alnite: Somewhere in the config menu, there''s an option to let you play shorter versions of all of the aeon animations. It''s not the best solution (the animations are still at least 10 seconds) but it''s better than nothing.

Kappa: It''s the Moogle Charm you''re thinking of. The Moogle Charm just makes the equipped character''s battle sprite into a moogle, making you think you glitched the game or something.

One thing to watch out for is to not have any disgustingly powerful attack with no real consequence for their use. FF8''s GFs come to mind here. You could breeze through much of the game without ever seeing Squall swing his gunblade. FFX''s aeons are a bit better since many boss enemies have attacks that kill aeons if you summon them, forcing you to use normal attacks.

So if you have magic attacks that are really powerful, make it so only one character can use them, or they cost all MP, or they remove the character from the party for the duration of battle if they are used.

-Auron

How much the battle graphics matter is more about the player''s tastes than anything else. IMO, it''s not a huge deal so long as the sprites don''t look like ass. In some older games, you can''t even physically see your characters in the battle. Bad idea. Watching a battle carry out through a pile of textboxes is boring. I like to see my characters in battle and watch them make their attacks, especially if they actually move when they attack. It annoys me when a character will stand at one side of the screen and swing a sword doing damage to a monster sprite 8 times bigger than they are across the screen with neither party moving at all.

Avoiding all of this in a 2-D game is easy with proper design and in a 3-D game, it''s almost impossible to have all of those deficiencies.

As for the storyline issue, I like a mix between linear and non-linear. There should be an overlying story that your characters should complete but that shouldn''t be all there is to do.

Lastly, level scaling is a tough issue. If you scale all of your monsters'' levels to keep up with you then you have to tone down their power so that you''re not mortally injured after every battle. You also have to be careful to avoid FF8''s problem. The enemies would jump dramatically in levels as soon as your party''s average level hit a certain point. For example: say your average level is 18, the monsters will be around level 5. As soon as you reach level 20, all of the monsters jump to level 32. This made the battles way more difficult in a disproportionate way. So if your enemies will level-scale, make sure it''s done in a more linear way, where they move up a level when you do. Another suggestion might be to give each monster a level cap where they won''t continue to improve. This way you won''t have the bunnies you fight at the beginning of the game become innocent, cute, fuzzy little death machines when you reach level 80.

Just some considerations, take them as you will.

-Auron

OLD RPG PROBLEM:
Linear Stories and one-dimensional, "DUMB" characters

SOLUTION:
The SIM''s is excellant role playing. If you could integrate that level of AI into a traditional party based RPG with modern graphics and multi player possibilities you would have the next major hit in RPGs and even establish a new sub genera.

Imagine in party rivialries and romances. Imagine being in battle when your rival for the love of the fair princess decides to let you take one hit too many. Imagine your conversations with other characters actually mattering and not being just a means to justify the battles and give you something to do in between cut scenes. This is something that could even capture the elusive female market.

Okay thats my brilliant idea. Hope it helps.

Nos Obligatus Peto Veritas

Since you are making an RPG for the GBA I would say make it harder. In Recent RPGs i almost never die, while in the old FF I somtimes got killed by little plants. It would be nice if games in general were a little harder as well. If you could figure out a way to incorporate a little more stragety in the battles that would be nice as well.

Just a thought...

It seems to me that most RPGs exaggerate the effect of experience on players. I was playing a MUD a while ago, in which a friend a good 13 levels higher than me (I just created my character) accidentally killed me with one hit of his whip. I emphasize accidentally meaning it wasn''t even deliberate PKing. Now, it seems to me that no matter how experienced you are (and this friend was not incredibly experienced) it would be more than a little difficult to kill someone in one swing of a whip.

Furthermore, it seems to me that no matter how experienced someone is, odds are very few people can really take substantially more abuse before getting killed. That is to say, this mighty soldier will die just as easily when tied to a chair and stabbed with a knife as an average villager. Obviously there would be some variation, but not so much as most RPGs imply.

My point? Who says a character''s abilities, such as hit points and defense, have to change so rapidly? It would actually make more sense if they didn''t. Where''s experience come into play then? Simple. Under the conditions of normal battle, an experienced warrior will be much more likely to get a good hit on his opponent than an inexperienced one. Similarly, he or she would be much more likely to dodge, parry, or otherwise minimize the damage sustained from his opponent.

Rather than making a level up a stat boost frenzy, try just increasing things like the character''s dodge / parry rate, his "critical" hit rate (if you even differentiate) and things like that.

It''s not a huge issue by any means, and nothing that would turn me off of a game. I do think it''d be a nice breath of fresh air though. Also, this applies more to console RPGs than PC. I have other suggestions for PC RPGs, but you did say you''re thinking of an RPG for the GBA.

-Arek the Absolute