Hello you beautiful deviants,So the plan for maidens is to gave 30 different "maidens" you will be able to summon.Each of the 3 subclasses would have 2 of each of the affinities (water, fire, earth, twilight, and light)Fundamentally, why you would choose a maiden will largely be an aesthetic choice - what i mean by that is, you would most likely choose a maiden for how they look and sound, and then secondary their subclass. The reason I say this is because stats are heavily changed by the gear you have equipped, and abilities will be class specific not character specific. Trying to do 30 different characters will unique abilities would take forever.I wanted to go this direction for 2 reasons.
It sucks when you find a party member or character in a game you like the look of but they just suck, so they don't end up being a viable addition to the team
By allowing the flexibility of your characters being able to choose from abilities you want to give each maiden, it gives you more control over your party members, but you get to choose the aesthetic and character you prefer the looks of. I know its a bit superficial, but a big part of the game is pretty ladies, and don't you want to run around with the characters you find most attractive?
I wanted to do my best to clarify this, as I understand it can sound misleading to say there are "30" different characters, when largely there are 3 different subclasses + some variant Ultimate States - which you can read about that plan HERESo technically yes, there are 30 - but its mainly visual more than anything.So what will be the incentive or unique aspect for summoning different Maidens?Unlocking New Abilities is the main consideration right now.
What I mean by that and where I am currently at is that each affinity will have a different ability playstyle.
For example (and these are just off the head ideas)
Fire may be single enemy, abilities that are quick but maybe slightly less damage due to how frequently they can be triggered.
Where as earth may be slower, but slightly more powerful Area of Effect abilities
Each "Maiden" would be assigned a "unique" ability related to their affinity. And once you unlock that Maiden, that ability would become available to that subclass.
So if you summoned an earth warrior maiden that had a move called "Flower Blade" - that move despite being an earth move could now be learnt by other warriors in your party even if they are a different affinity. The difference being that it would do fire damage for example and have a slight visual difference as the fire warrior wouldn't conger any flowers.
This would fundamentally mean there would be 10 abilities for each subclass, 2 for each affinity - 30 in total
And further to this my thought is to possibly add bonuses to damage or cooldown when the affinity matches. So that earth warrior would be receive a damage or cooldown bonus to that "flower blade" ability. - but this might also be taken into account with Passive bonuses.So as you progress the story, and unlock more maidens, you also unlock more abilities. and my plan is to allow abilities to level up also through use to encourage using abilities more etc.
Do you have any questions thoughts, feedback?