In a 2D game (Action-rpg), besides the 4 movement keys, how many keys is too many for a person to use? I want to have a normal attack key, a special attack key, a defend key, and 3 item/spell quick-use hotkeys. Is that too many? They'll also have a few keys like menu, switch character, and slow-item use, but those won't be used as often. Do you think that many will be too confusing, or is it just fine? Any suggestions are welcome, too. Thanks!

Players can remember any number of controls as long as they learn them only a few at a time. If the player needs all of the controls to play the main game effectively, then introduce them one at a time in a tutorial level.

The best control scheme that I saw was a variation of the first tales of phantasia game.

The directions to move (arrows, digital directional, whatever)

A button to attack
A button to do special attack
A button to open menu

To be able to do various attacks and specials, you plainly press the button (attack or special attack) and a direction

In case of the original tales of phantasia, only pressing "UP" worked. So let me use him as example (my sugestion is to use another directions too if needed)

The button A was to attack, and B to do special.

A = slash
A + UP = stab
B at short range = short range special 1
B + UP at short range = short range special 2
B at long range = long range special 1
B + UP at long range = long range special 2

You could if wanted remove the range limitations, and put more directions, even achieving 8 directions like in the game "moonstone"

For those interested in seeing a intersting control scheme see this game :P

On this game you could slash, defend, stab, lunge, vertical slash, throw knife, stab someone behind, stab someone on the ground (or on air, depends on the enemy) and dodge (or block, depends on the enemy), all using only a single button + a directional, but the result is that sometimes was impossible to do what you wanted exactly, like throwing a dagger, that was "backward up" + attack button, something that either resulted in backward stab (backward + attack) or defense (up + attack) instead of what I wanted.

I know this is the 'design' forum, and not a technical forum, but this particular issue is one you're likely going to have technical problems with.

When pressing [and holding] several keys at the same time, you run the risk of encountering certain limitations present in keyboard hardware. There are certain combinations of keys that when held will restrict other keys from being read. This means absolutely nothing if you're going to only have your player holding down one or two keys at a time, but presenting a situation where a player needs to hold down a large number of keys at a given time [especially if the player is allowed to choose thier own keyboard configuration, which is nearly always the case these days, increasing the likelyhood that a player will stumble upon these combinations] can cause keys to not respond to any sort of interaction.

If that is likely to happen, your game is already too hard to control even with a perfect keyboard ;)

Games are not supposed to behave like photoshop (press Control + Alt + Z + T + 18234555 and it will select the tool super selection type 253 with property 1 at value 93)

I hate games that ask you to use more than 6 or 7 buttons or that need to have three buttons pressed at the same time, the only exeption is games like Tyrian, where there are 3 buttons to activate weapons, and sometimes you want or not activate them all because of ammo use.

It's just attack, special attack, and defend + 3 quick-use keys (for items). And movement, I just wanted to make sure that wouldn't be any sort of problem. And there's no multiple button pressing, you can only do one thing at a time. I might put something in with attack + defend, but probably not. Thanks for all your help!