WIP game of my own, need advice

[cr47t 7]

I am currently working on a video game of my own and am working out some things.

 

STORY AND CHARACTERS

The story revolves around one person's attempt to collect 5 ancient stones that can grant abilities (not sure yet how abilities are determined), so she can rescue her sister, who is being kept for ransom. Along the way, she clashes with the game's main antagonist, who is not related to the sister's kidnappers, but is trying to get the stones to save his dying brother. The ransomer is a desparate man who had lost everything in the past, and is trying to work his way back to his former position whatever it takes, and does not face off with the main character until the end of the game (he will be the main villain if I ever make a sequel, but that's not my focus right now.). Along the way, we learn more about the three characters as well as the history of the lost civilization that made the ancient stones.

The two villains are the way they are because I thought these two concepts would be more complex and interesting than the typical "evil greedy guy who wants money/to take over the world" video game villain. I'm not sure what character arc I should put for the main character, I'm thinking something about growing from something of a wallflower into a stronger and more heroic (or vigilante, whatever) person. What do you think?

 

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is a top-down style with an overworld and dungeons, similar to a 2D Zelda game or Secret of Mana.  Your actions in sidequests or towards NPCs also affects your ending (similar to Undertale, which I like.) What I'm not sure what to do, is whether the attack system would be like Secret of Mana (with a sword) or like the old arcade game Robotron 2084 (which would involve a range weapon that can be aimed in a different direction than movement.) I'm just not sure how to replicate Robotron's twin-stick setup on a keyboard. What should I do?

Edited January 14, 2019 by cr47t
Originally the abilities were personality-based, then someone told me this was a bad idea so I scrapped that aspect

[Sleepy 211]

The guy that you call the villain sounds more like a rival, having a similar motivation of rescuing a sibling (although not from the same people as the main hero).
From how it sounds, he actually needs the stones more since they could (and probably would) find an alternative method than just going along with the ransom, but if somebody is dying, the situation is more desperate IMO. Sounds like them figuring it out is the "best ending" scenario.
Also, it seems to lend itself as a concept for choosing the perspective you wanna play from. Though that'd be a tad ambitious if it ended up with different gameplay due to the characters' experiences. It might be better to leave alone for now. 

As for the gameplay, I went to look up Robotron and Secret of Mana. A Link to the Past is the one I'm most familiar with.
I personally prefer a Link to the Past. Having full screen range on your hits demands a more chaotic gamestate if I go by Robotron's gameplay. It makes me think of the bullet hell games a little, and wonder if too much active stuff like that would cause more crashes. It might be used a bit more often but I'm more of a fan for the Secret of Mana approach.
Also, A Link to the Past had its share of long range with the bow, upgraded boomerang, fire/ice staffs, the medallion specials, and the Master Sword when in full health. Seems overall better. Though from my experience with the SNES, Link had to point to the direction he was shooting at. IDK much about PC gaming but I suppose you could find a controller with 2 sticks for adjusting movement and view respectively. Or find a way to assign keys to the directions, though this would probably be a bit of a hassle since we don't have 3 hands xD


 

[Arbalest's Big Crossbow 137]

I would've replied to this sooner, but I for some reason decided to spend the entire night subjecting my self to literary torture.

Yeah, from the look of things it seems that the ransomer guy should definitely be the villain, while the guy who's out to save his dying brother is merely a rival. I do like the idea of your adversaries having their own agendas that aren't simply "for teh evulz!!1!" As for main character progression, you could have a character who is initially so devoted to the idea of obtaining the ancient stones that they do not consider assisting or trusting the rival at all, but slowly sees the good in their rival and devises a solution that works out in both of their favors (if you play your cards right; there should totally be the possibility of this not working out if you don't do everything right). It probably seems a tad bit cliche though? Alternatively, you could have the exact opposite of that: The main character being this bright-eyed individual who wants to save the rival's brother as well as their own sister, but slowly comes to the realization that that just is not possible. Perhaps they can decide to give the ancient stones to the rival to save the brother, holding onto the slim hope that they can ransom their sister with something else. Or perhaps they could put their familial bonds above the rival's familial bonds; after all, you got the ancient stones. You beat the rival. You get the reward. Or maybe they never grow to like or trust the rival, and thinks giving them the ancient stones is a foolish and risky move.

As for gameplay, I have admittedly never played any of those games. I looked up their combat, albeit very briefly, and I'm leaning a bit towards the Secret of Mana approach. I'm not entirely sure if Robotron's really fast bullet-spewing, bullet-dodging battle pace really, er, fits with those calmer 2d old school maps. I don't really have much more to say in this regard. I'm a lot more used to turn-based games but I can't immediately think of a way to make that fresh and to stand out from the millions of other games with similar combat systems. And maybe it shouldn't be turn-based; I'd presume that you know the details of the game enough to have already figured out that it should be faster-paced than that.

[Flame Dragon 19]

The core story elements seem like a good base to build off. If you are trying to make the antagonists sympathetic keep them from being awful people. This more so is for the kidnapper, but applies to both.

I'm not sure on how to replicate twin-stick on a keyboard. My best guess is to use both WASD and the Arrow Keys and have the Space Bar to be for attacks. As for what feels better between the different styles, that will need play testing. For that reason I recommend just doing basic work on the different gameplay elements first.