Game Design Survey: Choosing Perspective

[TomGuycott]

Seiken Densetsu 3 is an example of what I would consider a good representation of this idea in concept, but it fails in execution because of the game's length.

The game has six playable heroes, and at the start of the game you can pick one main hero and two secondaries. Each main hero has a unique opening story, and following that all the storylines will follow more or less the same path, same bosses, same goals, UNTIL the moment you get the mana sword.

The story then changes based on your main hero. There are three possible endgames, two heroes a piece that will unlock it. The final three bosses (and some bosses that are rematches) are determined by your hero in lead. Also, heroes present for certain scenes will make them play out slightly differently through the entire game.

Now here lies the problem: the game is long. Arguably longer than it's predecessor. Not only are there six heroes which can be interchanged, three sets of final bosses and countless scene combos, but there are also branching classes. It ultimately just changes palettes and final attacks and equipment, but also stats and other meta game stuff. You can go one route down a good or evil class, and then each of those paths gets a new good or evil class EACH. That's 7 classes per character including their starting class.

In a game that's. 40-60 hours a playthrough, that is a lot to invest in a game and not to get burned out eventually. It is something I would recommend coming back to someday, though.