What would you like to see in an Action-RPG?

That would be a really useful tool, Rukiri! I think the number one request if you include squad combat is the ability to set up each member's AI similar to FF12's party formations and Gambit system, with a weighted list of "if-then" or "always" preferred behaviors that can be slotted in as desired, and formations like one of those springy web charts I can't rmember the official name of to set the party up in a rank or column, paired column, two ranks, wedge, or circle around a central character, with the main character's position in that formation also settable. Being able to determine range and whether a character has line-of-sight to use a ranged attack/weapon, and how far from the main character to pursue enemies before returning to formation would also be good, since I'd like to see more sci-fi games and even the generic standard fantasy stuff usually has spells or at least bows.

Perhaps make all attacks an arc with definable origin point, angle, and range? That would allow for any swung or launched weapon, though it would need to be able to nest a second attack origin/angle/range to handle spells or missiles that have a blast radius when they hit. Probably a targets-in-area and IFF counter too, to handle spells that can be cast at any single or finite group of targets within blast radius x smaller than range y. Theoretically infinite nesting would be a funny idea, but probably eat too much resources beyond something like a bomb that you throw and then bursts into several smaller bomblets. Oh, and one more effect, something to allow for "chain lightning" that hits an enemy and then shoots again to the nearest enemy hit the least number of times, for a finite number of hops within a certain maximum range from the most recent hit.

More generally, it would be handy to have support for a level system built in with an arbitrarily large cap, that can handle either directly modifying character stats in a predetermined way like classic RPGs or providing arbitrary points in an arbitrary number of pools to spend on improvements, the details of which would of course depend on the specific end use.

If you're doing user interface type stuff as well (which it sounds like you are) an inventory and equipable weapons/accessories/skills systems would also be a nice addition.

I mentioned a level system before, but character stats are also a near-constant aspect of the genre even without one, even if they're just HP per character and base damage per weapon. I strongly suggest setting it up so the number and types of stats can be arbitrarily large, along with exactly which one is used to resist which and how they are modified (skills/equipment/etc. as well as situational things like high ground or special rules for a boss map etc.) Being able to use a formula to calculate the effective value from the character sheet numbers (I like 2^(x/5) myself as in the Champions tabletop RPG, though a system that scales so higher numbers are worth less absolute improvement instead matches better with real life) would also be useful to some concepts such as the superheroes genre that has gained popularity in the past few years with the Marvel and DC movies. Just being able to make the numbers very large, like the Disgaea games, can stand in well enough if that turns out to be harder than it looks.

Though not so much a feature of the games you mentioned (the only one I know for sure that used it was Brotherhood of the Blade on PSP) being able to set gamepad skill buttons on the fly by using a d-pad ring menu and hitting the button you want to set was also really useful, though that depends on what you intend to use for control inputs to begin with; BotB had directional control via left stick, one fixed right button for a standard attack, and the other three right buttons configurable that way. Original Kingdom Hearts was similar IIRC but had to be set up from the pause menu, possibly out of combat.

One last thing before I stop rattling on, support for fast travel in/on a visible vehicle or mount on the overworld if there is one, and especially if there ISN'T one - with a user selectable arbitrary number of vehicles. If it's just an open world rather than an overworld, the ability to put each active party member in their own vehicle or assign them fighting stations from a large transport for dealing with encountered (random or visible? Ideally, support both, with the system choosing from a set of text files for each encounter type in a folder for each zone, or at least an easily edited master list) enemies would also be good.

The problem I immediately see is that action RPG can refer to a number of things. It could be like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, where it's a metroidvania platformer game, or it could be like Link to the Past where it's top-down, or it could be fully three-dimensional like Demon's Souls. It could even be like Star Ocean, where the combat functions like a beat-em-up (though it's arguable whether this counts as an action-RPG.) I suppose you could include a top-down controller as well as a 2d platformer controller and a 3d character controller, but then we've stopped talking about action RPGs and it's just general gameplay stuff.

Well, here's some consistencies:

A concept of health and healthbars A concept of magic and magicbars Varieties of weapons, which can be equipped on the player, which means: A concept of character stats (including health and magic, so I guess those are all related) Characters? Can't have those without a player party (max party size, party member functions) Party members? Can't have those without AI: pathfinding, combat, maybe more like exploring the environment (Persona 3 allowed party members to explore dungeons on their own, for example.) If there's anything players absolutely despise in RPGs is stupid characters who make stupid decisions. Definitely need dialogue, maybe a dialogue tree; I've seen node-based solutions to this which seem a lot easier to work with than code-based solutions. Items, key items, consumables, equipment, and not least: a player inventory Which also means a way to pick up items in the field Treasure chests Special attacks are pretty much standard, such as magic and sword arts Possibly could include some character generation utilities, although those never seem to work out right (have you seen RPG Maker's portrait generator? It's an ambitious attempt but each character looks cookie-cutter and sometimes downright awful.) Maybe throw in some basic characters, FX, sounds, and music for testing purposes, though this is compounded by the problem mentioned above where there's no consistency in what an action RPG can be; it's not so much a genre but a design principle, much like how roguelites can come in all shapes and sizes. Maybe it would be wise to nail down a very particular type of game you'd like to make a toolkit for, though it could also be useful to have the toolkit more abstract to make it function for more types of action RPGs. Transitioning between levels via entering some portal, like a doorway or an opening in a town

To be frank I probably wouldn't use this toolkit anyway, so take what I say with a grain of salt; nothing against you, I just prefer to figure these things out for myself; I find the learning process pleasurable. :)

This would be such an awesome thing! Hope you get it done. Would love to play with it.

• plug and play modular style design with minimal dependencies between modules/systems

• cross platform player controller (WASD, joystick, virtual joystick)

• 3rd person camera (with zoom and free look support)

• ability system (but can be hard to implement in a generic form with unique skills existing)

• enemy AI

• inventory system (not restricted to floating windows)

• items (plug in properties like icon, model, etc)

• special effects (ground indicators, projectile tracers, explosions)

• action/skill bars

• HUD

I feel like a bunch of ideas suggested so far are just plain obvious if you even want a decent Japanese style ARPG. AI, treasure chests, inventories and dialogue trees? No shit, guys. Here's some I think are less obvious than those:

-Designed with gamepad primarily in mind, albeit supporting keyboard. -Overworld/dungeon enemies you can run into to trigger battles as opposed to random encounters. -Direct control over one character at a time. -Simple combo system. -Dating mechanics.

Aside from Seiken Densetsu 3 as you already mentioned, try out the Star Ocean & Tales of series for reference. Both got their start on the Super Famicom with excellent entries, but I particularly love Star Ocean 2 & Tales of Symphonia.

And as much as I love FFXII, I'm not going to support DialNforNinja's suggestion to implement the gambit system as it's just too ambitious for what's supposed to be a flexible framework. Not to mention it's just not a very tactile game being arguably not an action RPG.

Yeah, I was thinking more of a free-roaming 3d or 2.5d (either sprites in a 3d map like Doom/Duke3D or 3d characters on a predrawn background like Crono Cross) game with that suggestion, but I maintain that it's a useful way to handle other party members when the player is controlling one in real time. Honestly pure 2D games just don't capture my interest, so I don't even consider them when talking about projects. I've been playing a lot of AstroNest: The Beginning on my Android tablet the past few days, though, and while I'm fairly sure the battles in that are at least using sprites in a 3d engine it could be done pure 2D, so after getting really annoyed with the drip-drip Action Point system that takes ten minutes to build up enough to take your ships and fight someone let alone build or research anything (unless of course you use a cash shop item, fills you right up instantly, play a whole minute for only $0.30!) I thought again of Godot and a prospective RPG framework, to make my own resource-collecting strategy game [i]with blackjack and hookers but no pay-to-play![/i]

Yes, I know, undoubtedly far more effort that the payoff would be worth, but it would be another end of the envelope of what to do with an RPG engine, and a crafting system was one of the earlier suggestions anyway, I think - it should be if not. Really though, AN is just a reskin on your calssic RPG mechanics, where you have a hub that can be upgraded with various visual features corresponding to mechanics that manipulate the quantities of resource counters and so on, recruit party members, build equipment for them after researching it from a skill tree, and then pick stations on an overworld map to enter and fight the enemies found there. The space opera style art is beautifully done and far more interesting than yet another LotR-inspired high fantasy FF or WoW ripoff, don't get me wrong, but at its fundamental core it's very much an old school RPG aside from having battles run automatically once you enter them instead of being directly controlled, though even that is not hard to achieve since an RPG needs AI for the enemies anyway.

All that in mind, the option to put both sides under AI control with high/medium/low/do-not target priorities or tap/click-to-target and have the AI handle visually dodging around on the screen and attacking as the weapon speed will allow would be useful for my purpose, whther or not it's within the scope of the project as envisioned. I'd still prefer some kind of player-accessible AI scripting so you can have your party members act the way you want them to rather than following some generic directive. (Well, turn-based individual control like a standard tactical RPG ala Disgaea or FFTactics would be fine too, but definitely straying from the original premise of the project.)