Re: BOUND (a hypothetical action RPG, set in a beach town with fantasy elements)
"Bound" meaning heading towards something. Perhaps a goal or greater aspiration.
"Bound" meaning to be restrained, unable to move, stuck, either inflicted or self inflicted.
Like "rebound", to come back from something. To recover, to begin anew.
"Re" like an email. Because academia. Emails. Corny.
I AM BOUNDED BY EXTREMELY SMALL FREE STORAGE SO I WILL BE USING A 90S WEBSITE GIF DATABASE BC THEYRE LOW RESOLUTION AND CLASSIC AND CAMP
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You squint your eyes as sunlight pours into your room. As you turn over and shove your face back into your pillow, a lone seagull caws in the distance. This is going to be the worst summer ever.
This summer, you're participating in a special undergraduate research program. The setting of the game, Cape Verdant, is a bustling beach town full of tourists during the hot summer months. Filled with colorful beach houses, gorgeous Victorian-era inns, and several shops and restaurants, you're sure to have a great time. If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle, you can hitch a ride on the trolley and head for the quieter end of town, with walking trails, a farm selling berries and sunflowers, and the famous Cape Verdant lighthouse.
By exploring the town, your Contra-band will react to certain strong signals. What may look like a normal alleyway, seafood restaurant, surf shop, amusement park, farm, or even an area underneath the boardwalk, can turn into a bite-sized level/dungeon/adventure. As you tune into the signal, the environment shifts and twists, you'll see a dramaticized example of the conflict inside their mind, utilizing turn-based combat to defeat their inner demons. You can even use this to sneak into places normally off-limits, like construction sites, chemical plants, or bank vaults - except the architecture receives a thematic twist. The heights of a construction site into treacherous mountain pathways, a shopping center into a serene greenhouse with a billowing blizzard outside of it... By gathering data on the ways someone's fears or desires can manifest - and what kinds of creatures it may utilize - you'll contribute towards Dr. Okazaki's research goals... supposedly.
When you're not gathering data or going on missions, you'll spend time hanging out with your new teammates around the town. Talking with your friends CLICK HERE BTW as you browse the shops, walk along the boardwalk, or go for a bike ride, can show you sides of them you don't see in combat. Hearing them out and listening to their backstories will increase your Bond with them, leading to them gaining new attacks or abilities as the weeks go on - this is how traditional stat increases are also handled, so one doesn't have to grind as in standard JRPGs.
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Old intro below
Dr. Albini "Allie" Okazaki: A not-so-commanding stature with a commanding presence. (Lowkey she's a mix of Saul Goodman and Ms. Frizzle) Somewhere in the lower half of 5 feet, this Japanese-American albino iguana has finally secured her own research lab after several, several research grants, begging, and a series of publications she begrudgingly contributed towards throughout the years. Being the subtly conniving, kneehigh leather boots-under-her-labcoat-down-to-her-feet-wearing, girl-bossing self she is, she lies through her teeth quite frequently. ...Though it's for good reason. Good... personal reason. During your university's prestigious summer research program, you, alongside a group of six other students, gather copious amounts of data to contribute to one primary research project: "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?: Exploring the physical expression of the psychological ego via neurochemical wavelength modulation" or, erm... in simpler terms...
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Half Life! Achieving an alternate plane of existence halfway between mind and matter. This phenomenon has subtly existed since the dawn of time, truly, and explains several mysterious happenings, miracles, hallucinations, and so forth since the dawn of man. In-universe, this phenomenon is most closely tied to Abrahamic faiths. What was previously chalked up to simple myths and folklore has become increasingly studied in academic settings. Albini, alongside her colleagues, had developed the world's first means of artificially controlling and channeling this phenomena. (Whether other groups have developed this technology concurrently is... a mystery.)
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Behold, the Contra-band! This nifty smart watch you wear on your wrist (she asked for several tech stipends) is fitted with special hardware, modelled after gadgets such as the Sinclair FM Radio Watch or the Seiko TV Watch. On your wrist? Check. A target's wavelength identifed? Check. Decked out with a totally fashionable that's-so-you color wristband? Check. With a turn of the dial and a slap on the face, you can watch the world around you dramatically transform. An individual's Half-Life is warped by their fears, strengths, and deepest desires - even subconcious ones.
Everyone needs to sign waivers before participating in the program. Typical. Of course, Dr. Okazaki skims past all of the fine print, and before you know it, you've signed a contract to let her "gather every bit of that sweet, sweet data..." on you. On your contra-bands, a special AI companion is installed, the Cognitive Observational Networking Navigator and Interactive Engine, or, erm, CONNIE, for short. This special AI is represented by the in-game flavor text and whenever you interact with an object. CONNIE can read your thoughts and intent on things, and ultimately shows that how the protagonist acts versus what he's actually thinking don't always line up. CONNIE can also talk to other CONNIES over a wide area. Your university has fortunately acquired a distribution license, so you'll be able to hear lines and dialogue from your friends' conversations (and respond using a dialogue tree) as you run throughout town, walkie-talkie style.
"Now now, don't fret. It's crucial that you ALWAYS leave CONNIE on. She'll be able to calculate exactly what you do in your surrounding environment and what's done to you."
"Done... to us?!"
"Hm, well... I suppose if you assign a value to your vitality, it's sort of like a "health point" of sorts... oh, we could even call it "HP!" I've got to write that one down! Surely nobody's ever thought of that one before."
To learn more about the oh-so emotional side characters/"social links", click here!.
This summer, you're participating in a special undergraduate research program. The setting of the game, Cape Verdant, is a bustling beach town full of tourists during the hot summer months. Filled with colorful beach houses, gorgeous Victorian-era inns, and several shops and restaurants, you're sure to have a great time. If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle, you can hitch a ride on the trolley and head for the quieter end of town, with walking trails, a farm selling berries and sunflowers, and the famous Cape Verdant lighthouse.
