Spectacles: Bruce's Story
From Spheriki
Spectacles: Bruce's Story is the first in a two-part series of console-style role-playing games being made for Sphere by Bruce Pascoe. The series follows the adventures of fifteen-year-old Scott Starcross in Lucida, a world connected to his own by a seamless portal in the park near his home. According to a prophecy made twenty years before the game begins, Scott and the Spectacles are the only thing standing between Lucida and the Primus, the most powerful sorcerer either world will ever know. But catastrophe is on the horizon, and Scott may just have to lose everything in order to save the two worlds...
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Story
The following passage is taken from the forum thread and doesn't really give a good idea of the main plot points. I'll write a proper introduction later.
Scott Starcross exits his house late one evening to find that his home town Portentia is in the midst of a massive blackout due to the ominous heavy winds that have fallen upon the town in recent months. Worried, he heads to his childhood haunt, Lexington Park, to find his bearings. There he runs into his girlfriend Lauren Adora, and his best friend Bruce Arsen. Come to find out, Robert Spellbinder, another of Scott's friends, had vanished into the adjacent forest earlier that day.
Meanwhile, Bruce Arsen, another of Scott's friends, is forced to fend off a rampaging moose. After chasing it off, Bruce is informed by Lauren that Scott ran off into the woods and the two friends go in after him. They find him--amongst a gathering of bioluminescent pink squirrels! Suddenly Elysia Ilapse comes tearing through the woods and slams headlong into Scott. Elysia gives Scott a pair of glasses made by her father--the Spectacles, which were designed to prevent harm from coming to their wearer.
Scott and the gang learn that they are in Lucida, a world connected to Scott's by a seamless portal in Lexington Park, and that Robert Spellbinder is really Lucidan, the son of Victor Spellbinder who lives in Temple Manor on the other side of Lucida.
Gameplay
Spectacles's main draw will be its unique battle system. At its core, it is a conditional turn-based battle system (CTB) which dynamically resolves turns based on both the battlers' Speed, and the nature of the moves they use. More powerful moves generally take longer to recover from, and will therefore push the user's next turn further back compared to a less powerful move. This is very similar to the battle system seen in Final Fantasy X.
However, the system also has a couple of unique features that set it apart. Particularly notable is the skill growth system, which replaces the traditional level-up system seen in many CRPGs. Instead of leveling up your character, you instead develop your individual skills by using them. Skills receive experience equal to the amount of damage they inflict, and gradually become more powerful as they are used. This adds a strategic element that doesn't exist in a standard level-up system.
The game won't be short on surprises outside of battle, either. Time passes on the field, and the map screen will slowly cycle between day and night. However, a unique twist--due to a peculiar quirk of Lucida--is that every ten (in-game) days, a temporary population explosion will occur, lasting for approximately three days. During this time many new venues will be open for Scott and the gang to investigate.
Characters
Five characters will eventually join Scott on his quest. Each has his or her own unique personality and role in battle. At the moment, only Scott and Bruce will be covered. Eventually there will be descriptions for all six characters here.
Scott
The hero of the story, fifteen-year-old Scott Starcross is naive and tends to believe whatever comes easiest, even to the exclusion of his own common sense. He is best friends with Bruce Arsen and has been since childhood, but their friendship has been strained by the presence of Robert Spellbinder, whom Scott trusts blindly despite all of his friends' warnings that Spellbinder is not trustworthy.
When the story begins, Scott finds out that Robert had disappeared into the woods near Portentia and follows after him. He ends up being captured by the Lumisquirrels that inhabit the woods and has to be saved by Lauren and Bruce. There he meets Elysia Ilapse, who gives him the Spectacles, a pair of eyeglasses designed to protect their wearer from harm.
Scott is the most balanced of the characters and his skill set reflects it. He commands a balance of sword techniques and elemental magic, along with a good number of negative status inducers. His base stats are also balanced, being slightly above average across the board.
Bruce
Seventeen-year-old Bruce Arsen is Scott's childhood friend and the polar opposite of Scott in many respects. He is an excellent judge of character, highly perceptive--often to a fault--and won't hesitate to tell you where he stands. Unfortunately, as a consequence of this, he tends to push his friends away even when he's only looking out for their well-being.
Bruce seems to be telling this story, but who exactly is he telling it to, and why?
Bruce is a ranged fighter, deftly wielding a pistol to great effect. His base Attack is the highest of all the characters, maxing out at a whopping 99. He tends to be hampered, however, by his subpar defenses, being particularly vulnerable to physical attacks.
Links
Discussion of the Spectacles series (Spherical Forums)
