PONY ARPG
Do you Fbers hate me yet? Well, sucks for you, because I'm lazy and this livejournal is my major connection to the dev group.
When we last saw DD and her party:
Daylight extrapolates the rest of that sentence, in typical giddy fangirl fashion, and syncs with Pinkie. "Rainbow Dash is the fastest Pony in Equestria!"
"Ah beg-*pant* ta differ." THe camera pans to reveal AJ huffing and puffing, hat balanced precariously over one ear, and Rainbow Dash fluttering, hair more messed up than usual, and equally out of breath.
"NO WAY! I was totally here first!"
"If'n ya think that, ya've kicked one too many clouds!"
"Girls!" Yells Twilight, the camera cutting to her, glaring annoyedly. She's seen this a few too many times. "Call it a draw and join the party." She's using what I refer as a 'stern mother' voice, leaving no room for argument.
"Yeah! Try the cake!" The camera cuts back to AJ and RD, with pinkie pie magically appearing between them, waving around two pieces of cake on plates. "Oh! And this is our new friend!" Pinkie drops the cake unceremoniously. AJ's piece hits the ground, RD swoops in to rescue hers. The camera follows the gleefully trot-bouncing PInkie, who moves to stand beside DD. "Daylight Streamers."
"Daylight Dreams." DD says, sounding more resigned than annoyed. "My name is Daylight Dreams." She emphasizes the second word. (NOTE that the mane Mare's name is still not finalized. I think we're saying it's gonna start with an 'A' now? I dunno. Whatever her name ends up being, the running habit of Pinkie introducing her wrong will remain in tact."
Anyway, not that DD has introduced herself to AJ and RD, player control is restored. The player may now talk to any of the Mane Six, but won't really achieve a whole lot. She can also explore the buffet table, and perhaps find a food or potion item with heal benefits (or one with heal and one with magic, or buff, or what have you). Behind the Mane Six, the door to Twilight's library (NOTE This library is apparently called the Branches and Books library. This might be relevant for some reasons or another) is open. The Player may enter the library, (which may result in a map change effect) to enter the library. Upon entering, they'll see a single book lying on the floor, which they can interact with to obtain "Encyclopedia Equestria: A Magical Guide to all things Pony." Should they open this item in their inventory, they'll find a description reading along the lines of, "This magical tome automatically updates itself with new information as it becomes available. Hmm. Most of the pages look blank..."
As new monsters, worlds, and species are encountered, the book will reveal more and more information. As a start, in contains brief entries on Earth, Pegasus and Unicorn ponies.
The Pony entries will reveal the useful tidbits regarding the stats of each pony type. EG, earth ponies have average attack and high defense, average move speed; Pegasus have Average attack and defense, but exceptional move speed (and thus a tendency not to be hit by enemies; may need to be referred to as agility? I dunno. Someone with more game experience tell me.); Unicorn ponies have very low defense and low move speed, but the highest attack in the game (I believe the term is glass cannon?).
The format for entries on monsters and species will probably be akin to:
Attack Power: Exceptional/High/Average/Low/Dismal
Attack Type: Physical, Magical, Other, Both, Varies
Alignment: Light, Neutral, Dark
Defense: Exceptional/High/Average/Low/Dismal
Agility(Move speed?): Exceptional/High/Average/Low/Dismal
Endurance (Health points and regeneration rates): Exceptional/High/Average/Low/Dismal
Focus (Skill points and regeneration rates): Exceptional/High/Average/Low/Dismal
THIS HERE IS A BLURB ABOUT THE THING WE'RE WRITING ABOUT YO. TRY TO KEEP IT UNDER 200 WORDS!
Likewise, as each member of the Mane Six joins/cycles in and out of/whatever DD's party, they'll receive a page about themselves in Encyclopedia Equestria.
Having obtained their Encyclopedia Equestria, the player can continue exploring the library, but won't find much of interest. They can return to the party, and be treated to a (much quicker) cutscene of the party rocking until the sun starts to set and everypony begins heading home. Player control is returned, and the player can explore the roads of Ponyville, but won't be able to enter any buildings until they head back home.
Upon reaching their home, the closed door they couldn't enter before can now be opened, and they can head to bed. The bedroom is small, contains only a bed, a dresser table. Her horn is lit, the light of which pools around her, leaving the rest of the walls dark. However, on the far wall, plainly visible, is a hanging, decorative(OR IS IT? No. No it is not) sword underneath a glass case.
Interaction command allows DD to go to bed. She tosses and turns, making little I-am-having-a-bad-dream noises and so on. The shadows on the edges of her room seem to be moving. This is because the little start-enemy (equivalent to shadows from KH) are swarming around in her room, to take away her sword.
The sound of breaking glass jerks DD into wakefulness, and her horn is immediately blazing. End cutscene. Player control is returned.
BATTLE TIME! For the first time since the game begins, the HUD, showing DD's health and skill points, appears. It will remain in whatever position it takes up (that's an art persons thing, not mine) for the entirety of the battle. Whether it continues to exist after the battle is either and art person or a design person's business. I figure the usual green-yellow-red setup for the health bar and blue-to-black set up for the skill bar will be fine.
Because the battle is taking place in the dark, btw, DD is having to keep her horn illuminated. This saps some of her SP over time, giving her a very slow drain. As she has no battle skills yet, this hardly matters.
Being unarmed, she jump, kicks and horn-pops at the swarm of little enemies. This battle IS winnable. In fact, it's not even that hard. It's just tedious. It has an automatic win function which occurs when DD's health hits red (or 25%, or however we want to deal with that). She releases a flood of light from her Horn, which sucks down all her remaining SP, but disperses (kills? I dunno. Dev team, get back to me on that) all the little enemies. The sword clatters to the floor. She can pick it up through an interaction command.
Once the sword is picked up, we cut scene to her magicing the sheath onto her flank, and looking around frantically.
At this point, there could probably be some dialogue, btu I don't think it's necessary. She races out of her home, into the streets of Ponyville, unable to even light her horn, having cast her limit break skill (probably should be related to her name, eg Daylight Dreams would cast Noontime Sun or something like that). Thankfully, Ponyville's streets are lit by streetlamps. A few more of the little enemies are seen scurrying down the path towards teh Everfree forest. Player control is returned. The player is expected to follow the little enemies, though I seen no reason why they couldn't be allowed to explore Ponyville again. Eventually, they'll head towards the Everfree forest.
And now I'm done for this morning. I'll try again later.