2D Adventure!? would be a 2D adventure RPG for all current consoles and PC, inspired by games such as Terraria, Oddworld, and Zelda II that offer in-depth gameplay, story, and world scope despite being in two dimensions.
I got inspired to do an idea like this while thinking about one of my favorite features from the original Oddworld games that I've seen in other games like DKC Returns and Rayman Legends: an instant, perfectly-flowing transition straight from gameplay in a foreground landscape to gameplay in a background landscape, and vice versa.
I always thought that this was a mind-blowing and immersive feature in any game, and one that is extremely interesting from a level design standpoint, so I thought I would create a game idea that would involve its appearance as a key gameplay element. Since I also haven't done a deep RPG since The Element Chronicles (which I will eventually return to, don't worry), I decided to combine my deep love for Terraria and Castle Crashers, as well as my respect for games like Rogue Legacy and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link to create a new and hopefully innovative RPG.
Story[]
It was an average day in the simple town of Tinkan, in the territory of Mildar, in the land of Sorcerus. A man was doing his usual job as the assistant of a Goblin Welfare Center manager. He had been working there for 4 years, and was sure today would be the day he got a promotion. However, he worked and worked like normal, and in three days, his boss didn't mention a thing to him.
The next day was his day off, so he decided to go for a wander in the woods and think. "Why shouldn't I get promoted?" he thought. "I've been the hardest worker at the center the whole time I've been there, and all I want to do is help people. I deserve that job!"
He continued to walk and came upon a clearing. He saw a little girl next to a giant, scary, menacing arch, and she was crying slightly. He walked up to her and asked her what was wrong. She told him that she was trying to reach a big button ensconced in the arch, but that she was too short to reach it. He was rather curious about this, but he decided that he should practice what he preached and help people in need. He pushed the button, but this was a mistake.
Suddenly the little girl turned into a gigantic demonic man in a black robe, and all manner of fierce, gruesome monsters began emerging from the portal. He knocked the man down to the ground, hopped onto the back of a flying harpy with the parting words, "Thanks for the assist, FOOL!" In an instant, he was gone laughing into the sky and the poor man passed out.
When he awoke, there were no more monsters coming out of the portal, and it was being patrolled by guards. A stocky man was yelling at some of them while an old-looking wizard was standing placidly nearby, gazing at the portal himself. The stocky man immediately approached the man when he saw him awake. "YOU! WAS THIS YOUR DOING?"
The man said no, and tried to explain about the little girl, but the stocky guard commander wasn't buying it. The man was about to receive a furious telling off, but the old wizard intervened before it happened. "He speaks the truth, Silus. I can feel it. Leave him alone."
Silus reluctantly agreed to back down, and the wizard approached to speak with the man himself. "You may speak the truth, but a question remains. Why did you push that button against your better judgment? I doubt your the type to do that under normal circumstances."
The man explained. "*sigh* ...I work at this Goblin Welfare Center in town. I thought I was gonna get promoted recently, but that was 4 days ago. I don't know what I was thinking, but when I saw that little girl, I just decided I wanted to be the guy who helped people when they couldn't help themselves. I didn't know she was...whoever that was. I'm...I'm sorry."
There was silence for a moment, and then Silus interrupted. "Well that's fine, boy, but we still have loads o' monsters loose on Sorcerus without enough resources to do a thing about it!"
Then the wizard chimed in. "You may be wrong about that old friend. Listen, young man...it takes a fool to let his feelings blur the truth he sees in front of him. However, this is also something that marks a hero in the making. This was a problem you caused. By accident, but caused regardless. But if you are willing to fix it, I will give your soul a new form. A powerful, virtuous form, whatever your soul chooses to become. From there, it will be up to you and anyone else helping you to put the darkness in its place and restore peace to this land. Prove yourself the person you want to be. Save this world, and we will be here to support you."
The man nodded after a few moments. And so the wizard pointed his staff at the man, and let forth a flow of transformative magic with the words, "Then let our best hope spring forth!"
At this point, the character creation process begins, in which the 2D, cartoonish character can adopt any gender and any new features the player desires. Once the hero is complete, he/she sets out to defeat the dark wizard with the aid of other heroes with the same objective.
Gameplay and Items[]
I mentioned earlier that some of my inspirations for the gameplay are Oddworld, Terraria, and Zelda II. However, it would not be a direct cross between all of them. Characters can be leveled up within their own world, and leveling up provides the opportunity to increase stats of choice and sometimes obtain slight perks. These stats and perks will be categorized into different playstyles as well, much like in Cube World or Morrowind, so that every adventurer can tailor their playstyle to what they are comfortable with.
The most important aspects of gameplay will be the world, terrain, and quests. The world would be extremely large and contain various biomes and civilized regions, with terrain containing everything from fort walls to hills to grand staircases to caves to cliffs, making travelling much more interesting and challenging. In addition, the explorable terrain will be increased by the inclusion of paths in both the foreground and background of different areas.
Villages will also be regularly encountered like in Zelda II, and these will be typical sources of sidequests, as well as locations that progress the main quest, although many quests will also be available in the wild and in special locations.
Logically, larger villages, towns, and cities will be more expansive and will contain more buildings, items, and general content. They will also contain more NPCs, and NPCs in different areas will have different personalities or contributions to make to the player.
As part of the questing and exploring, players will also be able to obtain legendary weapons, items, treasures, relics, and even adopt pets. Some pets will even be legendary, with extraordinary powers that will be incredibly useful to the players in boss battles. Speaking of boss battles, in addition to main quest boss battles, bosses will also be part of sidequests and can even be triggered by the player independently of any external cue, under the right conditions that is.
Aside from all of this, one thing that could be said about the game is that in addition to having many locations and quests, the quests would also be highly story driven. Characters will have different backstories, mannerisms, and quirks so that the game's intrigue is renewed with each new quest undertaken. This feature tends to drive home how 2D Adventure!? is a game that emphasizes presentation just as much as it does comfortable design.
Weapons and Armor[]
The combat system would be mainly influenced by Terraria, Zelda II, and Dust: An Elysian Tail. It would be very freeform for a 2D game; it would be different from Terraria and Zelda II in that it would not consist so much of concrete moves, but similar in that enemies would appear progressively as the characters moved around, and some data would be provided on each enemy as you encounter them, but not too much that they become annoying to simply move past. To give you an idea, it would be similar data to that in Terraria, which gives you the health count and name of each enemy if it gets close enough.
Enemies and materials would also be given a system of weakness and resistance to different types of attacks. This way, the player will be rewarded by finding various types of weapons and armor to be prepared for any dangerous situation.
The combat in this game would be focused mainly on melee weapons and magic spells, but it would include the typical ranged weapons, and maybe even some simple guns as well. New weapons and armor can be found, bought, or crafted, and the variety of choices for both would be massive. These can be enchanted with various boosts effects as well, so that certain weapons can be tailored for certain enemies.
Weapons and armor would also have varying ratings of weight. There would be no stamina meter; instead, using heavier armor or using heavier weapons will have the effect of making movement noticeably slower, and using lighter armor would have the opposite effect. Bear in mind that weight would not necessarily relate to power or strength, as weight can be effected by certain enchantments, or certain rare weapons could be both light and powerful.
Ending[]
The hero(es) of the game, after spending what feels like ages adventuring and tracking down the hooded figure (who has been nicknamed Dark Robes) until he finally attacks Sorcerus's largest and most famous city of Resperit. After an initial battle with the heroes, Dark Robes flees across the land, leaving powerful enemies in the path of the heroes as they relentlessly pursue him.
Eventually, dark robes retreats into the deepest cave in the land in the hopes that the hero(es) will never be able to reach him at the end of the cave. However, the hero(es) manage to reach him, and after a long battle, they render him powerless. Contrary to what they expected, however, Dark Robes actually transforms back into the little girl who was seen in front of the evil portal at the beginning of the game.
Having no reason left to fight, the little girl explains that one day, she was feeling sad and decided to wander in the forest to take her mind off things, when she came upon the portal. She investigated it, but found herself pulled in by some evil creature sealed within another dimension. She was terrified and assumed she was going to be killed, but the creatures who took her turned out to be friendly to her for some reason. She spent years without aging and lived happily among these dark beings until one day, she agreed to merge her soul with that of an ancient villain in order to travel back to the normal world and release her new friends into it.
However, she found herself unable to choose who she was on the outside, which was why she did what she did. She apologizes to the hero(es) for the strife she caused them, and said she only did it because she wanted to be someone who helped those who couldn't help themselves.
The hero(es) are understanding, and they tell the little girl that her intentions were right on, but that helping the right people is just as important as having those good intentions. She admits that they're right, and decides that she belongs in the alternate dark dimension, as she feels like she belongs there more than she belongs in the real world. However, she returns after making the promise to destroy the portal from the inside. The portal is destroyed, and the hero(es) decide to continue their journey even though their primary quest is done.