Well, it's already destined to be clichéd, considering the plot twist at the end is "the supposed professor" that was a good guy is actually evil! However, I don't want the game to contain "save the princess" levels of cliché-ness. Let's try and be a little original, yes? I already feel guilty for stealing a bunch of stuff from Zelda as it is.
Well, the basic plot is this:
- Shaw & Vlad were friends
- Shaw and Vlad fight
- Shaw and Vlad are now enemies, looking for same fragmented pieces
- Shaw and Vlad go and find the pieces
- Shaw and Vlad fight, Shaw reclaims pieces
- Professor Marks steals pieces, takes control of ancient monsters, was evil all along, must be defeated
- Shaw and Vlad team up, peace is restored.
That's very very simplified, I gave a slightly more in-depth plot analysis earlier in this thread. Anyone that hasn't read that should definately read it.
So, Oliver and Vlad both start in this game's equivelent of Pallet Town. A small, rural area with only a few houses, a schoolhouse, a store, one long river, and a surrounding woods. Also, the home town was separated long ago into two halves by an earthquake. now they're so far apart they function more like sister towns than one big town. the half that you
don't start in is more developed. However, it isn't your first mission. I'm absolutely set that the first mission must be to go to The Ruins once more. It jump-starts the adventure - I'll explain.
I'm not set on his age, but let's say Oliver is 16 throughout the game. If that's the case, then when he was 10, that was when he went on a school field trip with Professor Marks and Vladimir, to The Ruins. The fight that made them enemies happened within the ruins, after they fought over one of the 9 keys to the ancient dieties. Greed got the best of them, and while it cost Oliver his eyes and Vlad his legs, it also caused a collapse of the ruins. After they escaped, Vlad swore he'd get that key and all of the keys one day soon. Oliver swore to himself that he'd never let that happen. So, years later, Oliver set out to the place he knew Vlad would return to one day. Vlad left the town when he was 12, never seen again. When rumblings of "Some mysterious teenager that was wreaking havok in search for ancient treasure" reached the home town that Oliver stayed in, he knew that he would have to return to that place once again before Vlad got there. In the years of his absence, Vlad mastered dark magic, built up a small army, and learned to phase out of reality. Now that he had finally built up enough power, he returned to his hometown to finally claim that gear-key that was lost in the cave-in a long time ago.
As I said, Oliver predicted this much, and got a headstart on Shaw. I'm not sure how he will recieve news of "Vlad's uprising," and how that will work, but I know that for a little while you have to stay in your home town, learn the controls of the game, like in Zelda, and then after some triggered event, the time comes for you to leave. Unlike in Zelda where the sword is "earned" or something in the beggining, in my game, the Mace is resting on your wall the whole time, waiting for this day. When he knows it's time, he grabs the mace and escapes his town in one swoop.
If you look at the lower-left corner of the map, you'll see that the only way to get to The Ruins is through a forest. He travels hastily through that. He arrives at the ruins, and the player plays the first "dungeon." No Boss, but the key is acquired. This dungeon will be returned to later. It acts as the pedestal for which the player presents the collected gear-keys. But for now, the player will leave the temple. As he exits, his first sight is his old rival. You fight him, right there and right then, prepared or not. Not sure what happens here. I'm thinking about making you lose, and then he takes the piece after all of that trouble. In a clichéd monologue, Vlad describes important stuff, but the real important thing is that he briefly mentions that he has already enslaved your hometown. You run back (traversing the woods is easier now that you have some newly acquired item). When you return, there are monsters all over the town. You defeat them and free the town, obviously.
Your next goal is, obviously, to get the next gear thing. The sister city has more information, so you go there. You talk to someone in the sister city. I don't know who yet. You learn that the next place to go is the peaks. There's one guy that lives in the moutnain that knows where, on top of that huge mountain range, the gear-key rests (he might join your party, as an ice mage?). Atop that mountain is a snow-themed puzzle, which is so expansive it becomes a dungeon. The puzzle is to get one large contraption to work. The contraption is a giant torch or something, which melts the ice that has engulfed the key. The key is acquired, but then on the way back down, the boss fight begins. It's some ice monster, obviously. I may be clichéd in using an ice-monster, but what I think is interesting is that the timing of the boss is always going to be different. Here the boss is after you get the key. It's quite unlike Zelda, where every boss "guards" the thing you're after. In Zelda, it's alwayd boss first, stone second. One or two bosses will be "protecting" the gear-keys in my game, traditional Zelda style, but most bosses will be after. Some might even be at a different timing, something strange and unheard of.
I want things to have less rhythm. I hate how in Zelda it's: enter dungeon, solve some puzzles, recieve item, solve more puzzles, fight boss, get stone/medallion. It's too predictable. I want my game to be less systematic, less predictable. Some gears will be where they should be. Others will have been taken by Vlad before you get there. One will be stolen the moment you step foot outside the temple. Vlad "jumps" you after the first dungeon and the sixth, maybe. Those numbers are not set in stone, but the idea of gear-keys being stolen
is.
After the snow, you'll go to the lakeside town, and to the tree, of course. Not too sure about after this, so I'll stop here for now. Although I do know that after the graveyard dungeon (6th dungeon?), your piece is stolen, and so you chase after Vlad on foot, until he takes the elevator to the underground "sewer" civilization. The entire crime-infested city is the headquarters of Vlad, so this part will be all about stealth and stuff. You escape, and instead of pushing the "surface" button on the elevator, Oliver pushes the "limits" button. He ends up in the mechanical heaven miles above the ground, and completes the 7th dungeon right there. This part, too, is something set in stone. everything else, I'm open to suggestions on how to keep the plot flowing regularly.
The flaws from TP must be eliminated. I want interesting things to do in-between each dungeon. I want my towns to be filled with NPC's that talk to you, ones that you want to save from disaster. I want mini-games. I want the last few dungeons to not drop the ball. And I want the storyline to make sense, and for the plot to flow properly and smoothly. Those are all very important things that must not be forgotten. So, who has more ideas for storyline?
Edited by D~N, 13 August 2008 - 10:03 PM.
