This is a game idea that I have been wondering about for awhile now and would greatly appreciate some feedback on this subject. Please note that there may be a game out there that does something like this and I haven't heard about it yet. Most RPGS either have tactics like approach (move your guys around in battle and do lots of tactical stuff), others have the hack and slash (run up to a guy and beat the crap out of him until hes dead and gives you experience[pardon my expression]), or the old you have a party and your enemy has a party; Now take turns attacking each other until somebody dies. To me all of this has seemed a little fake, for if you were fighting someone would you wait for them to walk up behind and strike a devastating blow to you? No, nor if you were in a fight would you keep attacking the same way over and over again, hack, hack, hack, hack, hack, etc. So now to get to the point, what would it be like if you could run around like in an action game and perform combos and summon awesome magic spells with free movement? To better clear up how I invision this, it would be like a 3rd person shooter except instead of guns you where armed with medieval weapons and powerful magic. I have seen some games go to achieve stuff like this (i.e. Tales of Symphonia). But would it be possible to have this idea converted into a 2D game where the camera is positioned directly over the character? Would gameplay lack due to it being 2D? Would it be harder to move and avoid attacks as well as perform combos? I know that you have already done alot by reading all of this but please just take a minute or two to respond to this, thank you.

Tactics games with the battle field and the moving around are really just takes on Chess or Go. These forms of fighting did exist at one point and form, in feudal japan between honorable samurai, or in a dojo during competition. They aren't real by any stretch though, they're mor designed to appeal to strategies, something that doesn't exist in the hack-and-slash action games.

The idea pretty much sounds like Diablo for the most part. You can run around, you've got different weapons to use, you can learn different kick ass spells, you have experience points and different attributes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that pretty much what you have envisioned?

And by the way, both Diablo 1 and 2 kicked ass, so if it hadn't already of been done, it would've been a killer idea.

EDIT: I guess one thing you could do differently would maybe still have the player enter battle areas - so you don't just run into enemies everywhere - sort of like Final Fantasy style where you randomly encounter battles, but then have the battles sort of diablo style, except maybe more tactical and less just hack and slash.

Since 2d games are mostly tile-based, it wouldn't be as effective as it would be if its 3d. An example of what worked is World of Warcraft ;)

I have indeed played Diablo but not Diablo 2, and to me Diablo seems alot just like a hack and slash game. But i more of invisioned like Guild Wars (similar to World of Wracraft) mixed with a heavily loaded combo system.

Also having random battles and entering into a type of "battle arena" is not at all a bad idea, I like it, and it reminds me of the battles of Lost Kingdoms. Which were fun to an extent but the ends of the battle "arena" cut of to suddenly and to make it have decent "arenas" you would have to have some sort of barrier that is clearly noticable and not out of place with the enviroment.

What about a sort of Smash TV approach, with independent move and attack facing capability? (May work horribly for a sword, not sure).

If you're talking about gameplay, you can probably effectively do many of the things you do in 2D that could be done in 3D (jump, roll, dodge, etc.). As always has been the problem, you'll have to do all that artwork, which is easier the more cartoony you're willing to be.

Probably one of the biggest problems will be detail, though: It's cooler and more acceptable these days to be able to see your character perform cool moves (except if you're being cartoony, in which, like Alien Hominid, you can get away with anything because cartoons don't create the same psychological expectations that a well detailed, realistic representation does). So you may be able to do tons of exciting moves, but be able to see none of them.

It sounds to me like your wanting an RPG or MMORPG based off of something like zelda...

I'm all for it!

you should look at secret of mana on the snes. That game allowed you to just hack and slash and wasn't turnbased. But you still had a bar that refills. The idea was when you attack your bar goes to 0% and refills in about a second. But you can attack at any time but your attacks wont be as powerful. So if you attack when your bar is at 50% you'll only inflict a max of 50% of your normal damage. Worked really well. You could use spells to and it was three player co-op. The speed of the game could have been increased if spells were assigned to shortcut keys, whihc could be done easily on PC. But if it was on a console it would have to be the d-pad while you control movement with a stick. Or you could have a second stick that when moved revieals a spell menu. Likje the quick weapon select mode in Turok 2.