Okay lets say that you have a hypothetical game where you are training for a big tournament, Karate Kid-style. But you don't want the player to just enter into fights all the time. At the same time there would need to be lots of gameplay to make up for the lack of fights. What would you do? Have "training" sessions where you need to build up your skills, ie. blocking punches and kicks, fighting a "machine", increasing your powers of observation (being able to catch a fly with chopsticks.), improving character reaction speeds, improving your ability to balance on one leg. You could also have lots of practice tournaments / fights. I think the problem comes from the desire to integrate it into the story, ie. in the film it was a big fight, but in the game would the player be able to reload until they won? How about if they lose, then it is no big deal and they can try again next year. If necessary, the game automates their progress through the fights so that they don't have to fight so many times next time through (ie. they pick up where they were knocked out but a year later).

Hello, i think you've come up with some excellent ideas in your post, I couldn't add some more. Good luck with your project!

Take a look at Kengo for the PS2. It's set in a pretty generic feudal Japan, and you are a pretty generic young swordsman. You enroll in a kenjutsu dojo, and you have to take some lessons and pass a test to qualify. It's basically a control tutorial.

Then, you get to train there. You can go to the dojo and spar with other students whenever you want, but you'll get your butt kicked most of the time unless you train. You can go hit a sapling with your bokken to build your strength, or run through a local bamboo grove slashing it down around you to build up your dexterity, or practice zen meditation to improve your insight, etc. There are five or six skills, I think.

It's fun, becuase each training method takes the form of a mini-game. Strength is a button-matching Dance-Dance Revolution-type game. Spirit is a rapid-button-press game. There's a timing game, a balance game, and a few others. These are all pretty quick, and so you get a sort of montage effect on your training. Then you go and fight, and get better still. Eventually, you spar the top student in your school, are accepted as a disciple, and can wander Japan, challenging other schools, learning new moves, designing combos and customizing your style, winning fame and entering tournaments.

You might want to model some parts of the Karate Kid idea on that.