SheltRPG Devlog 4 - Battle; Overview

SheltRPG features a turn-based battle system inspired by elements of various jRPGs I’ve played over years. I love Final Fantasy games and I liked multiple ideas in Breath of Fire 4, like the tagging mechanic which was pretty new at that time. Apparently Square liked it too, when they made FFX.

There are multiple unique mechanics in our system coming from the use of our Mana, but overall the flow of the game should still feel pretty intuitive. I’ll make sure you get to fully understand it through the well-paced introduction of mechanics through the tutorials and tooltips, and by slowly adding a new character after another, instead of all at of them at once.

I’m saying that because I just finished writing the second half of this devlog and I thought; “That sounds more confusing than it actually is...”. I guess that’s unavoidable when explaining a game with text only, without turning it into a full-on powerpoint presentation. So please, read it if you want, but don’t mind it if things aren’t clear just yet. Right now I’m giving you only the overall flow of the battle, and in the next devlogs we’ll dig deeper into each element.

Each round, the turn order of all units is randomized, with the more dexterous units having a higher chance of going sooner than the other ones, but not guaranteed.

When the turn of a player-controlled hero starts, we have three different actions available. Let’s call them Bonus, Main and Draw actions.

As a part of a Bonus action, the character can burn one of the available Mana charges for its minor effect. As an example, Sansun could burn a charge of Saurian Mana (blue) to recover 15% of his HP, a charge of Avian (yellow) to recover stamina, his own Feline Mana for increased damage on the next attack... small effects like that. The player has the option of using a Bonus action only before committing to the Main action.

As a part of the Main action, the hero can perform his basic attack, cast a special technique, use a consumable item, or guard. As a part of guarding, on top of taking reduced damage until his next turn, the hero recovers a portion of HP and stamina, and has an option of swapping places with any other hero. If he swaps with someone from the back row, the tagged hero enters with damage-reducing Guard effect instead of the original hero.

Most actions of the Main phase consume the hero’s stamina that can be recovered by resting in the back row, by guarding in the front, or through stamina-recovering skills and consumables.

After the hero uses his Main action, he still has one last phase available before ending his turn. During that Draw action, the player can choose one of the Mana charges from the Field to be absorbed by the hero. That way, that hero is guaranteed to have that Mana charge available for his next turn, ready to be used for any of the possible actions that may require it. While it is possible to burn Mana straight from the Field to cast most spells, some abilities may require specific Mana to be within the hero’s personal Drawn pool.

Basic attacks and certain abilities release Mana charges of affected units into the Field, turning the battlefield into a constantly changing pool of power, which is available to both heroes and the Monsters. As the Monsters need a presence of specific Mana types to perform specific attacks, the player has to strategize and constantly manipulate the battlefield to ensure that Mana flows in his favor, not against him.

The player loses when all of the heroes die. The player wins when all Monsters die.

At a win, a victory fanfare plays and the heroes perform their little poses/dances. That’s super important.

And of course we get the EXP, loot, and various progression resources.

------------

So yeah, a very much turn-based RPG. Fun fact, I almost settled on “SHELTER: Across the Borderlands” for the title but in the end I can’t do that, because the acronym would be misleading. I always liked ATB in Final Fantasy but we don’t have it here.

Still, I hope the battles will be exciting and unique even within the pure turn-based style. You can prepare as much as you can for most situations, but you still have to be flexible. After all you can never be 100% certain what Mana you’ll get at any given moment.

So...

Next Devlog:

“The Six Mana Types”