Character development system

[Bodie]

The current plan (which will likely be adjusted as the game is developed):

- There are several types of Orb weapons in the game. Each orb has a different melee arc and a different ranged attack. Using the same orb frequently will raise its strength. So, even if you find other orbs in the game with neat attack forms, you can stick with the one that you like. This would be most similar to Order of Ecclesia, where you would pick weapons based on their speed and range (and sometimes their element, although it remains to be seen if we'll have elements in Timespinner).

Example: The Blue Orb in the demo is a quick and weak attack that only hits in a line in front of the player. The Green Sword Orb will have a slower attack speed, but a larger arc and base damage. Note that the 'base damage' will be adjusted so that roughly each orb can dish out the same amount of damage per second. Roughly

- Lunais will be able to purchase Orbs, Passives, and other misc items from the Merchant Crow. One of the notable abilities will be Passives, similar to the 'R' passive from the DS Castlevania games. Things that are on all of the time. Ex: Orbiting orbs will deal damage or deflect projectiles.

[SHODANFreeman]

That sounds like a pretty ideal way of doing it, in my opinion.

[Nayrman]

Indeed, that does sound like a good way to do it. Will things like items or passives give things like status effects to melee's or shots? Things like stunning an enemy longer or a poison/slow damage effect? Maybe passives that do things like that could maybe slow an orb down or lower power, as a way to diversify the gameplay while keeping the base weapons balanced as you mentioned before. Again, just throwing ideas out there.

[sWiTcH-e-RoO]

I think that's what should be stuck to for now, really like how it sounds. Like Shodan says, it would be great to have every single Orb be useful instead of upgrading to a different one just because it's completely better. Orbs should be good for all types of situations, so that the players can change accordingly for better results, or keep whatever they want for a challenge!

[Kein]

- Lunais will be able to purchase Orbs, Passives, and other misc items from the Merchant Crow. One of the notable abilities will be Passives, similar to the 'R' passive from the DS Castlevania games.

How about make some combination of passives work in tandem with active orbs? I'm not talking about some primitive stuff like, get the passive to resist ice, equip Fire Orb and go devastate all ice-based enemies. I'm talking about something rather unique like Weapon Special Attack in SoTN - some of the swords had these spec-attacks you could use (Rapier, Holy Mace, Flying Sword, etc). What if some Passives could affect Orbs to produce such effects (ie modify base attack OR charge tiers attacks: in the demo, charge attack of blue orb was throwing hadukens and waves, but affected by passive skill that resonates with it it could be something different, may be not simply offensive even)?