On Designing a Super Move

**Spoiler Warning** The following post may contain spoilers for:
Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War

Ah, the super move. I’ve seen this mechanic make players feel great and powerful in some cases, but it can also fall flat on its face if done wrong. From what I can discern, there are three major aspects you have to consider when designing a super move in your game.

• Method: How does the player gain the ability to use the super move?
• Timing: When can the player use the super move?
• Result: What does the super move actually do?

Method

The first thing you need to decide is how the player achieves a super move, whether it be a meter that builds over time, by damage, or some other mechanic. For example, the original Final Fantasy 7‘s limit break system builds its super moves based on each party member dealing and taking damage. With this method, limit breaks become part of the natural flow of battle. In stark contrast, Persona 5 employs a completely different system to achieving super moves. In Persona 5, you must hit each enemy with its elemental weakness to knock it down. Once all enemies have been floored, a “Hold Up” will trigger, granting players access to the super move, “All-out Attack.” Both limit breaks and All-out Attacks activate purely through their respective game’s basic mechanics, but they are completely different in how each player goes about gaining access to them. In all honesty, you can gain a limit break without doing anything special. Basic attacks and taking damage will generate enough limit breaks for you. In other words, limit breaks are granted to you passively. On the other hand, you must be actively engaging in Persona 5‘s element mechanics to even see an “All-out Attack.” It is possible, although ill-advised, to go through long stretches of Persona 5 without using a super move. The reason for this is that it is the responsibility of the player to trigger their super moves.

So, with the two basic concepts of active and passive triggering in mind, how did I go about designing my “Battle Clarity” in Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War? To be honest, I was trying to solve a balance problem. To make up a rough statistic, probably around 40% through the game, you must change your party members’ classes to advanced classes. In my mind, the mechanic of upgrading to “advanced classes” translates to the player as “I should feel a lot stronger now.” Originally, I thought a simple stat boost would be sufficient. However, that creates balance problems with combat in general. Throwing the player up the power curve a bit just makes the game easier. Sure, it makes your player feel powerful, but ultimately, the player will find it strange that suddenly they are steamrolling everything when you are at a later point in the game, thus dropping engagement of players who like challenges. This problem weighed on my mind for probably around 2.5 months. Then, I started playing Persona 5 in my free time. Engaging with the “All-out attack” system made me realize that I needed a super move to solve this balancing issue I was having. I thought back to other similar titles, like the original Final Fantasy 7, to examine how other super move systems were handled. This is when I drew the general conclusions outlined in the previous paragraph.

Next up, after deciding on a name and such, it was time for me to decide exactly how the player would interact with this mechanic. I felt that implementing a passive system like limit breaks wouldn’t especially fit with my game. It would be redundant with the Tempo (TP) resource and would not fit well with the general flow of combat. Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War focuses on combining different spells on different characters’ spell lists to deal increased damage and apply effects more frequently. Not having some sort of control of how the player activates the super move felt wrong. Therefore, I looked back at Persona 5, how does it grant use of its super move? Through the use of its unique game mechanics. So, that leads to the next questions. What are my unique mechanics? Can I connect a super move with this somehow? Well, I have my primers and detonators mechanics. In short for those of you who haven’t played my game, primers have a chance to leave a target with an effect that causes certain detonators to do more damage. For example, water magic has a chance to leave a target “wet,” doubling any lightning or cold damage it takes. The way I connected my “Battle Clarity” super moves to my base combat mechanics was to have my characters demonstrate their understanding of these mechanics. Once every living enemy has had a certain state applied to them, a “Moment of Clarity” will trigger, granting a use of the “Battle Clarity” super move. For example, if Vendra becomes the Draconic Knight class, once all living enemies have had the “downwind” state, which doubles fire damage, applied to them, she will gain access to the fire spell “Draconic Burst Wave.” In this way, I felt that “Battle Clarity” further encouraged players to engage with the game’s mechanics, made the player feel more powerful, and demonstrated the party’s narrative growth as they are learning the rules of combat along with the player. Honestly, I personally think giving players active things to manage is essential in making a modern turn-based RPG, but that’s not to say gauge systems like limit breaks are bad. It’s important to assess how a super move’s method will fit in to the game’s core mechanics while designing it. Don’t shoehorn in a method that you’ve seen work in similar games you like. Iterate, iterate, iterate, because how the player gets a super move is just as important as the result of that super move.

Timing

Although my method takes clear inspiration from Persona 5‘s active “All-out Attacks,” “Battle Clarity’s” timing feels more like Final Fantasy 7‘s limit break system. Essentially, in Persona 5, you must use your super move as soon as it triggers, or it is forfeit. In Final Fantasy 7, you may hold for as long as you wish. Since my method was so similar to Persona 5, I decided that I would implement the early stages of “Battle Clarity” with a similar timing. At first,the game auto cast any “Battle Clarity” at the exact moment it was triggered. This, however, raised other problems. What if the player trigger’s the Draconic Knight’s moment of clarity while a dragon that is healed by fire is there? Is it really fair to the player to force them to heal enemies? My quick answer to that was “nope.” After several iterations of the timing of “Battle Clarity” I arrived at its current state. That is, triggering a “Moment of Clarity” puts the super move in the spell list, usable once per fight. Not only did this give players more control, but also it fit in well with the base mechanics of creating spell combos because the player is able to combine all party members’ super moves together on one turn. Additionally, at this point in development, I had not designed all of the boss fights, and nothing of the hard mode difficulty setting. The use of this super move timing allowed me to design certain encounters where it was highly beneficial for the player to hold all of the “Battle Clarity” attacks in order to decimate some trash enemies that would enter the fight late. Of course, that is not to say the timing I used is the correct rule of thumb. My game was greatly improved by allowing the player to choose when to use super moves, but it really comes down to a game by game basis. If you’re thinking about implementing a super move in your game, make sure you consider game balance and mechanics while determining its timing.

Result

Finally, we get to the central piece of the puzzle. What does the super move do for your player? This is the part that’s going to give your player that important feeling of power that I mentioned earlier. In the examples of Persona 5 and the original Final Fantasy 7, most of the super moves just straight up do damage. I’ve seen other games give party members big buffs for their supers, but I’m digressing. What I wanted to do with “Battle Clarity” is to take another step deeper into my own game’s mechanics. Because I designed it in such a way that all party members are able to use their super moves on the same turn, I also made it so that some “Battle Clarity” attacks have certain degrees of synergy with even each other. Not only that, but as each one is customized for each individual class, they help in defining each of their respective character classes as a whole. At this point it would be easier to list out each “Battle Clarity” attack to demonstrate what I mean here. So, here they are by class.

(Note that all “Battle Clarity” attacks hit all enemies, go first in a turn, generate some resources, and provide a strength or magic power buff in addition to the following effects.)

Warlord

The Warlord is the typical warrior who overwhelms its opponents with pure physical power. As such, its “Battle Clarity” unique effects are the following:

• Deals physical damage (can crit)
• Applies the “mock” effect (taunt) to the user
• Applies the “fortify body” effect (immunity to many physical ailments)
• to the user
• Applies the “riposte stance” effect (100% critical hit rate for a moderate duration) to the user
  
• Guards the user

Draconic Knight

The Draconic Knight is a magic wielding warrior class that has spells themed around, as you may have guessed, dragons. It has the power to breathe fire in addition to hitting its enemies fairly hard on the physical side of things. On top of all this, a Draconic Knight often times must serve as an effective tank as well. In doing so, it adopts an active damage mitigation model. As such, its “Battle Clarity unique effects are the following:

• Deals fire damage (cannot crit)
• Applies the “burning” effect (damage over time and reduces hit chance by 15%) to all targets
• Applies the “dragon fear” effect (34% strength, magic power, speed, and luck reduction) to all targets
• Guards the user

Assassin

The Assassin is a physical damage dealer based around dealing critical hits and applying effects that set up combos for itself and other party members. It also excels at applying physical effects such as “bleeding” and “dazed.” As such, its “Battle Clarity” unique effects are the following:

• Deals physical damage (can crit)
• Applies the “bleeding” effect (damage over time and increases physical damage received by 25%) to all targets
• 66% chance to apply the “dazed” effect ( cannot act the current turn and following turn) to all targets
• Chance to apply the current “Assassin’s Enchantment” (provides magic element combo synergy depending on enchant selected) to all targets

Illusionist Rogue

The Illusionist Rogue specializes in dealing magic damage to all targets while defending against opposing magic at the same time. Naturally, being able to deal consistent magic damage to all targets is a great help to producing magic combos. In addition, the Illusionist Rogue’s single target option often involves using (and potentially critically hitting with) lightning magic. As such, its “Battle Clarity” unique effects are the following:

• Deals dark/lightning fusion damage (can crit)
• Applies the “hopeless” effect (reduces strength and magic power by 25%, doubles psychic damage received) to all targets

Songstress

The Songstress learns an extensive list of support skills and psychic damage. As it can generate resources quicker than other classes, the Songstress quickly pumps out powerful support, allowing the other party members to really shine. As such, its “Battle Clarity” unique effects are the following:

• Deals psychic damage (cannot crit)
• Applies the “inspirational ballad” effect (heal over time, hit, crit, and evasion buff) to all party members

*It may not seem like much, but having an extra spell that can apply “inspirational ballad” despite its normal cool down is extremely helpful on hard mode

War Sorceress

The War Sorceress is a bit tricky to explain. If a Draconic Knight is a warrior that can also cast spells, then a War Sorceress is a spellcaster that can also wear heavy armor and is trained for battle. If that makes sense. It’s primarily a spellcaster, but can do a couple warrior things. A War Sorceress can fit into many roles from support, to off-tank, or even high single target damage dealer. Additionally, the War Sorceress can cast fusion magic independent to what weapon it is using with the fire, lightning, and water elements. As such, its “Battle Clarity” unique effects are the following:

• Deals fire/psychic fusion damage (cannot crit)
• Applies the “fusion primer” effect (increases damage taken from fusion spells by 25%) to all targets BEFORE damage calculation occurs
• 33% chance to apply the “burning” effect (damage over time and reduces hit chance by 15%) to all targets
• 25% chance to apply the “fractured mind” effect (forces the afflicted to attack a random target (friend or foe) with only a basic attack for a few turns) to all targets

As you can see, super moves can do so much more than just deal damage or provide a big heal. Each one of these super moves not only makes the player feel more powerful in their “advanced classes” but also helps define the narrative flavor of each class. Not only that, but also look at how well the Illusionist Rogue’s and War Sorceress’ super moves work together. No matter which goes first, one is increasing the damage of the other. Other similar synergies can be set up with the Assassin’s attack depending on its enchantment too. And of course, these set-ups are available for the next turn while the party members have their stat bonus too. More so, when used alone or without any plan to follow up, these “Battle Clarity” attacks don’t calculate out to be impressive damage at all. It’s up to the player to weave them into combos to make them especially devastating.

Now, one final question remains. Wouldn’t having excessively powerful spells trivialize encounters? Well, ignoring the fact that important encounters are designed with these super moves in mind, let’s examine its effects on random encounters, shall we? “Battle Clarity” is dependent on the player applying the correct effects to all living enemies. It is highly unlikely that a group of 3-5 enemies will receive the necessary effects given spells that mostly have ~30%-50% chances to apply them. That being said, it does happen on rare occasion that the player AoEs the enemy pack turn 1 with wind magic and gets lucky enough to trigger the Draconic Knight’s “Moment of Clarity.” To that I ask, so what? It’s one encounter. The player got to decimate a random encounter and feel really powerful while doing it. Let them. They’re having fun with it. In fact, this situation came up a few times during my play testing. I actually enjoyed smashing through by using a super move right off the bat. This is wandering a bit into encounter design, but as a designer, if you’re concerned that the player is able to stomp all over one encounter, which, in the grand scope of your game, is unimportant, you may want to reassess what you are valuing. Keep in mind that designing a single player experience means that you are designing something that is meant to be conquered. But, I’m digressing far too much at this point. That’s best left for another topic discussion.

Conclusion

There’s some insight into the process I used to design “Battle Clarity” in Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War and my thoughts on the concept of super moves as a whole. Since this nearly turned into a fully developed essay, let me sum it up here. You can have active or passive conditions for super moves. Both can work depending on your game’s mechanics, but in my personal opinion, active conditions are essential for turn-based RPGs to stay competitive in the western market where we are seeing a higher demand for action based games. Deciding whether or not your player has control of the super move’s timing is also very important and can change around the balance of your entire game, depending on your game’s mechanics of course. And lastly, the actual effects of super moves are what makes the player feel or fail to feel powerful. Many games have a simple huge damage spell or damage buff, but super moves can be so much more than that. If you’re designing a game, push the envelope with what your super move does. Design super moves that only you can pull off with your game’s unique mechanics. I’m sure there must be some games out there that do this already, but I haven’t heard of them yet or they’ve fallen out of my memory at this point. Well, there you have it. Super moves have a huge impact on a game’s overall flow, so take care in designing them!

If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!