Art Update:
OK, All that needs finishing is the red flag (also I need to do an red flag animation for the player)
Story Update:
I'm having a lot of thoughts about the story. Basically I was watching a YouTuber called "Dumbsville" and I watched his Metal Gear Solid review videos. I was really inspired by their villains personality, and wanted something like them in my game.
when looking at my OG story, I realized some of my characters didnt really have that much going for them. See in something like Undertale, the characters got a lot of screen time and more character. Of course I'm not saying my characters need Huge amounts of screen time, but to give an example, when playing my game, you would meet a main character and then pacify/kill them at the get go without any buildup or any other time you would meet them. You got some build up of Undyne, you got to go through Papyrus's challenges, you even got to have a warm moment with Toriel. They weren't just "a character you had to pacify/kill" so I'm gonna see if I can make my characters have more important scenes, while still being optional to meet. Undertale has it easy, being a more linear game.
Another thing about my OG story, is how I treated the ROLE system. See I did say in Devlog #3 that I would like to use gimmicky and goofy ideas to pacify enemies. However this wasn't the case before. It would take way longer to pacify because I wrote so much for dialogue, so the player would be invested in the character through the ROLE, rather than Undertale more focusing on cutscenes with their characters. See if I could pacify a character quickly like Undertale, then My ROLE system would have shorter scenes and my characters would feel less interactable. The ROLE system is supposed to be a more interactive, less limiting, and not repeat as much as Undertale. It made it feel like you could be yourself and have interactions that feel real. If the game had a more Undertale styled ACT system, not only would my characters not get a lot of screen time, they would be broken. What I mean by that is... Lets say I used Undertale's "flirt command." If I make that work, then my more serious characters would break character, just for your flirt command to work. Also, most of my main characters get their characterization from the ROLE system anyways, so it would be very bad If I chose this approach.
Anyways, I don't think having these One dimensional characters that you barely even meet are a bad thing. At 36:50 of this video, it made me wonder "Is there's a way I could have these types of villains in my game."
It made me realize a mechanic I totally forgot about. I'm not sure if anyone remembers, but I talked about adding a mechanic where if you killed someone, they have chance to come back to life due to a "revive" item and become your rival. If you died by them they would probably have a better rank (for example, they could get promoted for killing you or become a better fighter.) This is something I wanted in my game so it would help create a unique rival for every run. But of course, you could just pacify them. This where the ROLE system would get more fast paced and fun, because I don't have to worry if I "break the character" or "make the character have little screen time." Having a villain be one dimensional can help you give them character. Lets take the "flirt command" again. If I used "flirt" on someone who is one dimensional, well I'm not really making them one dimensional anymore (Kind of). I'm giving them character. Also they don't really have a lot of character to begin with, so I'm not really breaking them.
This is especially great considering my game has an interactive story.
In short, My main villains/characters get a more compelling ROLE system where you can be yourself and deeply feel the character and the others get a fun and fast paced ROLE system, while still being a huge part of the story.