LOCKEZ'S PROFILE

This isn't an in-depth comment or anything, and I could probably spend the next month writing an entire book about skill upgrades in turn-based RPGs (which nobody would read), but based on some things that people have said I just want to give a warning about "upgrading" a skill by removing its limitations. Upgrading all your single target skills to AOE skills as the game goes on is a common example of this. Or making the upgraded versions of magic attacks ignore elemental resistances, or cost no MP, or occur instantly instead of having a charge time.

Limitations on skills are a big part of what make the different skills interesting. Especially if those limitations matter most of the time, like being single-target or having a charge time. When you remove the limitations, the player's decision-making process gets simpler, and the strategic aspect of combat is significantly diminished as a direct result. Generally as a game goes on, you want strategic decisions in combat to get more complicated, not less complicated, because the player's mastery of the system has increased.

Chrono Trigger is actually an example of a game that has this problem in a real way. For the first half of the game, the skills have really interesting targeting mechanics that require the player to wait, time their attacks, and choose the right skill from several options that each work differently, based on the changing positions of the enemies. Then you get Lightning 2 and you never have to worry about that again for the rest of the game. Nearly every ability from then onward that can hit multiple enemies will hit them all no matter where they are.

Boost the skill's power when you give the player an upgraded version, but don't remove the drawbacks or limitations. It's okay to bend the limitations in a way that doesn't simplify the player's decision-making process though. For example, if Lightning 2 targeted a 50 pixel radius around one enemy, it would be less limited than the single-target Lightning spell, but it wouldn't be unlimited - the new limitation would still require just as much thought from the player, if not more. Similarly, if one of your spells costs a huge amount of MP, and the upgraded version is free, that sucks. But if the upgraded version is only free once per dungeon, and then goes back to being expensive for the rest of the dungeon after you use it, then that's interesting. It adds a layer of decision-making instead of subtracting one.

I can conceive of it, I just think it would require a relatively unusual approach to either RPGs or superheroes, which is why it's not common. I wasn't trying to explain why I thought it was a bad idea, just my theory on why there aren't very many of them.

I still don't see what the difference is between FF7 and a superhero RPG. Your main characters include two genetically augmented humans, one genetically augmented demihuman, one cybernetically augmented human, one genius inventor who fights with battle robots, and one humanoid who's the last of an ancient race and has mystical powers as a result. In other words, Cloud is Daredevil, Vincent is Hulk, Red XIII is Rocket Raccoon, Barret is Cyborg, Reeve is Iron Man, and Aeris is Martian Manhunter.

Tifa, Yuffie and Cid are normal human sidekicks, but have enough specialized training and tools to be able to keep up with the others, which is pretty easy since they're all street-level superheroes. They have power levels that more closely match Iron Fist and Captain America than Iron Man and Wonder Woman. Which means that, like Iron Fist's girlfriend Colleen Wing, Tifa can almost keep up with Cloud in a fight.

So the heroes have the types of powers that superheroes have, and they act heroically. Does that not make them superheroes? It's even in a modern setting. Shinra is basically LexCorp. I guess it's not set on Earth though. Is that a requirement?

I'm being 100% honest here when I say that I legitimately think the only thing that differentiates the superhero genre from the modern fantasy genre is whether or not it was released as a comic book first.

Uh as long as it's not an X-rated game using silly string as some kind of weird Japanese censorship.

Wait. No. That might be amazing.

At some point they stop being naps and start just adding up to enough sleep for the day.

author=AtiyaTheSeeker
So earlier today in my time, I left the Discord server. And removed everyone I knew from my Discord. And deleted my Discord account. I've had the biggest flipout I've ever had here.

So it was a typical Saturday for you?

You pull this stupid melodrama on a monthly basis, presumably because you're taking hormone injections that make you overly emotional. Get over it and stop subjecting the people around you to this crap over and over. They don't deserve it. In some cases, you made a commitment to be friends with these people and to do stuff with them; fucking do it. In other cases, these people are strangers who barely know you; stop blaming their expectations for your idiotic nonstop pointless meltdowns.