wrinkled dream

Samantha and Lawrence.

So last night I had the most bizarre and hilarious idea of a pseudo-vanillaware game. I love Vanillaware, although I’m more into GrimGrimoire than the rest of the titles- but I love them all. Love the art style, love the direction in the their games and their characters. Okay, well. This was the ridiculous idea I had:

If Solstoria was a game, I would be totally okay with changing around a few facts about it (since right now it works more like a comic than anything). I love to think about things that effect stats, I love drawing items and creating somewhat strange worlds that appear normal to their inhabitants.  Anyway, so I dreamt last night that Solstoria was a side-scrolling action RPG where you only control Samantha. The story was basically that she’s sent on missions to help people with things that aren’t acting according to.. well, normality in their world. (items get possessed and attack others, ghosts who harass the living, etc.) She works for Oksana still, a lady in waiting who helps the princess of the royal family out by doing these little odd favors for her. 

There’s several different shops and places you can go to throughout the story to help you, and sometimes characters change positions in the story depending on their own roles in the story.

- Nirinel provides charms and trinkets to help out in battle. She can also give you idle chatter here and there and provide useful information on enemies and their weaknesses. 

I like the idea of characters NPCing to help you too, or maybe even having them be playable as well. Nirinel’s just too cute to not play as okay.

Nirinel is an expert at dispersing ghosts, she can use water magic and also charm enemies (poison, sleep, charm, etc). She’d totally be an aerial character, as she can fly with pretty much a broom, a mop, or a vacuum. She just has to learn the inanimate object’s name first in order to use it- 

She can hit enemies with a thurible or a broom, like she’s batting. Yeah!!! 

- Lawrence would be your in-home healer. He doesn’t charge for his healing services, but he’s only available after the first arc of the story. (Seeing how uh, he’s possessed.) He’s currently not playable, but going to him helps Samantha feel at ease (since they’re away from family) and he gives her advice and story info throughout the course of the game. Lawrence knows a lot of information, but he won’t give it up unless you press him. (He’s the most observant of all of the characters, his information is similar to that of Elanore, as they both keep their eyes and ears open for anything that may be happening.)

There will be times Lawrence will not be available and you’ll have to actually pay for healing services. He has to still train and keep himself from being consumed by his possession, of course. You might even run into a necromancer when trying to find your brother… 

* Note, if you visit Lawrence before you visit the Apothecary to restock on supplies, he may give you a hint or two to lower Edel’s prices on his potions. If Lawrence is not in his dorm for healing, that means he’s only available at the apothecary (harassing Edel about homework and other meaningless chatter.) If you see Edel and Lawrence in the Apothecary, it might strike a story scene, so don’t be afraid to walk in and out of the Apothecary in order to trigger a scene if the chapter allows it. (Edel will just think you’re strange.)

- Edel is the potion creator at the Apothecary. He’s very hard to talk to sometimes and may be difficult to find early in the story, so try to stock up when you can. Later, he’s a permanent helping character until he’s replaced by Elanore due to his magic training. He can then be found in the Witch’s House and he can still provide potion services there. You can talk to him and try to strike conversations, but it’s usually easier if Lawrence or Nirinel is around. Nirinel will force him to talk, Lawrence will simply tease him into talking. LOL

- If you go to Vera’s shop, you can read about fortune tellings or the changes in weather, enemy moods, or any other occult actions that are going on in the world. 

There’s probably different scenarios you could take and different jobs that open up different story scenes. This is so heavily inspired by Legend of Mana and Vanillaware games I CAN NOT LIE I LOVE THIS KIND OF SETTING. Anyway, yeah.

That’s what I dreamt about last night.

Sooooo. Yeah.