Help with a Gunslinger Main Character...

Which Competitive Balance type suits him better, Fragile Speedster or Lightning Bruiser?

This game I have in mind has Multiple Endings which gives the MC four options depending on the player input. The Lancer does a Face–Heel Turn and has to fight the hero. There are three options depending on the result:

• If the hero wins, he has the option to take an offensive-type item on top of his default defensive-type item but you don't get the best ending, or not to take it and needing only fewer crucial end-game choices to obtain the best ending.
• If the hero loses, the defensive item will be taken away from him, leaving him more squishy throughout the rest of the game and guarantee yourself the best ending.

The other party members are these:

• A female Samurai, preferably a Fragile Speedster compared to the hero, but her low defense is offset by having better armor than him.
• A Fire-type Bare-Fisted Monk Shotoclone
• A Water-type White Mage
• A Lightning-type Ninja
• An Old Master Black Mage
• An Earth-type Archer.
• A female Wind-type Mighty Glacier Magic Knight

Any suggestions? Thanks.

edited 29th Mar '12 9:10:07 AM by judasmartel

I say Fragile Speedster; I'd imagine that if he's a gunslinger, he'll rely more on skill than on pure physical ability (though I suspect it does take a certain amount of physical strength to handle a gun).

In the context of a game, I tend to think of heroes as a Jack of All Stats. On the other hand, giving this gunslinger high speed and low defense could contribute to the challenge. It'll also probably mean that if the gunslinger's a bit poor in defense, the samurai lady might have to have weaker defense if you want that relative comparison.

Out of curiosity, what type of game is this? Because in my experience, sometimes it's the speedsters who are the most devastating of all. How effective your gunslinger is and what he can do may depend on what options the player has at any given time.

edited 26th Mar '12 10:42:12 AM by Voltech44

A turn-based RPG made with RPG Maker. This way, though, I'm leaning towards Jack of All Stats, but I'm not sure how I can emphasize his gunslinger status without making him too weak or too overpowered.

So far, my ideas are like this:

• He starts off with a one-turn Invisibility buff and a Lightning Bullet. As he recruits more party members, he gains more Abnormal Ammo.
• He can wear caps, boots, and vests; unlike the traditional heavy to medium armors for MCs.
• He's the third fastest character in the party, but he only tops the mages in terms of HP. Which brings into question which stats are suitable for a Knife Nut Ninja.
• When the mages can cast magic spells to deal with Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, he only relies on his Abnormal Ammo for elemental attacks.

So, yeah, I think this looks like Jack of All Stats if anything.

edited 26th Mar '12 11:19:43 AM by judasmartel

Hmmm...well, if you'll allow me to weigh in...

• If you play up the speedster angle of the gunslinger, he could have abilities that emphasize speed and accuracy — basically, hitting others without getting hit, just like a real gunfight. The invisibility buff is a good idea; maybe he could have an ability that increases his dodge rate (by focusing his mind or something). Or a Stance System; taking a page out of Chris Redfield's book from Marvel vs. Capcom 3, he could lay on his stomach, letting him take potshots for a short time with increased evasion but reduced damage.
• You could use a "risk-reward" sort of system with armor. Heavy armor = higher defense, but you take a penalty in terms of number of turns, evasion, etc.
• In my experience, Ninja = Glass Cannon — a speedster taken to its extremes. The ninja could have extreme speed and have a huge emphasis on evasive techniques, but if he/she gets hit it's all over.
• Abnormal Ammo and elemental bullets are a cool idea, but here's a suggestion: how about giving the gunslinger the ability to "target" certain body parts? Etrian Odyssey had a similar system where you could attack arms, legs, or the head to inflict status effects; doing so in that game affected their offense, movement/escape, and casting ability respectively. The gunslinger could do the same — it'd be a great way to differentiate between party members, and give the gunslinger a more defined role. Combine that body part-targeting with magic bullets, and you've got even more possibilities.

Well, those are just a few ideas I came up with. Use them at your leisure.

So, disabling bullets alongside elemental ones, huh?

Say, how about an option of giving him a Melee Mode through a Gunblade? Ranged Mode lets him shoot from afar for normal damage and defense, while Melee mode increases his attack power at the cost of his defense. That way, the player can give him this or Guns Akimbo.

edited 26th Mar '12 11:15:54 PM by judasmartel

Forgot something.

• An Earth-type female archer

A gunblade, huh? It's certainly possible. And while we're on the subject — depending on your level of interactivity/gameplay style, why not add a trigger system? Press a button at the right time, and you can do extra damage (or get in an extra attack, or inflict extra status effects).

On the subject of an archer...why not have one of them focus on single-target damage, while the other specializes in multi-target attacks and crowd control? Taking a hint from Tales Of Vesperia, I can see the archer shooting an arrow at the ground and causing a burst of stalagmites.

edited 31st Mar '12 7:59:26 PM by Voltech44

Except that I'm making this archer an Elven Ranger type. That is, giving her elemental damage and nature-themed status buffs and debuffs.

That way, I have two supportive characters: the Water-type White Mage and this Earth-type Ranger.

Support-wise, they have almost the same basic White Magic spellset, but the White Mage specializes in healing and damage-boosting buffs while the Ranger specializes in defense-boosting buffs and standard status effects.

edited 1st Apr '12 12:22:38 AM by judasmartel

Ah, I see. Well then, I suppose you have your archer in order. The same goes for the other classes, as far as I can tell.

Out of curiosity, though, are there any light- or shadow-type characters in your RPG? I know there's some overlap between white mages and holy spells, but I figured I'd ask if there was anyone like the Warrior of Light.

At any rate, it's looking good. Hope I managed to lend you a hand.

My MC has the light element as the Infinity +1 Element, while one bonus character has the dark element.

The story doesn't actually start from the MC's POV, but rather from the POV of a previous generation, which consists of the following party:

• A female Paladin, the heroine of this first act; she was raised The Spartan Way alongside...
• A female Magic Knight, her twin sister, and...
• A typical Mighty Glacier with a BFS, who's engaged with the Magic Knight but secretly likes the Paladin. They're on a trade mission to their world's most technologically advanced nation, and there they meet...
• A Warrior Prince Lightning Bruiser with Dual Wielding.

Needless to say, they're Purposefully Overpowered because you can recruit them WAY later in the game as bonus party members, but you don't have to. The first arc falls under A Taste of Power gameplay-wise if anything.

If anything, the female Paladin is the closest thing you can get to the Warrior of Light in this game.

edited 1st Apr '12 1:32:18 PM by judasmartel

I'm back. Got held up by schoolwork and all.

Anyways, just played FFIV and now it inspired me to go back through it.

I have decided to scrap the Gunblade for my MC so he becomes a full-blown Gunslinger. No significant change for the other characters.

Plot-wise, my story might involve Time Travel and a Stable Time Loop in the end. After defeating the Big Bad, the player has an option to either stay in the present time to help rebuild the world, or go back to the past and defeat the Big Bad there as a Bonus Final Boss.

If player chooses the former, the forces of evil will keep coming back, but as long as the whole world is united under the forces of good, they will never win.

But if player chooses the latter, the MC may go to the past alone by himself or he can take other people with him. This is where The Lancer (who has since became a Holy Samurai) and the four characters from the very first arc of the game (The Paladin, the Magic Knight, The Big Guy, and the MC's father) come in. They are pretty overpowered now because they join you late in the game, if you could defeat them, as they are now holy angels who answer only to their Worthy Opponents.

As par of the course, all five of them are basically Bonus Bosses you need to defeat before they could join your party.

• The Holy Samurai has insane physical damage and a Razor Wind skill capable of Total Party Kills for the unprepared.
• The Paladin usually attacks normally for okay damage or heals herself with Curaga or something like that, but beware of her Holy Hand Grenade.
• The Magic Knight is a formidable one. She hits very hard and could buff herself up and cast insanely powerful magic, with something like Aeroja being her specialty.
• Sure, The Big Guy can't cast magic and is slow, but his normal attacks can almost always one-shot pretty much anyone.
• The MC's father is just the same deal as the MC's former Lancer, but uses lightning attacks instead of wind. Only that he can buff himself up for Quad Damage AND cast something like Thundaja.

You can take whoever you want, but once you defeat the Bonus Final Boss, your whole party shall cease to exist and will come down into legend Shrouded in Myth.