Gameplay style ideas

     So, I need some ideas for how I should design the gameplay for a new rpg idea. I wanted to make an rpg that was mainly story driven, yet I want the actual gameplay to involve the player rather than bore them half to death because the only thing going for it is story depth.

     The general point behind this rpg is that I wanted it to be a rather saddening rpg. Think "To the Moon", in that it tells the story of an average everyday guy. A life story with some romance, hardships and all that good stuff. I decided that the story would begin with the main character having amnesia of his past. Not a regular kind of amnesia but it has a sort of limbo theme in that he is already dead but trying to find pieces of his memory to find out who he was. My only issue is that I want a kind of gameplay to it that isn't too nebulous for the story (I don't want it to be about swords and shields fighting when it is a modern day game or something).

     Any ideas at all would be helpful to springboard off of, just something that isn't to boring. I don't want something completely original, but something other than combat. I was thinking a puzzle game of sorts but I'm unsure how to implement. I am using RMVX ACE by the way, if it is relevant.

Here's an idea: Maybe it could be an open-world type game where it's set in a small town or something.

The player could start off by seeing a set of "memories" or something which are really just pictures of some place in the town.When the player finds one of these places, they could look around and find a key or something (which would be good if you wanted a point-and-click game like To The Moon... it was point and click, right?). So, when the player finds the key or whatever, they then remember a bunch of stuff about the item.

Example:

Player has memory of a park

Player finds park

Player looks around and finds a time capsule.

The main character remembers more stuff like where the house he grew up is, or where he went to school, etc. 

So you can see that this would chain events into discovering this guy's past one step at a time. The entire way through the game you could correct wrongs that the main character did during his time alive.

Puzzles could be stuff as simple as: one line of memories leads to finding a safe and another leads to remembering the code for it.

I'd really like the idea that the whole story leads to remembering who his wife or love interest was; like he woke into limbo because she was in trouble or depressed that he died or something, and the last item you find is a key to her house. 

Say he can travel to his old house, and there is a cutscene, but also everyone has a blurry face and cannot talk to him other than incoherent mumbling. He then will find a toy of his young days and start remembering stuff, and suddenly everything is coloured and he can interact with his family again.

I like the storyline ideas you pitched, I meant more on the aspect of what type of game it should be. If it were a puzzle game then what kind of puzzles? Should it be like a Catherine sort of thing? Etc. Petite, you certainly gave me a good idea though about maybe a key item system about memorabilia in the game though so that helps. I'm just debating on what kind of game it will be because I do have a storyline developing. I'm leaning towards a sort of Loderunner kind of puzzle game lol

How about a Harvest moon type game but set in the big city and instead of farming you are taking on the family mob business and or sweat shops.

I like that idea Zio. I like it a lot lol.

If you use the idea let me know when you have a demo to try out :)