DASH: Tales from the Halcyon Days

[DerZocker]

Like I mentioned in my introduction I'm planning my own spin off game of Legends.
Because of the difficulties I also mentioned there wasn't much done over the years while I brooded over the idea.
The main intention is create kind of a gaiden game, which focuses on its own characters, set in the world of MML with the artstyle of a PC-Engine CD /MCD game, right down to an early 90's inspired charadesign and hopefully, animated cutscenes.
The original basic plot draft was something along that parts Sigma reemerged ( wreckage of him drifting in space after X4 that crashed back on earth) and corrupted the mind of the unit watching over the ruins benath the impact site. Sadly, I don't think I found a plothole big enough to shoehorn him in, even by Capcom standards^^
What I can offer at the moment is brief overview of the current cast as well as some mockups and concept art.
Well, let's start somewhere


Maru Yamazaki
The main heroine of the game. Her design is based on Zero (say what!), in fact even her name is a pun on him. She's rather tomboyish and was always fascinated by the ruin networks thanks to the stories her grandfather told her. She wields a sword made out of a big refractor. She doens't like to be mistaken for a boy.


Iris Elizabeth Dragendorff 
Maru's spotter and best friend. She's a bit greedy, likes to make a quick buck, and likes to have a good drink from time to time. Also posseses a typical Ojou-laugh. Still, she has a good heart and is pretty good with machinery. She doesn't like ruins very much, since she and Maru got lost in a local ruin as children. Also has two sisters who are working at their hometowns digger guild.


Hans Dragendorff
Iris' dad. An airship manufacturer who also does a bit of transport buisness. He's a longtime friend of Maru's grandpa, who he also considers his mentor, as he assisted him on several digs when both were younger. He build the airship Maru and Iris are using to get around and occasionally provides them with smaller jobs.


Nameless McCoy
Your typical pirate captain. Short tempered, always looking for loot and treasures and has a big mouth. He uses his large Airship called the Skybuster for his raids and actually he would steal the toiletpaper*g His parents must have hated him, because Nameless is his actual name. Even though he constantly shouts at his crew, he honestly cares for them. He loves green tea and commands a small troop of robots which were created from a pile of ancient robot parts, he stole from a digging site.


Maru's and Iris' yet unnamed airship. It has the modelno. NDF-03 which was an inside joke for "Not Da Flutter - 3rd attempt"

derzocker.deviantart.com/art/The-DASHpad-347435848
this pic shows a few more charas, who aren't properly developed yet.

One of my other problems is that I'm unsure in how to recreate the unsettling, creepy atmosphere of the ruins in 2D, also as I'm cosidering to move the project over to Game Maker there isn't much defined in terms of the battle system. Well, I know it should be an action battlesys, but that's it. No idea, if I'll shift the gameplay more into a Zelda or Ys direction.

Last but not least I'll show a few old mockups I made in RPG Maker. They're really old^^"





I hope this gives you basic idea of what I have in mind. I probably forgot a lot of things I wanted to add here, but it's almost early morning and I really need some sleep now, so pardon me if my sentences make less and less sense. If anyone of you has questions, or ideas or anything, let me hear it all.
Good night^^

Edit: Dammit, I didn't noticed some of the screenshots were doublesized. I'll try to correct it tomorrow
Edit²: done

[Adrian2040]

Is it just my imagination or is Iris's design based on Adrian Andrews from Phoenix Wright: Justice for All?

[Kyle]

And now Zero's boob-lights got twice as awkward.   

While the gameplay screenshots like really promising, I gotta' admit, the plot and some character designs don't really click with me. Shoehorning Sigma in is a baaaaaaad idea, since he's been involved with more recycling than any of the Scandinavian countries. As for Nameless McCoy, he's... kinda generic. Too much like a stereotypical pirate. His amour looks like a hybrid of Teisel and Volnutt's attire. Maybe a more unique design would be best?

Those are just my two-cents now. Take 'em as you will.

[Dashe]

Okay. *Cracks knuckles* I've been in this fandom a long time, so for now I'm gonna pull out the elements that I see way too often in projects like this. You look like you want a cast of characters that stands out and does its own thing, right?

If you're looking for ways make your cast really stand out, the biggest alteration I'd make is to your literally Nameless pirate. He just seems too much like every other non-Reaverbot antagonistic force in Legends canon and fancanon, and the biggest thing that's bugging me is, in fact, the robot minion team he's supposedly got.

In canon, you've got Servbots, you've got Birdbots...what if instead of sentient minions, this guy was set on running a purely one-man operation, and had a skillset based on programming remote-op weapons because he doesn't trust even his own ability to create AI? You can still give him an army made out of scavenged robot parts, but they'd lean more toward the mobile weapon end of the spectrum instead of the adorable mascot end.

I mean, if his parents wouldn't even give the guy a real name, he probably grew up with some nasty trust issues. Maybe give him more of a legitimately paranoid angle--piracy is the one way he can make a living without ever having to interact with other people directly. Play it as straight as you can, too. It'd give him a sense of volatile unpredictability that would turn the old "loud, boistrous pirate" trope on its head, and really make the audience think him capable of stealing the toilet paper.

It'd also be cool to see a bad guy wearing blue for once. Try palette swapping the pirate and Hans. The green gives me too much of a Teisel vibe, ESPECIALLY considering the way the suit itself is shaped. fAB and Blyka ran into similar issues with one of their pirates from TLT resembling Teisel a little too closely in the visual department, and no matter what kind of personality he may have, visuals usually tend to trump in this fandom. I'm tempted to even say shorten McCoy's hair in the back, for what it's worth. The beard is great, though.

The girls seem fine. You should, however, put any nudity under a cut with some warnings, because that's not everyone's cup of tea.

---

Story. Right. Your best bet would probably be to opt for something episodic in nature. From the ten years I've spent following or not following Legends fangames, a good 90% of people fall into the trap of getting too ambitious.

You've got a pretty basic story setup already--you should first consider your basic digging group initially. Hans, Iris, and Maru. They need a goal for the player to accomplish. Maybe that goal is just "make some money because we're running out and need to survive, most money collected in 10 minutes wins." Maybe they're after a specific treasure because of rumors that it could magically make Maru never get mistaken for a boy again, or bring Iris's mom back to life if she's dead, or any number of points of interest for these characters. Or maybe McCoy's drones have broken into their ship and stolen something important from Hans while Maru and Iris were out, and instead of going underground, they need to sneak onboard his ship, which is full of traps and killer robots (which would work well with the paranoia alterations suggested above). Maybe both combined, with a trip to the ruins leading into returning to a ransacked Not-Flutter and spurning the girls to have to go after McCoy seeking revenge for whatever he's done.

Just focus on finishing a smaller, simpler story, 100%, instead of jumping straight into an epic, and then expand the universe with future, similarly sized installments that each stand on their own while adding to the saga. That way, nobody gets stuck waiting for a cliffhanger to resolve itself, either, and you can exercise your own writing skills incrementally because there's no pressure to make anything large-scale. Believe me, it'll be worth it when you find yourself joining the ranks of the few developers who can say they've actually finished a Legends fangame.