Keldryn
Arcane
And I don't mean an RPG where you do things by playing music (eg Ocarina of Time or Loom). I'm talking about a full-on musical, where a character breaks into song when thinking about his or her fondest desire, or the main villain sings about his sinister plan while his lackeys perform a choreographed dance routine, echoing his plans during the chorus. Most of the main dramatic point of the story would play out through such musical scenes.
They could be interactive too. Rather than a standard dialogue, a specific conversation between an NPC and the player would be a duet, and the player would have different choices as to what the next line in his verse will be. Of course not every dialogue would be this way, but some important ones could be.
It wouldn't be a completely serious game, but it wouldn't necessarily be slapstick-funny either. Perhaps the musical nature would be a part of the plot -- the main quest is to investigate why everybody is suddenly breaking out into song (Everybody! "I've got a theory... that's it's a demon... a dancing demon.... No, something isn't right there."), but no so obvious as everyone being possessed or under a spell.
(It must be bunnies!)
Or go for broke, and base the art style completely on the theatre. It could be more elaborate, for sure, but when loading a new area, you would see the current area being torn down, and the new "set" being put together. The dialogue interface would look like a script, and the dialogue choices not chosen would be crossed-out as the chosen line is spoken. The player could have a limited number of times to yell "cut!" and try playing out a scene a different way. In combat, sacs of fake blood would burst when someone is hit, and spell effects might be lowered down on ropes, or tossed out from off the screen. When a "heal" spell is cast, a make-up artist or costumer runs onto the stage and fixes the character up.
I'm just pining for something *different* that's all...
They could be interactive too. Rather than a standard dialogue, a specific conversation between an NPC and the player would be a duet, and the player would have different choices as to what the next line in his verse will be. Of course not every dialogue would be this way, but some important ones could be.
It wouldn't be a completely serious game, but it wouldn't necessarily be slapstick-funny either. Perhaps the musical nature would be a part of the plot -- the main quest is to investigate why everybody is suddenly breaking out into song (Everybody! "I've got a theory... that's it's a demon... a dancing demon.... No, something isn't right there."), but no so obvious as everyone being possessed or under a spell.
(It must be bunnies!)
Or go for broke, and base the art style completely on the theatre. It could be more elaborate, for sure, but when loading a new area, you would see the current area being torn down, and the new "set" being put together. The dialogue interface would look like a script, and the dialogue choices not chosen would be crossed-out as the chosen line is spoken. The player could have a limited number of times to yell "cut!" and try playing out a scene a different way. In combat, sacs of fake blood would burst when someone is hit, and spell effects might be lowered down on ropes, or tossed out from off the screen. When a "heal" spell is cast, a make-up artist or costumer runs onto the stage and fixes the character up.
I'm just pining for something *different* that's all...
I think you would have to sacrifice some of the musical "flow" in order to make in interactive. Have fragments of background music that fit in with the music when the characters are singing, and wait until the end of the current music fragment to start playing a response. It would have pauses in the singing, but the music could be made to sound fairly good. The old Wing Commander games would piece together fragments of music (and speed them up or slow them down), depending on how you were performing during the mission.
