東方百画志 ~ The Wish Under Celestial Star (Possibly dead?!)

[Garlyle]

東方百画志 ~ The Wish Under Celestial Star
(Romanized Touhou Hyakugashi, hopefully meaning 100 Paintings of Desires or something to that effect)


Hey this is where 1F Betas live.  GET YOU ONE

An in-development RPG being created using RPG Maker VX.  It began heavily inspired by the fantastic Touhou no Meikyuu / Labyrinth of Touhou, with the question of "Just what would an RPG look like with everyone playable?".  It's not intended to be of the highest jaw-dropping quality, but it's not a small-time project either.


Prologue:

Hot news, hot news!  The Once-In-500-Year-Comet, Gensokyoshaker, spotted in the night sky!  Read all about it in this week's Bunbunmaru!
~Aya Shameimaru

It's been long said that if you wish upon a shooting star, your wish will be granted.  On the logic that a 500-year shooting star must be capable of granting a wish so powerful it could change the world, Gensokyo was whipped into a frenzy.

Then, two nights before the arrival of the comet, from every corner of Gensokyo could be seen a huge stone tower, extending from the Human Village, up to immesurable heights, far beyond even Heaven itself.  Nobody knew when it got there, it just popped up overnight.  A suddenly appearing tower cannot simply have no purpose, it was decided, and so Gensokyo gave it one.

It was the road to meet with the 500-year comet.  It must have been, for surely the tower extended to the very depths of space.

It didn't take long for the excitement around Gensokyo to die down.  Human, youkai, tengu, kappa, fairy, angel, god, and demon alike all swarmed to the tower, until there was nobody left to keep Gensokyo rowdy.

So few people remained behind in Gensokyo, that, bereft of its noise, the wonderful land was left with an eerie calm for the first time.
~The Chronicle of Hieda no Akyuu.

...It's in these conditions that Momiji Inubashiri is sent to the tower by Lord Tenma, to investigate the whereabouts of those who entered the tower.  Rinnosuke Morichika, who cannot contain his worry for his friends, accompanies her; as well as Hieda no Akyu, who cannot allow this to go unobserved, and Kana Anaberal, who is simply bored.  They are the last to enter the tower, as the wishing star draws ever closer in the heavens, and Gensokyo's fate may just be up to them...


Gameplay

WUCS is a traditional turn-based RPG, which uses a party consisting of a maximum of six characters at a given time.  The entirity of the game takes place within the mysterious stone tower, and as such is a dungeon crawler, with no actual town to return to.  Within the bounds of this tower, the player must manage limited resources, as well as equipment and party selection, to ensure success in the mysteries of this strange tower that is nearly its own world...

*A huge cast of characters!  It is Touhou afterall!  Hopefully, by the final release, every character from the Highly Responsive to Prayers up to Double Spoiler will be included (Depending on the release of Touhou 13, those characters may make it in as well), and the mass majority of which will be playable (Presently there are 90 playable characters planned).  Each character comes with their own set of spell cards and traits that will set them apart.  As you've got a six-person party, you should have room to use whatever party you feel you want!
*Difficulty Settings: Yes, that's right, difficulty settings in an RPG.  Easy Modo, Normal, Hard, and the ballbusting Lunatic difficulty await!  Different difficulties feature not only changes in enemy statistics, but also the attack patterns enemies will be packing, so be careful!
*Boss Spellcard System: Just like in the games, the bosses are going to attack you in phases.  When they declare a spellcard, their pattern will change significantly - and if you can tear through that spellcard without a party member dying or too much time passing, you're looking at a bonus coming your way!  Take care though, as these phases are dangerous!
*Four-stat System: Your stats in WUCS are used as both offensive and defensive stats - having a high AGI will not only raise the damage you deal with agility-powered attacks, but also reduce the damage you take from them!  So you can be greatly rewarded for specialisation... but remember that the same holds true for the enemy, and that if they strike a stat you're vulneurable in, you might find yourself in danger very fast!
*Specialised Defense system: Know a dangerous attack is coming your way?  Dodge it!  Each character boasts different specialised defenses, which will supercharge their ability to handle a certain attack type... but if you've predicted wrong, they're in real danger!
*Huge soundtrack!: Even though it still isn't every song from every Touhou game, the soundtrack sports a huge number of tracks.  And don't worry about getting tired of a battle theme - your battle music will change randomly based on who's in your party, so you shouldn't have to worry too much!
*And more...?



HOLY CRAP I'M EXCITED WHATEVER, SO WHEN DO WE GET A DOWNLOAD?
Uh... when I'm ready!  Ehehe... I intend to finish at least the second floor before releasing a demo to the public, which might be some time away yet, unfortunately.



This thread is for asking questions related to the game.

And dear lord if you happen to be an artist capable even remotely of mimicking the Alphes style, please contact me; I have a small number of OCs that require artwork
(YES there are going to be original characters in this game, I don't care.  It'll work, please trust me)

[Axel Ryman]

I'll see if I can come up with some input as time goes on. Till then....

Good luck! And I'll kill you if Mima isn't in it as a PC.

Edit: Actually I got something, though I mentioned it in the Labyrinth of Touhou thread. For the higher difficulty modes, add something more than just a stat increase to enemies/bosses, like a new attack seen only on higher difficulties, or even a 2nd "mode"

[Garlyle]

I'll see if I can come up with some input as time goes on. Till then....

Good luck! And I'll kill you if Mima isn't in it as a PC.

I will confirm right now that Mima is playable, since I know people will care about that.

You're gonna have to work your ass off for her though.

Also when I say that I wish to note that there isn't generally going to be a great amount of 'ridiculous recruitment conditions' or anything like that - in fact I'm going to avoid it wherever possible.

[MysTeariousYukari]

Upgrading Spell Cards for one idea. Anyone who has played Labyrinth of Touhou pretty far in has probaly seen that some Spell Cards were bad even if the user was good, due to damage formula or delay or otherwise. Upgrading them could boost their power or weaken down sides.

Spell Card combining. The basic jist is that in battle, characters moves can be used alongside other characters moves, combining and creating a more powerful move compared to what composes it, or a whole new move entirly! My idea for this is similar to almost completly based off of Dual Techs and Triple Techs from the classic game, Chrono Trigger.

[Garlyle]

Spell card upgrading especially would be hard to do, considering that we're talking 90 characters with an average of 6 spell cards each in the first place... yeah.

Combo attacks would also be tough with that many characters, but with that said I'll see what I can do to work in a few others.

[Axel Ryman]

Spell Card combining. The basic jist is that in battle, characters moves can be used alongside other characters moves, combining and creating a more powerful move compared to what composes it, or a whole new move entirly! My idea for this is similar to almost completly based off of Dual Techs and Triple Techs from the classic game, Chrono Trigger.

I was gonna add that, though I was also gonna say that not everyone have them, but only specific combinations of characters(Prismriver Sisters, Eintei, Marisa Patchouli Alice and Nitori, and Yukari Ran and Chen for example). Maybe as a bonus allow a special spellcard combo if a certain item is equipped(Like the Rocks from CT).


And reposting this.

Actually I got something, though I mentioned it in the Labyrinth of Touhou thread. For the higher difficulty modes, add something more than just a stat increase to enemies/bosses, like a new attack seen only on higher difficulties, or even a 2nd "mode"

[MysTeariousYukari]

Oh crap, I just thought of Chrono Trigger amounts of Dual and Triples with the, what, 8 characters in it? 90-100 characters would have insane Overkill way to many combo possibilities ._. At very least, if your going to have combos, the combos could be reserved to chars that have connections to each other, like Suwako, Kanako and Sanae, or Yukari, Ran and Chen. Things like Wriggle and Kaguya or Utsuho and Shinki combos wouldn't happen if you made them relation based, this could cut down on the amount of combos vastly.

[Garlyle]

.....Actually, this might be a good idea.  I think I'll have to herp and derp a bit to get it to work, but it seems feasible.  Combo suggestions are open 8D

[Rikter]

Try to not include massive grind walls in this.

[AweStriker Nova]

Try to not include massive grind walls in this.

Indeed, no one likes extreme Type-1 Boss Dissonance or difficulty spikes (well, except the customary Stage 4 spike).

[Axel Ryman]

.....Actually, this might be a good idea.  I think I'll have to herp and derp a bit to get it to work, but it seems feasible.  Combo suggestions are open 8D

In that case, I'll just post a few ideas.


Double Master Spark
Marisa + Yuka

Scarlet Symphony
China + Patchouli + Sakuya + Remilia + Flandre

Nice Boat!
Komachi + Murasa(If she's being added)

Team ⑨
Wriggle + Mystia + Rumia + Cirno

Gensokyo Millenium
Tewi(If she's being added) + Reisen + Erin + Kaguya

Itchy and Scratchy
Mokou + Kaguya

Drunken Masters
Suika + Yuugi

Prism Musical
Lyrica + Lunasa + Merlin

Border of Death
Reimu + Yukari + Yuyuko(Maybe)

Shinigami
Yukari + Ran + Chen

Cat Attack
Chen + Orin

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing
Marisa + Alice + Patchouli + Nitori

Subterranean Animism
Reimu + Yukari + Suika + Aya

Shutterbug
Aya + Momiji(If in it)

We Are Touhou!
Reimu + Marisa + Sakuya + Sanae

Moriya Shrine
Sanae + Suwako + Kanako

Elemental Extremes
Cirno + Mokou + Iku + Tenshi + Patchouli + Aya
Note: Ice-Fire-Lightning-Earth-Water-Wind


Err..I got no more now X_X Those are just many I thought up off the top of my head. Names aren't my strong suit anyway so I went with something random.

[MysTeariousYukari]

On the topic of Combos:

Trinity Spark
Marisa/Mima + Yuka

Omega Spark
Marisa + Mima + Yuka

Supreme Border
Yukari + Reimu

Crimson Air, Scarlet Earth
Flandre + Remilia

Time to Die!
Sakuya + Yuyuko

Blaze of Hell, Fire of Destruction
Utsuho + Flandre + Mokou

[TL777 ✌]

.....Actually, this might be a good idea.  I think I'll have to herp and derp a bit to get it to work, but it seems feasible.  Combo suggestions are open 8D

Okay, cool, here are some of mine then.

Name:Vampire Feast
Users:Remilia, Flandre, Kurumi
Type:Single-Target Physical Attack

Remi, Flan, and Kurumi attack their opponent for massive physical damage, the damage dealt to the enemy is then split between the three to heal them.



Name:Ultimate Sealing Ritual
Users:Reimu and Sanae
Type: Defense-piercing holy elemental attack

Reimu and Sanae combine their armpit Shrine Maiden powers to seal away any foe no matter how strong!



Name:The Ultimate Magic
Users:Marisa, Mima, Patchouli, Ellen, Alice, Byakuren
Type: Defense-piercing non-elemental magic attack

As the name states. The girls combine their magical powers to cast the Ultimate Powerful Magic, and take down anyone or anything in their path!!!


....Yeah, I can't think of anymore. :V Well, anyway, I hope that these sound good. :X

[MysTeariousYukari]

Oh yeah, Grind Walls *could* be fine if you give proper means to surpass the Grind Wall, like how Disgaea: Hour of Darkness has Cave of Ordeals 3(CoO3) or how Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice has House of Ordeals 4(HoO4), those stages are ways for the player to get past the games grind walls, albeit you need to get to a decent level to be able to clear those stage.

[RainfallYoshi]

Yay it's finally out in the open! <3

You already know what I'm going to suggest.

TEAM SCIENCE!
Yumemi + Chiyuri + Rikako + Rika + Nitori + Utsuho

Not a combo attack but damnit I want this team. XD

But here is a combo attack suggestion:

Strawberry Winds
Yumemi + Chiyuri

[Pesco]

I wanna be in for cheat play testing

Will read up on what the details are all about later.

[Just a GBZero]

I would like to help on the programming, if it ever gets that far.  Biggest problem with me is knowledge and experience, but a quick learner is a advantage.  But random suggestions I want

Alice + Patchouli combos would be nice, such as
The Philosophers Stones Dolls - either a buffing attack, or a high non-elemental damage attack

Patchouli + Koakuma would also be nice, was thinking of a doublecast type ability activating with it.

Thats my random wants for it though.  Hope to be of help if I can.

[Garlyle]

Actually, a lot of the programming I actually have done.

...I should put together some screenshots sometime as this isn't exactly just in the 'conceptual' phase at the moment XD But having a few hands could help a lot.

What I especially need is artists, admittedly.  For the most part I'm using the IaMP/SWR-styled portraits for everyone (Even in battle, even if it's lazy...), but there's a small number of images that would need to be done, hopefully relatively similar to that style.

Also people to code in animations @_@ even if I re-use a few it's still a lot @_@

But for the most part it's more down to me actually sitting down and doing everything because the base code is all there and functional.

Also thanks to all those suggesting combos.  I think I really like the idea and have at least some idea of how to implement it now +_+

[scherzo]

Have you already decided upon the core mechanics of the gameplay?

[Garlyle]

Yeah... for the most part.  Exact mechanics and stuff still have to be formulated, but...  I know that:

*Four combat stats: Strength, Intellect, Magic, and Agility.  These are used for both offense -and- defense.  Attacks that use Strength in their formula are defended by the opponent's strength; complex danmaku attacks use Intelligence to damage foes, but foes with higher Intelligence can deal with them better and thus take less damage, etc.  Some attacks combine these stats.  Generally, characters - and bosses - have at least one that they're vulneurable to.
*Different characters use a different stat for their standard attack, btw.
*Characters have three 'traits' which grant them various bonuses - or weaknesses.  Such as a character's elemental resistances and weaknesses, resistances to statuses, effects on their level up rates, maximum MP (default is 100 regardless of level), and how fast they learn skills, etc.
*Characters start with a standard of 2 spell cards, and learn three more by levelling up.  Since MP is a fixed amount, cheaper spells don't necessarily lose effectiveness.
*Characters eventually gain Last Spells - incredibly powerful spells that can only be used once per battle and have extremely high MP costs.
*There's probably going to be a heavy significance on attack elements and a variety of ailments, making characters that are capable of revealing enemy data useful.  This includes bosses too.
*Characters have a modifiable TANK stat which affects how likely enemies are to target them with single-target or random-target attacks

[Pesco]

Combos yay!

Suwako + Mokou + Nitori + Aya + Satori = CAPTAIN PL*

* Pesco is shot

Reisen + Tewi + Eirin = Eientei Defense

Meira + Youmu + Momiji = Sword Festival


Which characters are you thinking of as the starting team?

[Garlyle]

The starting team consists of Momiji (Mostly physical weapons with self-buff/support ability.  A tank, but an effective one), Rinnosuke (Mostly support at first, his cards involve revealing enemy data or the use of real world items such as a first-aid kit), and Kana (Works as a spellcaster who uses Dark and Spirit spells that can also terrify foes).  Daiyousei also joins very early into the first floor (I gave her the ability to 'manipulate water currents', and as such she has water spells and affinities.  Although she's weak, her MP costs are also miniscule, meaning she almost never has to recover MP).

And yes.  Rinnosuke, Momiji, and Kana are indeed the 'main characters'.


Also don't be surprised if there actually ends up being a CAPTAIN PLANET spellcard combo attack

[Demonbman]

This seems interesting
If combo's are being suggested

Malice Cannon
Marisa + Alice

Hag Attack
Eirin + Yuyuko + Yukari + Kanako(if added) + Byakuren(if added)

Misdirection
Sakuya + Komachi

Blazing Anchor
Murasa(if added) + Mokou

and thats All i got for now
Ill definatly keep an eye on this, and I'll help in any way I can

[Ghaleon]

I don't want to really suggest any ideas so much as give you things to think about...

1: I noticed you mentioned a tank stat, which confirms you plan on including tanking of some kind in this game. I personally find the concept of tanks in games to be really good. However there are levels of importance for tanks in games. Touhou labyrinth for example. places a medium amount of importance on the tank. For example, you can lose all your tanks and still have a fighting chance against most enemies (baal avatar? LOL NO U DED), but chances are much better for you if you can manage to keep one alive.

Then you have games where tanks are virtually title only. Pretty much any FF game for example, you can get characters who are tankier, and stick them at the top/front of the formation in hopes that they get smacked most often. But in reality, it really makes little difference where you put them, and you really can't count on them protecting anybody without a move that specifically makes them take a hit for someone.

Then you have games like your typical MMORPG, where tank survival is basically an absolute must, dead tank = dead party next turn pretty much. This probably is not very easy to accomplish well in a turn-based game without making the game piss-easy. But who knows. I personally would like to see someone manage to place more importance on tanks than in Touhou Labyrinth, without really making them all-important like an MMO. How this is done I can't really say. Touhou labyrinth is still good with what it does though. Seeing some experimentation within reason in this regard would definately be cool though.

2: You mentioned fixed MP values, I've never though about this, sounds interesting. I assume you intend to make characters able to regen mp like focusing in Touhou labyrinth? Or do you want a more item-based system with ethers and the like, or something else? I think giving the player the option to always regen mp at will at the cost of something (turns for touhou labyrinth) enables more strategy IMO, provided that you don't make spells requiring mana as powerful as it is in other rpgs. (Imagine if the Touhou labyrinth healers could heal as well as a final fantasy healer? Oh yeah cure 4, full hp for my entire party! woot, yawn). There are probably other interesting systems too though, where maybe you don't regen mp at all in combat, but always gets filled after every battle, or whatever.

3: Trash... This is important to an RPG, but it NEVER gets mentioned or praised in them.. IMO I think the trash in Touhou labyrinth went a long way to making the game great. It was challenging itself after awhile, and made exploring the maze fun. I know when I play most rpgs and I get attacked by monsters, I think "argh...sigh" most of the time. That's my personal opinion. However, every method of making trash memorable has its pros and cons.

Heavy-damage trash like F13 sword-fish are really frusterating sometimes. Ok so I start the fight against 2 of them, chen can't 1shot them yet because I'm not over-level, and oh look, they both slash-dived my tank before anybody else could move. Now I have to go back to town. argh.

I personally prefer trash that is tough and beefy. It can dish damage out, but it's not going to take a guy from full to dead without you being able to do something about it. It WILL however make you spend mp or else probably lose lives for it...I KNOW many people do not like this though because most people would rather move along and not bother so much time against trash. If your game is mostly story-driven, this is probably not the right road (as much as I prefer it >=( ).

4: Your idea of making each character use a different stat for their attack is good. I like it when casters use magic damage for their attack, and warriors use strength, etc. Touhou is a bit more difficult to do this with though since EVERY character is pretty much a character with magical powers. Maybe you should think about giving eery character the option of choosing which kind of attack to use (slap/stab/slash/whatever their melee is, magic blast, etc). This would also make characters with decent stats in multiple catagories more attractive.

5: customization. 6 party members allows decent customization alone via party selection. However how about character customization?

6: Character powers: Everyone knows that everyone in Touhou has a special power which they often don't use in the games (except Reimu's ability to fly, sakuya's ability to manipulate time, etc). Are you going to try and fit this into the game somehow? I think doing so could be fun, but very difficult to keep balanced. I think it would be kinda cool though if they added small effects. Like have Nazrin around, and get more gold per battle, or more rare drops, or something. Patchy could use any attack and not worry about elemental strengths or immunities by mixing elements in her attacks like she is perfectly capable of doing (probabily easier than give her 500 different spell element combinations >=P), Having remi in your party has a free "life 3" on one character once per battle, or something. Just ideas, none of those I'm sold on...Honestly though, with so many characters, the list would probably be huge, and having that many effects running around would probably bog you down alot. Maybe something to work on AFTER a release...

7: money/shops/items? I know when I played Xenosaga 2 and it had no shops I was upset, and I think it hurt the game... Then I played Touhou labyrinth and I decided it's not that bad. Personal request though, whatever you do PLEASE don't have "if you didn't do this at this point of the game YOU LOST THIS ITEM FOREVER!!!BWAHHAAHA". I hate those. People should be able to play a game WITHOUT a guide, and be able to get it all afterwards if they please WITHOUT having to start all over again, reading a guide before taking every damn step so they don't screw themselves over.

8: combat, typical console rpg combat? something more like Lunar? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgfuiZly7FQ&feature=related), or something different still?

I'd post moar but I gotta hook something up for my bro, blah.

[Garlyle]

1: The way TANK works is simple.  Each character has a rating in it.  When the enemy is attacking someone at random, or a spell is hitting a random target, etc., the game uses these to determine who takes the hit - it does so by giving the character one 'chance' to get picked per point in TANK.  So, if you had two characters with 5 TANK (the default for characters with Frontliner) and the other four had 1 TANK (The default for 'backliner' trait characters), then your two tanks would each have a 5/14 chance to get hit, and each other character a mere 1/15.  There'll be gear to increase or decrease this too, as well as skills usable in battle to further this, giving you a certain amount of control over where enemy attacks land.

2: Yes.  Forcing you to go into an area where you can't recover for a while, take down a boss, and come back out on 100 MP would just be ridiculous.  I will probably try to incorporate something to give a small amount of MP back after a battle, and there will indeed be a Focus option in battle, as well as items.

3: Trash isn't going to be "Push Attack To Win"... I hope.  Having characters who can efficiently take down foes without using too much MP will definitely be helpful.  I know what you mean though; Labyrinth's random encounters were actually interesting and kept a bit of pressure on, and I hope to keep that going.

4: That's more or less present in the skill setup, but yeah.  Most characters should hopefully be drawing off of one or more stats in battle.  Think of it like the type of danmaku they'd use - Strength for brute force and weaponry attacks, including throwing familiars at people; Intellect covers carefully designed and intricate danmaku like traps; Magic covers characters who use flat out bursts of magic power; Agility covers attacks that rely on speed and surprise to take someone down.  When looked at that way, a lot of characters don't necessarily fall under Magic alone (Actually, Marisa may be the only one off the top of my head?)

5: Unfortunately I can't do too much there... I think.  However, with that said, I'm taking great care to try to make equipment beyond just a simple case of "Equip it for stats, equip the next thing because it gives better stats", etc.  Each character's natural strengths and weaknesses stay important that way, but without preventing you from being unable to do anything about them.  I'll try to find something beyond that, but I hope that gear itself that does a greater variety of things than Labyrinth did should hopefully be sufficient (What about putting on a gear that gives automatic status effects, for instance?)  Also I do intend to continue to use Labyrinth's %-based equipment.  I find that it keeps stuff far more useful than just flat additions.

6: I hope to do something like this.  Many of the characters' natural abilities are reflected in their traits and spellcards - for instance, Tewi, as an incarnation of luck, as a reduced chance to be hit by any status effect; and she is capable of putting an effect on allies that negates the next negative effect that would effec them (Think Astra in FF).  Nazrin's sensing abilities should indeed result in more gold being given, along with spells to reveal enemy information.  Mokou's reincarnative abilities prevent her from being instantly KO'd... you get the drill.

7: Money, shops, and items probably will be in the game.  I'm actually still debating consumable items, but I can promise you that Fluffy Ellen's Magic Shop (once you find it) will be in business to serve you with at the very least equipment.  Also, I make an absolute promise of 0 Missable Items/Equipment/Characters/etc..

8: Combat is RPGMVX default, more or less - which is to say, forward-facing like Touhou Labyrinth was.

Kinda like that 8D

[MysTeariousYukari]

An idea I thought of after playing Labyrinth, that you have in this somewhat. TANK and M.TANK stats, to determine how likly someone is to get hit, by Melee and Magical moves respectivly. Think Patchy in Labyrinth, if she gets hit with Magic moves it'll deal either very little, or 0, but Attack moves would rip her to pieces. Thus my M.TANK suggestion, same as TANK, but for Magic based moves. Patchy could be something like TANK 1, M.Tank 5 or whatever... This is to help even out pressure that enemies throw around, since in Labyrinth, whoever was furthest Left was more likly to be hit and anything Single-target, which would mean chars like Remi and Meiling would be the main targets for everything.

[Garlyle]

An idea I thought of after playing Labyrinth, that you have in this somewhat. TANK and M.TANK stats, to determine how likly someone is to get hit, by Melee and Magical moves respectivly. Think Patchy in Labyrinth, if she gets hit with Magic moves it'll deal either very little, or 0, but Attack moves would rip her to pieces. Thus my M.TANK suggestion, same as TANK, but for Magic based moves. Patchy could be something like TANK 1, M.Tank 5 or whatever... This is to help even out pressure that enemies throw around, since in Labyrinth, whoever was furthest Left was more likly to be hit and anything Single-target, which would mean chars like Remi and Meiling would be the main targets for everything.

Well, I might -attempt- that, but to be honest for one it'd need to be four stats because of the way they work in this, and honestly, a lot of the details being run through RMVX are complex enough as is (Even being aware of and able to modify Tank itself is thanks to an excellent scripter I know - but he's more or less retired now, and even then, Tank is just a different name for an obscure bit of data that was already in RMVX).  Long story short, it's a little over my head even with all that I've surprised myself by being able to do XD

[Gappy]

Oooh, awesome~ This sounds very promising. I've only just skimmed through quickly but I'm already quite intrigued.

Here are a few combo suggestions:
Eirin + Sakuya = Lunatic Dial

Reimu + Suika = Miko-Miko Suika, TRANSFORM!

Koishi + Flandre + Nue + Suwako = Phantasmal Blitz

[AweStriker Nova]

The whole Combination Attack deal based on connections doesn't seem too implausible, actually.

They're either a regular part of Suikoden's combat system or they were only in Tierkreis, but either way, that's 108 characters to have combinations with.

Say, did someone already suggest a Youmu + Yuyuko combination?

[MysTeariousYukari]

Garlyle, I have a request. For some characters, could you give moves that reference Shrine Maiden users? Like giving Letty "Ban Hammer" or giving Utsuho "The Seven Songs"(Tales of the Abyss reference) or something like that? This is of course, completly optional, and is mainly for a few laughs, but if it isn't to much trouble, I, and some other Shrine Maiden users, would love to see that happen.