Give me ideas I can steal >:))))))

[Cosmic]

So recently, I thought about making a Touhou fangame in RPGMaker where you play as Aya, and have to go around Gensokyo looking for interesting stories to write about in your newspaper; you'd be able to choose which ones to report on, and depending on which ones you choose, the game's events would play out differently. It'd be a pretty short game to make sure it wouldn't get too out of hand, but there'd be a lot of branching paths, so its length would mainly be derived from multiple playthroughs. Unfortunately, I don't have many ideas for things that could happen and I'm not sure who'll be in yet (I know Mike will but that's it), and while I'm sure I could come up with plenty by myself, I figured it'd be fun to let people give their ideas here, and if I like them, I'll put them in. Your idea can be for a specific story the player could write about, or if you have a character you like, you can just ask for them to be featured in some way, I don't mind. Will this game ever actually get made? I have no idea! I literally just had this idea a couple hours ago, and even if I do start work on it, I'm not the best at finishing things, so no gurantees it'll ever exist. However, if I do end up making it, I think it'd be cool to represent some characters you guys like, so I figured I'd put this up anyway.

[TheM3ds]

I do find the idea of having branching paths in a Touhou game appealing, let alone having to make choices that adds replayability to a game like in Shin Megami Tensei or the game letting you explore the world at your pace in a non-linear fashion like in Snatcher. Maybe we can make some kind of detective story?

Not sure if this would be an adventure game or a visual novel.

[Darksymphony777]

A idea would be to have Aya give her "unbiased opinions" on various characters

[TheM3ds]

14 minutes ago, Darksymphony777 said:

A idea would be to have Aya give her "unbiased opinions" on various characters

She can be as "unbiased" as a news reporter can be LOL

But I think it could work out, given her character.

 

[Darksymphony777]

6 minutes ago, TheM3ds said:

She can be as "unbiased" as a news reporter can be LOL

That would be perfect for a game

 

How much bull can Aya get away with before everyone in gensokyo comes after her.

 

Like you can claim that aunn has rabbies or kanako and suwako are in a relationship, the possibilities are endless for Aya's bull

[Cosmic]

8 hours ago, Darksymphony777 said:

A idea would be to have Aya give her "unbiased opinions" on various characters

That's what I was thinking, you'd have two or three different ways you could have her write about something (all similarly ridiculous) and then the characters' reactions to her writing would determine what happens in the story

[buskerdog]

I haven't got any good ideas you can steal but I just wanted to drop in and say that I think this is an amazing concept.

[Tayaya]

What if Aya told different rumors to everyone so they'd think there's an incident and fight each other so then she could write a newspaper about it? 

[TheM3ds]

I feel like there could be potential for a very interesting story or setting behind all this and I want to help out with the game but since I have little to no experience with game design and writing I don't know if I can be of any use, even when it comes to pinning down ideas, but I guess it doesn't hurt to brainstorm.

Edit: I CAN'T TYPE WITH HAVING ANY GRAMMAR ERRORS, AAHHHHHHH

[Cosmic]

1 hour ago, TheM3ds said:

I feel like there could be potential for a very interesting story or setting behind all this and I want to help out with the game but since I have little to no experience with game design and writing I don't know if I can be of any use, even when it comes to pinning down ideas, but I guess it guess hurt to brainstorm.

Oh, go for it! With the exception of the characters' map sprites (I am horrible at pixel art and I doubt stealing from Puppet Dance Performance is an option), I'm pretty confident I could do something with this concept, so I'd love to hear any ideas you might have.

[TheM3ds]

1 hour ago, Cosmic said:

Oh, go for it! With the exception of the characters' map sprites (I am horrible at pixel art and I doubt stealing from Puppet Dance Performance is an option), I'm pretty confident I could do something with this concept, so I'd love to hear any ideas you might have.

Okay so hear me out: You play as AYA, a reporter who does whatever she can to get the latest scoop on recent events in Gensokyo, but lately there's been reports of disappearances throughout the human village, was this the work of a murderer, a cult or perhaps an incident? No one knows for sure, with her burning curiosity Aya sets out to gather information from residents of Gensokyo, be it humans or yokai she will get to the bottom of this mystery, even it means spreading misinformation. Depending on the players choices the outcome of the events in the game will have different effects on how the plot is progressed, I'm thinking of a non-linear style similar to a point and click adventure game though I don't know if that's your kind of style.

I sort of got this idea from a MMD I watched before, but I want it to be a bit more lighthearted in tune but at the same time it can still have it's dark moments.

Think of an old adventure game like Snatcher or Famicom Detective Club or visual novel game like ace attorney, I want it to be it's own thing while having elements from those games, while being fresh and unique.

I'm thinking of some kind of detective game or something similar to it, you try to discover the truth WHILE AYA MAKES UP LIES ABOUT FOR HER PAPER, that way it can keep the plot interesting because she's a hypocrite. This may or may not confuse the audience but hey I think it's worth a shot. It gives players a choice to fill in the blank to what could've happen.

I can't think of anything else at the moment since I'm still cooking up ideas while I'm typing this since this my first time making up a concept for a video game in this nature, so feel free to give me some feedback. Like I said before, I have little to no experience in writing.

Here's the MMD in question:

 

[TheM3ds]

6 hours ago, TheM3ds said:

Okay so hear me out: You play as AYA, a reporter who does whatever she can to get the latest scoop on recent events in Gensokyo, but lately there's been reports of disappearances throughout the human village, was this the work of a murderer, a cult or perhaps an incident? No one knows for sure, with her burning curiosity Aya sets out to gather information from residents of Gensokyo, be it humans or yokai she will get to the bottom of this mystery, even it means spreading misinformation. Depending on the players choices the outcome of the events in the game will have different effects on how the plot is progressed, I'm thinking of a non-linear style similar to a point and click adventure game though I don't know if that's your kind of style.

I sort of got this idea from a MMD I watched before, but I want it to be a bit more lighthearted in tune but at the same time it can still have it's dark moments.

Think of an old adventure game like Snatcher or Famicom Detective Club or visual novel game like ace attorney, I want it to be it's own thing while having elements from those games, while being fresh and unique.

I'm thinking of some kind of detective game or something similar to it, you try to discover the truth WHILE AYA MAKES UP LIES ABOUT FOR HER PAPER, that way it can keep the plot interesting because she's a hypocrite. This may or may not confuse the audience but hey I think it's worth a shot. It gives players a choice to fill in the blank to what could've happen.

I can't think of anything else at the moment since I'm still cooking up ideas while I'm typing this since this my first time making up a concept for a video game in this nature, so feel free to give me some feedback. Like I said before, I have little to no experience in writing.

Here's the MMD in question:

 

To quote from my last post:

I'm thinking the game could be comedic at first but when you start to dive deep into the mystery and the motives behind it becomes intriguing as the plot progresses, we could also take advantage of the Japanese and mythological setting of Touhou and incorporate it to the main theme somehow, while keeping the elements of a detective story and investigating cases regarding the supernatural as well as crime.

Also I just realized something: We need Kotohime to be part of this, I do think she would fit in rather well in the setting. Talking about this almost makes me feel like I'm the directer of this game.

I don't know how I can blend these ideas together without having it turned into a convoluted mess, but I still gotta figure out how we can make it work.

Sorry if I'm repeating the same ideas again.

[gamerpro56]

Melee danmaku game

[Cosmic]

13 hours ago, TheM3ds said:

To quote from my last post:

I'm thinking the game could be comedic at first but when you start to dive deep into the mystery and the motives behind it becomes intriguing as the plot progresses, we could also take advantage of the Japanese and mythological setting of Touhou and incorporate it to the main theme somehow, while keeping the elements of a detective story and investigating cases regarding the supernatural as well as crime.

Also I just realized something: We need Kotohime to be part of this, I do think she would fit in rather well in the setting. Talking about this almost makes me feel like I'm the directer of this game.

I don't know how I can blend these ideas together without having it turned into a convoluted mess, but I still gotta figure out how we can make it work.

Sorry if I'm repeating the same ideas again.

Ok, this gives me some ideas. So, there'd be some kind of "incident" (probably involving people disappearing) that Aya could set out to write about, and you'd have multiple characters you could talk to, each with their own "events" that would occur when you do so, and you'd have the option to write about them. Some would be related to the incident, but others would just be fun little side-stories that are completely unconnected to the main plot. The game would also take place over the course of 3 "days", and once the player decides to write about an event, or they've seen 3 different ones, the game would progress to the next day, and depending on what you wrote about, different events would be available. For example, on day 1, you could encounter Mike attempting some kind of get-rich-quick scheme, and if you choose to write about it in a way that drives up business for her, on day 2 she'd come up to you and tell you how to get into the Lunar Rainbow Market as a favor, and there'd be a couple other events in there you couldn't access otherwise.

There'd also be a specific sequence of events (I'll call this the "true route" from now on) that's basically impossible to figure out without a guide... on a first playthrough. Most of the events would contain some kind of hint related to the true nature of the incident, and once you put these together, you'll have the necessary knowledge to figure out how to access the true route of the game, which would reveal what's really going on, who's behind the incident, and allow you to put a stop to it... all to turn it into the perfect news story that everyone will read, with a hint of smug "ooh look at me I'm such a great detective" self-flattery written into the article. And yeah, I haven't played the PC-98 games, but I looked her up and you're right, Kotohime would fit perfectly in this.

[buskerdog]

45 minutes ago, Cosmic said:

Ok, this gives me some ideas. So, there'd be some kind of "incident" (probably involving people disappearing) that Aya could set out to write about, and you'd have multiple characters you could talk to, each with their own "events" that would occur when you do so, and you'd have the option to write about them. Some would be related to the incident, but others would just be fun little side-stories that are completely unconnected to the main plot. The game would also take place over the course of 3 "days", and once the player decides to write about an event, or they've seen 3 different ones, the game would progress to the next day, and depending on what you wrote about, different events would be available. For example, on day 1, you could encounter Mike attempting some kind of get-rich-quick scheme, and if you choose to write about it in a way that drives up business for her, on day 2 she'd come up to you and tell you how to get into the Lunar Rainbow Market as a favor, and there'd be a couple other events in there you couldn't access otherwise.

There'd also be a specific sequence of events (I'll call this the "true route" from now on) that's basically impossible to figure out without a guide... on a first playthrough. Most of the events would contain some kind of hint related to the true nature of the incident, and once you put these together, you'll have the necessary knowledge to figure out how to access the true route of the game, which would reveal what's really going on, who's behind the incident, and allow you to put a stop to it... all to turn it into the perfect news story that everyone will read, with a hint of smug "ooh look at me I'm such a great detective" self-flattery written into the article.

Resident gamedesigner-ish guy has read this and now come up with ideas you can steal:

What if the premise of the game revolves around Aya finding herself in a 3-day time loop? And, in order to get to the bottom of the "true route", it involves learning things in the different routes that you can then go back and use in the context of a different route when time resets? The story would start with Aya just wanting to take advantage of the time loop to spy "report" on everyone and get all those juicy stories, but as she becomes more knowledgeable from spending time in the time loop, it eventually leads to her trying to discover the source of the time loop and break it to return things to normality.

Additional gameplay idea, because Aya retains all the information she learns from previous loops, it allows the player to choose to write about any story they've previously learned even if they haven't gone to investigate that particular story in the current loop, leading Aya to be able to manipulate her way into more obscure situations. To help manage all this the player would be able to look at the notes kept in Aya's notebook at any time, keeping track of all kinds of information they have to use.

It would take a lot of careful planning to pull off something like this well but I think it could make a really good detective game.

[Cosmic]

3 hours ago, buskerdog said:

Resident gamedesigner-ish guy has read this and now come up with ideas you can steal:

What if the premise of the game revolves around Aya finding herself in a 3-day time loop? And, in order to get to the bottom of the "true route", it involves learning things in the different routes that you can then go back and use in the context of a different route when time resets? The story would start with Aya just wanting to take advantage of the time loop to spy "report" on everyone and get all those juicy stories, but as she becomes more knowledgeable from spending time in the time loop, it eventually leads to her trying to discover the source of the time loop and break it to return things to normality.

Additional gameplay idea, because Aya retains all the information she learns from previous loops, it allows the player to choose to write about any story they've previously learned even if they haven't gone to investigate that particular story in the current loop, leading Aya to be able to manipulate her way into more obscure situations. To help manage all this the player would be able to look at the notes kept in Aya's notebook at any time, keeping track of all kinds of information they have to use.

It would take a lot of careful planning to pull off something like this well but I think it could make a really good detective game.

There's a lot to this idea that I like, and a lot I don't, so I'm a little conflicted on it. I'll start with what I like:

First of all, the main one: the idea that a particular event could play out differently depending on what Aya knows from previous loops is one that I really like, and it could potentially add a lot of depth to what's already an interesting concept. Additionally, the time loop would give some context to how Aya knows everything she'd need to know to access the true route, and make it a little easier to write. Sure, the player can put together everything they've learned to deduce what's going on, but without the time loop, how can Aya do this, when she's never seen most of the events the player has?

Ok, now for what I don't like as much; first of all, it'd probably just be a little hard to implement. This is a relatively minor problem, especially since I've already worked out some of how the logic could work in my head, but it's worth bringing up. Second, it feels like it might make the game a little too... linear? The point with my original idea was that the player can technically access the true route at any time, even on a first playthrough, but due to how difficult it'd be to figure out how to do so, they'd need to do multiple playthroughs to get enough clues to access it. How much information counts as "enough" will be different for everyone, but regardless, the important part is that you're entirely figuring it out yourself. With the time loop story, though, Aya figuring this out for herself becomes more of a scripted story event that can only happen once there are enough cleared events on the player's save file, which I don't really like the idea of. Of course, it's still possible for the true route to work the same as it does in my idea with the time loop, but "the story would start with Aya just wanting to take advantage of the time loop to spy "report" on everyone and get all those juicy stories, but as she becomes more knowledgeable from spending time in the time loop, it eventually leads to her trying to discover the source of the time loop and break it to return things to normality" gives me the impression there'd be more of an in-game progression outside of the three days, and that progression wouldn't just be something that slowly happens in the player's head.

Regardless, it's still a good idea! Like I said, a lot to like about it, and my issue is more with the specifics than any inherent problem, so if I ever do make this game, I might end up using that. Thanks for the suggestion!

[buskerdog]

5 hours ago, Cosmic said:

With the time loop story, though, Aya figuring this out for herself becomes more of a scripted story event that can only happen once there are enough cleared events on the player's save file, which I don't really like the idea of. Of course, it's still possible for the true route to work the same as it does in my idea with the time loop, but "the story would start with Aya just wanting to take advantage of the time loop to spy "report" on everyone and get all those juicy stories, but as she becomes more knowledgeable from spending time in the time loop, it eventually leads to her trying to discover the source of the time loop and break it to return things to normality" gives me the impression there'd be more of an in-game progression outside of the three days, and that progression wouldn't just be something that slowly happens in the player's head.

How I had it in my head regarding Aya's perspective on matters is that she doesn't change stance until the player actively makes the choice to go on a route that brings them close to the end, or Aya discovers something that is very obviously abnormal, so the player still has to be looking for this stuff first.

However, you are correct in saying that in contrast to your idea, my idea couldn't technically be completed in one loop, since you would need to obtain certain stories to write from taking different routes before using them again to reach the true ending. Maybe if you knew exactly what you were doing it would only take a few loops, and for a normal playthrough you would also take many more routes which only reward you with hints rather than something strictly required to progress; but nonetheless it is true that my concept falls more into the category of "exploiting the time loop" rather than "learning from the time loop", which is maybe more of what you had envisioned. It's hard for me to tell how either approach would work exactly anyway without knowing what you have in mind regarding actual interaction with the world, UI, traversal, etc.

It's been fun for me to think about though, use whatever parts of my theorycrafting you find suitable.

[Cosmic]

30 minutes ago, buskerdog said:

How I had it in my head regarding Aya's perspective on matters is that she doesn't change stance until the player actively makes the choice to go on a route that brings them close to the end, or Aya discovers something that is very obviously abnormal, so the player still has to be looking for this stuff first.

However, you are correct in saying that in contrast to your idea, my idea couldn't technically be completed in one loop, since you would need to obtain certain stories to write from taking different routes before using them again to reach the true ending. Maybe if you knew exactly what you were doing it would only take a few loops, and for a normal playthrough you would also take many more routes which only reward you with hints rather than something strictly required to progress; but nonetheless it is true that my concept falls more into the category of "exploiting the time loop" rather than "learning from the time loop", which is maybe more of what you had envisioned. It's hard for me to tell how either approach would work exactly anyway without knowing what you have in mind regarding actual interaction with the world, UI, traversal, etc.

It's been fun for me to think about though, use whatever parts of my theorycrafting you find suitable.

Yeah, that all makes sense. And I'm glad you've enjoyed thinking about the idea, I have no idea if this'll ever get made or not but it's a fun idea regardless. Also, in the event that this doesn't get made and someone from 10 years in the future is looking at this now-probably-dead website because they're curious about what the early-20s Touhou fandom was like, and they like this idea, I give that hypothetical future person my full blessing to go ahead and make this a thing. Lastly, if you want an idea of what the game would look like, I said in the original post that I'd be using RPGMaker to make it, so that should give you some idea. If you don't know what that is, just think of something similar to the old SNES-era Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest games (or that weird "Moriya Blitzkampf" game I found in the downloads section on here, only not a meme game), that should tell you enough.

[TheM3ds]

13 hours ago, Cosmic said:

Ok, this gives me some ideas. So, there'd be some kind of "incident" (probably involving people disappearing) that Aya could set out to write about, and you'd have multiple characters you could talk to, each with their own "events" that would occur when you do so, and you'd have the option to write about them. Some would be related to the incident, but others would just be fun little side-stories that are completely unconnected to the main plot. The game would also take place over the course of 3 "days", and once the player decides to write about an event, or they've seen 3 different ones, the game would progress to the next day, and depending on what you wrote about, different events would be available. For example, on day 1, you could encounter Mike attempting some kind of get-rich-quick scheme, and if you choose to write about it in a way that drives up business for her, on day 2 she'd come up to you and tell you how to get into the Lunar Rainbow Market as a favor, and there'd be a couple other events in there you couldn't access otherwise.

There'd also be a specific sequence of events (I'll call this the "true route" from now on) that's basically impossible to figure out without a guide... on a first playthrough. Most of the events would contain some kind of hint related to the true nature of the incident, and once you put these together, you'll have the necessary knowledge to figure out how to access the true route of the game, which would reveal what's really going on, who's behind the incident, and allow you to put a stop to it... all to turn it into the perfect news story that everyone will read, with a hint of smug "ooh look at me I'm such a great detective" self-flattery written into the article. And yeah, I haven't played the PC-98 games, but I looked her up and you're right, Kotohime would fit perfectly in this.

I have read the replies and while I do like some ideas that you and buskerdog have presented, I feel like the whole 3 day time loop concept does bare some consideration for me, while I do find it interesting I don't know any characters who has the ability to manipulate or control time that isn't Sakuya, sure we could incorporate the idea into the game somehow but wouldn't it be better if the story was told in acts or chapters in the plot rather then have it take place in 3 days? It's up to you.

With that said however, I would like to see more ideas that I've been brainstorming come to fruition, though I'm saying this like I'm some kind of game designer but sadly I'm not, in all honesty I've been having alot of fun coming up with ideas for the game but at the same time having such big ideas usually means there's a chance it might not work depending on one's experience with writing and whatnot, of course I'm still willing to give ideas for the script and events, I would love to see this game come to life somehow. 

As for the true ending idea: I'm sort of on the fence for a "True Ending" since while I love the idea of the game having multiple endings and player choice I feel like it would kinda muddy the waters for what the player believes what choice is right according to their own interpretations, who's to say if there's a right or wrong choice to anything since this is Gensokyo after all, while I'm not heavily against the idea it would be neat if there were a secret ending depending on the players actions but at the same time I don't want it to be too hidden or cryptic, so maybe there's a possibility for that? Will that and Aya's BS will surly be present.

Otherwise, I do the like ideas that everyone has presented so far.

Would love a Touhou story concept that connects the windows era to the PC-98 era, even with certain characters making appearances and some having been completely forgotten by the cast like some Mandela Effect, though I think it might as well be it's own separate thing.

 

 

[Gou the frog]

So, I see that the 3 days loop plan could work pretty well. It is a good way to set the plot up but as you guys have stated the flair need a bit of support and might be a hassle.

My take on this is to use the "newspaper headlines" from the outside world to set up a story, in this case Ayana. She might use it to create her bull story or it could serve as a "true ending" route style with enough pieces: 

• Extend the endings and add a "twist", "perspective" or whatever you like.
• New End Credit Sequence? If you completed the game, but tries to get all the headline rewarding a comic relief dialogue with Aya.
• More dialogues with characters who has an interest in the current news: Hatate, Akyuu, Kotohime (Like M3ds mentioned) and the main character or NPCs.

The environment: 

If you want get into the pace, settings and the immersion, you need to set a good place up. Since there're going to be branching paths it might be in the green light to use multiple locations. 

Human village: It's a safe Head start since it could be a main focus to gather info and get the story going from there. There's a lot of disguise-kit using yokais whom might be good NPCs and immersion. 

Yokai Mountain: This could also be a story starting point. Lots of flairs here, the kappas, the head Tengu and the rival. 

Moriya & Hakurei Shrine: Side quest-ish but it's interesting to investigate neither last. Assuming you piss both mikos and gods with your bull.  

Suzzan: She is trying get the juice out so, might as well write her story in a demonic book that saves progress. It can be a story item or a save item. To make things consistent, Let's say she took it as reference from Kosuzu telling her "you're going to be famous kid". (Another Character to punish Aya)

SDM: Ohwww..... The meat behind the scarlet mansion: I'm sure Aya would most definitely want it. Chase scenes, puzzles, confronting the mistress, you go wild on that.

Those locations might be interesting to come into play. For the story itself, I would say it's based on your preference. Looping, Waiting, Time based, Visual Novel style, Info trading and the list go on. Go with the one that might suit your ideas.

The Characters: 

We're touching a gold mine here. From the cast of 140+ Characters, go with the one that's natural for the story. You want Aya setting afoot to Pc-98? Join her with the once vengeful sprit to guide the ways to Makai. Wait, you want a scoop from underground? Aye, Unware muscle heads got ya covered. Heaven? Give the celestial a boast and also scoop from her.

The end results would come out something like this: Aya got the scoops and failed to publish 'em on time 'cause a rival of her got the beef first, translating to a bad end. (Aya getting a piece of everyone for her bull) and vice versa. Normal ending might be there's nothing to report as the bubumaru newspaper hit a 0 that day. 

[Cosmic]

22 hours ago, TheM3ds said:

I have read the replies and while I do like some ideas that you and buskerdog have presented, I feel like the whole 3 day time loop concept does bare some consideration for me, while I do find it interesting I don't know any characters who has the ability to manipulate or control time that isn't Sakuya, sure we could incorporate the idea into the game somehow but wouldn't it be better if the story was told in acts or chapters in the plot rather then have it take place in 3 days? It's up to you.

With that said however, I would like to see more ideas that I've been brainstorming come to fruition, though I'm saying this like I'm some kind of game designer but sadly I'm not, in all honesty I've been having alot of fun coming up with ideas for the game but at the same time having such big ideas usually means there's a chance it might not work depending on one's experience with writing and whatnot, of course I'm still willing to give ideas for the script and events, I would love to see this game come to life somehow. 

As for the true ending idea: I'm sort of on the fence for a "True Ending" since while I love the idea of the game having multiple endings and player choice I feel like it would kinda muddy the waters for what the player believes what choice is right according to their own interpretations, who's to say if there's a right or wrong choice to anything since this is Gensokyo after all, while I'm not heavily against the idea it would be neat if there were a secret ending depending on the players actions but at the same time I don't want it to be too hidden or cryptic, so maybe there's a possibility for that? Will that and Aya's BS will surly be present.

Otherwise, I do the like ideas that everyone has presented so far.

Would love a Touhou story concept that connects the windows era to the PC-98 era, even with certain characters making appearances and some having been completely forgotten by the cast like some Mandela Effect, though I think it might as well be it's own separate thing.

 

 

That's a good point about the time loop, actually. After all, if there's only one character who could have created it, then where's the mystery? As for the true route, I don't think you'd have to worry much; I fully intend on making sure the player needs to figure out everything for themselves without being pushed towards the correct path, as opposed to a scripted event where Aya realizes what's going on, and it's all told to the player through her internal monologue. As for using PC-98 characters, I hadn't considered it as I haven't played those games and really don't know a whole lot about their stories, but Kotohime specifically seems like she'd fit really well with my idea, and I'm sure there are others who would too, so I'll try looking into those a bit more. In the meantime, feel free to give me some pointers on characters from that era that might be good to look into.

6 hours ago, Gou the frog said:

So, I see that the 3 days loop plan could work pretty well. It is a good way to set the plot up but as you guys have stated the flair need a bit of support and might be a hassle.

My take on this is to use the "newspaper headlines" from the outside world to set up a story, in this case Ayana. She might use it to create her bull story or it could serve as a "true ending" route style with enough pieces: 

• Extend the endings and add a "twist", "perspective" or whatever you like.
• New End Credit Sequence? If you completed the game, but tries to get all the headline rewarding a comic relief dialogue with Aya.
• More dialogues with characters who has an interest in the current news: Hatate, Akyuu, Kotohime (Like M3ds mentioned) and the main character or NPCs.

The environment: 

If you want get into the pace, settings and the immersion, you need to set a good place up. Since there're going to be branching paths it might be in the green light to use multiple locations. 

Human village: It's a safe Head start since it could be a main focus to gather info and get the story going from there. There's a lot of disguise-kit using yokais whom might be good NPCs and immersion. 

Yokai Mountain: This could also be a story starting point. Lots of flairs here, the kappas, the head Tengu and the rival. 

Moriya & Hakurei Shrine: Side quest-ish but it's interesting to investigate neither last. Assuming you piss both mikos and gods with your bull.  

Suzzan: She is trying get the juice out so, might as well write her story in a demonic book that saves progress. It can be a story item or a save item. To make things consistent, Let's say she took it as reference from Kosuzu telling her "you're going to be famous kid". (Another Character to punish Aya)

SDM: Ohwww..... The meat behind the scarlet mansion: I'm sure Aya would most definitely want it. Chase scenes, puzzles, confronting the mistress, you go wild on that.

Those locations might be interesting to come into play. For the story itself, I would say it's based on your preference. Looping, Waiting, Time based, Visual Novel style, Info trading and the list go on. Go with the one that might suit your ideas.

The Characters: 

We're touching a gold mine here. From the cast of 140+ Characters, go with the one that's natural for the story. You want Aya setting afoot to Pc-98? Join her with the once vengeful sprit to guide the ways to Makai. Wait, you want a scoop from underground? Aye, Unware muscle heads got ya covered. Heaven? Give the celestial a boast and also scoop from her.

The end results would come out something like this: Aya got the scoops and failed to publish 'em on time 'cause a rival of her got the beef first, translating to a bad end. (Aya getting a piece of everyone for her bull) and vice versa. Normal ending might be there's nothing to report as the bubumaru newspaper hit a 0 that day. 

I actually quite like these suggestions, as suggesting specific characters/locations that could be used is more in line with what I'd originally intended with my first post. You're also right that I plan on including multiple locations within Gensokyo, as I'd like to use as much of the cast as reasonably possible. Of course, I'm not going to use all of them, that'd be a little much, but I would like to use a lot, particularly ones that are from newer games, or might be a little less well-known. And despite the fact that the SDM characters are the exact opposite of that description, I'm still sure there's a lot I could do with that setting and cast, so I'll definitely include it to some extent.

[TheM3ds]

On 4/27/2022 at 2:53 PM, Cosmic said:

That's a good point about the time loop, actually. After all, if there's only one character who could have created it, then where's the mystery? As for the true route, I don't think you'd have to worry much; I fully intend on making sure the player needs to figure out everything for themselves without being pushed towards the correct path, as opposed to a scripted event where Aya realizes what's going on, and it's all told to the player through her internal monologue. As for using PC-98 characters, I hadn't considered it as I haven't played those games and really don't know a whole lot about their stories, but Kotohime specifically seems like she'd fit really well with my idea, and I'm sure there are others who would too, so I'll try looking into those a bit more. In the meantime, feel free to give me some pointers on characters from that era that might be good to look into.

I actually quite like these suggestions, as suggesting specific characters/locations that could be used is more in line with what I'd originally intended with my first post. You're also right that I plan on including multiple locations within Gensokyo, as I'd like to use as much of the cast as reasonably possible. Of course, I'm not going to use all of them, that'd be a little much, but I would like to use a lot, particularly ones that are from newer games, or might be a little less well-known. And despite the fact that the SDM characters are the exact opposite of that description, I'm still sure there's a lot I could do with that setting and cast, so I'll definitely include it to some extent.

Late reply but at first I was a bit concerned about the true route, but now that has pretty much died down at this point so I'm not worried about it anymore, on another note: we'll talk which PC-98 characters could possibly make an appearance, though not in pubic.

As for the locations of Gensokyo: The only thing I'm concerned about is Makai since if I can recall correctly: only Byakuren, Nue and the Palaquin ship can enter it because of the seal, as for the characters I never really expected ALL of them to appear in the game, I mean RPG maker may have it's limitations but still I don't see a reason to squeeze in every character possible, especially nameless characters. Still, I'd say it's a good call not to include all of them so give where credit is due.

If there's any info you need regarding anything just let me know.

[Cosmic]

12 hours ago, TheM3ds said:

Late reply but at first I was a bit concerned about the true route, but now that has pretty much died down at this point so I'm not worried about it anymore, on another note: we'll talk which PC-98 characters could possibly make an appearance, though not in pubic.

As for the locations of Gensokyo: The only thing I'm concerned about is Makai since if I can recall correctly: only Byakuren, Nue and the Palaquin ship can enter it because of the seal, as for the characters I never really expected ALL of them to appear in the game, I mean RPG maker may have it's limitations but still I don't see a reason to squeeze in every character possible, especially nameless characters. Still, I'd say it's a good call not to include all of them so give where credit is due.

If there's any info you need regarding anything just let me know.

I'm glad you're not as worried about the true route now, and thanks for the PC-98 character stuff too