Building More Dynamic Party Battles — Improving Enemy Targets and Combat Flow
GEKOKUJO: Vagrant Crown · published
In the new third-person field, we are developing Party Battles where the protagonist, Party Members, and the Wolf Companion all share the same battlefield.
Our current focus is on a simple but important question: who do enemies target, and how should the battle change when a companion is hurt?
MAKING PARTY MEMBERS PART OF THE FIGHT
In earlier versions of the battle system, enemy attacks were too heavily focused on the protagonist. Party Members could contribute attacks, but they did not yet carry enough of the danger themselves.
We are now developing a threat system that allows enemy attention to shift during battle, including toward Party Members. Damage taken by companions is being connected to the field HUD, together with the flow from being knocked out to recovering and rejoining the journey.
The goal is to make the condition of the entire Party matter, rather than asking players to watch only their own health.
KEEPING BATTLES READABLE WITH MULTIPLE ENEMIES
We are also working on encounters that can contain multiple enemies. Simply placing every combatant in the same spot quickly makes it difficult to tell who is attacking and causes characters to overlap.
To improve this, attackers are being rotated while the other enemies continue reacting to the fight. We are refining situations where enemies run around unnecessarily, the wrong enemy appears to move during an attack, or the protagonist and target stand too close together.
READING AN ATTACK AND COMMITTING TO DEFENSE
When players respond to a heavy-attack warning by defending, that defensive choice is being adjusted so it remains committed to the incoming strike. We want players to understand who is about to attack and which blow they are preparing for through the action on screen.
Party Battles are still in development. Enemy targeting, companion survivability, battlefield positioning, Job options, and coordination with the Wolf Companion all require further testing and adjustment in the live field.
Thank you for following the development of GEKOKUJO.