An idea I have is a game series (possibly called The Song of Alto? Or should that be just a title of one of the games?) Made with at least 4 of the English RPG Makers, at most 5. (2000? 2003, XP, VX Ace and lastly MV)
Stars a Bard character named Alto Fife Reed (nicknamed Al). His hometown is a place called Sonata City, or at least he lives in a nearby town not too far away. Bards... hmmm... how to describe Bards in this world? Well, I guess you could say that music, songs, stories, words, the power of one's voice makes up the magic in this world? I... haven't thought up much, sadly. Sorry.
Bards can use their music (any musical instrument will do, doesn't HAVE to be the stereotypical lute or harp. Alto's first weapon as a child training to be a Bard was actually a music box) as well as their voices to manipulate things and people like causing a distraction by talking while others sneak behind or past the enemy, raising your voice to rally a crowd to a certain cause or ideal ("Down with Ulfric, the killer of Kings!" for example) or cause a riot, charming a child with a story and having the events "become real" as the Bard tells it (it's actually not, it's just an illusionary thing for safety's sake because nobody wants to say, "Then a dragon attacked our heroes!" and have an ACTUAL dragon come out of the book and start burning the house down, right? Though most likely a child wouldn't know this or care because they're too busy enjoying the story), the tone and force of their voice or playing equals the power behind their Songs. Play gently or speak softly to heal someone or calm them, for example. Play bombastically or raise your voice to a shout to harm someone or rally them or make something react (like opening a locked door?) to it. Heck, I made a skill in MV called Screeching Strings and description is thus: "Play a tune so loudly and off key that it makes your foes ears bleed!" and inflicts the Bleed state I have!
Yes, there are Wizards and Healers/Priests in this world too. I'm imagining they operate under the same or similar principles that the Bards do? I don't know, I've just been pondering over all this the past few days. Probably need to get hep from you guys to iron out the kinks.
Anyway, one of the worst things that can happen to a Bard is to be Silenced (by that I mean both the RPG Maker state and the figurative "Make sure he keeps quiet" thing where they end up dead or at least mutilated so they can't talk, though I'll be mostly talking about the state since the latter is obviously bad for anybody). Not only can they not cast their magic/play their songs... they flat out can't speak at all, they're struck instantly mute and sometimes deaf as well. And if they can't talk, they can't sing, and thusly their power takes a massive crippling nosedive. If they're deafened, that's even worse because now they can't hear themselves playing and thusly that will go all off kilter and they're start unintentionally playing off key or too loud or whatever and that means bad stuff is going to happen. And to make matters worse, sometimes the stuff that typical RPGs use to cure Silence (Dispel Herbs and the like) doesn't work and the effect is permanent. It's VERY rare that happens (usually done by someone either very powerful or putting a lot of power behind their Silence command, like they REALLY want them to shut up for good), but it can happen, and it's seen as pretty damn tragic whenever it happens as that poor person's career is down the tubes and they might as well take up begging on the streets instead, especially since this is a world of magic and it runs on that kind of stuff. Usually though, it's not. Though it does give them a scare (I can see Alto physically and mentally having a panic attack when it inevitably happens to him) whenever it happens to them, and they have to resort to other methods to do whatever they're doing at the time, until it either wears off or they get cured by a spell or item. No idea what happens when they get the equivalent of laringitus or just sick in general.
No, a Bard's Song cannot bring back the dead. *suspiciously shifty eyed*
Although speaking of that, I do have the idea for a scene where Alto (canonically anyway, might effect other endings if this somehow doesn't happen) has one of his fellow party members mortally wounded by something. No healing spells work, no potions take effect, Alto's Songs aren't doing anything... the guy's dying and there's nothing they can do for them. How sad, huh? He's dying quickly at least, but he's certainly not having the best of times right now (though I can't imagine ANYONE would be having the best of times while they're dying unless it's a situation where they're sacrificing themselves for the greater good and thusly at peace with themselves or dying peacefully at an old age), and all Alto can do (and this is at his friend's last request) is play his songs so that his soul can be at rest. Alto considers it his greatest failure that he couldn't save them, that he couldn't do anything to help them besides make their last moments peaceful.
And yes, I do plan on having multiple endings. Probably go for Bad, Good and True Endings for each one if I can.
I'm thinking about having all my main characters have music themed names, no matter what their classes are, just because I like sticking to themes. I already have Alto and Aria (his love interest). Aria, I'm thinking at best she's a princess or a high ranking noble, at worst she's a priestess in Sonata City's church. Either way, she's a beautiful singer and Alto is charmed by her! Alto himself I'd imagine is quite the charmer as well. And yes, no matter her profession, she and Alto get married at some point. Not sure if they have kids though (though I might consider giving them a daughter named Melody). If Aria is indeed a princess, then she becomes queen at some point and Alto is her Prince/King Consort.
I can picture at the Bard school (whatever it's called) that they have ranks/titles as well- (in no particular order) Bard, Minstrel, Storyteller, Loremaster, Skald, Conductor (Headmaster?)... lady Bards get different ones like Songstress.
Also, Alto befriends a dragon and that serves as their "airship" in-game. And the dragon talks. I'm not sure how many party members are in the series, I wanna say least 5 at most 6. Dragon buddy probbly wouldn't count since he'd be overpowered, but who knows?
One Bad Ending I wanna do has Alto... simply just giving up after the final battle of the game, after losing so much during this run. He travels to the docks and leaves the land forever, never to return and devastating his friends who are calling for him to come back in vain. One of his friends just so happens to find him somewhere else... and he basically has chosen to forget everyone including his name. "Alto? That man is dead. Leave me alone!"
Another possible Bad Ending I just thought of right now, has Alto lose his reputation as a hero. "Hey, aren't you Alto? Weren't you some sorta hero a few years back?" "...I'm just a humble Storyteller, ma'am..."
Other Bad Ends are what you'd imagine, like they all die at the last battle, or the world is boned due to their failure.
One True Ending I thought up for the second to last game in the series is kinda bittersweet though.
Spoiler
Alto, after the final battle, notices that the fortress or island or city or whatever they're on (it's floating anyway) is starting to descend and break down. There IS a way to stop said crash... but someone has to stay behind to keep it in place, so that if it explodes in mid air it won't come crashing down on top of that. Alto chooses to stay behind, to his companions' dismay, Aria in particular. Alto orders them to hurry up and leave, giving his wife one last kiss goodbye, before rushing off to where he needs to go. Alto's companions escape on dragonback while Alto remains alone, sword plunged into the heart of the floating thing (can't just leave the sword there, it'll wiggle too much without his hands keeping it steady) kneeling as a knight before his lord in that spot. He weeps for three reasons, firstly because of sadness- he knows he's going to die and his friends will be heartbroken, especially his love Aria -, secondly, happiness- through his actions the world will be saved and people will remember him which is something any Bard would want -and lastly, pain because he's internally absorbing a lot of magical stuff that's really making his body hurt all over. As his companions fly off, they look back and see the floating whatever explode fantastically behind them. After the dust settles, they go back to wherever the thing was, and all they find are Alto's sword and his hat. Aria wails in anguish at the loss of her husband, clutching the cap to her chest tightly as that's all she has left of him.
The epilogue shows how everyone is getting on with their lives after their loss. Things are mostly well (the world IS saved so that's something to celebrate, right?!), but there's a tinge of sadness to everyone's moods from those who knew Alto. He is posthumously given a nice little statue at the Bard's school, and Aria stargazes out on her balcony, still clearly in mourning.
However! As you might expect, this isn't the end. The finale to the series...
Spoiler
Has them find Alto, still alive! How, you ask? Either he never died or he DID die but was sent back down to the mortal world because "it wasn't his time" or whatever. Which the latter would be quite a shame for him, as he just got reunited with the friend he lost all that time ago in the afterlife, and now he's being forced to leave again. Think I might do the latter, since I have no explanation for the former.
Anyway... it's been about a decade since they last saw him. Unfortunately, while he IS alive... he's not exactly well. He has no memory of who any of them are, nor of who he once was. Luckily he does gain his memories back as time passes in the game, and all is well in the end. And yes, the ending is truly happy this time!
I need ideas for party members, besides Alto and Aria. I need ideas for what kind of threats the gang will face, because all I can think of is, "Evil person wants the entire world to be Silenced" for whatever reason (World of Silence trope?). I need names for said party members (the dragon included), I need a name for the world Alto lives in and the names of various places besides Sonata City.
I need help with a lot of stuff.
Anybody want to see the skills I created for my Bard class in MV?
Also, there's some pictures of what Alto looks like in MV's character creator below. Older, younger, oldest. I have a few more pictures, but I can't post them all at once because the files are are making the attachment too large.
