Leisure Suit Larry never had to enter combat. Myst required no combat ('course that's out of the Arcade/Action realm). Sports games don't require combat (however there's usually an element of tough guy attitude). Rollercoaster tycoon doesn't utilize combat.

If you want to stick to arcade style, Mario never killed anybody, he just squished em. And if you do want combat in your game, space shooters are an example that you can blow up inanimate objects like vehicles and ships rather than put a bullet into somebody's head.

Watch some super hero cartoons. The protagonist usually starts by trying to talk down their opponent. If it comes to violence, the hero is forced into it, prevents a greater violence, and is trying to do it in the least violent way possible. The bad guys almost never die. Tie 'em up and send them to jail (or the asylum in Batman).

Going a little away from the point..

You could always make the game with violence, but you could also make a secondary character in the game to question why the main character is so violent; and (at the end of the game) You could force the player to decide a big decision, which would cause a peaceful outcome (after which you would win the game), or a violent, bloodstricken ending (after which the main character would then find out they had done something terribly wrong, and do something emotional and cry, showing that violence is not the way).

Theres a suggestion for you, But Sonic absolutely rocked! ;-)

Well, perhaps you could use a type of reward system. Offer violence as an option, but also offer several other non-violent or at least low-violence alternatives that would require more thought, strategy, and tact than just slashing and bashing. In return, pursuing the non-violent courses of action would yield better rewards and would unlock or open parts of the game that are unattainable through the use of violence. But, you still are left with the challenge of finding entertaining and fun non-violent alternatives for an action based game. So with that, I wish you good luck ;).

I'll explain more about the game for anyone who's interested.

_Xenallure_ begins with the human PC being unexpectedly pulled into a different world. (Is it the past? The future? An alternate reality?) The main activity of the game is a mix of adventure-game exploring and RPG interaction with NPCs and their problems. By doing these activities you learn about the 3 cultures in the game and how their magical, technological, and spiritual powers work. There are two sets of goals for the player to persue over the course of the plot: political goals and romantic goals. Romantic goals are simply wooing the major NPCs, and political goals are things like getting home, establishng a human settlement in this world, or becoming a member of one of the three cultures.

So there aren't really evil villains or inhuman monsters running around the setting, and cartoony violence does't fit with the realism of romance and philosophy...

WHAT! An RPG with No monsters wandering around for no reason! Despicable. ;-)

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Original post by sunandshadow So there aren't really evil villains or inhuman monsters running around the setting

Then let the player always chose between figthing or running away. If at some point combat is unavoidable, make some friendly NPC fight for him.

The game will always be more rewarding if the players follows your "good philosophy".

Well, I don't want the player to feel guilty or condemnedfor fighting, I want the combat to be fun, otherwise I woud just leave it out entirely.

Without combat you´ll be hard-pressed to provide enough gametime for your players, if you go the RPG route. Combined with the deep NPC-interaction and the world exploring this sets off the CONTENT-warning light.

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Romantic goals are simply wooing the major NPCs

ALL of them??? ;)

i think in order to come up with something meaningful here you need to provide a bit more info on the core gameplay, since from your description I´m not quite sure if it´s an adventure or a dating sim.

(Still, there´s no hero without and adversary. Doesn´t have to be violent combat, but who would remember Beowulf if it werent for Grendel?)

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Original post by sunandshadow Well, I don't want the player to feel guilty or condemnedfor fighting, I want the combat to be fun, otherwise I woud just leave it out entirely.

Well, I feel bad when my pacman is eaten by a ghost. Those are the game rules.