilize Super Arts during attack chains. Each character has three different levels of Super Arts, each of which, consume increasing amounts of meter. The higher level Super Arts are often more powerful.

Stun Meter
Represented on the CTB gauge underneath the character's CTB portrait. It starts as an empty gauge. When damage is taken, this metre rises. If it reaches the maximum, the character will be stunned and unable to act for a brief duration (1-2 turns). Damage taken under stun is increased by 1.5x, however, they'll break out of stun at any point upon receiving damage. Each character has a differing stun value. Some characters are better capable of resisting stun effectively.

Universal Commands
•   Move: Represented by a Shoe symbol. Commands the character to spend the turn moving from one location to another. Consumes the character's current turn under normal circumstances. If a character moves besides the map’s designated borders, they’ll have the option to escape. Only one character has to flee for the entire party to escape. Some battles are not escapeable.
•   Defend: Represented by a Shield symbol. Retains current position and enters into a defensive stance. This defend command is stronger than ones activated on the attack grid (auto blocks high/low). It blocks all attacks and reduces normal attacks to 20% of their original value and stun damage to 0.
•   Pass: Represented by a Clock. Passes current turn without taking an action at the benefit of receiving the next turn at an increased rate (+50%)

Attack/Active Commands
•   Item: Represented by a Bag. Utilizes an item currently held in the inventory. Some items may have longer delay time than others.
•   Attack: Represented by a Fist. Character will attack with their equipped weapon. Characters have different attack ranges, distances, varying commands and attack grids. Because of this, the attack command's effectiveness can vary from character to character.
•   Original: Utilizes a character’s special attacks or abilities. These typically consume MP.
•   Diverse: Commands that utilize the Diverse gauge. Each character has their own set of Diverse commands.
o   Extra: Compatible only with attacks that do damage. Not compatible with Super Arts. Powers up the move to another version that increases effectiveness. Note that some moves can also be EX’d when attack is selected.

[Tide]

Playable Characters - Full skillsets/passive skills update later. Current ones are still a giant mess right now.

7 PCs total. Maybe a guest or two. Maybe some additional PCs, but that's unlikely. My main goal when creating the PCs was making them all unique in some way. Fighting styles, skills, builds, etc. The approach to balance is basically make everything and everyone broken. Then counter by making enemies equally bad ass. Not a very systematic approach, but leads to fun times.

Code Name: Tide Ruglia
Real Name: Yiu Negato
Age: 21
Weapon: Unarmed; later on utilizes a combat knife.
Armor: Light (Gauntlets)
Class: Keeper of Time
Gimmick: Manipulate CT gauges, both enemies and allies.

Base Stats:
-   HP: B
-   MP: C
-   Atk: D
-   Def: E
-   Mag: B-
-   Res: C+
-   Rfx: S
-   Eva: S
-   Hit: B

Comments:   
Tide is a very speed focused PC. At a brief glance, his stat balance definitely has a heavy emphasis on agility-based stats. As such, while his attacks don’t deal a lot, he makes up for it often by getting more turns and scoring many more hits, leading to stun. When this occurs, it gives him chances to power up his special abilities or pull off very long combo chains, resulting in greater damage. Early in the game though, Tide is much more of a support battery with notable abilities that tinker CT, boosting spells and allies in front of the cue.

Tide’s biggest issue is his raw physical durability. With an E rank defense and a regular armor class, physical attacks that hit him create huge dents. He’s all about evading and he has few defenses against non-evadable attacks other than Anticipate. Anticipate is a nice ability, but should be used sparingly to avoid overspending DP.

As the game progresses, Tide will eventually gain a knife, which alters portions of his skill set. With a knife in hand, his physical abilities will go up, making him much more potent on offense late game than early. Furthermore, some plot abilities may be gained by Tide depending on the course of actions that were selected throughout the game. He’s a versatile character both on offense and support, with somewhat lacking defenses.


Code Name: Gunsmith
Real Name: Leon Steward Graves
Age: 32
Weapon: Customized gun with revolving chambers (Panfraust), explosives
Armor: Medium (Coats)
Class: Heavy Marksman
Gimmick: Revolving chambers essentially gives him multiple (but limited stock) weapons to use in battle. Physical attacks can revolve chambers.

Bases
•   HP: A
•   MP: B-
•   Atk: C+
•   Def: A
•   Mag: B
•   Res: C
•   Rfx: B+
•   Eva: D
•   Hit: A+

Comments:
A well balanced character who’s more about adapting to the situation than anything else; Gunsmith is all about his customized gun, which carries 5 different barrels, allowing him to utilize various different ammunitions. Since different ammo can have different effects (elemental properties, status, stronger mults), Gunsmith is essentially someone who carries a Swiss army knife with him in battle. His remaining abilities then round him out, making very versatile in combat.

Gunsmith’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness however. If his gun runs out of ammunition in battle, he won’t be able to utilize physical attacks. This can be restrictive as many of Gunsmith’s normal attacks alter the chamber currently selected in his gun. Ammo can be reloaded on his own turn with the Items command, but it requires an active turn and can be crucial in a tough battle.

Statistic wise, Gunsmith is pretty balanced. He’s one of the sturdier characters physically and decently quick to boot. He has low move though his high range of attack attempts to cover for this. The only stat that is noticeably bad is his evade. Don’t expect Gunsmith to dodge attacks much and you won’t be too disappointed.

Code Name: Ruru
Real Name: Reika Fujisaki
Age: 22
Weapon: Flails
Armor: Medium (Dress)
Class: Blessed Guardian
Gimmick: Wire chains offer greater mobility and unique attacking options to cross up enemies.

Bases
•   HP: D
•   MP: A
•   Atk: B+
•   Def: C-
•   Mag: B-
•   Res: A
•   Rfx: D
•   Eva: B
•   Hit: B+

Comments:
She is possibly the game’s most mobile character, although it doesn’t appear so at first glance. Ruru utilizes the flails and hammers she uses in battle not just for attacking, but also for movement. Because of this, she can usually swing or hook her way to her destination. Ruru’s actual move and jump numbers therefore, are often higher than what her base may suggest.

In battle, her weapon has additional usages. She’s the best character at creating unblockable set ups, easily slipping through enemy defenses. And on top of that? Ruru hits much harder than you would expect. She may have a healing based focused for skills, but unlike most healers, her attacks pack a punch. Her other active abilities include a few light magic oriented spells, which can often strike more than one enemy.

Her main weakness is speed. Most of Ruru’s other stats can compensate for one and another. For example, her mediocre defense is somewhat mitigated by having actual evade. However, her speed can’t be curbed. Therefore, you have to be selective in what you want her to do on her turns. Ruru does gain some defense based abilities and it may be your best interest sometimes just to hold your ground in order to squeeze a turn between enemies.

Code Name: Versaux
Real Name: Noelle Vasquez
Age: 27
Weapon: Broadsword
Armor: Heavy (Mail)
Class: Fated Swordmistress
Gimmick: Can dual-wield to increase offense but decrease speed, has Super Armor frames in many moves and can guard crush opponents easily

Base Stats:
-   HP: C
-   MP: B-
-   Atk: S
-   Def: A-
-   Mag: D+
-   Res: D
-   Rfx: E
-   Eva: B+
-   Hit: A+

Comments:
Hello physical damage. If you ever needed someone to bring on the pain, Versaux is it. She hits like a truck and many of her attacks augment her physical prowess. For example, several of her moves have Super armor, meaning she can be struck from a counter, but still carry out the attack. In addition, she’s great at Guard Breaking enemies, leading to even bigger and more consecutive chain attacks. Indeed, in terms of physical damage, there’s rarely ever a better choice.

Crush and Hi-Crush give her physicals evade ignoring properties, although perhaps more importantly, they can gain elemental attributes. When hitting weakness, this can cause Versaux to deal massive amounts of damage in a single turn. She has a few other utility type moves, which certainly have their uses.

Such great power comes at the cost of some other attributes. In this case, bad magical abilities (both offense and defense) along with speed are the main issues. However, many of Versaux’ passives attempt to salvage her poor speed. Despite her poor base, in practice, it usually doesn’t end up as poorly as you would expect. The ability to double her offense while taking a further to hit speed may sometimes be worth it.

Just don’t rush her recklessly into magic heavy territory. Versaux gains less skills that try to compensate for her poor resistance so she is every bit magically frail as her stats may suggest.


Code Name: Requinox
Real Name: Arlin Artdeux
Age: 21
Weapon: Bow
Armor: Light (Robe/Capes)
Class: Spellcrafter
Gimmick: Can create enchantments that can trap, kill or disable enemies

Base Stats:
-   HP: C+
-   MP: A+
-   Atk: D
-   Def: B
-   Mag: S
-   Res: A-
-   Rfx: C+
-   Eva: D
-   Hit: C-

Comments:
Requinox may be a little harder to use at the start, but he’s just as good as everyone else once learned. As the game’s dominant spellcaster, he’s the character who has the least quirks with physical attacks, although he makes this up with his variety of spells. Capable of hitting 6 of the 8 elements in game, he can then further strengthen those spells with Diverse metre along with an option of having it strike the entire field at once. Requinox is a scary magical force when he gets going and it doesn’t take much for that to happen.

Perhaps of bigger note is Requinox’s unique command and battle style. In skirmishes and his active turns, Requinox often has the option of plant enchantments. These enchantments can be timed or field based. When used appropriately, they can ensnare opponents, effectively disabling them, create unblockable attacks or deal lots of damage. Making use of this command and ability effectively gives Requinox powerful options that can help the entire party. He can protect targets, himself or create offensive set ups that other characters may struggle to achieve on their own.

Requinox’s defense isn’t as bad as you would expect, but his other physical oriented stats aren’t great, giving him mediocre physical defense. Poor HP and evade add up, so don’t throw him into the thick of battle despite the fact that he has a decent defense score.

Code Name: Ying
Real Name: Ying
Age: 21
Weapon: Chakram
Armor: Light (Garbs) (x1.0 mod)
Class: Dimensional Spaceshifter
Gimmick: Controls field map that affects everyone.

Base Stats:
-   HP: B
-   MP: D
-   Atk: D
-   Def: A+
-   Mag: C
-   Res: A
-   Rfx: B
-   Eva: C+
-   Hit: C

Comments:
While most characters focus on ST and GT abilities, Ying has the exact opposite approach. Most of her skillset is field based, effecting every tile on the field regardless of friend or foe. Care has to be taken with this skillset since selecting a wrong field effect can easily cause you to wipe.

On the other hand, if you know your party’s strengths and the strengths of your enemies, you can select field effects that cuts off their best option. As a mistress of space, Ying has several spells that also adjust placement, allowing her to help set up her allies.

Offensively, Ying isn’t very powerful.  But defensively, she is by far the strongest PC. With good HP, defense, resistance and passive abilities, she can quite literally stall her opponents to death if needed. However, because dealing direct damage isn’t her strong suite, you should always make sure she is accompanied by someone who is to fix her weaknesses.

Code Name: Len
Real Name:
Age: 16
Weapon: Ribbons
Armor: Light (Bells)
Class: Enchanted Illusionist
Gimmick: Consumes own HP to repeatedly restore metre (Diverse and MP) keeping offensive options high. Can alter terrain type to favour her.

Base Stats:
-   HP: D-
-   MP: C+
-   Atk: A-
-   Def: D+
-   Mag: A-
-   Res: D
-   Rfx: A+
-   Eva: B
-   Hit: A+

Comments:
Len is designed to be a glass cannon. Number 2 in both physical and magical offense counts for something, and indeed, when it comes to dishing out the damage, there’s very few who are better at it. Len is further made better at her role by her high speed and the ability to take advantage on certain terrain types. On average, she’ll easily be the party’s best offensive choice, whether for physical or magical attacks.

Of course, this design comes with a drawback too. Len has abysmal defenses in all categories: bad defense, low resistance along with lowish HP to round it out. In short, she is a unit that needs to be carefully treated. Almost any stray attack is likely to have the ability to 2HKO her, if not flat out OHKO. As long as you are careful when making your move though, she will likely kill enemies before they can strike back and take her out.

Len’s unique gimmick is her ability to consume her own HP to fuel her attacks. She is capable of draining her own HP as if it was her Diverse metre, allowing her to extend physical attack chains for much longer. This in turn, results in easier chances for stunning leading to even more damage. On a character this frail, the option to sacrifice HP as a resource may very well be worthwhile. She can also use her HP for MP related spell type attacks for similar effects to pumping her damage. Len’s other unique characteristic is her ability to take advantage of icy terrain. Unlike other characters, she will not lose movement, and in fact, she’ll actually gain certain abilities usable only on icy terrain.

Code Name: Alphonse
Real Name: Alfred Osborn
Age: 52
Weapon: Stick, Combat baton
Armor: Heavy (Plates) (x0.7 mod)
Class: Legend Machinist
Gimmick: Turns items in living weapons, attacks can shift his stance and abilities
Role: Utility (Item user)

Base Stats:
-   HP: B
-   MP: B+
-   Atk: C
-   Def: B
-   Mag: B+
-   Res: B+
-   Rfx: B
-   Eva: C-
-   Hit: A

Comments:
Alphonse may be the last character to join, but his skills are every bit as unique as the rest of the cast. Alphonse’s main niche is he’s the game most proficient item user. In fact, one of his skills turns an item into enchantment, giving it its own CT and having it auto-act. This ability (along with others) makes Alphonse capable of conducting battle literally through the use of nothing but items.

But of course, he’s quite capable of taking care of himself even without items. Alphonse utilizes a combat stick and is proficient with Single Stick. With his self made staff, he can shift and adjust its length after different attacks, which can alter the next set of moves available. He’s also a counter based typed attacker, gaining passive skills in parrying and counter attacks. With better reach than some other characters, this combination can let him counterstrike enemies from afar that others would not be able to.

Alphonse may not hit as hard as some other characters and he may not be as durable but he’s also never terrible in any one category. Boasting average ranks in most stats, he fairs decently well with most tasks, although not necessarily the best choice. His niche play on items is more than likely to keep him in the running and the balance makes him always a worthwhile choice with enemy variance.  

[DjinnAndTonic]

I am, in fact, super happy.

It kind of reminds me of WA4 + Legaia2 + Limit Breaks. Also, Sands of Destruction uses something like this. Might want to look into that. Maybe you can hack it to make your game!