A discussion about Familiars

Dunno about unlock, just make them stronger.

And shards will level up Miriams skill, so I was thinking if there should be anything else for every familiar instead to get a xp boost. Or a weapon perhaps to aid the familiar in boosting. I really want each familiar to have tiers of power, and a maxed out familiar should just make more damage or heal or block over time than a 0 XP one. Nothing about unlocking or such.

Let me summarize what Enkeria and exile said about familiars, using a real example of the only familiar we know the game will have so far. I want to understand what you two are discussing lol and also give my two cents, with my own ideas.

THE FAMILIAR CONCEPT

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Demons that follows Miriam and helps her on her quest. They are represented by Green Shards, called Familiar Shards. All Familiars can be leveled up (from LV1 to 99) requiring experience to do so. For a familiar to gain experience, Miriam must kill demons while the familiar is active (like Symphony of the Night). By leveling up, the familiar increase it's general damage / power / movement / usage.
All Familiars have a passive skill and an active skill. The active skill is used by pressing a button. All Familiars have a cooldown after using the active skill (represented by a small seconds counter below Miriam's Health).
Familiar skills can have levels (not all of them will have) and to increase their skill levels, the player must get their shards again and again.

I also think Familiars could have some fun and joking things. So, let me give an example:

Example:

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the best moment in curse of darkness for me was when my speed mail (knight type familiar that looked like polnaref's stand from jjba) actually worked with me to clear groups of enemies. I felt like it was a real partner. it was also spectacularly animated and scripted

(Edited. Mixed this original post and my own thread about various ideas for the game)

Thanks for the thread, Pure Miriam!

And so, I have the feeling that Gebel not only wanted Miriam to feel safe in that castle, but also for her to have proper company.
He would have then secured the souls of the other orphans, even if they were deceased long ago. If he did... Maybe he would have found them from the alchemists after murdering them and tied them to the castle.

These souls would be protected from the demons (demons LOVE souls of the youthful and the innocent after all) or then they would a special rank of the demons themselves and would need to be purified.

They wouldn't be so much in number as I would picture them being set free by Miriam and staying in safe rooms (maybe Miriam's room) and/or joining her as familiars, at least those fit for combat. Some of them would be siblings, which was not uncommon at that time. They would have more lines than the common RPG NPC. Maybe some of them would have passions like games and art and would fill the proper purposes of art gallery, mini-games, theatric plays, giving Miriam hints, insights and ways to feel better upon her ordeal. Maybe even some comic relief.

I do feel that familiars could do a lot in game and they wouldn't need to float around you, some could sit on Miriam's elbow or be summoned:
-Buff Miriam (temporary or permanently)

-Silently hint at elements that seem out of place, a speech bubble would be fine (without making it too easy or too frequent, I sure as hell don't want a Navi reborn*, do you guys do?)

-Act as tactical support (the Goofball as an airstrike/ammo delivery/HP or MP delivery unit is now an official idea of mine)

-Non-fighting familiars in your lodgings
A magical pop-up book acting as the save point and giving you story recaps in toon form? Random stories? Lore?
A smart-looking spirit giving you all sorts of statistics like monsters vanquished, accumulated money and so on?
"Pets" and mini-games?
An alchemy assistant? Two, three? Miriam's own little lab.
One could even show Miriam how she developed for the better in harsher times of solitude and despair (the pep talk that will definitely make her capable to conquer her weaknesses, JRPG/manga/anime style)?

-Full permanent protection against elements that would be impossible to cross, like a toxic mist or optical illusions (allowing new paths, typical of -vanias). A passive ability. No need to equip the familiar so it is activated.

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I would also say that familiars could be more talkative, more cheerful than Miriam, maybe act as protectors of long-suppressed emotions and only letting them out at healthy doses?

I may add more in the future if my inspiration gets more sparks.
I also have thought of familiar temporary fusion (combinations of two) but I guess it could be too much.


*"Heyyyyyy~ Listen. Watch out! *Miriam gets hit by a falling cake pan still* Oops *flutters away*"

Well, to give you a easy understanding of it.
Familiars are a thing that not all Igavania games had. The ones that had them was: Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Curse of Darkness and Order of Ecclesia, if i don't forgot anyone.

In most games, they acted more or less the same. You summon a creature that floats around close to you and attacks enemies when they want. In some games, familiars did more than that.

In Symphony of the Night, the Demon familiar could open a secret passage. A fairy didn't attacked at all, she used health itens on you, using better itens as she leveled up. 

Curse of Darkness was totally focused on them, they where the character's main source of power, so, the Familiar system was really complex. It was called I.D (Innocent Devil), after finding one of a particular type, you could growth them into several different forms, following evolutionary paths and threes. You could collect crystals to evolve then, different colors for different forms. All enemies could drop crystals, and the color they would drop was dependant on the weapon you was using to kill them (swords dropped red crystals, axes dropped yellow crystals and such). At random times, they could give you an egg to create a new basic-level I.D to growth it on different forms. They had skills you could command and health based on hearts (a common element on Castlevania games), when their health went to 0, they reverted back until you healed them on save points, if i'm not mistaken.
It was the most complex Familiar system of all Igavanias, because the whole power of the main character was based on that (and on equipment forging). And for me, it was the best of them all.


Lestaroth ! awesome ideas! Although i think most of them are quite too much, most Igavania games didn't had that complexity on familiars, only if they were critical to the plot. That's what you tried to do. It is a good idea. But i don't think they will focus on that.