EBF5: Writing Feedback plz

Hey guys, I’ve started writing the main character/story dialogue for EBF5, and now’s your chance to to tell me what you want to see there.

Some criticisms of my writing in the past include:
• EBF4 took existing character quirks and focused a bit too much on those. (see Flanderization)
• Bullet Heaven 2’s dialogue was a bit too silly in general and didn’t have a real plot – people seem to actually like a concrete plot, even if it’s quite shallow.
• A lack of character development in general, especially when it comes to relationships.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but EBF5’s story is not a continuation of previous games. All the characters are starting at level 1 and meeting each other for the first time, and they’ve all got homes now. So I think that already guarantees there’s going to be more character development than before. Whether everyone likes how it turns out, who knows? But I’m aiming to have all of the characters grow and act a lot different by the end of the game. (Maybe also some small variations on the ending depending on how you play the game.)

Thoughts and expectations?
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148 thoughts on “EBF5: Writing Feedback plz

  1. Sporelord1079

    I actually think this is a pretty good idea, a “soft reboot” for EBF will allow you to redo a lot of ideas with the experience you’ve gained since you started the series. I’ve also been confused on how much of the series is canon or not because as far as I can tell it’s been mostly continuous since EBF1, which was…uh…copyright infringing.

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  2. Azorius Gamer

    Have you seen not only of TV Tropes, but the tropes page and such for the Epic Battle Fantasy series and its spinoffs as well? Also, how do you hyperlink text in posts like on this site ❓

    Reply
  3. Normac Ssor

    I’d defiantly say that you should try to show what people are saying instead of just writing it, and add some more nuanced interactions between npc’s, like if doing side quests actively changed the story or environment.
    :shades:

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  4. Dapadapado

    I dunno if character development should take a big space since deciding where that can go and at the right times could go for better or worse, but it also excites me cuz I’d like to see it. And combinations of certain characters during content, like for example in EB4 if anyone were the party leader except Anna they’d have their unique dialogue, I’m thinking something like that with the first two party members in an area at once would be interesting as well. Natalie & Matt, Lance & Matt, and Anna & Natalie have a good amount of chats, Anna and Lance would be kind of cool.

    Nitpicks aside. I’m delving into the Fire Emblem support system by now…

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  5. Syrenet

    Mmm… I’v enjoyed the carefree…. i want to say, story line? Thus far trough the Ebf series.
    Kinda skeptical for the whole relationship development and every one not knowing each others part.
    But not gonna judge you just yet 😀 who knows what kind turn of events whole thing takes.
    A bit skeptical, but i’ll wait and see what kind of surprise you will bring up with this completely new system. :stars:

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  6. Ariel

    I really liked the quirks of all the characters, and they were all just something that put the cherry on top of the game for me.
    The story, as dysfunctional, light, fluffy, and silly it seemed, was rather an enticing piece in the game.
    I preferred the characters’ relationships and seemingly pointless dialogue over the actual game’s plot.
    Maybe have an option of either the old settings of previous games (maybe even Adventure Story if you could manage it), or either a concrete plotline.
    By this I mean have two separate dialogues to choose from – either the old style, or a new one. You couldn’t switch halfway through the game.
    It’s also an enticing option to play the game through a second time.
    That way, EBF5 is great as a stand-alone game for first-time players, but also a much-loved game for players of the previous games.
    Obviously this would take some work, but it seems like a solution that pleases everyone
    To be honest, though, whatever you do seems to prove amazing, and there’s no doubt that the finished product will impress.
    :stars: :yay:

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  7. Gabriel

    so you are going to reboot the story to a new beggining like if somone had travel in time and remake the past so they would’t knew each other until they meet on ebf5 so begin a new beggining all over ❓ :stars: :love2:

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  8. SemPés

    Looking at the pcture of EBF 4 Cutscene remembers me how Matt and Lance is kinda jerks to her with the teasing shenanigans (even though matt helps her, like giving her his hand and helping her pass the water without getting wet.) can you make ATLEAST Matt less a Jerk to Natz in EBF 5? 😥 (Yeah, i ship Matt/Natalie :love: :stars: )

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  9. DoingTheJukes

    I have a very interesting idea for you Matt Roszak. What if after the end of the game, if you have filled the Bestitary, you unlock a room that allows you too fight any mob in the game over again, or any battle over again if you had to get a certain achievement on a certain difficulty but missed the opportunity. It could also be used to formulate strategies against certain mobs you have trouble with on harder difficulties *cough cough THE STUPID FREAKING PLANT BOSS FROM EPF4!!!!!! cough cough* In this room you could of course choose any battle/monster you want, but in this what I like to call “Beat down Simulation Room” you could use items but keep them after y exit since its basically Virtual Reality. Hope you consider this man! Love your games! P.S. DO NOT DO ROMANCE! NOBODY TOUCHA MY EPIC BATTLE FANTASY SPAGHETT! 😡

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  10. Fanboy#1

    Inter-character balance.
    In EBF4, the stat items include 3 things that limit the roles of any characters: magic attack, attack, and accuracy. Since you can at most have 2 characters attacking per turn (mostly only one) when playing on epic difficulty without grinding in most of the difficult fights (bosses, optional bosses, etc), there’s no need to split the items between multiple characters. You have to pick a mage and a physical attacker, and feed them all the offensive stat items (split the accuracy …lolipop? cane?). The third character then has the pure support role of using buffs and items.
    As if that wasn’t enough, Matt has better physical attack skills than Anna and Lance, and Nat has MUCH better magical skills than all the others, including the two best limit breaks in the game (kyun which heals and the AOE revive which attacks, both based on magic attack), results in one of Anna or Lance always being the support past the praetorian boss, and the other gets sidelined to backup coffee drinker.
    In the end, the roles of the characters gets soft-locked into this.
    Matt: Physical attacks + occasional buff
    Nat: Magical attacks + heal
    Anna: Pure buff and items. Aim for high dodge to spare other defensive stat items for Matt and Nat so they consistently don’t die, as they require an additional offensive buff to function.
    Lance: Backup coffee drinker only when a lot of people died. Accuracy does nothing for someone with piteous attack/magic attack stat, and splitting the accuracy stat item between the first 2 characters means they’ll most likely hit every attack unless debuffed.

    Reply
    1. Fanboy#1

      (Everything in this and the above post is based on minmaxing very hard btw.)
      Another reason to sideline Lance and have Anna as support, is that boss fights just plain favor certain characters over another at that stage of the game.

      Magic-wise (Anna and Matt’s magic sucks in comparison to these two. I didn’t forget them, I just don’t consider discussing them worth the effort.) :
      Ancient Oak, you kill with fire. Only character with fire based weapon by then is Nat, and she has fireball, which is OP. Lance haven’t even appeared yet. Nat 1, Lance 0
      Crystal Golem, you kill with wet+ice. Only character with ice based weapon by then is still Nat. She also has a one-hit ice skill. Nat 2, Lance 0
      Praetorian, you kill with lightning+wet. Again, Nat has the lightning skill AND the lightning weapon. Lance FINALLY has lightning attacks & lightning weapon. Nat 3, Lance 1
      Rafflesia, you need an AOE that kills all the flowers. Nat has black hole by now which insta-kills the healers and twoshots the others, while lance’s fire skill isn’t strong enough to kill them through wet status in two turns. Nat 4, Lance 1
      Godcat, you need either strong AOE or powerful dark/holy skills. Nat has both, Lance has neither. Nat 5, Lance 1

      Physic-wise (I didn’t forget Lance. He just sucks, without elemental physical attacks.)
      Ancient Oak, kill with fire. Mat has fire skills, Anna has fire weapon. Matt 1, Anna 1.
      Crystal Golem, you kill with wet+ice. Matt has the weapon AND skills, while Anna only has the skill. Lance has neither. Matt 2, Anna 1.
      Praetorian, you kill with lightning+wet. Matt and Anna has both weapon and skill for wet. Matt 3, Anna 2
      Rafflesia, you kill with fire since their AOE both sucks. Matt has both skills and weapons, while Anna only has fire weapons. Matt 4, Anna 2
      Godcat, you need dark/holy attacks. Matt has holy skills, and has a better dark weapon. Matt 5, Anna 2

      Reply
      1. Fanboy#1

        Oops. This should be about dialogue/storyline. Let’s start over.
        I’d like to see Nolegs do something other than just being the mascot. It talked directly to godcat in EBF4. Some divinity should’ve stayed with it, so some kind of intelligent actions would be nice. Like for example clawing Matt when he inevitably kills more cats, or protect Nat from the lecherous boys.
        Make Nolegs great again!!!
        :smirk: :smirk: :smirk: :smirk: :smirk: :smirk:

        Reply
  11. Tanaka

    So here’s an idea, and it’s a big idea. (beware: long comment) So what I was thinking was that one of the characters gets kidnapped after the first dungeon. The rest of the party rushes to rescue him/her and eventually reach a fork in the path. (this comment might end up being a whole story) Matt/Lance/Anna stays behind incase some trouble comes after them. Matt/Lance/Anna/Natalie takes the right path, while Matt/Lance/Anna/Natalie takes the left path. On the left path, there’s treasure/monsters. On the right path, however, there’s treasure/monsters. While the other two continue on their path, Matt/Lance/Anna, who stayed behind has been beaten brutely by strong monsters. (Keep some of the personality traits and quirks, I like when characters are unique and not just beep-bop-boring) Then, while one of them continues on the path, the other one has also been beaten brutely, and then, while they try to look over to see where Matt/Lance/Anna/Natalie is, monsters kidnap him/her, and bring NoLegs with them. 45 minutes/1 hour later, The two who were beaten brutely awake hungry and with lots of bruises. (you can just put them lying down, and waking up without the bruises sign, because that might take more work, or you can just put the bruises if you want) Matt/Lance/Anna slowly walks on the right/left path, where Matt/Lance/Anna/Natalie was beaten very brutely and the two decide to go and find their friends, after eating dinner, of course. And that’s some of my idea, so you can use that or do something else. I won’t put the whole thing because it would take, like an entire day to read it.

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  12. SimpleDude

    Make it like some of those novel game where you can choose what to say to the party member, so the game will have a variants of ending depending on your decision. Anyway, don’t force it if you don’t like this idea, it’s up to you :smirk:

    Reply
    1. Tanaka

      Yeah, that’s a nice idea, but how do you that when there’s 5 characters, one player, and they each talk at random points throughout the game?

      Reply
  13. Kalirren

    I loved how EBF 4 was more clearly than before about kids playing pretend. Anna moves into the neighborhood in autumn and meets Matt, who shows Anna how to play the game that he and Lance and Nat play. And then they play throughout an entire year in various places; Anna’s old empty house, the woods in autumn, the spooky graveyard on Halloween, snowball fights in winter, the garage with the extra fridge and the old glitchy computer, the woods in spring, and then the beach in summer. They even find the old place where they played before during what was EBF3.

    The writing and the world and the gameplay in EBF4 brought kid-style imagination up to a grown-up scale, and enabled us to enjoy it all again. The real story was always there, plain to see, just never said. Thanks so much. If you can hold on to that for EBF5, no matter what you do to make that happen, it’ll be just right.

    :love:

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  14. JustAnotherEBFLover

    Honestly, Matt, I’m not quite sure about what kind of plot this going to be, but I do know that it will be great, just like the previous games.

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  15. dan00b781

    The way your past games have come out, I’d say that I’m expecting the plot of this game to have a ‘Mario & Luigi’ feel to it. The story should be complex yet easy to understand – we don’t need something on the level of Final Fantasy or Xenoblade mindf*ckery, but simply having “I’m going on a quest to kill the big bad final boss” won’t cut it either. There should be plentiful amounts of humor, but they should not interrupt the scenes that should be serious. If they do, you should only do it once, and MAYBE twice, if you think it’s okay.

    Like an earlier comment said, quirks and personality traits should still be there, but one single quirk or trait should not completely overpower the others. For example: since Matt likely seems to be a simple village kid, he should be simple-minded and would likely need help comprehending the symbolism behind a famous book. He’d just take the story at face value and leave it at that. This should be obvious because as far as we can tell, he hasn’t had a modern conventional education and only has what he’s learned from the world on his own to go on. That said, he takes a lot of things at face value, which would likely lead to later conflict against Lance due to one being too trusting and naive while the other is secluded and trusts nobody. However, keep in mind that I said ‘simple-minded,’ which does not necessarily mean ‘dumb.’ Like the previous games showed, he can be remarkably knowledgeable about certain things – given his suspected background, this would include swordplay, hunting, farming or sailing (depending on whether or not his outfit shows his real profession), and other things like that. Because of his simple-mindedness, Natz and Lance would likely take it upon themselves to tutor him in the ways of the world, and this should show throughout the story – over the course of the game, he should make gradually smarter decisions, eventually culminating in a ‘Crowning Moment of X’ near the end of the game, like using his newly gained brains to overcome a task he would not have been able to at the start of his journey.

    Personally, I think romantic development should be left to the player. They alone should decide who should be paired with who – if they want to pair them at all, that is. Countless amounts of fans who have been screaming at Matt for being such a dense dumb@$$ regarding Natz will finally get the chance to see them acknowledge their feelings for each other, at least. If the pairings have an influence on gameplay, you should follow Fire Emblem’s example – support conversations are a great solution. You should allow two characters to buff each other, but if reaping all the rewards requires them to become an item, that will trigger quite a lot of anti-shippers. What I think you should do is allow character development to happen, but engaging two characters into a romantic relationship should be left purely cosmetic and, like I said before, the player’s choice. Of course, this also must effect non-battle related things, too – future character interactions must take this into account, or try their best to not mention them at all, which would frankly be very difficult considering the blindingly obvious crush that Natz will inevitably develop on Matt, as well as Lance’s general disposition around women (I can sense a lot of slaps coming from both the girls concerning that). Here’s an example: an NPC in a town will see Matt and Natz traveling and witnesses their interactions, assuming them to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Said NPC is eventually talked to by them, and mentions this fact. If this is in fact true at this point in the game, the pair will react accordingly. If it is false, it would likely be responded to with a red-faced Natz and a confused Matt. If there is only one route of dialogue that plays concerning their possible relationship, the player will likely be jarred and disappointed.

    I think that’s all I’ve got. Apologies if I seem to jump from topic to topic – my mind does that a little too much.

    Reply
    1. Natalie

      Yeah, the EBF wiki says that in EBF4, Natalie may have over the time throughout each game, developed feelings for Matt, and at that time where he says, “We’re more than friends!” She’s all blushy and like, “Wh-whaat?!” And after Matt’s small lecture, Natalie thinks, “So that’s what I am to you after all this time?”, hinting that she may have small special feelings for him.

      Reply
  16. Dzib 9001

    Just some good writing advice, try to avoid connecting the points of your story with “and then.” if you can, try to replace the connections of your story with “but” and “therefore.” the video below explains it better than i could.
    https://youtu.be/b8KUTZUqyzk

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  17. TyloThorn

    I do agree on the main three points on criticism, and of course there is such a thing as TOO SILLY. But i still like the characters from the EBF series a lot so maybe don’t drift off of them too much, yet still substentially enough. You can definitely still base the characters on their more or less former self.

    I absolutely love character and relationship developement! Been really hoping on that. I’d like romance too, like at least between matt and natz… however lance and anna could be a thing, too. Like a girl who loves nature and a boi who likes industry… that has potential, like if you want characters to develope thats a simple thing: anna shows him about nature, and perhaps lance can learn a thing or two about respecting life!! Thats one thing that would make nice impact. Ultimately though it should still be up to you. You like ideas then take them, however if it doesnt feel right for you dont let ppl push you, it is only your work as long as you like it yourself. When it comes to story writing you put your heart and experiences into it, and if you let ppl get in your way there the story will end up feeling incomplete. (much like eragon 4, even though this is different from a book its a good example to me because it felt rushed and lacked explanation to thousands of mysteries added but never solved.)

    Anyhow more backstory is a great idea. Dropping all that happened before hurts a little, but looking back it really isn’t that much^^
    However… i still loved the idea of lance being the final boss in ebf 2 and then joining them… this should still be a thing… ofc he shouldnt be the final boss… but perhaps early on?! I dunno depending on what you’ve got planned ofc. :hurray:

    I wish you great ideas, and a lot of fun creating the story. No matter how it ends up im gonna enjoy it, and i really like that you take the challenge of a bigger more substential plot!

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  18. Jeremy06

    To be honest I didn’t really liked the story of EBF4, but I like the idea that they are meeting each others for the first time. :stars:

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    1. Jeremy06

      I also wanna say that I’m French so played the French version of EBF4 and it was pretty well done, i really liked how the jokes were adapted to fit the language. :yay:
      And the only advice I have is that you should avoid making your story too predictable to make it more interresting, not like the typical fantasy game where a bad guy want to conquer/destroy the world for some reason and then a group of teenage go on a quest to stop the bad guy. :smirk:

      Reply
  19. Po.Opbear

    I don’t know what to write. EBF 3 and 4 were and still are &%$ing epic, I enjoyed them more than most other games I played the last decade and I am a somewhat seasoned gamer who will hit the age of 30 soon (okay, I don’t play that much anymore). I share the sentiment of Devin de Vries concerning the reboot, the idea to reboot the series really does not sound appealing to me, I don’t even see the purpose but I still trust you since you are 11/10 competent. Well, there is potential for some story shenanigans (in a positive sense) but there is also potential in a continuation, at least from my pov, and to more or less scrap the stories of EBF3/4… Akron was really damn cool btw., just sayin’, it’s not like I demand a cameo or anything like some other fans.
    You will do great, gl hf from a fan.

    Offtopic: What about conditional* (de)buffs and stat boosts including from items, with and without synergies? Must be a pain to balance stuff like this (useless -> depending on situation etc./occasionally -> useful -> mandatory broken). If I remember correctly EBF4 had at the very least these which aren’t conditional but interact with elements and follow up attacks etc.: Wet vs. fire/burn/freeze, Dark/Holy debuff applied by the opposite element was it? Staggered etc. I don’t remember if it was a pain to use them or if they just did not deliver mathematically (in a boss fight at least) but I hardly used them I guess.
    Like for example if mdef is lower than phys def x happens, like mdef gets tripled but phys def gets halved.

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  20. Rbstat

    so i realized something cool that you could do: a five man band. i wont go in depth on it, (i’d go look at trope talk on the youtubez for more on that) but i will state where i think everyone would go. Anna would be the leader because she’s more generally heroic than everyone else. Matt is definitely the big guy for obvious reasons, (you could also say that Matt thinks he’s the leader when he really isn’t) Lance is … not the lancer, but the smart guy. Natz is the lancer to pretty much everyone else. and Nolegs is the heart, because aaaaawwwwww.

    you could do some cool stuff with this. for instance, as previously stated, you could have Matt think he’s the leader when he really isn’t. and have Anna realize this, and then have her manipulate him to make him do whatever she wants while still letting him think HE’S the leader.

    Reply
  21. JustPlaying

    Well, I don’t know how to feel about this. Like, I’m pumped up about the idea of more endings, but on the other hand, It will be weird to see the characters meet for the first time after 6 games (not counting adventure story etc.) Mostly Matt and Natalie I guess. But that brings another question, maybe I didn’t read one post or something (correct me if I missed something), is EBF 5 like a prequel to the other games? If yes, It would be nice to see the story of Matt and Natalie, but if not….. I don’t know. I will just need to wait and see what happens, definitely an interesting idea though :smirk:

    Reply
    1. TyloThorn

      Couldn’t be a prequel i guess. Just think of how matt and natz met lance… and later anna for that matter. If they now all meet each other in one game, that would be backstory and then a summary of ebf 2 until the beginning of 4. No restarting this is incompatible with what happened before. This’ll be something new, however in many ways it could still build up on what happened in the other parts. However i’ve got a hunch its an amazing idea, and will be a great improvement to previous EBFs.

      Reply
      1. JustPlaying

        Oh, I get it now. Thanks for summing it up for me. I actually didn’t understand the whole thing properly.

        Reply
  22. Engine

    KEEP IT FROM BEING TOO SERIOUS. One of the big things I liked about your games is how full of charm they are, if I want to watch some teenagers unleash their angst then I’d play something else entirely, don’t screw that up. Keep it simple like your previous games, don’t change and you’ll have my money and support.

    You may see a lot of first time commenters here. You have a lot of watchers Matt, and we do care enough to tell our opinions.

    Reply
  23. Konnor

    This may seem a little weird, and it might be just me, but I kind of like your less serious approach to the characters and plot, and how you had focused more on their flaws on EBF4. It was more of a unique approach to the RPG genre, and not many games had done a funnier approach to the dialogue and characters nowadays, with it being pretty uncommon. I thought it was a pretty good break from the games that you have to go searching for the lore in all sorts of crazy places to actually get the plot. It was a hilarious journey, filled with all sorts of humor ranging from Lance’s obsession with Natalie, to Anna asking if Natz’s boobs cushion the impact of enemy hits. Personally, I loved every bit of the dialogue, laughed, and I even enjoyed myself playing it over multiple times, and I still laugh at it these days.

    But don’t get me wrong! I think the idea of approaching the story and characters differently to allow for more character development is a pretty good idea, and I’d even enjoy some slightly altered dialogue at the end. Heck, I would honestly go as far as playing the game multiple times just to see the slight variations. I am just that crazy. Maybe Lance will be a little less obsessed with Natz at the end, and maybe Matt might cool down on his food addiction a bit? Heck, I don’t know! There’s so much potential for this approach and because of the amount of possibilities that can happen, it just sounds kind of nice. I’ve always loved these characters, I’ll basically have fun with whatever the heck you do with them, and I just love how the series has grown so much from a game that just has you battling waves of enemies, to a full on open world RPG game.

    I should probably be doing some school work right now, though. I’m going to post this and run before the teacher comes, lol. :yay:

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  24. Temporal

    Agreeing with Bladesinger, Drfugue and Dak, a closer relationship between Natz and Anna is a good idea imo, and if youre unsure about it, it doesn’t have to be forced on players, it may just be an additional quest at one point that ends up making them closer, quest being optional, and adding some kind of bonus (like a 5% damage bonus and resistance bonus to both of them if they are on the field at the same time, or a 20% healing bonus on eachother, something like that, it’s be a nice touch!)

    Matt and lance seems too much like the goofy/comedic relief kind of characters for this to work, except if they change mentality but then again it would feel like they are different characters, but a relationship between Natz and Anna can work, especially with the few scenes in EBF4 with Anna being envious of Natz, maybe the relation starting with slightly shy-awkward questions at the beginning of the game and so on

    thanks for reading, it’s nice of you to ask people their opinion

    Reply
  25. Just A person, You got a problem with that?

    I’d love a couple of (even if useless or not very story-changing) choices, maybe in some way to slightly alter how the characters react to each other? Obviously I don’t want this to turn into a CYOA (Choose you own adventure), bit I’ve always liked character related choices. I think a lot of people like having a little bit of control over things, and it could easily be made optional.
    Thanks for reading (If you are..).

    Reply
  26. cake

    In terms of story I think nice additions would be

    1. more/deeper lore that’s spread around the game world – if you want a richer story with more depth and a history that you can later explore then this one is a must
    2. history of the characters – basically what makes the characters who they are before the start of the game and meeting up with the party
    3. new villain/antagonist/conflict – as much as I love Akron someone new would be great maybe create a recurring antagonist?
    4. NPCs/Locations that have importance to the plot – makes it feel like a much more connected story
    5. tie-ins to past games – if this is going to be a part of a series then going for a solid hard reboot would just make this game feel like it’s a separate entity
    6. more interactions within the party – makes for some nice character development and just getting to know these characters so that we actually care for them
    7. world building – I’m not asking to go full on Tolkien just enough that there is a sense of place with a much more fully realized world
    8. side quests that further develop characters/lore/world building – just more exploration of the world really
    9. more animated cutscenes – would be very very nice

    ran out of ideas

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  27. Drfugue

    Couple of thoughts:

    Addressed to fans of the EBF series:
    1) AKRON IS DEAD MOVE ON
    2) Throwing away the plot of EBFs 1 – 4.4 isn’t a bad idea, their was barely anything their to begin with, much less anything substantial enough to make an amazing plot out of.

    Addressed to Matt Roszak:
    1) While introducing romantic relationships isn’t a bad idea, the group’s current personalities could only form chaotic, unstable relationships that end in heartbreak. The only pair I could even IMAGINE working for the course of a game is Natz and Anna, because Matt and Lance have incredible difficulty simply functioning as civilized human beings, and rarely succeed. If you wanted it to work, Matt and Lance would need to be much more mature. For instance, instead of simply being an idiot and, as later games reveal, a possible kleptomaniac, Matt could be hasty when making a decision, and/or not stop to consider the consequences. Than again, it would be interesting to see the consequence of matt actually having kleptomania. And Lance’s pervy and obsessive nature would have to be toned WAAAY down for him to have a shot with literally anyone. He could still be an obsessive creep, but not to the point of hiding cameras in his clothes, which I felt was crossing the line. On a lesser note, more of a personal question really, does Lance have autism? he misses “obvious” social cues, picks up interest points which he loves the everything out of (tech), to where most people would say he’s “obsessed”, but it doesn’t really impact him in a negative fashion. If he isn’t, that’s fine, but it would be interesting if he did in this universe, and it wasn’t a poorly executed joke, or, on second thought, a joke at all, it would make him seem much more three dimensional. Same thing applies to all characters. Adding features to their personality that affect them in everyday life could lead to much more 3 dimensional characters. If these things were all fixed, Matt would become a phenomenal lady’s man, and Lance would have a shot with Natz, or even Anna. Looking back, this likely constitutes as 3 or 4 points, but I have poor writing skills and shall leave it as 1.

    2) Plot relevant NPCs DOES seem pretty cool. And it would make sense if at least one of them was a character’s family memeber, such as Matt’s brother dying and sending him on his righteous crusade. Another thing that could be cool is choice based dialouge, namely asking NPCs questions. A feature I liked was that the NPCs were aware of the world around them, and I hope that is kept. And sorry for being that person”, and I understand if you just ignore the post for this, but I feel like the whole native american bit is rascist.

    3) Another thing that could be done in an interesting fashion is learning the other character unique limit breaks in relation to the story, like when Anna felled the mighty oak and learned how to summon it as a limit break, or perhaps Natz turns out to be part angel (Or some JRPG junk) and gains genesis after passing a trial of devotion, such as returning a holy artifact to a church, insead of just putting skill points into the limit breaks in question.

    4) The characters, to me, at least, have never felt relevant to the story. It felt more like they were hired proffesionals and this is how they put bread on the table. In other words, it seemed like you could have completely changed the characters and not have impacted the story. This is probably undesireable. The only way I could think to remedy this is by having the characters being drawn into the plot more, Like Matt’s brother’s aforementioned death leading to Matt searching for a skilled mage girl in a near village… Bu be careful to have the characters not be to zeroed in on their reasons, or you’ll just have Zuko’s endless search for honor again.

    5) I really appreciate that you listen to your fans! It is a truly great feeling to say something to a creator, and then they actually consider what you said seriously. And also, I’m sure that what ever the story is, it will be just as fun to play as the other games in the series. And if it’s done juuust right, EBF could become a fairly well known franchise worldwide, like Limbo. :smirk:

    Reply
    1. Rbstat

      Personally i like the “putting bread on the table” approach. gives it more of a unique charm to have this be a sort of job that just needs to be done. you could expand on it a lot more, kinda like how in EBF4: there were the people protesting item shops for favoring adventures in the economy, at the expense of the hardworking NPC’s. dumb stuff like that is fun, and gets across the idea that people just do this in this universe. that sort of put bread on the table thing also separates EBF4 from it’s more serious competitors.

      Reply
  28. Rip Johnson

    Dear Matt,

    What makes the characters of Epic Battle Fantasy the characters of Epic Battle Fantasy?
    Or what makes EBF EBF?

    The answer to these questions is important. You’re doing a reboot, which is done a lot these days in gaming franchises, and that’s not a bad thing and opens up a lot of different possibilities. But one should not fall for it’s traps. The annihilation of canonity in the respective universe for example.
    The answers to the 2 questions I posed are the ones you need to avoid this.
    More specific: a thing that is elementary for EBF is fourth wall breaking and what I think they call lampshade hanging. So it is a reboot: make the characters aware of this. Their personalities can be changed in anyway you see fit, but be sure that if something is deliberately changed, make the characters notice they’re doing stuff their old selves would most likely not have done (even though they’re probably not aware of the reason why. They never showed interaction with you as creator, they merely notice the things in their game change through some unseen force, but I don’t think anyone but NoLegs knows that’s you :smirk: )
    Another general feeling of the game whilst playing it, is the feeling of a game parody. Use things from other games (direct or indirect) and show (how is completely yours) that those things are sometimes ridiculous (like Natz who warns Matt not to hurt himself in his confusion). The parody thing allows you to completely overload the game with stuff like guns, swords, magic, bosses, evil for no reason (or evil for a reason of which the spectator/player knows that it is no reason to be evil at all, but just a reason because the writers were stuck with an evil villain without a reason), and comments from the characters about being in a game an about the game contents. You can make a story in EBF that is ridiculously complex and makes no sense at all and get away with it, also because the first intent of our main heroes is to slay enemies (no matter who they are).
    Which brings us to the characters.
    Matt: The main thing about him is his will to slay when there is no slaying needed and that he is completely oblivious to what’s actually going on. Not that he doesn’t care, but he first wants to fight, then wants to know why. His side quirk is his gluttony, which felt indeed a bit overused. (The comment where he insinuates eating NoLegs is a bit cruel to me, because I think Matt actually likes him a lot, and it seems to fit the characters more if Lance would ask him to consider it, rather than Matt bringing it up himself). He’s also a pirate, a thief with low moral conscience and a sword freak.
    Natz: Her main thing are her breasts, but aside from that, she’s probably the most sane. She seems to be the only one who cares a little about her ethical conscience. On the other hand, I wouldn’t call her smart, and I wouldn’t make her. But she will try to do the right thing and will try to convince the others if she thinks they’re doing wrong. Not that it matters. Matt doesn’t really overthinks what she says and would just agree and fight on. Lance would try to play reversed psychology and disobey because he thinks it will get her to like him.
    Lance: Is very into Natz’s main thing and things alike. He likes guns, explosions, robots, tanks and conquering the world. He doesn’t like a lot and acts very sarcastic in many ways, but in his eyes he is just succesful in anything he does, although he rarely is and he can get frustrated when he hits something that makes that show. Not that it matters: Matt and Natz don’t care, Matt because he doesn’t care about a lot of things and Natz because she already knows. He is unaware of most of this because of his social incapabilities. He’s also the man who would do deliberately things many may believe are not ethical and sees this as power.
    Anna: in many ways the character that can go in a lot of different ways. She is the youngest and it’s not completely clear yet what her place is in the group. She’s very fond of forest creatures, that’s for sure, and she hosts a little bit jealousy towards Natz’s body and beauty. It’s not entirely clear on which page she is about the guys. She doesn’t like their stealing practices, ( she shows a moral conscience as well, but seems less bound by it than Natz does) but she sticks around with them so recognizes their abilities. Surely a character that can gain a lot of growth without the risk of being out of character.
    I had some ideas about the story as well, but I feel I should only communicate about that if necessary. I have no idea how much of help/distraction this post is or were the writing process stands. This post is far too long if you ask me. You can always mail.

    sincerely, RIP

    Reply
  29. Dzib 9001

    one of the things I think you should NOT include are branching paths and multiple endings. It’s way too easy to screw them up and as weird as it sounds, there kind of limiting.

    Reply
  30. Dzib 9001

    honestly, i think you should just do what you feel is right. i’ll admit that I want the characters to feel like people, but not to the detriment of the games plot. But I also don’t want the characters to feel like living jokes.

    Reply
  31. Dak

    I don’t know if you’re planning to put some romantic relationships, or at least hint at them, but it’d be kinda surprising and nice to see some kind of thing between Anna and Natalie. Their interactions are really cute.
    Since in EBF4 Matt was shown not really caring about relationships and Lance being… well, Lance, it still make some sense. It’d be weird to see Matt suddently care for that, it’d feel ungenuine.
    So really, it’d be nice if Anna had a thing for Natalie, or maybe the other way around, maybe both sides ♥

    Slightly unrelated but giving a hint at Hikari and Lance would be funny too, maybe you can find a way to make it interesting.

    Unrelated note, love your work man, discovered EBF many years ago, and now i’m waiting for EBF5 while in med school. Really excited and looking forward to it! :yay:

    Reply
  32. Mage

    I’ve been reading the comments and came across a good idea. Someone before me has already expressed it but I think it would be good to add Akron. I would have liked the plot twist, where Akron erases the memory of heroes and they get acquainted anew. Maybe this time, when they can not behave like old friends, they will begin to interact with each other more cautiously, simultaneously revealing their characters more deeply. And the force that unites them will not only be the development of relationships, but the common goal like stopping Akron.
    Sorry for my English, if I made mistakes. :smirk:

    Reply
  33. Rbstat

    Ok i just thought this was funny, although it’s a bit specific. what if you continued the relationship between Lance and Nolegs, where Lance hates Nolegs and dismisses everything he does on account of being a stupid cat. then near the end of the game, you encounter a druid, or just anybody who can talk to animals. and offers to translate Nolegs.so Nolegs tells Lance off.

    Reply
    1. Rbstat

      like with tons of slurs and swearing and everything. think it’d be hilarious to get Lance’s reaction to all that.

      Reply
  34. unknown

    i had an idead lets put an monster that ruvived akron after the godcat ruvived he guided them to who ruvived akron and they will find that matts father enemy and lance genral and a dark mage from natalie mage alliance and an girl who wanted to be placed in the story who make that final be free if i have more i will post

    Reply
  35. unknown

    i have an great idea bec they are level 1 make a story line as that matt is a pirate king son and when his father dead by (any sea monster ) he be crowned the new one and he escaped from the duty bec he didnt want it nd when he ran he met nattaly and she was prisoner with pirates and he ruscued her and natz was a mage in mage alliance but they wanted her as a queen so the pirates prisoned her to have money and they know lance an commander in an army and he was their foe and bec of his failure to kill them he was fired then he wanted to kill them to ruvenge and they beat him again so they be friends this time (an cute scene have lance saying to them what happeend to him when they beat him ) so they contine and beat ebf 3 (some cute scens) and they meet anna as in (ebf 4) anna as a natural (anna is the only character that we know her begining) and they beat ebf 4 cute scens and they have their jorney in ebf 5 that akron have deleted their memory and used their memeory to create the dark sides of them (for nolegs he is a cat who was in the forest that matt and natalie meeted and matt wanted to :tongue: :tongue: :tongue:0 him and nolegs knoocked him and natalie sayed she want him as a pet )and they contiune and remember their memorys after every single one beat his dark side alone ( they have not met after memory erase if you want to put some parts like the met each other in luck ) they contine to trake and to fight their dark sides and kill them to kill akron bec when he erased their memory he used it to do some univrse changs and god cats tried to stop him but failed (you may put a fight that make players play with god cats and lose ) so they beat him and still have a job to restore every thing to do this they must ruvive godcat from the temple some dark monsters prevent them but cats help them when they ruvive them the dodcat restore every thing ( you may put a part that they discover that they can ruvive godcat in any time without the tumple ) i can make to you an entire anime story i crated all this in 5 mins (i am 15 ) so i have some creativity mind i wish you may read it and to help you i have posted some comments before by the same name but not same email maybe and thats all folks :yay:

    Reply
  36. alex

    would it not be cool if matt met himself after you finished half of the game and the matt from the first gameplay would have a reason to wait in some place so you could meet him by accident and he says”if you finish half of the game and then reset will you meet yourself ?”
    and then matt from the first gameplay says”what the hell?”now that would be funny :yay:

    Reply
  37. Zomb

    You should reveal more of Lance’s dark side, that would make everything really interesting :tongue: :hurray: :yay:

    And also, I think NoLegs should be that one that annoys everyone :smirk: :ooo: :stars:

    Reply
  38. Aidan

    Is it even okay to basically destroy the evidence of their existence from the past games, and basically make up an entire new story? What are you going to do if your scrutinizing fans find references to past games or such? Shouldn’t this be like, a separate game mode or something? 😥 :scared:

    Reply
    1. alex

      didn’t anna complain that the story is already over? i mean you know that makes you think that she wants a part two of the ebf 4 so…

      Reply
  39. Velt

    Could you put a JoJo Bizarre Adventure ref too? Let’s say Natz gains an ability that gives the party additional turns and then she says: ‘ZA WARUUUU…i don’t know where that came from :scared: ‘

    Reply
    1. Arte71

      As weird as that sounds, that could be a cool Limit Break!

      You know, for bosses that can’t get stun, I could honestly see it being pretty useful.
      (of course there she wouldn’t shout “ZA WARUDO!” all over the place)

      Reply
  40. Spec7er

    :scared: WHAT ?! NO ! WHY ?! WHY RESET / ALTERNATE TIMELINE ?! DO YOU HAVE TO ?! IS THIS GAME EVEN CANON ?! PLEASE , NO ! :scared:
    -a fan of yours

    Reply
    1. DeadlyPhantom

      STRONG REACTION ALERT I REPEAT STRONG REACTION ALERT. :smirk:
      but seriously this may fixes thing from other games so that is just my opinion
      and I thought like that whenI heard the “reboot”

      Reply
  41. Silkwood

    Hey, this is my first time comment. By the way, sorry in advance for bad grammar because english is not my native language.

    Personally, I like the suggestion about “rebooting” because this is a chance to see each character development in a good way. This will give each character background story. Not to mention, nobody knows why Matt and Natz met in the first place in the first EBF. Also, I agree with the others to keep the jokes as part of the story. They need to be silly as possible, but please do it with consideration. For the relationship, I give you thumbs up because it sounds interesting.

    I actually got a concept about story. The story maybe start like this. Akron (because everyone wants him back) suddenly ressurected and brainwashed our hero and transported them into other place (you can say dimension, other side of planet, other planet, etc). They’re lost their memories, so it’s not weird to start at lv 1 again. After that, the main character (in this case is Matt) just doing his daily life for being … him. And because of ___, he met Natalie (I don’t know their story, so just insert your thoughts there, pervert or not :shades: ). Maybe they heard about zombie goku or something and decided to fight it. After that, they met the other with the same way the met, like they fight Lance for world peace before he become their companion and Matt got headshot by Anna because she though he stole the godcat gem, while the arrow still stuck on his head for a moment. For this case, you can make it on a different environment and different enemies to make it not similar to EBF 3 and 4. After long journey, they got their memories back about they actually got brainwashed and decide to find the way to met Akron again to finish it once and for all. Not knowing that the last boss is actually the one who resurrect Akron. At this point, you can add your own ending.

    Well, the downside of this story is I just combine the story of the old EBF. Also, why a powerful monster, who get everyone become idiot again, didn’t destroy the world. Not to mention he just scatter everyone and just left them to grow again and it will gonna be weird if they suddenly they met each other in the same fashion they met before the brainwashing. Well, this is just an idea. Hope this help :smirk: .

    Reply
  42. Vara

    Ahh, focusing a bit more on story this time, even if it’s just something basic but concrete? I like that decision! As for feedback, I don’t think it’d be a good idea to discard the silliness completely and try to be taken TOO seriously. I’ve always viewed this series as a sort of comedy-rpg, with a focus on the rpg . I can’t think of the type of humor off the top of my head, but the writing style of, for example, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, or maybe even the new “Bowser’s Minion’s” section of that remaster of Mario and Luigi sorta reminds me of that type of humor. Has its serious moments, but in the end, it’s meant to be funny and entertain. Of course, I wouldn’t expect you to be as kid friendly as those games, but I think you know what I mean.

    Reply
  43. WillOfTheTrees

    I’ve just spent over an hour going through all the comments and there are so many good ideas. here are some I really like and strongly suggest you implement:

    1) look more at the relationships between each possible pairing, (Matt and Natalie, Anna and Lance, etc) rather than the individual characters. So for example Lance and Anna would have quite a conflict seeing as Anna in nature-loving and Lance wants the crush nature and wildlife to make room for machines. But of course they have to have something positive too. Somebody suggested Lance compliments Anna on her looks, which would in turn affect Anna’s security concerning her looks compared to Natalie’s, or one of them could save the other as someone else suggested. Now Matt and Anna. Despite the fact that they were the only two characters for a portion of EBF4, I don’t remember Matt and Anna having a very developed relationship. A few jokes were made and, although funny, that was pretty much it. I can definitely see Matt and lance having a kind of best mate relationship. I feel like Matt and Natalie would have to have some kind a special bond but introducing couples could potentially be a very bad idea, although the others could jokingly pair them together just like five year-olds would mock their friends saying “Matt and Natalie sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G”. I know this has already been said a lot but don’t take Lance’s perviness too far, he needs some positive interaction with Natalie. Remember they each need a reason to want to stay with the others, i.e. an emotional attachment. Finally Anna and Natalie, I’m thinking some sort of a big/little sister kind of thing, as I saw mentioned earlier, but with some jealously on Anna’s behalf, perhaps unbeknownst to Natalie. Oh, and nolegs… I have no idea lol he’s not exactly an easy character to develop.

    2) I really like the idea of the group splitting up for a while, giving each pairing a chance to develop. I’m not even sure if this will be possible since you might have to change the storyline so maybe not but how it could work is like in the waste disposal plant in EBF4 when you go in a corner and Lance says “Pssst Matt” then the stuff about the hidden cameras. Little one-on-one interactions like that will be key for developing relationships.

    3) Having key NPCs could make some thing a lot more interesting, like for example maybe a family member of one of the four, like that woman in the first potion shop in EBF1 could turn out to be related to Anna (I saw some good discussion about it in the comment section of that post with the fanart of her). I actually really liked in EBF4 when Anna could talk to some NPCs who clearly knew her. It gave a real sense of belonging and homeliness, kinda hard to explain but I liked that. It sort of showed her to be a more real character, a bit more believable if you will.

    4) I saw this idea posted earlier, someone suggested it could be set in an alternate universe. This could give justification for Akron appearing yet again, as it could be the other world that Godcat created to start over. Following on from this, it could be made so that cats have legs now but that may not work with your art style so perhaps not, just a thought.

    Wow that was a long post soz. I hope it can have a positive impact on the game tho. Thank you very much for all you’re hard work. I know you’re gonna smash it! :shades:

    Reply
  44. Satyr

    Are you going to do a restart, like all of the characters meeting each other for the first time? Or will it be like EBF4 when only Anna was new? :wut: ❓

    Reply
  45. Taylor

    We’d like to see you you and Lance in bromance. Well, sorry for that. I know you hate it, but that’ what can make your new game much more popular.

    Reply
  46. Jeremiah Rose

    So, I’m probably not saying anything that hasn’t been said before, but I really do like the fact that the characters have quirks, and, to be honest, my biggest fear is that you might actually get rid of some quirks that make them fun altogether. Now, I realize this fear is likely unnecessary, but I loved the fact that each character having a definite ‘feel’ to them (i.e. Matt being a ‘roguish sword fighter’) and having loved the way the personalities worked with the designs of the characters and made the game really enjoyable overall, and the idea of that being lost is kind of worrying me to be honest. Regardless, I guess what i’m trying to say is, while I love the idea of ‘rebooting’ it, please let the characters remain who they generally ‘are’, so to speak. Otherwise, it would be kind of hard for someone to screw up anything that’s been this good in development up to this point, so all I have to say aside from that is thank you for reading this, and have fun with making it. It’d be a shame if you, the creator of it, didn’t like it.

    Reply
  47. Arte71

    Yes, I would love more depth into the writing, because to be honest with ya, EBF4 or EBF3 plot was kinda… there, you know, there because every game needs a plot to know which locations you would travel to reach your objective and why that objective is important. (like something from Mario, Bowser stole your princess, he is very far way and putted some people to guard his castle, and why you want to go there because come on dude, it’s a princess.)

    The character dialogue which I love the funny jokes they burst from their mouths, there isn’t really much besides jokes or exposition. That isn’t a problem in-battle, where you need to know what the hell the attacks can do and battles aren’t really supposed to be heavily-plot parts that you need to be ultra serious about it (except if you are fighthing an important boss related to the plot like… *creates a fake boss* The Acolyte of Godcat or something like that), so jokes can work, and they do it pretty well, but in the overworld, not as effective. (That doesn’t mean you should stop with the jokes in the overworld, just reduce the level of usage.)

    The same applies for character interaction. Of course that at least in some of the huge amounts of interaction that there isn’t anything related to a joke or a character reacting/interacting with another’s character quirky (“Matt, don’t do anything stupid, I know you have low IQ but don’t” “Fine./no u”), but they aren’t really as memorable.

    I don’t really think a plot is that much importance on a EBF game compared to other RPGs, I mean, I like EBF3 and EBF4 as it is ,because the battles are organic and fun, the visuals have great details and the music is really really really AWESOME! (Shoutouts to Phyrnna), but if you want to make the writing even better, you gonna give me a new reason to love this game and attract even more fans, so I hope you do it well. Good luck on ya! :yay:

    Reply
  48. Ipickgoodusernames

    Hey man I just wanted to leave a quick thumbs up for the different endings thing, I think it would add some replay value to the games and it would be really cool to see where you would take it! Super hyped for the new game can’t wait.

    Reply
  49. Squill

    Hey Matt,

    Long time follower of your games, first time commenter

    So, for starters, as EBF5 is a ‘reboot’ in the sense that all of the characters are meeting each other again for the first time, can I assume that their general personalities are going to get a reboot too? Or are you going to leave their personalities as they are now for the beginning of the game, and develop them in such a way that they take the ‘threat to the world’ more seriously and grow as they continue to go throughout their journey? In all honesty, I think the latter would be the better choice, as having entirely new personalities for the same characters at the beginning of the game would throw a lot of people off, especially players who are unaware that EBF5 is stand alone compared to the rest of the EBF series.

    As for relationships… this will be a bit trickier. You yourself mentioned that the ending of the game may change depending on the player’s choices. So, in that case, can we assume a potential end where Matt ends up with Natalie, but also an end where Lance ends up with her instead? If the personalities aren’t hard reset at the beginning of the game, then I am assuming that Lance will still have the hots for Natalie, whereas Natalie will still be craving for some of that sweet, oblivious Matt meat. In order to get around some of these ‘relationship’ problems in a believable way without leaving Anna out as a forth wheel entirely, having a moment where the group splits up somewhere throughout the stories and having the girls (and/or guys) get into trouble and needing one of the opposite gender party members to save them could lead to some potentially believable dialogue/scenes in which the one getting rescued falls for the one rescuing. (In all honesty, I think it would be quite amusing if Lance gets himself in to a precarious situation and Anna comes to save him, making his heart skip a beat.) Giving the player the option to determine which character ‘rescues’ who will be a good way for the player to make sure they get to ship their preferred pairing. While the ‘rescuing’ the damsel in distress isn’t exactly a fresh troupe, the girls rescuing the guys is a neat little spin which I believe coincides with your sense of humor.

    As for the plot of the overall story… a concrete plot I feel is a must. You can start it out relatively lighthearted and have are beloved characters remain their dorky selves at the beginning for the most part, but as said above have them slowly realize the true graveness of the situation and have them grow and develop according to the progression of the story. The dialogue itself will also progress with the characterization of the cast.

    I believe that hopefully sums up all the points/queries you had in your post, but if, by any chance, you would like to ask my opinion on anything further you are more then welcome to do so. I’m actually a creative writing student and characterization, dialogue, and general world/story building are my strong points, and I would be more than happy to help further if you found my feedback useful ^_^

    Reply
  50. Spinner

    First off let me say that shallow personality quirks maketh the character when it comes to video games. The biggest icons of gaming history are all known for their shallow quirks first, Mario being generically heroic, Sonic being the cynical and cocky cool kid, Link being a blank slate, Samus being a stoic loner, Kirby being naive and childlike, Master Chief being capable and badass. These quirks are how your characters are known first and foremost, but their lives and characters can be further expanded upon into greater detail for those who want more. In fact the more simple a character is in gaming (outside of story based games obviously), the more well known and easily recognized those characters become. At least as far as their general character goes. So long as they are known for being X, Y or Z.

    Now, obviously you won’t be getting rid of any of their personalities, but try to strike a balance between “I shouldn’t make them say/do this because it will just reinforce their character stereotype.” and “I shouldn’t make them do this because it is too out of character.”. While you don’t just want every conversation to be the same, try to remember that in games like these, your games especially, exaggerated personalities and character traits are the norm and are expected. I applaud you for wanting to go deeper and be less shallow in this regard, and I think it would be best for you to do so. But don’t lose sight of who these characters have become in order to tell a different side of them that we haven’t seen before. I guess what I am saying, is that tell a new story, go deeper into these characters, while retaining the ridiculous exaggerated ‘frontal’ personalities they have been come to be known by. Flanderization only happens when those traits become the only thing that makes them who they are. You probably already realized all of this on your own by now, but I guess I just wanted to give some feedback anyway.

    Concerning the story, the past stories seemed to be disconnected from the characters. While they were the heroes, the dilemma and the trials they were facing had nothing to really do with them. That isn’t bad of course, but if you want a more character focused game than before, perhaps the easiest thing to do is associate the characters with the plot more than them just being the heroes that stops the big bad. I’m not saying go the direction where the problem or villain is necessarily one CAUSED by the heroes, but perhaps you can develop the villain or plot alongside the characters. Perhaps the primary antagonist or threat can grow while they grow as well, and they can witness this looming threat as it affects their lives, and how this threat interacts with each one of them as an individual, giving each one a separate reason to join the team and fight against the big bad. I am reminded of the motivations behind the crew in One Piece. Yes, they all want to find the big treasure at the end, but their motivations are more about what they will accomplish on the way there (Bit of spoilers, but one wants to chart the entire world. One wants to become the greatest swordsman. One wants be able to cure and illness. So on and so forth). Their fates can be intertwined with it more than just “Hey a big bad guy is gonna destroy the world. We gotta stop them!”. I’m not writer, so I’m not sure how you would start such a story, but I think that direction might be more beholden to what you want to do this time around with the characters and the plot.

    Sorry to make such a long comment, lol

    Reply
      1. Spinner

        I just realized how condescending my post sounds coming from me when you’re the one who does this for a living, lol

        Reply
  51. Bygraver

    I think it sounds like a great idea! :yay: my expectations are running along the idea of just get to see some bonding between characters get some bro time with matt and lance perhaps even few tidbits of shipping material between characters and idea that ive thought of before is parts in the story where the characters either have a falling out or are just separated by monster forcing them to work with members of the team they wouldn’t normally see eye to eye with so they can have a better understanding of each other and their importance and idea being matt and natz working together on their own matt either not understanding or getting mad at natz for not actully fighting them and using magic untill she proves her self in battle since matt is all about swords but im sure you get these kinds of suggestions alot

    Reply
  52. waffles2401

    puns and references are your strong suit, i’d love to see those. i’m not sure that people are looking for mass effect 2 levels of engagement from a pseudo-flash game, so i wouldn’t go crazy with character development. some cameos would be bomb as hell though lol (akron, phyrnna, the glitch, take your pick). it does help when there is at least a loose narrative, it feels like it lends some stakes to the game. or steaks? haha pun #1

    Reply
  53. Belly Barge Barrage EX

    There are some pretty good fanfictions out there for EBF on Fanfiction and Archive of Our Own that people seem to like. Aysu on FF has some good stuff and a short stories collection that wouldn’t take too long to read, though those can be a little angst-y at times. There’s a pretty decent story on AO3 on Brawl Royale that was a good read, too. Maybe check one of those out for ideas on what some people are looking for?

    Reply
  54. Tomás Contreras

    I have some ideas. you could actually make some of the NPCs actually important to the plot. Maybe being a family member of one of the protagonists. Also, i would want to see some decision making (only if it´s possible) and some backstory, maybe in dialogue, maybe in collectibles. I think that this reboot is a fantastic idea, but it also leaves me with some doubt about wether something is cannon or not, altough you don´t really seem to care about an actual “cannon story”. This messes me up, because I wanted to make a book about the saga. I can still do it, though. It would be pretty easy: I could say that after the last Akron battle, in Bullet Heaven 2, the world was recreated, and everyone lost their memory. But going back to EBF5, I am very excited, and I hope the story develops the right way. Greetings.

    Tomás.

    Reply
  55. Oxybulyx

    Restarting from the beggining could be a great way of fixing the littles problems characters had, and would make a fresh twist.

    Reply
  56. Maru

    Sorry for the third comment, but for some reason I can’t write it properly 😐

    6 – nothing unusual, but… Heh

    A lot of people are requesting to return the Akron
    But I don’t think that this is the most brilliant idea… But who knows
    But it would be funny to see some demonic deity or fallen angel as a super secret boss

    But theoretically there are will be a plot about space/another universe ?
    Hmmm… In somewhat various endings will suit that…
    The space in that there are no time… A space, which is unknown… Where there are another laws of the physics/universe… Lives a mysterious deity, which controls that strange endless world… It saw every ending, every lap or something of heroes…

    7 – but the most important thing
    We should to FEEL that we are playing EBF :smirk:

    Sorry for bad English

    Reply
  57. Maru

    Sorry for the second comment, but something happened with the first…

    6 – nothing unusual, but… Heh

    A lot of people are requesting to return the Akron
    But I don’t think that this is the most brilliant idea… But who knows >..<

    Reply
  58. Maru

    Hmmm
    There are a lot of different opinions :3

    Well
    Okay~

    1 – first of all, I think that there are everything should be in moderation
    And jokes and seriousness

    2 – a serious and deep plot should be nice, to be honest
    But again, everything in moderation

    3 – character development ? I think that this is a really and really beautiful idea !!!!!
    It should be good to see more detailed characters of the characters and their growing, he-he…
    For example, young Anna…
    Or Lance with his hard childhood…

    4 – character relationships ? Very nice idea
    It would be interesting to look for it
    There are a lot of various variations about that~
    You can imagine a looooooooooot of that

    But again, everything in moderation

    (5 – different endings ?
    Ho ho… I don’t know what to say
    Why not ? (?)
    But I’d there are will be new game+
    Or achievements about endings
    And some endings may be not obvious… Or there are will be some very tricky ways to reach some of them…

    Hmmm…)

    6 – nothing unusual, but… Heh

    A lot of people are requesting to return the Akron
    But I don’t think that this is the most brilliant idea… But who knows >..<

    Reply
  59. Gray

    Rebooting the narrative is not necessarily destined to fail, but you should take great care with your approach. It’s all a matter of execution. It can’t be a repeat of the previously established character arcs, and it must be bold, inventive, and above all: it must be better. If you pull it off, it will be magnificent. If you don’t, it will be a disaster. So be sure to do the best you can with it.

    Reply
  60. Devin de Vries

    If we take EBF 3 and 4 (+ some Bullet Heaven 2 bits) as a comparison, I think you should consider the following aspects:

    Good:
    +There were a lot of references in past games and people loved the crap out of it. Keep it up.
    +You’ve done a decent job at showing different interests and moral values of the cast from time to time. Maybe you could evaluate this yourself, but I liked what was there so perhaps you could expand on it.
    +Keep fleshing them out more like you’ve been trying to do since EBF3.

    Let’s call them “observations”:
    -Like “Rbstat” mentioned, quirks helped add personality to the cast and are a part of who they are, but you should balance it out by also focusing on less quirky attributes and not having their traits be some holy unbreakable rules. The best examples I can think of are how Matt was not just careless or ignorant in EBF3 & 4 (this is fine), but it even escalated to complete unexplained retardedness at times (EBF4 did this more, BH2 somehow handled it better, hard to explain why though). Or how Lance’s perviness went complete overboard in EBF4 (yes, even if we like boob jokes and are dealing with an unstable character).
    -There are times for serious plot and there are times for comedy (EBF4 and BH2 went for the latter a bit too much, although in general those games ARE an improvement overall).
    -Let’s be honest, only the EBF crew and some bosses really mattered as characters (supporting cast anyone?)

    One last thing:
    +-Doing a complete reboot sounds… risky to me. It would invalidate everything that happened in the games before EBF5 (like how Matt and Natalie journeyed together, or how the trio lived as scavengers before meeting Anna) and thus take away from the games’ historyand fandom. Perhaps you could make it so they decided to go their own ways and haven’t seen eachother for a long time as a result. It would make for some interesting stuff to explore about what happened in between EBF4 & 5. I’ll trust your judgement on this one.

    Reply
  61. Akherone

    The only thing I’d have to say (and I don’t know if people will agree with me or not), is whatever you do, don’t try to take the story or writing too seriously. IMO, the charm of EBF is how silly and almost satirical it is most of the way through. Like, the last game ended with fighting cat deities in essentially mechs, and that’s fine. I feel like now if you were to try to do anything too serious, it would make it a lot less fun. It’s not like you can’t have a plot and make self-referential humor.

    Reply
    1. Nokastu

      Yeah, as this dude sayd i don’t realy see the point on focusing on the story.
      I mean, Matt sliced the world in 2 pieces by defeating Zombie Goku and then get to fly in the space on his sword.
      I think a more serious story wouldn’t be as much bad as this dude thinks but yet what, will it be like a Final Fantasy one ?

      Reply
  62. DeadlyPhantom

    what Waffle-Whale said is I good idea but I thing the god cats should do something to erase their memories but maybe not of the things they have forgot
    example the comic molithen (the black stone summoned by Akron) they will have “bad memories” of it so they can fight it. and then this means that nolegs limit break like the
    godcat summons will make a bit of sense :stars: :love2:

    hopefully you read this and take this in to consideration :smirk:

    Reply
  63. 074

    Honestly, I can safely say you can probably take most criticism about BH2’s plot with a few grains of salt on the basis that, frankly, it’s a bullet hell shmup and wasn’t really designed to be very plotty. If people were expecting a RPG-scale plot in a top-down shooter without massive amounts of downtime for cutscenes or backstory materials, that’s honestly on them.

    Now for the other matter, EBF4’s writing issues. Yeah, there was some flanderization of characters–not as much as one’d think, but some was there. Most notably (and possibly infamously at this point), Lance and his perversion on Natalie, which was honestly taken to an extreme in the camera joke (which is something I found a bit cringeworthy). I can’t say I’m much of a writer myself, having basically thrown a number of RPG Maker projects approaching the double digits in the trash bin because I was dissatisfied with how the writing was turning out, but I guess the general things here are to remember that such things are only one dimension of a character, and that something can be taken too far.

    Getting someone to proofread and check your stuff, if you haven’t done so, would be a great help in this case.

    Reply
  64. Xarxaxyl

    Ah dunno m8. Thing is, most a yer games have a noticeable self-aware humor dat we’re used to, an’ we enjoy it. Makin’ a plot dat takes itself seriously in yer games’ universe jus’ can’t work very well w/o constant trope breakers. It would be good to find a balance between medium-aware humor an’ epic moments in which the player can feel inmersed in. Sorta how 8-bit Theater did it, taking ridiculous yet loveable characters through a plot dat constantly stacks the deck against ’em, but still manages to have a good story progression an’ satisfyin’ conclusion. Ackchually, yeah, jus’ hire Brian Clevinger to write the story an’ dialogue, lmao :yay:

    P.S. Will EBF5 port to the Switch? Pretty please?? You would get lots more exposure dat way

    Reply
    1. HamFantasy

      Haha, how would some random (immensely skilled) dev who is on steam get a port from Nintendo? More likely than Xbox or PS4, but still…if GS4 can’t be a thing after all these years, it is fairly improbable that EBF5 would be one on the Switch.
      Also, Nintendo doesn’t seem to really like M rated games…

      Reply
  65. Christopher.V

    Maybe its just me but i would like a deeper story and more character development. Dont get me wrong I loved EBF 3-4 Ive played them both alot and enjoyed my time but if I had to asked for one thing it would be more character development and lore. :stars: :smirk: :tongue:

    Reply
  66. duiduo

    I think because of you not continuing the story line, you could have some great story build ups, along with some couples! I NEED shipping!! (Don’t leave Anna out plz).
    But since youre the creator, you do whatev you want. you did a pretty good job on your other games (obviously) so I trust your judgement.

    P.S.
    This is my first message to you! I first played ebf4 when i was in 4th grade! I was a little to young with the boob jokes, but whatever. Please keep making these great games! (I also wish I had the money to buy your premium content.) Thanks for the memories!!!

    Reply
  67. Dutczar

    So… a soft reboot (like in an alternate universe or some Akron type time resetting crap) or a prequel? (I assume it’s not prequel since Lance and Anna already have backstorise for joining the party bu wanted to ask anyways) Honestly… yeah, I’m up for it. We never got a backstory to the original trio meeting, and it would be nice. Maybe even some One More Final Battle reference?
    Yeah, I agree, the characters did get a bit flanderised, most notably Lance. In EBF3, he was perverty when he had the oppurtunity, but in EBF4 it seemed to be happening way more often (I mean, the “cameras all around him” joke was a bit funny, but would he actually do that? He seemed to be a bit more serious than that) and he wasn’t that nerdy/gun freaky either (then again, EBF3 only really had 1 slightly technology based boss, EBF4 had a whole zone dedicated to it, ofc Lance would say the most)
    As some people mentioned, explaining his military background and focusing character around that would be nice.
    Natz was…eh. She was fine in EBF4, but maybe it’s because she didn’treally have any traits to flanderise besides being more intelligent, and it wasn’t really her dialogue that made her sound that way, it was just that others were dumbed down. TBH she is the most generic of the group, and will be even more so if the other characters improve character. (That isn’t a proper sentence but you know what I mean)
    Matt felt more dumber in EBF4 while still breaking the 4th wall and occasionally showing signs of intelligence that way, which didn’t really mash that well. IMO he was and should always be the self-insert main character and the moments of idiocy shouldn’t actually come from IQ (“OH NO THAT GREEN WATER DOESN’T LOOK GOOD), just from carelessness, like eating poisonous shrooms (Cause why not) or pressing buttons when there’s nothing else to press (Cause what would happen? Every player would be curious)
    Anna was flanderised as the nature girl, which is weird, because I think it’s hard for someone to do that in their debut game. It’s like, she’s fine at first, but as time goes on she becomes again a bit more stupid. I mean, even if she does enter an area filled with machinery and robots that she doesn’t understand, there could be more dialogue about her getting to learn all of these things, instead of… I was gonna say being stupid with the glitch door and the Internet in a box, but actually, these are the only instances of dialogue in the factory. Kind of a wasted oppurunity. Although I will say, she didn’t act like a smartass in the jungle, which is… well, it’s good since it’s not flanderisation, but at the same time ALSO makes me realise, she has no dialogue, character, or anything, especially once the party regroups. All her dialogue is just about the story, except for when you interact with objects when she’s the leader. Probably that’s why people think she was an unnecessary addition.
    NoLegs. Uh… well, his character is fine. Not sure if you can improve or even screw it up without dialogue. The only trait standing out about him is that he’s trying his best at telling the party stuff, fighting, etc. Maybe show him being more loyal to Matt? It’s like, I THINK they are best buds, but we never see it.
    Alternate endings, eh, don’t care about them unless they are gameplay changing.

    Reply
    1. DeadlyPhantom

      Nolegs as he does not talk he will have to act his traits
      just saying this as Dutczar made this come to my attention

      Reply
  68. Shaymin

    My only request is keep up the jokes and references to other games/media. That was one of the things that drew my into EBF in the first place, and they make my laugh every time.

    Other than that, do whatever you feel works. I have no doubt that no matter what you will create a very enjoyable game that I’m definitely buying Day One :yay:

    Good luck with the rest you need to do!

    Reply
  69. Danexing

    Well, i mean, making this a new beginning to the story, would that mean that everything before is no longer canon? if thats so, maybe this could be considered an alternate reality, meaning that the characters are different in certain ways. even though im sure its too late for new things to be added, maybe akron (lots of people really want him back) never existed in this world, and they had to meet up in a different way, maybe godcat never came back because akron was never made, therefore, there would have to be a different evil, making that original bosses and final bosses can exist, and it would be a different world, however, in one of the optional areas, akron as well as the alternate reality ebf crew would be there, confused, they might fight. but that is just one idea.

    what i really want to see is the older characters from your older games and animations come back as slightly different but completely remastered in this new dimension, and there could be more story line based around them. but i know its really far fetched to alter the game that much.

    One of my bigger questions is why remake the world, i mean its too late now but i just want to know why you chose that direction for your game, you spent a while building this world, but from what ive seen is that it is quite similar to the older games. is this to make things more fun by being able to remake your characters again now that you have seen them grow, or is it because there is some other reason, possibly after defeating god cat it knew that they did not deserve this world and wanted to make things different. or were they sent back in time to defeat an ancient evil that destroys the future and this was the only way…

    There is alot of ways to go about things but those are some crazy ideas that would be cool, but its really just up to you, some smaller things i would like to see more on topic in the character development stuff, is possibly different ways to play the story through, you dont need to make some huuge telltale style dialogue choice but some different choices to take the story would be cool, adding more replay value.

    More character backstory is a MUST, especially now that we are restarting, and is everyone the main protagonist or is it just Matt? It would be cool if it starts off just Matt and Nolegs and maybe Nolegs runs off and Matt needs t find him, bumping into Natalie, i mean it would be cool to have different character starts and sometimes they split up, that would be an amazing story. im sure ive used up enough of your time reading this, please tell me if any of this is good or not (if you want). sorry about the bad punctuation. :smirk: :coffee:

    Reply
    1. Armed to the Legs

      Based on the map it would appear that matt is not the starting character. I’d guess it would be Natz and Nolegs.

      Reply
    2. HamFantasy

      I would say that the explanation for the retconning, if it isn’t said ingame, is probably that Godcat made an alternate world modeled after the first to see what would happen and to get a better idea of humanity’s potential. This explains why the scenario is different, the presence of the gemstones (I’m guessing they are there as sort of a watermark, Godcat’s way of saying “I made this”) and why the characters are all there. Both Akron and Godcat and intrigued by the main cast, so it makes sense that Godcat’s curious would lead her to implement iterations of them in this other world. Then there’s a third world which is the Cat Utopia she makes after EBF4.

      Reply
  70. Kupofan

    It’s great that you ask for feedback! Here’s some ideas of mine:
    -A serious, deep story is fine, but you should keep the silly humor, dialogues and descriptions; they’re an iconic element of the series. For example, it’s fine if Lance realizes that Natalie is human and dislikes that people stare at her breasts, but we should still get some moments where he, well, stares at her breasts.
    -The final boss is a very important element of RPGs. Godcat’s design and motivations were fine, but the way she was presented to the player could have been better. We got two encounters before the final battle, and Anna explained her background, but the encounters themselves had zero relevance to the story and we knew all there was to know about her in the first half of the game. I know nothing about the new final boss, but if it is a mythological creature, their story could be told through paintings in some old ruins, an ancient book, stone fragments that can be obtained during the adventure… that sort of thing.
    -It would be appreciated if bonus dungeons had a side story, or at least some lore. Battle Mountain was fine as a challenge but we aren’t given any explanation about it or any reason to fight there. I understand it’s just a bonus area and it doesn’t “have” to make sense, but a simple “This is an alternate dimension where powerful monsters roam freely and people cower in fear” would be nice.
    -Multiple endings seems like an awesome idea! It’s great to feel that you can influence the story with your decisions.
    These are just my ideas though. I’m certain EBF5 will be an awesome game, surpassing its predecesor which was already great. I can’t wait! :yay: :yay: :yay:

    Reply
    1. DeadlyPhantom

      I agree with the humour being kept and the finding stone fragments in game to help with lore is great :smirk:
      but there was lots of ruins in the game EBF4 especially the end and even a bit in EBF3 if I am not mistaken :wut:

      Reply
      1. Kupofan

        Yes, there are many ruins in previous games. But what I was trying to say is that these ruins could have provided more information about past events or legends. The ruins of Godcat temple, for example, show that Godcat was worshipped in the past and that cats had a great civilization capable of building huge temples and statues, but these details are already known by the time we visit the place, so they’re not really interesting from a narrative perspective (they’re still impressive aesthetically though!).

        Reply
  71. Rbstat

    I think it could be more interesting to look at the characters quirks, not as something to change or get rid of, but as starting points for more in depth characters. the way i’d do it is by taking the quirks that the main characters have, and splitting it into sins and virtues, then expanding on those sins and virtues.

    I’ll use Matt as a good example, as he’s a bit more obvious. one of Matt’s main quirks in the last game was him eating animals, and wanting to try out the taste of new animals. this has an obvious sin of gluttony :bacon: , but it also has a virtue of openness, Matt want’s to try new things, in this case food. Now you can explore both of these in depth. not only to the extent of where these characters get their sins and virtues from, and all that stuff, but also how it works in their character. for instance, gluttony tends to be symbolized a lot with alcohol almost as much as it is with food. so why not have Matt be an alcoholic too? it would explain why he seems so dumb, and why he’s kinda violent, plus it gives you more things about the character to explore. then on the other hand you have his virtue of openness, allowing him to try new things, AND be more open to the opinions and ideas of others. you could show this by maybe having Matt try to gain a grasp on some of the other’s skills (like Nat’s magic or Lance’s tech knowledge) for instance. this also makes him kind of invaluable to the team as a whole since he becomes the sort of rope that ties them together. meaning that their could be times when characters start bickering and Matt would knowingly or unknowingly break it up. plus you could have Matt’s openness portray itself in a more negative light by making him kind of naive, (also explaining his dumbness in earlier games) making him more susceptible to lies.

    Finally you can tie it all together by tying his sins and virtues together in some way, and/or tying his sins and virtues into the sins and virtues of the others. for instance if you have a character, who’s sin is prejudice, Matt’s virtue of openness counters that, leading to both butting of the heads, and possible closer relationships overall. as well as overall leading to party cohesion. (especially since one of the main characters is technically of a different race than the others) on the other hand of this, you could have Matt’s sin of gluttony countered by a virtue of modesty (probably from Nat) once again leading to headbutting, bickering,friendship, and overall party cohesion.

    from there if you think that a character has a bad sin or virtue that doesn’t match well with all the others, then you can change it to something more fitting. I mainly covered Matt in this but you could technically do this for all of them, Lance certainly has a sin of lust for instance. either way, i hope i have helped you in your story telling endevors, thank you for making great games friend, farewell. :yay:

    Reply
    1. DeadlyPhantom

      umm the sins idea is a bit far fetched but some thing like matt being alcoholic make sense and in one of the pictures of what looks like matt house has
      a big barrel which probably has booze in it so it is a good idea a guess ❓

      Reply
    2. Armed to the Legs

      Matt is an alcoholic and is kind of gluttonous, but that could also mean that he is a gourmet chef in his spare time. Maybe he learned swordfighting so as to help him traverse the world for food but never got around to it and instead just raids bandits for supplies or something.

      Reply
  72. wonderlion

    Id also like to see more of Lance’s dark side integrated into the plot like Ive seen it in so much fanart x)

    Reply
  73. Waffle-Whale

    Since everyone’s at lv.1, and people seem to want Akron, maybe Akron erased their memories after returning and they all meet thinking they don’t know each other. They hear a monster is killing people (Akron) and decide to go after it, learning their memories along the way and realizing the full story. Just an idea ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :yay:

    Reply
      1. Waffle-Whale

        In ebf3 their powers were taken but their minds were completely ok, this time they would lose – and then try to recover – their memories

        Reply
    1. El Bardo

      THIS. but, i really do not want Akron, i don’t like is design or personality, also i want a refreshing and original new final boss, with complex mechanics or something like that

      Reply
    2. Armed to the Legs

      A better thing to play at would be Godcat created a pair of alternate worlds, one is a utopia for cats and is far away from everything but one that is the subject of EBF5 which is in effect her thoughts and the excess from the utopia combined into another world. And oops Arkon’s there as a major boss (but not the final of couse)

      Reply
  74. alex

    and i think it is too late but probably in updates make a snow papyrus and a lump of snow with the name “sans” written on it in red… :smirk:

    Reply
  75. faeries

    I think one of the ways to avoid having quirks dominate a character’s personality is to let them have different dynamics with different characters, and exceptions to those quirks. Or, to express it better, to give them a personality in which those quirks are just a part of the whole, and to let the non-quirky parts shine too! Though they shouldn’t contradict each other, obviously – but since the quirks aren’t what defines them they could be subverted a few times while keeping their personalities consistent on the whole.

    The, let’s call it reboot, setting could be very interesting imo! We’d get to see dynamics that we might have not seen before – I think it’s a great opportunity to focus on relationships (not necessarily romantic ofc) and interactions that aren’t THAT developed and to go new directions with them… Maybe basing them on what they had in the other games, but enriching that a lot! And, most importantly, making every “pair” relatively unique (as in, Matt should act in a certain way with Lance, in another with Anna, and yet another with Natalie – but he should be himself still. The differences should be because the different personalities and interests of the four bring different parts of their personalities to the light when interacting!).

    Dumb example (consisting of reading way too much into stuff and also making other stuff up based on it) you can obviously not follow: we know Anna is kinda young compared to the other 3 (at least in EBF4), and insecure regarding her appearance and skills in the group. She was jealous of, but also probably a bit attracted by, Natalie for her appearance – let’s explore this dynamic, maybe have Anna be insecure regarding other things when confronted with Natalie (her skills with magic? Unlike Matt, who is almost 100% focused on his strength aka physical attacks, Anna has more focus on magic even though her skill with it isn’t that much better than Matt’s. This might mean she wishes to be good at it too). But I doubt Anna would be that overt in expressing that inferiority complex, limiting herself to snarking (with some gushing slipping in) and sorta holding every little thing she is better at over Natz (like the fact that creepy critters scare her but not Anna). Natalie might be initially happy at having another woman on the team, especially one that is relatively sensible (especially compared to Matt & Lance) but might not understand what’s going on in Anna’s head and be confused by her animosity towards her. This would be, eventually, resolved after some misunderstandings, with Natalie becoming a sort of older sister figure for her and the two becoming closer.
    …This is just Anna & Natalie, and I don’t really have many ideas for Anna & Matt or Anna & Lance (except maybe as Lance’s flirting flattering the insecure Anna initially? But idk how it would play out later except that it couldn’t last long) – but the point is that they need to be somewhat distinct. Same for Matt & Lance, Natz & Lance and Natz & Matt – all different dynamics, where different parts of their personalities shine (but stem from the same place ultimately).
    And, going back to character quirks – let’s talk about Lance. His flirting/perving over Natz IS imo played way too much – so maybe, while not getting rid of it, focus on what it stems from, aka his very, very limited social skills & knowledge of social norms. That is to say, make him have moments where his zero social skills come into play that are NOT about girls! And have this also inform how he acts when he DOES have moments with girls. Et cetera…

    Anyway, I’m really looking forward to this game! I think your ideas – them meeting for the first time once again, growing during the game and also the actions you make them do affecting the ending somewhat – are really interesting :love: :love2: :stars: :love:

    Thanks for your hard work and inventiveness!! It’s mindblowing how much effort and originality you are putting into this game, and how much you already put in the others! Honestly, you are probably one of the best game developers around. :stars:

    Reply
    1. 246vipfreezeray

      I do not think making Anna insecure is a good idea, I think she should be upbeat and happy, but still serious when it matters. And also, Matt should still be the comic relief, and Natalie should still be the most serious one.

      Reply
      1. Bladesinger

        I actually disagree here. I think it’s okay to have a character be insecure. Though the game is on the whole lighthearted and saccharine, imo, diverse characterization—including negative personality traits—would make the characters feel more believable to me. I do pay a lot of attention to plot, personally. I think a good choice for a developer to make in a game like this is to let the plot shine through the gameplay, but not allow it to overpower the story, so that those who don’t like text can enjoy the game nonetheless. Usually this is accomplished simply by making it simple and fast to skip dialogue. I think an insecure Anna who grows close to Natalie is a refreshing idea.

        Reply
    2. Bladesinger

      This got me thinking. I like the example you used with Natalie and Anna. Your comment reminded of a foreword to one of OS Card’s novels (I think it was Speaker for the Dead, or perhaps Xenocide?) in which the spoke about writing characters and characterization. He said that when you write a story about three characters, you have to not just write three characters, but six: Person A in relation to both Person B and C, and so on. Each relationship between each character should have a life of its own. I’m not a writer, but I would expect that thinking about it like this would be helpful with your character development. Perhaps that was a little obvious, but again, I’m not a writer. Hope that helps. Either way, I’m excited that you’re thinking more about plot and character development this time around, and I’m sure you’ll make improvements.

      Reply
    3. alex warner

      awesome summary of what I was thinking, though it would be nice to see a little romance at least between matt and natz

      Reply
  76. alex

    you made some arrows to show where the objective of the story is didn’t you?
    use them as a base of dialogue

    Reply
  77. Snorlaxxo

    Remember to keep up the amount of references and puns as high as it was before, they sure were one of my favourite things in EBF’s “plot”, so to say.

    Reply
    1. alex

      im totally with you about the puns snorlaxxo…i mean for example i liked the one with matt when he says “if i punch myself my limit break bar will go up” that was cool

      Reply
    2. wonderlion

      I would love to see some more gravestones with funny situations or causes of death, those always get me going. :love2:
      :sick:

      Reply
  78. 246vipfreezeray

    please do not focus on relationships, although in some places it does add to the characters, more often it just subtracts from the story and the enjoy-ability of the game.

    Reply
    1. Thalins Genohan

      I don’t think he necessarily means romantic relationships, he means more how the characters interact with one another, and how they grow as characters because of it. Whereas, in past games, they just kinda traveled together, and, besides a glimmer of more potential between Matt and Natz, that was about the end of it.

      Reply
  79. Joe

    I’m looking forwards to this and I’d love to give feedback but I am not good at story’s but I hope/know you will do a great job. YOUDAMAN. :stars:

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    1. MImic

      how about this? u can make the game developed like this: in ebf 3, Akron was not actually dead, his soul just vanished into the void, consumed the void energy and rebuilt his body. As he successfully took over his new body, Akron returned using the dimensional gate. At the beginning of the game, u can make a battle between our 4 characters and Akron, and the 4 heroes are all lv.30 of course. After a few turns casting spells and performing combos but useless, Akron starts showing off his new power, draining the heroes’ memories and throwing them away. When the game starts, we can start with Matt doing his daily robbing stuffs. I suggest u adding some main quests, so the characters can attain abilities by learning from the NPCs beside gainning them by gathering memories. I also recomment a NPC that plays an important role through the story, such as a philosopher, or a prophet, a wise old man, the only one who notices the heroes’ glory, not their old crime ( EBF 4 ). This man can help the characters learning their memories and power, or even breaking their strength limit. The final boss fight will be freaking epic.

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