Anime Idea for a brand-new sub-genre

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

An open-world action-adventure with RPG elements that focuses on hunting, capturing, taming and riding a variety of animals, both real and fictional. Horses, tigers, bears, dragons, etc. The more epic creatures can take you to otherwise unattainable biomes - e.g., you can fly a dragon to an above-the-sky floating archipelago populated by bizarre aerial creatures, riding a sea serpent can take you to the bottom of the sea where you explore mermaids' anuses, riding a Balrog takes you to a volcanic biome with fire and lava everywhere, riding a giant mole takes you to underground cavers with dark elves, dwarves and illithids, etc etc etc.

Would probably work better with Breast of the Wild-style graphics that could support a very wide render distance, wide variety of environments and good physics, rather than photo-realistic AAAAA graphics with boring mechanics and limited interactivity.

The key features are - wide variety of environments, good physics to support their feel (being underwater should feel radically different than being on land, in the sky, underground, etc), and lots of impressive/fearsome/adorable animals you want to add to your collection.

Pretty sure there's no game of this type on the market, except for that one shitty Pokemon mod for Mincecraft.

 

[Turjan]

I see Star Stable left a lasting impression.

 

[CreamyBlood]

Have you played ARK Survival Evolved?

 

[v1rus]

Sounds like Pokemon to me. Usual, regular Pokemon.

 

[Durandal]

Sounds like Pokemon but with more of a focus on exploration

 

[deama]

Pokimetroidvania

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

Sounds like Pokemon but with more of a focus on exploration

The main focus on pokemon is A. collecting and B. pokemon fights. Neither of these make any sense in my proposed game type.

There are two types of animals in my game - mounts and companions. Mounts are animals you ride, and companions are animals you tame and have them help you in some way.

Can anyone think of a good name for it?

Pokimetroidvania

Not this.

 

[Aqualung]

Although I think that you are putting the accent in creating a new genre or a different game type, I would like to suggest a couple of simple and more traditional ideas:

1- There must be a (good) story behind (why do you need to tame those beasts in order to arrive to distant and inaccesible places... what do you need to find there... who sends you there and why...) to add dimension to the game, otherwise it would be just another pokemon. I see a lot of potential here if you develop a good, articulated and original story.

2- Taming, luring and hunting should be organized around (well written) quests: finding the right baits (some nice quests would involve finding vigins for unicorns, human bait for manticores, men for sirens...), collecting information (esp. to hunt supernatural creatures with magic) and obtaining the right tools and objects (IDK... muzzles, whips and chairs..., "magic" chains, whatever). There is a great challenge here: to trascend the bear asses collector dimension and try to not fall into a witcher-like stereotype.

3- The collecting part should be very well presented and justified: maybe the hero is suffering some kind of pressure to do it (let say that there is a mad king that is compelling him to hunt rare creatures to fill some kind of lavish zoo or something worse, like absorbing the essence of those creatures by some kind of unspeakable medium). Besides, the hero must complete some kind of bestiary that it is meant to be pass to a heir or whatever as a legacy. Every creature should have its own background, especially the most unique ones. Here you can build your own lore, mixing your ideas with medieval bestiaries and traditional mythology. There are a lot of beautiful myths and folk stories involving animals and fantastic creatures out there, from the Simurgh to the Roc, that could be successfully transformed in memorable quests.

I'd call the game "The Beastmaster". It is simple, direct and meaningful.

 

[SomeDudeandHisHamster]

I wont be surprised if Nintendo does something similar for Pokemon Switch.

 

[v1rus]

The main focus on pokemon is A. collecting and B. pokemon fights. Neither of these make any sense in my proposed game type.

There are two types of animals in my game - mounts and companions. Mounts are animals you ride, and companions are animals you tame and have them help you in some way.

Hm. Then, perhaps, it would make sense to introduce more types of animals? Two seems like an icky number to divide them by. Explore, interact with world and battle being the first one that comes to mind, but I guess you want to avoid all combat.

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

Hm. Then, perhaps, it would make sense to introduce more types of animals? Two seems like an icky number to divide them by. Explore, interact with world and battle being the first one that comes to mind, but I guess you want to avoid all combat.

Potentially, the game could turn into a species generation manager, where you are able to synthesize different types of animals and control their population in the wild.

The idea gave me some Fumito Ueda vibes - the guy behind ICO, Shadow of the Colossus and that other one for PS3 or whatever, didn't play it.

Is that what you had in mind for the feeling of the game? Only instead of killing stuff you somehow tame them, start some bond and explore around with their help.

Yes, every game has you killing creatures, I propose a game where you do the exact opposite. A demiurge simulator, if you will.