I was looking at random RPG Maker battle system interfaces and a thought occured to me – a hypothetical game system I call “Branchpoint”. The idea is that rather than taking command of the main character and the party, you have to also take command of the villians. The story would have points where the main character and the party must be defeated – in this case, the player assumes control of the villians to defeat the protagonist in order to continue the plot, which would resume from the villian’s perspective. When the story re-encounters the protagonist again, and it’s a situation where the protagonist must win, then the player assumes control of the protagonist.

I think this would also introduce a new kind of challenge – players can’t overlevel their characters unless they want a difficult battle when it comes time to play as the other party. Not only that, the type of equipment and accessories must be carefully planned out as not to be overtaken by the next battle swap.

The story would be well-developed that the player would be able to identify with both parties and that all characters on both sides are ‘likable’ – which would mean that the protagonist and antagonist must share similiar goals, but their methods of achieving the goal results in conflict with each other, and in the end, winning as the antagonist or protagonist accomplishes the same result, but with different consequences.

I’ve been having fun playing Star Ocean: First Departure for the PSP lately.