My concept for a Dragon Ball action RPG [2027 Edition]

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Yuli Ban
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My concept for a Dragon Ball action RPG [2027 Edition]

Post by Yuli Ban » Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:17 am

During my incoherent rambling in the Xenoverse 3 ideas thread, I mentioned that I've been toying with some ideas for a "Perfect Dragon Ball game". In truth, I've been considering these ideas for 7 or 8 years now and I dubbed this concept "Saiyan Knights" long ago so that's what I'll be using just to make it easier on myself.
Xenoverse 2 is fairly close to a simplified version of what I envisioned Saiyan Knights to be, though there's still vast room for improvement. That's one reason why I call it "2027 Edition"— some of these ideas are just too far beyond current hardware at the moment. Maybe we could see something eventually, but it won't be next gen. It would have to be the generation after the next. Processors are still rushing towards the teraflops range and game memory size is still increasing rapidly— Final Fantasy XV's 4K option is 155 GB in size! So as always, the PC übermenschen will be able to benefit before the console proletariat. But enough about that.

This theoretical "Saiyan Knights" game would probably be twice that size.

As aforementioned, it's functionally close to Xenoverse 2— character customization is a major part of it and there is an open world. You choose your race, gender, class, age, the whole rigmarole. Then you choose your starting location— depending on your race, you will functionally start on one of several planets, but you can choose to be sent out before your story starts if you want to start somewhere else.
Depending on your class, your fighting power will vary. Saiyan Knights lacks a proper leveling system in lieu of power levels, and the power level system is a bit more fleshed out than what we saw in the series. There are also three different kinds of power levels: Freeza army standard, kili standard, and god standard. A Freeza army standard of 1 billion is about 500 kili, for example.
But that's for later down the line. Early on, your fighting power can vary between 5 and 500 depending on your class. And your fighting power can determine your interactions— if you have a very high battle power on a low-power planet (like Earth), people might fear you and try to kill you without provocation, and masters may decide you're much too strong and dangerous to be taught unless they think they can control you.

There are multiple starting races and classes, but there are some "enhancements" that basically amount to mixed races. One example is the Android race and its relation to the Cyborg enhanced race. Androids are purely artificial beings; Cyborgs are technologically-enhanced biological beings, but they have similar abilities to Androids. However, they also have traits of the original race. Let's say you're a Namekian and you decide to become a Cyborg Namekian. You'll have Android powers now. Of course, you also lose some biological abilities and you don't have all Android powers. You might also be unable to use godly or demonic powers as a result.

One I've created purely as a fan thing is the difference between the Saiyans and the Mayasaijin. Mayasaijin are basically demon-enhanced Saiyans. You can't create a Mayasaijin; you have to either go to the Demon Realm or summon a Makaio in order to do so. And once you become a Mayasaijin, you are now a demon, with all that brings with it. That includes being unable to use godly powers, transformations, and techniques (so no kaioken, for example).


Then there's the overworld. There are multiple classes of planets and realms. Earth, for example, is a Major Planet, so it's a full-sized place. Remember that classic world map from Budokai 3, Tenkaichi 2, and the later Legacy of Goku games? That's Earth now. You aren't limited anymore. You can take off from any point and land at any point. The world map isn't shrunken either; it's going to take some time to get from one end of the planet to the other, even while flying.

Earth has special defenses, including the King's army, the Red Ribbon army, and various vigilante fighters, so it's not wise to cause havoc unless you want to be hunted. Of course, if you're a Saiyan, bringing about such forces probably excites you. Like in GTA and its many clones and disciples, you do have to watch out for law enforcement in that regard since this is very much an open world game and you aren't put on a leash. It's up to you whether you become the scourge of the world or its greatest savior— or even its greatest savior and then its scourge. You can also find friends and rivals in the game— theoretically, this would be possible with machine learning generating new dialog trees and backstories for NPCs.

Besides Earth, there are at least 3 other Major Planets. Then there are at least 2 dozen 'Intermediate Planets'— each a fraction of the size of a Major Planet— and innumerable 'Minor' or 'Lost' planets and moons, as well as space stations/colonies that are about the same size (basically the size of a single city). And that's just in the mortal realm. There are the Kaio planets and Heaven, as well as various demon worlds in the Demon Realm. All of which can be destroyed. If you spend enough time or gather enough power, you can destroy every world in the game's universe down to rubble. As for what happens when you do this... well, I don't know!
Oh, and there may be forces out in the universe whose aim is to do this, but you needn't worry— they won't show up too soon....

To be continued!
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My own take on Saiyajins in a fanverse.

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Yuli Ban
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Re: My concept for a Dragon Ball action RPG [2027 Edition]

Post by Yuli Ban » Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:20 am

Let me create a specific scenario. I'll use my Xenoverse 2 character, Ral, who is a Saiyaness. In Saiyan Knights, I start with Ral a lower-class Saiyan. I could start with her as a child, young adult, or fully mature, so I go with her as a child. I could then choose to either start her on Planet New Vegeta (or Planet New Sadala?) or have her be sent to Earth. Naturally, I choose Earth, so now it's time to aim her pod towards a specific part of Earth. I choose Mount Paozu, which is where Son Goku lands. However, Son Goku is not currently here because we are long after that era, easily a thousand years ahead. I can get some starter clothes, like the Saiyan armor I was sent with or a qipao found in an old dojo. I go with the qipao. Of course, there's literally a world of possibilities out there so I don't have to be stuck with this forever. And what I do next is up to me.
And this while you're basically experiencing a 3D UHD 60 FPS version of an animated version of the manga. Imagine Ghibli and Disney at their peaks but in the style of Maeda-era Dragon Ball. The ambiance is also great. I can laze around my mountain home indefinitely, punching out animals for food, watching the day-night cycle and the weather-cycle play out, completely detached from the rest of the world. I might see Capsule Corp vehicles flying about every now and again, but I don't have to worry about any of it.
But since I want to grow my character, I decide to eventually leave out to explore the world. I don't have to follow the Dragon Ball path perfectly— if I want, I can go to West City immediately or maybe find Muten Roshi, who may or may not still be kicking even after all this time.

And this is also a VRPG, so unless I want to kick it old school, I'm seeing all this in first person with a full FOV. I can always change the perspective, of course, which comes in handy for the fights. If you're a fan of the Tenkaichi/Raging Blast/Xenoverse style of combat, this is your game.
There are really two ways to do this. One is with battle stages: this is a more traditional experience, where small areas of the overworld are carved out and you can battle to your heart's content without drawing the authorities or leaving lasting damage to the world. There are loads of premade stages (usually iconic areas from the manga/anime), but you can also set down your own little battle hub in an area you like. There's never been a Nicky Town stage? Now there is! Always wanted to fight in North City? Just set the perimeter down!
Then there's the free roam battles, which is how it's usually set up. In this mode, there is no difference between the free roam open world and the battle area— which can also work in your favor if you know what you're doing. This is also how combat usually works in Western action RPGs— you can use your abilities wherever you so desire as long as you understand there will be consequences for doing so in certain places. Likewise, if you're an expert at using ki, you could spot an opponent from miles away and snipe them with a finger beam. Or you could literally run away from a battle until your opponent can't find you anymore. They could blow up the entire area, but if you manage to completely give them the slip, you just get to watch some fireworks. And they will remember the last clash as well as any major fight.

Let's say Ral meets a rival named Rum in the Mushroom Desert. We fight, and I barely escape with my life (but so does Rum). Rum chased me off and vows to finish the job eventually. It takes a month in-game, but we wind up crossing paths again in a bamboo-filled forest. So begins Round 2. We didn't have to meet here; it was just chance.

Normally, when powering up in a DB game, an aura explodes from your character's body and some electrical bolts pop around in that space. That's what you get in the bare minimum of gathering strength. You can alter how much power you put out when increasing ki— the more you put out, the less energy you take in (until the maximum, when you gain energy at the slowest rate). However, there's a payoff. The more energy you put out, the bigger the light show. Rocks and mountains defy gravity, lightning dances and sometimes lashes out at others, craters embrass out from under your feet, and gales blow in everyone's faces. Since most ki is leaving you rather than building within you, the rate at which your ki rises is very slow. Inversely, if you're humble and opt to increase your power more quickly, you can simply raise your power with no aura and no light show at all. Either way, you gain power.
That said, there is still a psychological effect which can alter preceding events. Some characters back off from a fight or lose their nerve if your performance is good enough. In fact, most normal humans and Namekians will run away the second rocks start rising. If you play it safe and just increase your power with no effects, you can trick opponents (that can't sense energy) into thinking nothing of you. However, you can also learn to suppress your power.
Sometimes (including every time with Saiyans and Mayasaijins), raising your power only makes them more eager to fight you or doesn't faze them at all. Others may berate you for showing off.

Raising your ki can cause scouters to explode, but it will also draw ki-sensers to your location if it gets too high. And you do have to watch out for environmental effects regardless: boulders and mountains can break apart and lift into the air from your raw power while lightning can lash against buildings, and that's all fine and well until someone gets hurt or killed by accident or sees their stuff get ruined because you had to be an almighty jerk and cause an earthquake that destroyed their car.


You could theoretically go it alone the whole time, but your life will be much easier if you join schools, gangs, clans, and armies.
Ral's destiny is to become a Mayasaijin, so early on she's going to find a Demon clan. What with Earth being a hub of martial artistry, it's not that supremely difficult. But since she is utterly untrained, she should join a martial arts school first. Why not the Tiger school? Because the Octopus school teaches you how to fly, combine ki and melee attacks, and its logo is cool.

Ever wanted to join the Freeza force? Now you can! Though Freeza is long gone, his army is still around. Now you become a conqueror of worlds and trader of planets! Who knows, maybe you'll become the next galactic emperor...

And so on and so forth. I could go on and on about the possibilities. I just posted this to see if anyone else thinks it's a fun little idea. It's damn close to "Second Life: Dragon Ball Edition".

TLDR is: "Imagine Xenoverse 2, but 9,002x better." Even the most fanciful wishlists don't come close to Saiyan Knights because it's fundamentally a game that can't yet be made. Not even as an MMO. We need at least a decade more of hardware and software progress if we want it to be done competently, and even then that's still only the soonest it could be made.
I say this with bated breath because a decade ago, we got Burst Limit and Raging Blast 2 and I had hoped we would have been further along by now compared to then. Yet Raging Blast 2 actually still does some things better than Xenoverse 2 (like customizable auras). Sure, past experiences can't always predict the future, and the progress we'll see in the next ten years will likely be much more qualitative than what we saw in the past ten years, but I wouldn't completely surprised if rather than Saiyan Knights, we just got Xenoverse 3 + MMO features.

Speaking of which, there would also be an MMO function because it would be a waste to have this lovely world and then only populate it with NPCs. It would be the game Dragon Ball Online wish it was.
The Yabanverse
My own take on Saiyajins in a fanverse.

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