RPG Story and Game Concept Draft Destiny of Versus

Genre: Modern RPG based on reality with fantasy influences

Written by Nick Vanheer
Last revision: June 7 2015
Table of Contents

Game Goals
-

Inspire the traditional hero without much knowledge of the world to travel around,
meeting 3 other party members/friends with their own tale RPG trope but put in a
modern context, culture and mindset.
Giving depth to traditional RPG elements (such as magic, combat)
Having a Game of Thrones-style character set where each main character has a
rich backstory, explored throughout the game and is fragile, can contract
diseases/handicaps or die. Characters arent overpowered or safe to assume nothing
will happen to them because they are the main character
Create a rich world using modern and attachable reality we live in everyday, but still
remain drops of fantasy here and there to make it feel JRPG-like. Not as much as
Versus XIII/XV, put more focus on reality by using concepts of cars, modern day city
diplomacy, social networks, phones, movies/games within this game.
Blend in traditional RPG gameplay but uplift to modern standards.
Build an interesting and modern game world which is more dark in both environment
and culture than traditional JRPGs (say Tales, FFXII) but still not as raw, unclean and
barren like some WRPGs (say Dark Souls, Dragons Dogma)
Taking respectful inspiration of design and story information related to former Final
Fantasy Versus XIII. (see Credits)

Names and Data

-

Lucis: Royal kingdom, loved by inhabitants but cursed by outsiders (see backstory).
Modern place similar to Shinjuku with high skyscrapers, a considerable amount of
wealth and activities to partake.
Lucis Core: Area where the royal palace was built, slightly more desolate/empty than
the beating heart of the Lucis city (related to backstory/Chapter 0.p1)

Royal palace of Lucis: Big palace that has several darkened rooms for Appius to
use during daytime. Has a wide range of staff and guards as Regis is very protective
of Appius to never get near harm or sunlight.
Regis: King of Lucis. His lower body gets damaged in the first part of the game. After
he recovers he might join as a party member/guest later on.
Appius: Son of Regis, prince (aged 21 during main storyline)
Cid: female programmer, technology junkie. (aged 32 during main storyline)
Tenebrae: Kingdom close to Lucis, has a good standing relationship
Somnus: Rare inherited virus that eats away the face when eyes get in contact with
sunlight. Carriers of this disease are forced to only go outside at night or search for
other solutions.
Safety goggles: Special goggles Appius wears to make him blind and see no
sunlight at all, this enables him to still be active during broad daylight, although
crippled.
Occulus VI Prototype: Big bulky headset device that needs a generator/energy to
work. Annoys Appius but blocks out sunrays while still keeping the original image
(provide explanation), although only at 1920x1080 resolution and 23fps enables
Appius to see what other people see during daylight, used when hes really craving
but otherwise annoying and people look weird at him when hes wearing it. It makes
Appius sick after 15 minutes too. so he ends up destroying it with kitchen equipment
in the royal palace
Irina: Queen of Tenebrae
Neius King of Tenebrae.
Stella: Taken in by the Tenebrae family, but not related by blood. Like a daughter to
Irina.
Somno: former prince of Lucis related to backstory.
Meius: former king and owner of several grounds outside of the Lucis Core

(Names are not final)

Backstory
Centuries ago a prince of Lucis contracted a severe disease when bitten by a snake, this
disease/virus made him not resistant to sunlight. Being unable to go outside in broad
daylight, he could only live at night. His father, Meius, wanted his son to live a normal life,
and after chasing every cure in vain, he decided to make big changes to his kingdoms
structure to accommodate his son better.
A giant dome was placed over the city core, shrouding the core in darkness and ever-lasting
nighttime. Access inside or outside was not allowed to guarantee the princes safety and that
he never would be exposed to the outside world and lethal sunlight.
People initially were unhappy, but this city core, forever shrouded in nighttime quickly
transformed to a safe haven where people had luxury and poverty did not exist. Life
happened 24/7 and there was always activities to partake in as the concept of day/night did
not exist, there was only night.
Communications between family members in and outside the demo was strictly happening
online trough social media and calling. Once a month and with explicit governmental

permission a train left between the city core and outside world, for people who really had to
travel between the two, and royal visits and such.
The Lucis core became more shut out from the outside world and food and electricity
supplies for the outer ring of the city became limited, plunging those not in the city core into a
degree of poverty. Eventually an invasion took place, the Insomnia war where outsiders
toppled the dome, ending up in the untimely dead of the prince.
The kingdom fortunately restored and remained at peace with others, being rebuilt to its
former self. Future royal blood never got this disease, even though heritable, and eventually
lived happily. Remnants and monuments to the dome still exists, but generally the core and
outer rings of the city work together now like it was in older times.

The Somnus disease

The virus that affects someones eyes is rare, said to originate from an ancient snake being
provoked during its moulting process. It is however inheritable (with a 1/16 chance) so not a
single child in the royal family is safe. Unlike the normal form of the disease, which affects
the infecteds skin when under influence of sunlight, this mutation only affects the eyes. It
burns them out and sends signals of detachment to the brain.
Even though Somno has only been exposed to this for several seconds, its said to be an
extremely painful experience. Carriers of this disease can walk around in sunlight, but have
to cover up their eyes entirely with special goggles, as to not expose themselves ever. This
essentially makes them blind.

Story Goals
-

Provide an interesting backstory and lore woven throughout the game. This backstory
will be hinted at during the course of the main game, but players can optionally
immerse themselves into it to a very deep level.
Provide a simple story setup focused on individual character building and not the
great evil destroying the world.
Ground the story in reality by not overusing fantasy and having real-life present-day
elements and themes (such as social networks, smartphones but also diseases such
as cancer/STDs and modern transportation methods)
Provide key story bits throughout gameplay and ingame banter, and not trough a
traditional cutscene
Inspire the traditional hero without much knowledge of the world to travel around,
meeting 3 other party members/friends with their own tale RPG trope but put in a
modern context, culture and mindset.
Having some forms of fantasy in it, such as magic, but explain and flesh out those
concepts in a way they might feel real (similar to Naruto)
Blur the concept of having only one main character who is invulnerable and always
present.
Provide an overall darker tone than traditional (J)RPG stories. (think the latter Harry
Potter movies (compared to the first ones))

Story Synopsis
(1) Chapter 0
Centuries later, a new prince is born and diagnosed with this rare disease. While initially
being kept a secret, once it leaked out fear struck peoples heart that a scenario like in the
past would repeat again, and many people fled the city core as a precaution. King Regis
assures this will never be the case and would instead look at technology to improve his sons
condition.
Prince Appius lives only at night and sleeps during the day, hes very limited in the range in
which hes too travel and always accompanied by royal guards. His privacy is non-existent
and as a result has few real friends aside from the chef and other royal staff members within
the castle. Understanding this problem, Regis and the royal consortium keeps looking for
solutions and hires the most capable technicians, to no avail. Until one day they meet Cid
who invented a device called the Occulus VI Prototype that blocks out sunlight. Initial
testing is a success and prince Appius can walk outside during day. (age 8 when the device
is first tried on, age 14 when he gets to leave the palace for the first time) Cid and her
inventions are gratefully accepted and she gets a royal wage and place to live near the
castle, becoming Lucis prime technician to the court.
This device is still bulky and heavy and not that. appealing to look at, and Appius still feels
annoyed when going outside and accompanied by 6 guards all of the time, even on more.
personal instances of bullying and excretion. In addition the device also gives him headaches
after prolonged use. Appius ends up destroying it in the kitchen, much to the rage of his
father and Cid. Appius wants to go outside alone, during day, wearing his safety/blackening
goggles, being certain nothing bad will happen. Regis being overprotective and worried bad
things would happen, ends up giving him a ban and places him under heavy supervision
during the day.
As a result of this, from age 16 and onwards he spends most of his time indoors with Cid,
learning about technology, programming and how to use this to his advantage in combat.
Together with Cid they make a special spear which sends vibrations determining the
distance to enemies and scale of whatever is in near proximity. This enabled Appius to use
this weapon in both broad daylight when being blind due to his safety goggles as well as at
night.

(2) Chapter 1
Several weeks before the 25th anniversary of their partnership with the kingdom of Tenebrae,
a group invades the royal palace and attempts to assassinate prince Appius. With help of the
guards and Regis this group is easily disposed but Regis leg gets severely damaged in the
process.
Unable to attend the anniversary party/royal meetings taking place in several weeks, Regis
has no choice but to record a video message and send it to Tenebrae. Appius can convince
his father to let him go, together with Cid as his only bodyguard, unwilling at first, but having
taken a liking to Cid, Regis lets the two go.
Cid will drive while N. sleeps during the day, if he really wants he can stop and get out of the
car with his safety goggles, but hell be crippled (blind) and combat/movement will work

differently. Other than that Cid will stop driving at night so the team can grab something to
eat, set up camp/sleep at a motel or collect materials from slaying monsters lurking outside
at night.
In Cids luxurious car, on the way to Tenebrae our journey starts. On the roads of Aegis
Highbridge, Appius can finally get some real combat practice in. Happy to finally move freely
outside of the royal kingdom, yet unaware of the things to come.
()

Game Flow
The player can play freely as Appius at night, but during the day he wear his blinds and his
movement is affected because hes essentially blind. You can switch to Cid who can either
drive or support Appius by foot (during daytime). At night you can also drive, but Cid will be
more tired and enemies will be tougher (while Appius will be fully fit during nighttime)
You decide yourself how to advance the terrain, either by car or either by foot, either during
daytime or at night. Both characters have their advantages and disadvantages depending on
time of day, and have to eat/sleep at some point or their battle performance will suffer. Its up
to you to decide how to handle this within a certain amount of days. (1.2 real-world hour = 1
game day).
A calendar system similar to the Persona games is in place, so that the amount of ingame
days to reach your goal is limited. Unlike say, Final Fantasy Type-0, time wont be speeded
up when partaking in events, and there will be enough days to leave enough room for
exploration and experimentation, without initially putting much pressure on you on reaching
your destination

Story Sequence
(to be implemented)

Combat and Battle Mechanics

Fast Turn Based Real Time Combat
Battle System Goals
-

Traditional turn based combat in a real-time environment where user can wait and
plan/strategize and every move matters similar to Traditional Turn Based Combat,
while having elements of real time combat and more speedy action-based combat
systems seen in modern RPGs. Essentially blending the two.
Overcome the slow feeling and being taken out of the experience that some
traditional RPGs have (see Final Fantasy IX combat as an example), while still
retaining the unique advantages of turn based combat.
Overcome the button-mashing feeling of modern action games and real-time
combat systems and giving players time to strategize and the feeling every move
matters.

Battle System Features

-

Unique skillset and opportunities of waiting before taking a turn so the user can
strategize and every move feels important, similar to traditional turn based as seen in
Final Fantasy I III, Final Fantasy X(~ without act list variations) and many other
classic JRPGs.
Battle turns are speedy and real-time, no battle transition in another screen, to match
with modern day realtime RPG battle systems such as Final Fantasy XV.
Instead of one move for each turn, a turn has a duration and the player can do an
unlimited amount of actions within that duration, in a real-time environment (think
FFXV)
At any time you can stop your turn timer and switch to another character who can
start moving and possibly make combos. Turns for each character ends when their
timer reaches 0.
When a characters turn start, the turn timer doesnt start ticking immediately and
theres opportunity to strategize, plan, use items and investigate the field. Only when
moving or using an action the turn timer starts counting down.
Characters turn timer duration can be influenced by buffs/debuffs/location or critical
hits.
Unlike traditional turn-based RPGs, both enemies and players can move around
during their turn, enabling you to take advantage of your terrain clime. Something not
usually seen in traditional turn-based battle systems.

(UI concept visualisation)

Battle System Flow

-

Party walks around

Encounters and approaches enemy
Party and enemy freezes, combat HUD appears, players can think about what they
are going to do next or switch characters.
Player starts moving, or starts executing skills, which start their turn countdown timer
(say 5 seconds).
There are 2 things the player can do:

Case A:
-

Player does all the things he wants to do and his turn timer runs out. The game
freezes again and moves to the next character.

Case B:
-

Player executes some actions, and before their turn timer runs out, switches to
another character.
This other character can start his/her turn and maybe unleash a combo depending on
what the character before this turn did. When this turn is elapsed, or when the player
wants it earlier, execution returns again to the other character
This other characters turn timer isnt reset because it didnt hit zero before, and it just
continues to count down.
Character continues his/her turn, if the other character still has seconds left, you can
switch again.

End case

When both characters have acted their turn, its the enemies turn. During this period,
the player is unable to move or act similar to traditional turn based systems, and the
enemy is also able to use battle logic similar to case A or case B.

This process repeats until the battle ends and the player is awarded experience and
enemy loot. Depending on the players performance, a bonus or debuff to the next
battles turn timer duration might be received.

Credits
-

Based on own imagination, parts of it are cancelled storylines revealed for Final
Fantasy Versus XIII, which made me dream and speculate heavily how the story
would work out back in 2006-2011. Only to hear on June 4 2015 that many of the
story related aspects to Final Fantasy Versus XIII were removed from the game when
it was decided to rebrand this game as Final Fantasy XV and make it into a single
game rather than sequel-based storytelling. Several key moments related to a
character named Stella were removed from FFXV and I have incorporated these into
the story I wrote, as to this day the Stella storyline still intrigues me. This story has
undergone heavy rewrites in my head over the past several years, moving from
something more fantasy-oriented to something grounded in reality.
Image credit: http://screen-wallpapers.ru/wallpapers/view/1026
Heavy Rain: http://www.hardcoregamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/heavy-rainplaystation-3-ps3-174.jpg

Table of Contents

RPG Story and Game Concept Draft Destiny of Versus ................................................................... 1

Game Goals ......................................................................................................................................... 1
Names and Data .................................................................................................................................. 1
Backstory ............................................................................................................................................. 2
The Somnus disease ............................................................................................................................ 3
Story Goals........................................................................................................................................... 3
Story Synopsis...................................................................................................................................... 4
(1)

Chapter 0 ................................................................................................................................. 4

(2)

Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................................. 4

Game Flow ........................................................................................................................................... 5

Story Sequence .................................................................................................................................... 5
Combat and Battle Mechanics ............................................................................................................ 5
Battle System Goals ............................................................................................................................. 5
Battle System Features........................................................................................................................ 6
Battle System Flow .............................................................................................................................. 6
Credits ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................ 8

Nick Vanheer (http://nickvanheer.com/ - twitter.com/15thCrystal immersivenick.wordpress.com)

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