A semi-turnbased RPG in the vein of some of Final Fantasy's more recent ATB systems such as in XIII. The player is a customised character, but within the idea of a solitary, very resourceful warrior who tries to overcome impossible odds by using everything down to the tiniest resource to win.The setting is some sort of wasteland, most like Shadow of the Colossus's deserted plains after a series of natural and unnatural disasters shattered the earth and splintered the terrain into pieces. Twisted creatures from these fallouts roam the land, and with survivors few and far between, the warrior has taken it upon themself to be the single hand to make the area safe again.
Similar to Colossus, the main focus is boss battles, but there are still smaller enemies to supplement as it's not primarily about battling bosses but rather collecting and converting resources in preparation for those battles, then the boss battles, where the player can use everything they've prepared to attempt to succeed against far more powerful opponents.
As an example, the player has defeated the previous boss, and sees that the next fragment of earth is charred and the sky is dark. They decide the next zone is fire-based, look through the books they've collected along the way - books of alchemy, first aid, leatherworking, and so on - and see the alchemy book has a recipe for a potion of resist fire, and the leatherworking book has an antifire cape recipe in it. They backtrack to the last wasteland merchant to buy some empty phials and some thread, then hunt down imps for their leather and ashes, as well as some fireslimes for their fiery ooze. They combine the ooze with the ashes and water to make a potion of resist fire, and use the potion in combination with some imp leather and the thread to make an antifire cape, then make some more resist fire potions. They combine linen cloth with ground-up blasting powder from mining and use more thread for a wick to make some stun grenades, as they've been doing so far, then set off after selling their boots and buying some better ones from the merchant with the rest of their gold.
Defeating the boss of an area will clear it of many of the monsters and the rest will be easily avoidable when passing through, making it much safer, but the monsters are still good for experience and ingredients until you defeat the boss.
The twist to the game, and the reason for its name, is that remnants of the deceased linger where they died, as restless as the destroyed earth they walk on. They continually re-enact the scenes leading up to their deaths, like a spectral projection from the past into the present. These are sometimes contextual clues to warn the player when they get near hazardous terrain, to fill in the story or atmosphere such as seeing a group falling after a natural bridge collapsed when the player comes up to its remains, and so on. But the most important reason for their being there is during the boss battles. The remnants will phase in and out of the player's fight as though battling alongside the player, but without being aware of the player's presence - they're fighting the boss in the past, and as they die to it you can see where they went wrong and learn from their mistakes during your own battle. The fire boss might curl up, ready to counterattack the player with a massive attack if they swing at it, but if the player waits just a second they can see someone in the past trying exactly that and being incinerated, so the player might instead choose to throw their stun grenade to draw it out, then attack, and so on.
The game is mainly a spectacle strategy, and the reward for playing is the scenery and vistas, as well as seeing all the different bosses and figuring out how to defeat each one, and finding as many uses as possible for everything around the player. It would be a game for people who enjoy min/maxing, roaming vast landscapes, analysing everything and theorising about what might be possible, and thinking outside the box when it comes to fighting powerful bosses.
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Image: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/keepwalking/frozen-desert
A strategy RPG where you play as the final boss of some other hero/ine's quest, but in this game you do what final bosses do while waiting for the them to show up. As a final boss, you are very punctual about these sorts of things. Showing up to your own boss battle is extremely important; but you also have a list of chores to do in the meantime, such as razing a village for spare souls, setting up traps and platforms in your hideout, sending minions after the hero/ine, and hunting down rare artifacts and pieces of equipment to add to your loot table so the hero/ine has something nice to aim for when trying to kill you, which you want because you can only win the game by defeating them in the final fight.
The bulk of the game will be spent charging up to your final form by gathering souls, which is a boss's equivalent to the experience that heroes and heroines hoover up like discount candy these days. But you are a true old school final boss, and you are doing it the traditional way, which means gathering souls. With more souls, you achieve greater forms, at first starting as essentially a glorified minion and working your way up to supernatural overlord and eventually some sort of terrifying space demigod, as it so commonly happens to be.
But before all that happens, you start in your lair, which you can customise any time with an outfit of hazards as a safeguard against the hero/ine and any help they might bring - you can see whether they have a party with them at any time, along with their status. You want to whittle away the help, but leave the hero/ine still standing so you can have your final faceoff - it's not really defeating them otherwise. Accidentally killing the hero/ine at any point other than the final battle will of course result in a game over, and/or a return to checkpoint.
Leaving your lair, you can travel to local villages to raze them for souls, although they will start barricading against you and receiving soldiers after a few attacks, so this will stop being easy quite quickly. You can also hunt down legendary warriors who are in your journal/bingo book for their loot, which will make the hero/ine more likely to hurry up and get to you already because they want it, so it can be useful if you are ready for the final fight and want to entice the hero/ine, who will be otherwise wandering around taking generic quests from people and grinding on monsters most of the time.
You can at any time see the hero/ine's inventory, health, and stats, so you can decide whether or how many minions to send, how difficult to make the traps or whether to disarm some of them, and whether you should be collecting more souls to reach a form more powerful than the hero/ine currently is before the final battle arrives, as well as when to return to your lair so that you don't miss the battle.
Future expansion pack will allow you to custom-write your own final boss pre-battle speech, although it is unlikely the hero/ine will care much.
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Image is enemy "Demon God" from RPGmaker VX ACE by Enterbrain Software (2011) http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/
A survival, psychology/strategy game in a similar vein to goodbye where you play as an ethereal Spirit of Worldly Passage and starting the game puts you in the shoes of a random stranger. But this time you're not fading away, you're dying. You have one day left to live, and on starting the game you're given some information about the person you're inhabiting: their skills - the things they're best at; their fears - what could hold them back from doing certain things; their allergies, diseases, or conditions; and a list of the things they want to do before they die, which they have entrusted to you along with their body. This can range from something as simple as trying on a new coat from the tailor, or as extravagant as going hang gliding for the first time in their life, and it may overlap with the other categories - someone may want to have a strawberry milkshake but they're lactose intolerant, so you will need to find a way around that.
The goal of the game is to fulfill as many dying wishes as you can before their time is up. As a Spirit of Worldly Passage, it is also your job to guide the departed to the afterlife, and a restless soul drains multitudes more of your energy than a soul at peace to guide, meaning you will not be able to help as many people if you don't complete enough of their lists. With every wish you fulfill, your spirit grows a tiny bit stronger, meaning your third playthrough will be longer and more complex than your first - like leveling up, but without levels, just invisible experience. Once your energy is up, you return to the Place Beyond the World to be replaced by another Spirit, leaving you with the options to stop or start again.
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A game where you play as a man or woman who was sentenced and convicted of a serious crime, leaving you with prison with nothing but your hyperactivity and four walls to keep you company. In mind-numbing drudgery, you eventually resorted to scratching out your thoughts on the walls around you with a concrete-sharpened toothbrush.
At first it was just mindless venting. But then you got better at it. Over time, you started looking at the inmates around you, the perspective of the cell, and drew. And drew. And when you finally got out, you found you were still enjoying it. So you kept doing it, and eventually it got you attention: admirers of your unique style and background. But you got opposition too.
It wasn't long before people were calling your art sick, deranged, inappropriate, offensive, and a host of other labels. It ended up working. One by one, art shows stopped sending you invitations, and your works were quietly taken down. Eventually your progress dried up. In this game, you play as that artist in attempts to get recognised despite your convicted background and without selling out.
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A sim//management game where you act as the artist's conscience, keeping them fed and influencing their decisions on when/what to draw and what topics to explore. You also act as their financial manager, directing which outlets they approach and how they sell their work to make a living. At the end of every day, they will go to bed and you will see the thoughts running through their mind before they fall asleep. These are things you need to address to keep them sane and content with what they do, like feedback from the artist to their mind. The goal is to gain popularity without getting on the wrong end of controversy and spread your artwork as best you can despite the odds.
Art by Kago Shintaro: http://wewastetime.com/2013/01/13/kago-shintaro/
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