Astra - Gameplay Preference (Important!)

If you guys could pull off a good non reactionary game that would be sick. I wish you all the best and look forward to your work.

Arizona

I personally don't like non reactionary as I think it removes the whole point of the individuality of the characters that are in the visual novels but hey if PF can do a good job with it . I will definitely give it a shot.well... that's my opinion anyway oh and I rather have QTE cause ace academy's style of play and story made me fell in love with all the PF games so..yeah.

Izumizzzz

Aw man, non-reactionary is winning. Boooooooooooring. I *loved* Ace Academy's style, mostly because it could be funny, and because it caused a genuine emotional impact when it caught you off guard. I'm thinking specifically of the bit where you have to react fast to sweep Yuuna onto the motorcycle. I'm accustomed to thinking a bit before doing something like that, but the game's like, "nope, carpe diem, you snooze you lose". The thing that made it work was the fact that there was no transition, no framing, just a choice like any choice except oh, by the way, there's a time constraint on this one. The surprise produced a very nice "suspension bridge" effect. Battle was fun, too. You had to read fast to locate the right one (and if people are worried about not being able to do that, just give them the option to highlight the correct choice, like with the Ace Academy archetypes). And you guys could sneak in all kinds of memes and jokes into that process, which is what originally kept me coming back to you guys. Crystalline's simple puzzle process felt less like a challenge, and more like a speed bump. It wasn't really possible to fail without specifically deciding to fail, so it was less an addition of challenge and more a "do well" button you had to click over and over again to advance to the next scene. Might as well just have us click it once, if that's how it's going to be. Reactionary gameplay, I don't feel would be appropriate to the genre. This is a visual novel. Either make a good VN, or a good sidescroller. I suppose if you did a very very good job at it you could integrate the two, it could be good, but it wouldn't be the same type of game, and you'd likely split the fanbase as a result. Those who are here for a visual novel would just be irritated by having to delve into action gameplay to get to the next bit of story, and I count myself among them. To compare another title, there's a title called Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, that I tried out a while back. The character designs were cute, I liked the setting, the story looked potentially promising, but after messing around with the mech building and fighting system a bit, I decided it just wasn't worth the effort of learning that system to play a visual novel. There was the option to turn difficulty down to pretty much zero, but I felt like if I wasn't going to enjoy the whole game, it wasn't worth turning one part off so I could get to the other part. I just didn't have that much interest in building and deploying giant robots. Which brings us to non-reactionary. That's how I feel about RPG mechanics generally, these days. I was a big fan of it when I was younger. And it's not like I can't handle complex systems any more; I'm a big fan of Paradox's grand strategy lineup, and that's a recent addition to my library. But I've just gotten bored of your typical RPG mechanics. The only RPGs I play these days are sequels to stuff that give me plenty of nostalgia benefit (Dragon Quest, Elder Scrolls), and even there, my enthusiasm for the genre has waned considerably. I still haven't finished DQ11. That said, there is one possibility for non-reactionary gameplay I can imagine being interesting. Make the system simple. Make your character development choices less number crunchy choices, and more story choices, such as "which element does your character use" and "which archetype does your character employ". Make the battle system *easy*, but only if you play to type. And have that type have a role not only in how battles go, but also story options. Finishing a battle should be easy, but how you finish a battle should have an influence over the outcome, and how the story flows from there. Put some thought into the system. Don't just copy-paste you're typical system; design one specifically for your story. The more specific, the better. Think less in terms of the application of a universal system, and more in terms of emulating your specific story. Less "GURPS" or "generic d20", more "Ghostbusters the RPG" or West End's "Star Wars".

Daryl Sawyer

While I think Reactionary Gameplay is Interesting, it's kind of hit and miss for VN, and since we already have QTE and Puzzle for other games (I love it!). I think Non-Reactionary Gameplay is a lot more versatile and add to the variation for the game.

Mirror-

I like the QTE myself, but I think adding the Non-reactionary style to a pixelfade game would be a good idea. Not only does it add to the variation of gameplay styles for company itself, it also allows us as players to identify which play styles we like best when used in conjunction with a pixelfade styled game. No matter what decision is made, I am confident it will be amazing!

Jack Abramsky

Non-reactionary gameplay for me. I think it's very versatile in that it can inject a bit of strategy for those who want it, and if you include difficulty levels (+/- stats for enemies) you can lower the difficulty enough for people who want this to be a VN and allow them to go through it "story mode" .

Christopher Hollier

QTE was ok in ace, because i had the ability to scroll back if i felt i made a bad decision, or was too slow on the ones with a timer. overall, i prefer the turn-based non-reactionary gameplay.

I very much enjoyed the QTE events in ACE but I really like the idea of a turn based RPG by you guys. Add in trademark Pixelfade dialogue both in and out combat sections that would be awesome.

Matthew Cross

I like QTE, but non reactionary fits a VN more imo.

Ivar

The QTE Gameplay is a situational choice, the fun you can get out of it is directly tied in my eyes to the context and the choices. Those doesn't need to disappear ! The simplified puzzle gameplay though got me perplex. I mean, there's an idea but it should be reworked a little bit. Non-reactionary Gameplay is maybe made for more complex gameplay situation ? Using those 3 can avoid repetition but that's not the same work needed in the end for making them. Reactionay Gameplay isn't maybe the must have for me yet.