The idea for this game came from playing fighting games, DMC and generally being annoyed that the enemies die before you can string a long and awesome combo. While I have not thought of a story for the game, the main game mechanic is to drop all limitations that fighting/beat-em up games put in to prevent infinite combos. In fact, the main point of the game is to make infinite combos. Though not necessarily boring two hit cycles. Due to skill limitations, its prolly gonna be a 2D side-scroller.
The game has two modes planned (for now at least), story mode and endless mode. The former is self-explanatory, the second one is basically survival mode. Waves of enemies will simply keep on coming until you can’t keep up and die. Both modes have two sub-modes depending on how the enemies’ HP is handled, normal and inifinity. In normal mode, the enemies HP will drain normally and will not regenerate. In infinity mode, if an enemy is not killed off and left untouched for a certain amount of time, its’ HP will reset back to full. Furthermore, enemies will only start taking damage when the player uses infinity breaker moves (more on that later). Finally there’s the difficulty settings, easy, medium, hard, extreme, and impossible. The last three difficulties are unlockable same with endless mode, and infinity sub-mode.
Since the game plays like a fighting game, there are different characters to play, with different movesets. Not all characters are playable at the start, they have to unlocked. Not all moves are available from the start too. The player can purchase them using experience points (gained through killing monsters, combos, and missions), or through the discovery system. The latter allows the player to learn new moves by executing the move. Of course, its up to the player to discover what the keystrokes are or when such moves can be used. Discovering a move grants exp. Another difference between bought moves and discovered ones are their starting level. In the game, moves have level associated with them that determines how much damage they deal, energy they consume, their range etc. Bought moves start at level one, while discovered ones start at level zero, usually consuming too much energy for very little damage. Moves have their own exp gauge. The moves’ exp increases every time it is used, but the player can also use his experience points to push the gauge forward. Finally all buyable moves can be discovered, but not all discoverable moves are buyable.
The games’ engery system is similar to Melty Bloods’ and Dynasty Warriors’ renbu system. Each successful attack increases the characters’ energy gauge, until it reaches a maximum. The player can then activate unlimited mode. In this mode, all moves cost no energy but the the energy gauge drains at a fixed rate. Each successful hit against an enemy still restores the gauge though. Finally if the player has the skill, and move, he can enter unlimited infinity mode where the energy gauge is fixed at maximum. The player can still be knocked back into his normal mode via enemy infinity-breaker moves, receiving a considerable amount of damage in a short amount of time, or simply being killed. When in unlimited and unlimited infinity mode, the characters moves are more effective. There are also some moves that can only be used in those modes. Finally, each move the character can do costs energy, but also earns energy if it is successfully used on an enemy. As the level of the move increases, the less energy it will cost, until, for some, it will eventually be free.
To help the player make infinite combos, all moves in the game can be canceled at any time. It costs a considerable amount of energy though (unless you’re in unlimited mode). There are also “off the ground” moves that allows the player to continue combos even if their opponent has already fallen. There will be no “invulnerability frames” or times where the enemy is untouchable because its in the middle of an animation. This applies to the player character too however. In its place will be a stability stat. The way stability works is that the target can sustain a certain number of hits (they will receive damage, and it will count for the combo) before their move is canceled and they can be juggled. Stability varies from enemy to enemy, character to character, the move they are executing, and where the attack is coming from. Finally, while the game advocates long endless combos, it only reward long and interesting combos. Similar to DMC, the game will employ a style meter of sorts that rewards more exp to stylish combos. While the player is allowed to do a two hit infinite combo, diminishing rewards for repeated moves will considerably lower his gained exp.
The players character also levels up, has stats and skills. Some of the stats automatically go up each level, but the player is also given a few points, depending on how well they are playing, to tweak their character. Characters gain exp from killing enemies, combos and missions. Note that the level of the character has no significance in the game save for giving the player an estimate of how strong their character is. Missions have no level requirements, and unlockables are dependent on doing things (ex: clearing a mission, using a certain skill a certain number of times etc) instead of simply reaching a level.