What Is Your Ideal "Dream" Game?

[PrimaGaga 1025]

Inspired by Pheo's recent thread, I've decided to make a thread where we discuss our ideal game(s)! You can have as much or as little detail of a game as possible. But yeah, what genre and type of game play would it have? Feel free to mention any story you've also thought up! My ideal game is as follows:

 

An Action/Adventure game with online massive multiplayer and a few RPG elements. The game would center around exploring and adventuring and essentially collecting loot and building your “reputation.” There would be a loose story that would tie together the setting and your character’s motivation, but ultimately, you’d play it for the experience rather than story.

 

Some key gameplay elements would be customizable characters, but beyond appearance. You’d be able to create relatively unique character types that can do stuff and perform feats that none of your adventuring friends would be able to. There would be no pre-made classes, but rather a skill tree not too unlike Skyrim’s. Sure, you could dabble in a bit of magic, and a bit of swordplay, etc. And that might be nice if you plan to play modestly and solo a lot. But the real challenges would require you to form a group of diverse character-types. Remember LoZ: Four Swords Adventures? Wasn’t it just perfect (or, if you never got this, imagine how awesome) it was when you have four players and you each had a different weapons? Now imagine that on a more complex and unique scale, and put it in a fully 3D world. Your friend, a thief-like character, could hide in the shadows and kill off the guards to a monster fortress, while you, some kind of melee warrior, tank down the monsters that show up next all while a second friend is supporting you with magic and a third friend is picking off the leftovers with their arrows. Sounds like a good fellowship, eh?

 

But then the game would also be exceptionally explorable! With full character movement control (think Dragon Nest or just plain ol’ LoZ) you could climb on top of buildings or crawl through tight holes. Press yourself against a ledge and slowly move across. Swing your sword and get knocked back by a monsters club! It should feel natural and intuitive. And you’d find treasure or information or SOMETHING good in every little hidey-hole. Discover a vast land of forests and mountains and caves and beaches and more. Explore dungeons and temples of every skill level and theme. And all in a mostly non-linear fashion. The coolest part, i think, would be the loot at the depths of each dungeon and area. Accessories that boost and bestow certain skills and powers, better armor to protect you from more powerful enemies, and tricked out weapons that would make any newbie drool in envy. Suddenly you trade in your standard short bow for an excellent sniper bow, or maybe even one that shoots magic arrows! Or maybe your trusty “Buster Blade” now glows red and deals fire damage! Who know? It’s all up to you! Skill levels would be a thing but character levels would not, and basically, you show your might with your equipment. Each item tells a story, an adventure.

 

But you can’t just run into a dungeon and solve a few puzzles if you want epic loot. All over the land and in every dungeon there are a multitude of monsters of varying powers and intelligence. And lets not forget the boss encounters! They wouldn’t just be bigger versions of normal mobs, but unique creatures (that may share common traits with their lesser comrades.) You might encounter a herd of monster deer in a forest, and when the group is defeated, a big stag appears with monstrous horns and a human face, a la Princess Mononoke. Or you know, whatever. Or at the end of a dungeon you might face off against a humongous dragon. That’s gonna take a full party to take down!

 

I would also really like the game to have a cartoonish feel. Personally, no matter how amazing the game actually is, if I’m not satisfied with the presentation, I wouldn’t be able to immerse myself as easily. Remember this is MY dream game, haha. I’d really love an art style that blended the Wind Waker’s with Eiichiro Oda’s (One Piece) especially with monster designs on the Oda side. If you aren’t familiar with his work, I have an art book of his movie, “One Piece: Strong World” where he published many animal designs for that movie. I look at it quite often for inspiration and amusement too!

 

Some Animal Art:

 

I guess I really just want a game with these following elements: Exploration, Character Customization, Social Experience, and Replayability. The game couldn’t end for a long time. Maybe you’d buy the first game in the series, and have a fantastic time. Then a sequel would come out in 2 or 3 years, where you can explore a whole new world, but you’d be able to bring over your original character and gear. New players could play it like a fresh start, but veterans could continue their adventure right where they left off! I’m not exactly sure how well that would work, but i feel like expansion packs are a bad idea as well. Especially for a home console series. Not a “sit at your desk” computer game, but a “enjoy on the couch with the family” living room console game. I unno. It’s a dream, that much is certain.

What do you think? Would you guys be interested in playing my dream game? And please, do share your own dream ideas as well!!

[Knuckle 484]

A game with Dragon Nest's Crafting/Enhancing mechanics (minus the parts that require pultiplayer cooperation/buying consumables with real money like approval stamps and jellies), Skyrim's overworld size, the difficulty of Dark Souls, and a story as big as (but not necessarily with the same elements as) Final Fantasy VI.

 

Also Dragon Nest's enemy design and Skyward Sword's graphical style. Man I really like a lot of things about Dragon Nest for some reason :?

[Chimetals 344]

Man I really like a lot of things about Dragon Nest for some reason :?

because its a great game.

 

what id look for most is an MMO with the ability to go portable, offline. as in, you could play with your friends on your computer, meet strangers in the same way, interact with the world that way and such, then take your character on a portable system--phone would even be good, if you simplified the graphics and such--and have the ability to levelgrind, get drops, etc while on a car ride or something. even if it was an unrelated minigame for exp or skill points or something more minor, being able to affect the online one would be the key part. different portable systems, with different capabilities, might have different ports with different effects. like, say, the ds version has little sprited versions, but the psp is just like an offline version of the game, and the phone version just gets you more gold for derping around in minigames or something, competing against the other players with said minigames. the ds or phone port might be a turn-based game, actually, similar to etrian odyssey, where your friends can be recruited to your game as party members, earning items or some special points or something for being used, the amount depending on what kinds of enemies youre beating, and how much damage they do or heal.

 

finish it off with character customization on the level of PSO2/late perfect world races, and have armor equips affect your appearance like in DQ9, and then for the cherry on top--the game costs money initially, and while you can pay cash for expendable items that kainda make your life better but you dont need (i gotta throw reality a bone here) everything else in the game is gained by playing, to the point of people using the in-game money system for buying/selling items (ive played some games where the IGmoney was regarded as absolute garbage, and indeed, inflation was insane, and you couldnt actually really use the IGmoney for anything within the games own system).

 

the actual gameplay would be basically identical to dragon nest--basic punching on the mouse, customizable quickslots on anything you wanted, but with the ability to perform macros for attacks and buffs, with any move still in cooldown getting skipped. also, the tanking class would also be the support class. ive played too many tanks that couldnt heal worth anything, nor was their natural tanking actually impressive in the face of anything. soloing levels is also possible for all classes, though how hard it is to solo varies by class. you also get a point bonus for soloing, with the level points resulting in ranks (ABCDE etc, not player rankings) which determine what kind of treasure you get at the end. players all share the same rank, though the MVP of the party gets some sort of end perk, a medal or something, which can be collected to get nice things, or sold if they so desire.

 

the MVP is determined  by some complex, intelligent system that can judge the characters based on class and how well they performed in it. eg, the tank would be rated on hits taken vs damage received, as well as aggro held and how much damage his party members took, characters with varying elements at their disposal would be rated on hitting the enemies elemental weaknesses, ranged characters based on hits per shot, with AoE counting as one shot, and everyone compared to each other on total damage given with respect to their attack, compared to their teammates, as well as "most damage", "most hits dodged",  and other awards like that. a consolation award based on damage dealt vs damage taken would be given to all players, as a motivation to better themselves that way. tanks in this case would have more of a damage dealt/damage mitigated, with the latter being how much damage they didnt take by using their skills or dodging properly. the AI would track enemy attempted attacks (eg, "ogre A attacks archer, miss") to use as the counts at the end, preventing some far-ranged, never-near-the-enemies character from getting "fewest hits" every time.

 

all classes would have a self buff, as well as an incredibly optional team buff, though classes other than the support/tank would have rather specialized and minor buffs, though the MP and skill cost would reflect that as well. elemental damage added to normal attacks or something for magic users, idk.

[Ryu 7]

Sounds like your dream game is in the making.