BATTLE

In any RPG, you spend the majority of your time in battle building up your character. Therefore, we have made an effort to make battle in Dawn of the Twilight Star much more versatile and fun than in any other RPG.

The first step in making battle more enjoyable for you was to give you a selection in battle format:

• Real-Time, heart-pounding, adrenalin pumping, never-giving-your-enemies-a-chance-to-think battle.

or

• Menu battle: Strategic, move by move, turn by turn, never-making-a-wrong-move battle.

In either case, battle will be the most fun you've ever seen in an RPG to date. In fact, you might *gasp* forget there's a reason you're fighting. Now, let's get into how it works >)

REAL-TIME BATTLE

The tried and true overhead-realtime-style battle system has worked for years in games such as The Legend of Zelda, Zelda A link to the past, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy Adventure, Soul Blazer, and many more. We also think this view and type of battle is the most easily displayed and played in real-time combat.

But, as always, we were not satisfied with the basic game play that such a system provides. You end up doing the same things over and over and over ... usually swinging your sword. That to me is just as boring as menu battle. We want the variety of battle options you'd expect from a street fighter such as MK3, SF2, or KIgold - so that's what we've done. >)

Each character (of the 20+ playable characters in the game) has his or her own unique set of special attacks in addition to a basic attack. Each one could stand up to M.Bison, or Shao Kahn any day. We even have a combo system which allows you to link attacks together in a bone crushing display of power. This fantastic arsenel is further supplemented by combination attacks which are completely special to each combination of two or three characters. Oh, they even have special rage attacks when they become ...enraged... don't make them angry... don't say we never warned you. We could keep going with the innovations we have planned... but we don't want to give too much away... even though most of the features we're adding are logical extensions of the current systems.

Oh yeah, did we mention, it's 3D? The battle system was designed around 3D exploration. Battle strategy will be important even in real-time combat, to know how to get an advantage over your opponents. Also, the areas aren't just pretty backdrops for your explorationg... using the environment will be important to success... it'll also be fun and intuitive, and fun, did I say fun already?

MENU BATTLE

Who ever said Menu battle is boring? (well, we think so) So we were determined to make Menu Battle FUN for a change. We started by listing things that made us cringe at the thought of gaining 200,000xp in endless, monotonous, menu battle. Wanna see our list? Sure ya do!

For starters:

• Where do those hordes of monsters come from??? In most RPG's you are wandering through a forest and then all of a sudden, monsters attack out of thin air. You can't avoid them, they just attack. You are thrust into battle.

Our solution:

• You explore the area and find the enemies. You can sneak by them if they don't see you. You can even sneak up on them and dispatch them before they even know you're there. When you are detected, you enter menu battle. When all enemies have been defeated in an area, you know they're gone. We must admit Chrono Trigger came a long way towards a system more like this, however, they still had the next menu battle flaw:

Problem 2:

• The Good Guys are on one side of the screen, and the bad guys are on the other side. Ok, so ChronoTrigger almost got rid of this, but they always seem to line up on a battle field and then, to top it off, they stand still the whole time, waiting for the enemies to attack. I mean, get real!!! You'd be running around, like in real-time battle, not letting them get near you.

Our solution:

• When you encounter an enemy, you don't begin battle until you are detected. Then, all movement freezes, and you enter menu controlled battle. Here's a big change: One of the main things you do in this style of battle is MOVE on the battle field, until another character/monster has a faster rating than you, at which time, you stop. When you have freedom to act, you can move in, attack, and then run away... or you can stand right next to them, hacking away until they get a chance to move or attack, based on your relative agilities. If all works out as planned, a battle in real-time could be played out just as well in menu battle - blocking, counter attacking, pre-emptive striking, etc.

Problem 3:

• What happened to diversity of attacks? You can select hmm... fight, special (you find the most powerful and keep using it), magic (you find the most effective spell and keep using it), item, parry, and run. Very little variation on this has ever been made. This can be the root of most monotony in RPG's. You get very few options in battle. You end up holding down "fight" the entire battle... essentially, a brick could do the same job.

Our solution:

• Remember all the stuff we listed in Real-time combat? You get that in Menu battle too!!! Yeah, cool isn't it? You can set up super combos in turn-based combat ... imagine the combos... you'll never make a mistake... planning each and every attack to link them all together, devestating enemies. Of course, you'll have to watch out here.. since the enemies get combos too...

We think that actually takes care of most of our grudges against Menu based battle.

Now for a tiny list of cool new features that we're adding to both Real-Time and Menu Based combat! The Battle Design document is over 20 pages long (courier new, size 9).

True Critical Hits (not just "extra" damage)

Rage Attacks (automatic "limit breaks" in a way.. but if I explain them more,,, it'll give too much away)

Revenge Attacks (How DARE you hit me? *WHACK* That'll teach ya...)

Weak/Strong Points (on you and enemies)

Skill and Stat Improvment by use

And let me say one more time: We're using 3D for enhanced gameplay. NOT for pretty graphics

If our main concern was beauty, we'd have stuck with 2D... (you may have guessed that I don't like how blocky polygons look... I'm an artist too)

We know ya want to know more.. but as we said before, we don't want to give too much away, or someone else will do it first, and it won't be as unique to our game.

All content, be it text or image, is © 1996 Indigogames.
Squaresoft, Chronotrigger, Shao Kahn, M.Bison, The Legend of Zelda, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy Adventure, Soul Blazer, MK3, SF2, and KIgold are © the respective company and/or party to whom it rightfully and lawfully is owned.