Here's the overall concept.

My biggest complaint about most RPGs is how lame the fighting is.
My biggest complaint about most fighting games is how limited the fighters are.

I have ideas to put together an epic RPG adventure, coupled with an innovative fighting style that surpasses the entire "Fighting" genre.

Here's the premise.

I like the name Elements. It describes all at once the world you're going to be playing in, and the powers you're going to be manipulating. Every object in the game world is going to be described by it's elemental composition. The player can interact with the game world by affecting the elements of an object. This way, it provides another level of complexity behind the gameplay.

Character development is going to be on another scale. In the beginning it may seem standard, basic sword and spell, but in the high end, you're going to be blowing up mountains and taking down titans. The powerful warrior in Elements is going to be in another class from those in other games.

The adventure is going to strip down the UI. I'm sick of being hand fed quests and rewards. If the farmer wants me to kill wolves in the forest, I don't need a pointer telling me where the wolves are. In fact, I don't even need the x out of y killed completion counter that goes with it.


That's the basic idea for now, any questions would be helpful to expand my ideas

I do agree that RPGs tend to be a bit lacklustre when it comes to the fighting, you could argue than the genre isn't meant to be about the combat though.

“Elements” is a relatively common name in general so i would advise tacking something onto it. There is also a game called it already. I would advise against assuming, with any word, that it will mean the same thing to other people as it does to you.

How is the character going to get from sword wielding trainee to mountain crushing god? Is it going to be story or action driven gameplay?

How will you take down titans and blow up mountains? Will it be scripted i.e.cut-scene and the mountain goes boom or will it be done through say the combat system? Is it every mountain or just a select one? Will the titans etc be taken down through God Of War style events or just running up and hacking at them or some other system?

One thing i know hampers games like this is there stops being any real challenge. So you took down a 300ft giant? What’s the challenge now? Can wolves still kill me although i blew open a mountain? On the other end of the stick is that you may hold off on the really "epic" moments till towards the end and thus limit the time the player can use them. Its like getting the bad arse gun at the last boss on the last level and then the game suddenly going"That was fun wasn't it? Now let me have the fun thing back and here’s the credits."

As for quests how will the player know where to go? How will you stop those moments when you wonder round a village having no clue where to go and generally getting bored? Will you still be using the talk to guy get a 200 word explanation and then do what he says? When you find the wolves how will you know you killed them all or how many you need to kill for the farmer to be happy? If say one decides to wonder off south away from the group how will the player know to track it down and kill it for the quest or will they just think its bugged and leave it.

Sorry about all the questions playing devil’s advocate a bit.

Lots of great points, thanks for your time.

What I really need to do is get to work on a design document, which woudl really go into more detail. I just thought I'd throw up some of my ideas.

Here's one way to explain my idea. The game "Skate" is one of my favorite games, because I can just roll around the whole city skateboarding with no real goal. The fun is all in the skateboarding.

I'd like to build an action rpg with the same sort of intent. An open sandbox where the fun is just to run around fighting, with no real goal. Quests and w/e probalby pop up, as they do in skate, to give you something to do, but they're not even really essential.

As for the progression, from trainee to titan killer, that's just what I consider the word "epic" to describe. Most RPGs have some sort of character development system. Final Fantasy is known for creating new and inventive systems for each installment. The system I'm thinking of would have to give the player the tools they need to meet new challenges. Much like a Zelda game gives you new tools in each dungeon to solve the puzzles.

What I want the real challenge of the game to be is 1v1 fighting.
If you're a legendary warrior, who could stop you, or even be worth your time, but another legendary warrior.
1v1 fighting is the main focus of Arcade fighting games, which is why I like to draw the comparison, even if this is to be presented as a sandbox RPG.