Let me tell you a trick I used in game development.
Since the main game menu is useless, why not remove it? Yes, make it so that players can't view items or this setting in-game. In my game, even the protagonist can't open the menu... saving and such require going to a fixed location.
Why? I want to talk about a game I made during my RPG 2003 days. I encountered errors in game detection and some numerical calculations... not because I miscalculated, but because this type of game engine caused a "parallel processing" problem... I discussed this issue with AAAA (the uthor of Resident Evil Doraemon). I finally decided to use certain detection items as "keys."
In other words, the items the player carries are used for plot detection. When the player obtains a specific "key" item, many events revolve around this item detection. And by simply setting a concept like "only one type can be carried" or "items are limited to a certain quantity," different character states at different stages can be achieved.
This method is rather silly, but it's indeed a simple one. I've been using it for many years.
In this way, you can use item value judgments to flexibly save the protagonist's state, and even "manipulate items" to achieve event rewind and restart the game.And the difficulty of controlling the game.
Let me give you my example...
This is a character from an older game; she can store special items. There are also two others… like the Treasure Dragon.
In the game, her character art and movement animations are linked to "items." Due to the nature of RPG engines, I can assign each character a judgment item instead of a "judgment value." Although internally there's no difference, for beginners, items are easier to control and adjust… and also cater to some "cheaters" and "adjustment players."
At the start of each story segment, a judgment is performed to determine her movement animation. When the item count is higher than 10, a "Cracked Armor" animation appears. After that, there are six different animations for 30, 50, 70, 90, and 90+. When it's 90+, she becomes an "airship" and completely immobilized…
Besides 90+, the number of items changes the dialogue animations, dialogue, and some events. In certain story segments, exceeding a certain number can even lead to special events.Therefore, whether it's this character, Treasure Dragon, or a Broodmother their condition won't affect the main storyline; it will only cause trouble at specific times (like not being able to enter a house). However, this will still create some Gwent-like effects.
Some storylines feature a "pregnant woman" whose item acquisition is tied to a countdown timer. When the countdown reaches 0, an item is added, and a check is performed. Reaching a certain number of items triggers a birth event, considered a "percentage of births." If the percentage is successful, the player's location is "remembered," and the player is "moved to the story map." Afterward, the pregnant woman's items are cleared, the clock is turned off, and the player is "teleported back to the remembered location."
I also tried creating a system for the Broodmother but its skills required separate event design for each map, and global events had to be avoided, so I ultimately abandoned that approach.
