For all of the people griping about the ending...

How about multiple endings, based on what the player wishes (perhaps this would come through planning it out before hand, or the player could be presented with a last minute "think fast" set of options). The latter could lead to a rather intense moment.

The options could have wildly varying results, leading to success or failure, with extra little bonuses or consequences.

For example:
1) I wish that Dark Wizard #4 had never existed -
The wizard never existed, so no curse - player doesn''t directly die. Various other evil things that he had caused also don''t happen. But, this is a two edged blade - the wizard had also prevented some other evil things from happening, through conflicts with other evil wizards, perhaps distracting a neighboring kingdom from military conquest, or killing an elder dragon for spell components, that would have otherwise laid waste to the kingdom. (sequel? same characters, same period of time, different conflict!)

2) I wish that the curse be lifted - player makes this wish with their dying breath, still dies, but everyone else that is still alive is cured. The wizard is still alive to form new plots... (sequel?)

3) I wish that the wizard were dead - Great, now that the wizard is dead, his master plan will not be completed. Too bad the curse is still there, and now there are these poor, twisted, beasts aimlessly wandering around the kingdom. Player still dies. (sequel anyone? Bringing these creatures to rest...)

4) I wish that I were fully restored - Player returns to life, with full status, but curse is still active, and wizard is still alive. Player gets a chance to take out the wizard to at least provide some benefit (perhaps with some extra difficulty, the player could also discover how to lift the curse). Not easy, but possibly the best ending overall.

Possibly some others that could lead to total failure, or different forms of success.

So, this keeps the dark mood that you had set, but also gives the player a choice as to how things turn out - whether they live or die, and just how the problem is resolved.

The "Magic Wishing Stone" thing seems kinda out of place... You should make sure there is a story behind it that fits with the mood of the rest of the game. I''d offer something but I''m not much of a writer...

Here''s a question. If everyone else who gets cursed simply turn into creatures, why does your character die, instead of turning like everyone else? If he''s in a party long enough for us to become attached to the other characters, then make it so Arean completely turns right boefore finishing the wish and have his friends complete. See now they''re faced with an ethical desision do they kill him and make the wish or can they make the wish restoring everyone and bringing him back. From here they can regroup with the uncursed Arean and journey to finish off the wizard. This way you can having Arean slowly turning most of the game, and still get to keep him in the end. With the curse lifted you don''t face all those cursed man-beats and can add in other minion of the dark wizard. And I''d think it''s logical for him to be infected from a fight with a cursed creature (perhaps the king sends him to disposed of the turned commander!!!) he kills it but is cursed in the process and through that learns that the mage is behind it. He hates the king for destroying the town but cannot cease to hunt the mage because the mage has become a threat to everyone. He learns this because of the mage''s attempt to possess him.

Ok, superpig- I guess I didn''t explain, the wishing stone is the wizards. And I was also thinking as a possibility that the disease he gets is different, this comes from the stone, if you touch it, now the wizard didn''t have trouble because he could cast a counter-spell, but arean being a low-casting magic user had no clue about the spell till later. Then he dies right as he finishes his wish, and he wouldn''t be included? A nice idea I was thinking. Also, maybe the disease thing for the stone was to protect it from fools to make a wish. Makes sense.

Also, the reason why I was saying arean was dying rather than becoming a monster was because I was assuming that the wish would be to destroy the wizard and all his minions, and at that point, would include arean.

I like these ideas. Could I also get some help for names for a) arean''s teammates-a dwarf(inventor who uses a hammer if that helps with the name) and an elf(who is a bowman and very wise (like legolas in LOTR)), the king, the commander, and I think the wizard name was going to be hallidor, I like that name, but if you guys don''t like, let me know.

Things progress fast at this thread.
Some ideas I had seem to be outdated now, but here it is.

Here''s my attempt at putting the whole story together.

1st there needs to be a more solid reason for the King''s army to decimate the town. This is unless you need to hide the real reason for a plot twist later on in the game.
To make matters simple, how about if the wizard asked for the hand of the King''s daughter, who is the only surviving heir to the throne? The wizard, along with his mages have enough power to conquer the world, but they lack the prestige to rule. So, the wizard wants to marry into a royal family, etc.
The leader of the King''s army, armed with some item that neutralizes the wizard''s magic, defeats the mages. He wants to pursue the wizard who escaped, but his men are too tired to go forward, so he returns home. This man is the man who the princess loves, and is given the hand of the princess for saving the kingdom.

2nd is how the leader is infected. How about poisoned wine at the marriage ceremony? The leader ended up drinking the most wine, so his infection is most pronounced, but the others who drank the wine are also infected, including the main character. To make matters more personal, you could make the main character the younger brother of the leader. Maybe the main character was not part of the royalty until his brother married the princess and thus was not accustomed to the strong wine the nobles drink and that in turn was why he drank the least?

3rd is how the King found out. Since the leader is possessed, he increasingly acts like the wizard. To everyone else, the leader just looks mad, but to the King, who knew the wizard from a long time ago, sees that the leader is acting like his old friend, the wizard, before he started talking about conquering the world.

4th part is probably okay as is. He goes to the town, maybe finds a prototype of the poison or maybe some scroll detailing instructions for brewing it. He then returns and reports to the King. By this time, others are starting to be strongly possessed also.

5th part is the hardest b/c there is a big gap. One idea is to go back to the item that neutralizes the wizard''s magic. The leader obtained this stone from a wise sage in the East. The King orders the main character to go ask the sage for advice. The main character goes to the cave where the sage lives, only to learn that the wizard had killed the sage.

The sage''s apprentice, who is lying in the cave half dead tells you all this. You also learn that the stone, if taken back to its place of origin, has the power to nullify the wizard''s curse. Also, holding the stone would stop the progression of possession.
2 side notes here. 1 - If you want another love romance, make it the sage''s daughter, or atleast make the apprentice a girl. 2 - The leader could have gotten the stone from the sage in exchange for promising to kill the wizard. The stone had protected the sage from the wizard, but since the sage did not have the stone any more, the wizard was able to kill the sage.

6th has already been taken care of. He knows he is possessed by step 5. Maybe he shows signs before he gets his hand on the stone to make it more pronounced.

7th also is problematic because the main character dies even though everyone else is cured. One possibility is as follows. Just as the main character approaches the tree, the wizard, held back by Arian''s men, yells, "If you lose the stone, you will die! Join me now, and I shall cure you." Basically, the stone had stopped the progress of possession. But, if Arian loses the stone, the curse will instantly progress to the point where it would have been if he did not have the stone. Let''s say Arian had the stone for 3 months. So, 3 months worth of mutation would come in an instant. Arian''s body can''t cope with the change and he dies from it. This could also explain the slow speed of everyone else being possessed. The average body can co-exist with the mutation if the mutation progressed at a very slow speed, but it can''t co-exist if the speed of the mutation is as rapid as the one Arian experiences.

How''s this for a possible storyline with some flow?

An idea for modifying the curse:

Someone who kills one of the infected becomes infected himself (rather than transmitting through biting/scratching/whatever). Perhaps the more infected beasts are killed, the faster the transformation. This would give the wizard a self-replenishing army, and give the player an extra challenge to try to avoid killing the infected. Perhaps as an explanation of the players death - his wish/magic could be killing the beasts - thousands of them. Killing 3 or 4 might turn one into a beast, killing that many could lead to a rather gruesome death as the character must bear the entirety of the curse himself.

pwd-I couldn''t use that because throughout the game, most of the battles are gonna be against those guys. But Kuroahiru, all that really helps! That makes it all sound perfect. Thank you very much. I''m going to write up a new version of the design document from the help I got here.

One of my favorite parts about good rpgs is the mystery about the character and you learn more about them as you go along. By what I''ve shown you here, can anyone give me some roll the character plays? I always like it when the main character finds out that all the trouble is really somehow connected to his past, I can''t think of any good examples. I think this happened a little bit in ff6 when terra found out she was half esper, but it''s been a while. Anyone have any ideas?

The main character could have been born in the mage''s town, but removed from it when he was very young. Maybe he was royalty or something and he was the reason that the commander attacked the town in the first place, but when he destroyed the town, the prince wasn''t there.

So, the commander can be another enemy throughout the game who pursues the main character as both discover this hidden part of his past.

Maybe if you limited the powers of the stone, it''s not powerful enough to simply lift the curse but it can kill everyone with the curse or (as the player has become so powerful) he can add his powers to the stone and maybe lift the curse.

Personally I like an ending where a character makes the ultimate sacrifice especially if it''s a character the player has become attached to. Coupled with suitable dialogue and music it can create a strong emotional reaction in the player, which is always a good thing.
A good example would be Maxi''s ending in Soul Calibur.

- DarkIce