[S ...illy] Appraise

Lately I have gotten really into a webcomic/interactive fiction/flash movie/game/thing called Homestuck. I suppose if I had to describe it I would call it a nonsensical clusterfuck of egregious sesquipedalian loquaciousness and Weird Time Shit. But in the best (and most intentionally hilarious) way possible. I gave some one a headache to someone just trying to explain the basic plot. I think I got as far as explaining how Kernelsprites were prototyped before she groaned a begged me to stop. And yes, it has it's own wiki that I linked to for those terms. It needs one.

Really though, the plot isn't what really draws me in. I mean it's generally well written, but as I said before time travel is a plot device that I usually despise. Partly because I think fate and predestination paradoxes fly in the face of a whole bunch of metaphysical things I hold to be true, but also it's because this kind of crackpot temporal nonsense is just old and worn out by now. There are only so many clever things you can do with those kind of rules, and really pretty much all of them are already covered by Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and that came out when I was ten.

Homestuck does manage to do some slightly interesting things here and there, mostly related to how two completely different universes with their own timelines that are independent of one another interact in strange non-linear ways, but it doesn't really go anywhere that amazingly surprising with it, but it comes ever so close. I think it would be more clever in the end if the total timeline evolved in the same way the story unfolded, or in other words, make unobserved parts of the future and past unwritten with the characters filling in the blanks by observing across time. Literally, what you don't know, doesn't exist. This would lead I think to all sorts of really interesting stuff, but thats clearly not now it works in the story even if that's exactly how the story seems to be written and told. I am not unconvinced this won't end up being what happens after all. Vriska (OMG spoiler alert!) is the only character that actually seems to be close to doing that. Even then though, I guess it's not at all different form what Bill and Ted did, namely insert there own stable time loops into time.

But again, the plot isn't what really draws me in. What really draws me in are the characters and the style. The characters are really likable, or at least likably hatable. And there sure are a lot of them. Of course the stars are the four kids, the nerdy one, the sarcastic one, the cool one, and the hyper one. Later they are trolled over the internet by some incredibly odd characters who go on to steal the show and have incredible amounts of fanart done of them. Not that there isn't a incredible amount of fanart of the kids too but not nearly as much as the trolls.

I think though personally what I think of as the best part is the style and presentation. It starts a bit slow, and can rely on long text logs at times for most of the story bits, but most every page is at least minimally animated, and every once and a while instead of a image it will have a fully animated flash movie, each accompanied by a nice piece of really good music, and usually with far more dynamic and expressive artwork. Just look at almost any of the pages listed in the sound credits page and you will find a good 90% of them are mind blowingly awesome. Spoilers aside, I think if anything sums up the whole comic in one video it's this (youtube version if you rather watch that). The fact that every single frame is in fact not random cool/silly stuff and builds on the the story so far (with the possible, exception of the part with the squid things that appears out of nowhere, and even THEY are somewhat important over all) is the really telling thing here. Every. Single. Frame. Also they have compilation CDs of all the music ever used, and tons more that isn't but may be someday, most of it all made by fans, and almost all of it completely awesome.

The thing that gets me is, it's really not that different from some of the things I was thinking of doing with my hack. with less psychology and philosophy and more time travel, but still the same kind of style. Something that starts off silly, goes a million directions at once, becomes incredibly complex, but never really stops being silly. Of course I couldn't compare with the scope of homestuck, and I really don't think I want it to. And I can't compare with the production values and fanbase either, not unless I really crack down and start seriously spending every moment of every day on it, and probably change it form a romhack to something else. But lately I have been questioning if I should even bother to try anything as crazy as I had planned, and Homestuck proves if nothing else, it's possible.

It also proves though, that there are inherent problems with this type of thing. Because although I bore though it and became obsessed enough at it to finish and understand it, let's face it, a lot of people won't. And that's fine. Even the author understands that. He also wrote this as a counterpart to homestuck after all, and a lot of extremely silly and simple things on the side.

I think in the end, the thing I can take away from all this, is that sometimes people just like things even if no one else will for their own reasons. And it's a hard thing to admit, because I still like to try to feel superior to people who like stupid boybands and lady gaga, even if I know it's not as simple sometimes as people not knowing any better (but I still think they wouldn't attract quite as much attention if they did).

I Meme It!

I really think that Memetics should not only be thought of as a serious subject, but should taught as part of basic high school or at least collage curriculum. And before you go thinking memes are just some internet thing, they are not. Memes are everywhere. Whenever you run into an idea or opinion, it's basically a meme.

And here is the thing. About 90% of people have no clue what memes are and how they can be used. Not only is memetic engineering a real thing, people have been using it, intentionally and unintentionally, for at least as long as there have been propaganda campaigns and advertisements, and possibly as long as there have been memes at all, which is about as long as humans have been able to communicate with each other.

The reason I think education is important is I think people should learn to be critical of the memes they pick up and spread. That people should learn to examine the consequences of following beliefs and ideas that propitiate their lives. I am not saying memes are bad, I am saying people need to examine them more closely in their day to day lives, and understand the effects of how they change people's lives.

If you ask me, memetics is a lot more important then genetics. The process of evolution may have begun with genetics, but ever since communication is possible memetics has taken over as the primary driving force behind it for us. All of our technology, ideas, art, and so on that humans have developed is passed down memetically and evolves. It has gotten to the point where we are able to manipulate genes ourselves, and all sorts of ethical and moral questions have popped up about if we should or what we should do with it. Thus our memetic ideas are now directly influencing what we do with genetics.

Once most people realize memes exist though, and once most people see how to use them and how to make them spread, I think people as a whole will be a lot more resistant to dangerous or malicious memes, such as maybe ideas like "suicide is cool, kill yourself" or "Big Brother loves you, trust Big Brother". Because by critically examining our ideas we can see more the effect they have on us directly.

And yeah, this article is basically a bunch of memes too. But since no one reads my blog, I think they probably won't spread very far. Maybe if you like this idea, spread it around a bit for me? :3

Pokémon will consume your SoulSilver

A little while ago I brought a new Pokémon (gotta use that accent ya know) game. No, not one of the new ones, I will wait until the 3DS and/or the inevitable third version to be released for that. Instead I got Soul Silver.

The reason I got it in the first place was a rather silly one to be honest. See they were giving a Celebi at gamestop for a while and I really just wanted an event Pokémon (there is that accent again) for once. Thats it. Thats the only reason. See? Silly. I guess you could say I fell for Nintendo's brilliantly evil marketing stratagy. Simply make a game about collecting things and make some things so rare it's impossible to get them all without getting almost every game ever made, taking advantage of special marketing events, and/or trading with other people that own the game.

To be honest, I always thought the main series was just way to tedious and annoying. Until you get fly, just moving about the world is annoying on it's own. Your contently backtracking though the map, often with random encounters every two steps (though thankfully most areas confine them to tall grass, but still), and you consistently need to keep a number of HM moves available to get though most of the maps, taking away valuable space form your already limited number of moves.

Beyond that, most of the game is just battling over and over in order to gain levels or moves. Frankly they is very little skill or strategy involved. It is mostly just a matter of patience and knowledge, along with a little luck. Now a lot of RPG-like games seem to do this, and really it's not that hard to understand why. It gives the player a sort of feeling of accomplishment without actually expecting the player to have any real skills. But it's a fake kind of accomplishment really. It doesn't actually mean anything. And really, I don't think games should be played just for the act of winning or accomplishing something anyway. I think games should be played because they are fun or interesting. Dwarf Fortress for example, is not a game you play to win, but it's still worth playing. And I sure use that as an example a lot don't I?

I still am rather fond of Pokémon (cut and paste FTW) though. Partly it's because, even though they can look silly, most of the creature designs are cute and cuddly and I like that. Maybe I just see too much po-- er... fanart of them. It's also because some of the mechanics behind it are pretty neat. Like the type system. It's extremely simple yet just as flexible. I kind of think they should have a "light" type as a counterpart to the "dark" type though. Also while the old boring exp/level system is still there, there are also EVs, IVs, Natures and other subtle things that make the system a lot more interesting and complex. But honestly it's a bit too complex for anyone who doesn't know exactly how it works to really get ahead, which leads me into the last thing I want to talk about.

And the last thing I want to talk about is the Metagame. The competitive battles between different players. Honestly, I never liked competitive games. I hate sports, multiplayer FPS games, and all things like that. Maybe it is because I am no good at them. But really, I never liked the pressure people put on being good at them. And I always hated the elitist attitude of people who are good at them. Yes you spent months honing your skills so you could be good at some silly competition that shows off these skills. Guess what, all that proves is your more obsessed then other people. It's not anything to be proud of. For Pokémon (no, I am not going to stop with commenting the silly accent) it's no different. Spend months upon months looking up all the tricks, finding good pokemon with good IVs and moves, chain breeding them and training them up to level 100 again and again, and yeah, your pretty much going to win. But it doesn't prove anything except that you are a obsessive nerd.

Of course the irony is, if you brag about all that people will call you a nerd and a freak, but brag about how much training and how good you are at sports, and suddenly people think you are cool and want to sign a million dollar contract with you.

SmallHugePlanet and Scribblenots

I have been playing the PSP version of LittleBigPlanet a bit lately, and although I am locked out from the online stuff and have done very little editing, the story levels are still quite fun, although I find the physics a bit annoying because your jumps can fall short if your run into objects sometimes.

The reason I am locked out so to speak from online stuff is simply I refuse to upgrade my firmware because I am still holding out for some kind of homebrew crack, and it won't let me use the playstation network otherwise. Although really I might as well at this point. I have pretty much given up hope on homebrew, and I do have a laptop for things anyway. Really though, I can't imagine it will add too much to the experience. I would have to pay for most of the interesting additional content anyway, and I am not going to do that if I can help it.

Other then being annoyed at some physics issues and the fact most of the additional content is unavailable to me for now, I am more or less happy with what I got. I really didn't buy it for it's fun story levels and possibly to play with the editor.

Also, a while ago watched videos of someone playing Super Scribblenauts. I have never really been interested in Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts does little to change my mind. Partly I guess it's because I was expecting something like a expanded Drawn to Life. Something where you actually created objects and not just typed them in, or at least drew how they looked like. But thats only a minor problem.

The major problem with Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts is that it's "levels" are barely anything but one screen with one puzzle, and hardly any action. Sure it's fun to pit god and cthulhu in a death match, but thats about the only interesting thing I saw in the games. Another thing I miss is the ability to draw your own hero character in Drawn to Life. I drew Jiggles of course.

The thing that strikes me about LittleBigPlanet and Super Scribblenauts though, is they really are more similar then you might think. They both primarily rely a lot on physics interactions and gadgets to solve puzzles. You would think Super Scribblenauts would be more interesting gameplay-wise because of all the objects you can summon. The thing is, it's not. And I think the reason for that is partly because it doesn't actually give any room to really play with a large number of objects and partly because it doesn't make you work for anything. LittleBigPlanet's actual gameplay outside the editor is nothing more then platforming with occasionally dragging items around or manipulating things in the level. If Super Scribblenauts say, let you summon things only during particular points in a long level when you needed something to fly or to swim, maybe letting you collect new objects as you play, it would be tons more fun looking.

I guess LittleBigPlanet (or Drawn to Life) and Super Scribblenauts are just two entirely different types of games, and I just prefer platforming to "choose the word" puzzles. It just strikes me as boring when "choose the word" puzzles is all you ever try to do. The objects and mechanics in Super Scribblenauts could be used for a lot more interesting gameplay.

Mission the Point.

Along with Z.H.P. I got another game for Christmas I had neglected until a few weeks ago. Namely Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. There are many things I probably could discuss about the game, Like how I am kind of disappointed it lacked Metal Gear Solid 3's stamina and wounds systems, how the story line is actually rather neat, but having advanced AI in the 70's is a bit silly. Overall I would say it's a solid game, and quite fun, if a little frustrating for me cause I always insist on 0 kills and almost always 0 alerts. I like the recruitment and research aspect a lot.

But one design choice I find extremely questionable is it's use of missions. It isn't just in this game either, there are a number of games that use the mission structure, Notably the Grand Theft Auto series and it's clones. Today I was re-playing Children of Mana to see if it is as dull as I remember (the answer is: almost), and noticed it also had missions (though they are more like side-dungeons to be honest). Elona and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon were also heavily mission based. I am also reminded of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and the Monster Hunter series, which also use a similar structure. And in each instance this mission structure (or quest structure if you prefer) has really brought down the game.

Now I think it's important to divide missions into a few categories. First we have missions that are entirely in the background as little notes in your journal or other mission list. You just are told to go somewhere or do something out in the world and leaves you to do it. Then we have timed or exclusive missions which take all of your attention but still give you a goal and leave how to do it up to you. Lastly, there are the missions that restrict your movement to a small part of a open map and force you to complete a objective before you can leave (Elona has all three types, but thats not really important).

The problem here, at least for me, is that missions are used more to constrict the gameplay then to enhance it. Although missions can be randomized in some of the details (such as the person who gives it to you, your reward, what type of monster to kill, what item to get or deliver, and so on), mission based games still have the same tasks repeated over and over again. But more then that, they basically force you to do them in order to progress, or at least in order to get descent stuff. Other games, such as the Grant Theft Auto series, force you to play though mostly closed, boring, and stupid story missions in order to unlock most of the interesting and fun parts of the open world gameplay. But the worse offense is games like Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and others (I think Monster Hunter if I remember right), that basically take a open world, chop it into bits, and only let you visit parts of it if your on a mission there.

It just annoys me that, for example, you have to choose to accept rescue fetch missions in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, of which you can only have 4-6 or so, before you go to a dungeon and find a person to rescue or item to get. Why can't they just be there anyway? That way you never would have to choose between missions. Or in a Grand Theft Auto game how you need to go back and do story mission after story mission to progress the plot. Why can't you just uncover it as you explore, and let you do objectives on your own without needing to go back to a glowing circle for a mission (not that anyone cares about the Grand Theft Auto series sorry excuse for a plot)? Or in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker where you do missions and go back to base to get a score and you usually get sent back to where you left off in the plot next mission. Why can't it just be like the other games where you can explore the world only with evacuation points to go back to base at any time and score based on completeness or your actions instead of time (or at least time between major story events)? That also reminds me that I was somewhat disappointed you couldn't actually explore your home base and talk to people face to face in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, but eh.

I guess when it comes right down to it, I just don't want side missions, story missions, and normal gameplay to be separate, and I don't want to be put in a world thats obviously open but I can't explore because thats not my current task. I know it's hard to do in some games. Elona for example relies so much on missions that it's almost impossible to imagine it without them. But I think Elona is mainly like that because it's world and NPCs are so utterly generic and it's gameplay is so grind-heavy and unfocused, that random missions are one of the only ways to fill the void.

Part of the problem is probably simply scope. When you have large open worlds, you tend to lose the details. The tendency is to make up for it by adding more things to do which don't actually relate as much to the rest of the game, and to spread out or randomize content. The problem is, this doesn't really work. Nethack is fun because it's so tense and eventful. You have to be careful what you do and there is danger everywhere. It's also fun because the stuff you can do with items is so clever and well thought out. Elona is not as fun despite being more or less the same type of game because it removes a good deal of the focus and detail.

But I think a large scoped game CAN be just as detailed and focused as a smaller scoped game. A good example is Dwarf Fortress, at least in fortress mode, and probably in adventure mode too if you pay attention to all the little things, like character descriptions, relations, history, etc. Of course adventure mode offers missions too, but at least you can learn more about the task and it isn't really random or out of no where. When you are assigned to kill a dragon, you can be assured that dragon is a preexisting character with a history and a reason for being targeted. In a dragon's treasure hoard you can find loot that was made by people it raided in the past, usually engraved with records and history. And this is all different every time you make a world. Not that I expect games to have that kind of detail or complexity or anything like that, I just wish side quests had a impact and a more detailed reasoning, and that the things you did would be important and possibly rewarded regardless of if you knew there was a particular mission or quest to do them. Of course there is nothing wrong with something like Minecraft where there really is no task outside of whatever you want to do, though I do like Dwarf Fortress's fortress mode more because you need to manage the whole simulation aspect of the game, but both are really similar in the aspect of creation.

And if it's a heavily story-based game you want, your better off doing something like the Final Fantasy series where you go from place to place following a series of short plot bits and towns between boss battles and/or dungeons. Sure it's linear, but there can still be branching plots, side-paths, and optional areas without having to go back to town and find a ever growing checklist of things to do just because you need some more filler. Games have enough filler as it is.

I guess it's better then being stuck not knowing what to do to get on with the game, or just having all you ever do be fighting to the next bit without any interesting variation at all, but if thats what your game is without missions, you need to redesign the game anyway.

ZDoomed

Every once and a while, I find myself fiddling with Zdoom (well actually Gzdoom, but they are basically the same. Gzdoom just has some extra fancy 3d stuff). Now I have a history with Zdoom. Years before I started being to lazy to do romhacking, I was being to lazy to do Zdoom editing. See what makes Zdoom is a updated and heavily updated version of what has retroactively become known as the id Tech 1 engine which was made famous by Doom. The great thing about Doom and the other games that share it's engine is how they are the first games to focus on being easy to edit by every one. Zdoom also adds all of the features of Hexen and a ton of it's own features to make it almost like a full game creation tool.

After I started getting into romhacking I stopped using zdoom or visiting the zdoom fourms (actually between zdoom and romhacking, I was involved with something called verge, which I also was involved with before getting into zdoom too). But lately, maybe because my hack isn't really going anywhere at the moment, I have every once and a while found myself fiddling with zdoom again.

I guess a recurring problem for me is I always seem to want to do ridiculously ambitious projects, which cause me to reach a point where I am basically stuck because I have neither the talent nor the patience to do any more. I think my hack may be the project I have stuck to the longest, but it isn't the only one I deeply wanted to do. In verge I was making a platformer of my own, but ran into problems after a while. I did abuse verge's scripting language to hell and back, but they are not even using that language anymore, so eh. For zdoom, I admit I never had a good idea of what I wanted to do really. But I did have a basic outline.

In my last blog post I briefly mentioned Ultima Underworld, which is one of the best first person games ever. A long long time ago, before I even knew zdoom existed, I attempted to make a Ultima Underworld clone I called Underrealm using the half-life engine. I actually managed to get a ton of stuff done, including a inventory system, but my progress was hindered when the SDK was almost completely rewritten and my code suddenly became almost useless. By the time I managed to fix it, it happened again, and I just gave up because I didn't understand the new code at all. And that was the last time I really fiddled around with much C++.

In any case I found map editing in half-life somewhat cumbersome and hard to do. I always preferred doom-style 2d maps for there ease of use. I had messed around with editing doom 2, heretic and hexen, but found them inflexible due to the fact that you could only really edit the maps and graphics, and not the behavior of the things in it. There was a tool called dehacked that allowed some editing of things and weapons by changing the exe, but I still found it too limited in the long run.

Zdoom changed all that. It had built-in dehacked, and ton of other interesting features. As I started to work with it, more and more features were added, and now dehacked became obsolete in favor of a new feature called decorate, which quickly expanded past anything someone using dehacked even dreamed possible. New ideas and possibility opened up, and I worked long into the night on this or that. It seemed anything was possible, or would soon be possible. But it still wasn't enough if I wanted to restart my Underrealm project. Custom inventory was a huge step forward (most of it's features in zdoom are actually a lot like what I was doing for half-life, probably because I had a lot of the same design goals in mind back then).

But even today there are still things I want to do which I can't without changing the source code. Honestly I probably could change the source code and make my own version, as all the code is free. I didn't want to make my own version just for one or two changes, but unlike half-life's code I do understand a fair bit of it from what I have seen. Either way, if I were to make a game that way I would still need levels and such, and I would still need to do a lot of work. It would honestly be better if I found a free 3D engine or API and did it all my self, or maybe even hack half-life 2's source engine which has a lot of awesome features, but I haven't touched either half-life 2, or steam in years.

In any case, after a while, my interest shifted away from first person 3D games, into platformers and such, and then into romhacking and ASM. Maybe I am still making all the same mistakes I did back then. I was never very good at level design, and always focused on other things first. I never had the fortitude to continue working after I hit a roadblock of some kind, but at least I am determined not to give up quite yet. What can I really do?

I guess it really comes down to effort, talent, and community support. Back in my zdoom days I never really had that much community support because everyone was focused more on other things. Not that I didn't have some fun with people there, just that no one was really rooting for me, and I doubt anyone remembers me now. Same with verge really. With half-life I never even joined a community. With my hack though, while I wouldn't say the whole community is behind me, I think I have a good number of people who at least notice me and my work.

Talent I really couldn't say. I think I have gotten way way better at almost everything, but I am not sure if I really have a knack for making games, even if I really want to. It just doesn't flow out like I would like it to, and I end up wasting time on silly things. About half my work on my hack has been silly graphics and asm experiments.

Effort is the killer though. I just can't make myself do anything I don't like, and there are tons and tons of tedious annoying things I always find myself needing to do. Like with my hack and levels. If I could sit down and focus on it for a few hours each day, I think I would have my hack mostly done by now. But I simply can't. It's tedious annoying busy work. It might not be if I had a talent for it but I don't. Oh well.

Really this has been more of a introspective look at my loserdom then talking about zdoom, but oh well.

Zettai Zero Project

One of my gifts for Christmas this year was a quirky little game from the masters of quirkyness themselves, Nippon Ichi Software. It is called Z.H.P. (Zettai Hero Project): Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman. I actually found out about it from it's TVTropes article (you know, every once and a while, TVTropes will actually be useful). And it's another roguelike. At this point I think roguelikes deserve thier own label already.

Z.H.P. is a rather mixed bag to be honest. The story is rather standard for Nippon Ichi, with quirky characters doing silly funny things, and ultimately not really that well written. My biggest complaints about the gameplay are that there is only 4 directional movement while most roguelikes have 8 directional movement (which really adds a lot more stratagy then you may think), and there is no item identification gimmick at all. Also while the game has special spells or techniques and exotic gameplay functions like barriers, they are more or less completely pointless or hard to use effectively.

Like the Disgaea series, the gameplay involves tons and tons of grinding (so much so the trailer proudly calls it a "Grindfest RPG"). The method of grinding is sort of interesting in that you start at level one whenever you enter a dungeon but the levels you gain when you leave one or die are added to a "total level" score that increases your base stats. I find that in my game almost none of the enemies can even lay a finger on me now after a level or two.

Some nice features are the fact that you can see every item you equip on your character (Elona did this too to an extent, but the equips in Z.H.P. are more interesting to see), and costumes that let you change your base body sprite. Even though most of these costumes are of anime characters I never heard of. But Dokuro-chan is one of them, and that alone is worth the blatant cameos. Everyone loves Dokuro-chan.

As far as the dungeons themselves, it is similar to the Mystery Dungeon series in it's basic dungeon layouts that are randomized each floor with a few traps items and monsters. In this game most rooms are pre-set and only the placement and paths are randomized, though there are rather good variety of rooms with basic 3D terrain and/or gimmicks that add some variety at least. Some dungeons have features like paths or rooms that vanish after a while or have no paths but feature other ways to get between rooms, which is interesting but a bit under used.

I have to say playing this game made me think about some features in Mystery Dungeon-like roguelikes. I have to restate I really like Elona alot for giving a Nethack-style interface that can be mapped to a gamepad. The Mystery Dungeon-style interface isn't to bad, but automatically picking items up sort of bugs me because my inventory fills up faster then I would like. Also I really must say I don't like having all the dungeons change every floor, as it doesn't allow for as much exploration. Also Mystery Dungeon-like games have way to tight food requirements. It should take AT LEAST few days before you starve, not a few minutes. This might be true of all roguelikes. In fact one of the only games I know of that I think got this right was Ultima Underworld, where food and sleep were very very subtle needs that didn't usually need to be dealt with unless you sleept a lot (BTW, I really would like to see a Ultima Underworld random level generator, because it's practically a 3D realtime roguelike in every other aspect).

Also I really have to say that Nippon Ichi games in general, while generally fun, are sort of annoying. Their stories are way to predictable and cliché, their gameplay relies way to much on repetitive grinding, and there gimmicks are just that: gimmicks. I also personally hate the restricted and gimmicky character customization. In Z.H.P. for example, you can fuse items but all this ever does is let you choose some skills to be attached to them and raise their max condition. You can put stuff on a silly little grid to upgrade your stats and abilities but a simple point system would make much more sense, be easier to do, and would offer more freedom in the long run. I could also say similar stuff for Disgaea's class, reincarnation, pupil, and item world systems. They are just gimmicks that limit character growth and make no sense. I kinda like Phantom Brave's fusion system though, even if it was way to easy to break the game with it thanks to the silly title system.

I should actually make a roguelike someday. I have a few ideas I really want to try, such as completely level-less gameplay (using only a system like in nethack/Elona where you can train stats and skills directly) and a reincarnation mechanic (you have to make a new character when you die, but you unlock new starting roles/races/starting feats as you play, and the world layout will remain more or less the same giving a chance of getting items back).