Concept 6 - Loop-Based JRPG Combat

JRPG combat system where selecting an action doesn't just execute it once - instead, it adds it to a "loop" that repeats constantly, allowing for your characters to build up crazy strings of attacks.

Core loop (heh): Wait for the right "measure" of the loop for when you want to add an action to the loop, select the action you want your character to execute, continue building onto the loop by selecting more actions (or removing parts of the loop if, say, you're fighting an enemy that blocks on that "measure", or the loop takes up too much energy to repeat), repeat until the enemy is defeated

Similar Games:

- Final Fantasy: Similar JRPG setup with a party and its own time-based action system, but instead of just executing an action once, the action you select is repeated every few seconds (at a lower energy cost), without needing to wait for your action bar to refill - essentially as if you're in a mini-time loop.

- Crypt of the NecroDancer: Similar rhythm mechanics where you want to execute actions to a rhythm (for instance, to the beat of a song), but instead you're selecting JRPG actions to the beat, and rather than an entire song playing out, it's more like you're reacting to a single section of the song on loop with your previous actions on a given beat of the song repeating between loops.

- Mario Paint Composer (or other music software of a similar type): Sort of an inspiration for the central mechanic - imagine looping the same measure or section of a song over and over, painting on new notes as the song loops, so that the notes you've already painted play each time the section loops over that point again - except, of course, rather than music notes, it's attacks in a JRPG combat system.

- Octopath Traveler: Similar battle scene layout (except probably with a character's current "action loop" displayed for easy reference), but of course with a more real-time, loop-based battle system.

Prototyping Plans: This concept requires quite a lot, between real-time action reading, JRPG combat mechanics, and enemy AI (albeit probably simple enemy AI). The loop itself shouldn't be too hard to handle, since presumably each "beat" of the loop can only hold one action, so a simple array should hold that fine - I'm really concerned about whether managing more than one character's loop is feasible, so I do want to experiment with multiple player characters, which does mean more work on that end. I shouldn't need more than one basic enemy that I can scale the damage/HP of, and then I can potentially make the enemy act on a loop as well (albeit probably without the same "building up a crazy string of actions" element to prevent overwhelming the player), which should make creating slightly different enemies for testing not too hard.

Challenges:

- How do I keep the looping aspect of combat from making fights too easy and brainless? How do I keep an element of strategy beyond the first few turns?

- How do I design fun enemies around the loop system?

- How do I handle support actions like healing or defending?

- I'm bad at rhythm games!I'm not sure if I can design what is essentially a fancy rhythm game and make it properly challenging!

- How should I handle controlling multiple characters and character swapping fast enough to let the player actually manage several at once? Is that even feasible?