There was a game on the playstation 1, called Revelations Persona. It has blossomed into some super huge franchise and while I never cared for the later games as much and haven't even played most of them, I liked how they handled a few things in the first game..

I liked the transistion between first person dungeon crawling, to the semi isometric view when you got in a shop or sometimes visiting the school you were going to, you would go from first person dungeon crawling to school room where you could walk around in the isometric way and look for chests or stuff in the potted plants (yeah rpg logic > _ >).

Outside of those elements I did like, I did not like the velvet room, or rather the way that was handled. I was never into pokemon or card games. I don't hate them, I just didn't care for them, so that whole aspect was off to me. I liked being able to "contact" enemies and chat with them in combat, the system needed some help, it wasn't perfect but I felt that was actually cool that it was there..

So that is a game I'd definitely rip some ideas from, maybe not copy paste, but there were a few things I liked about it. I hate (even then questioned) why is it always teenagers who seem to have all this happen to them, and I realize they were marketing to who was gonna be playing these games at the time. The game did not age well, but not many do. It also was not very difficult if you were really into the type of game style, first person dungeon crawling really. The puzzles in the dungeons were probably the hardest part, and a lot of that was dealing with 1 ways and how to get around them.

Another thing I'd like to see some of is "time travel" or different times in the same "timeline" but handled well. There was a game called Chrono Trigger that people say was some ultimate RPG and I don't feel that way. It was ok on the SNES but, I never liked how if you didn't loot a chest that was sealed in a certain way you got a more powerful item later on in time. I realize video game logic is at play, but I was like if I put my hand gun in a box and check on it 2 years later, it's still my handgun, not handgun XXL with laser beam ammo. There STILL could be interesting elements of some time manipulation tho in a game, maybe the people alive at different ends of the spectrum can communicate in some manner, or have visions of each other.

Difficulty should be adjustable tho, I knew people who loved playing video games but they were not the most strategic minds on the battlefield so to speak, and they would be slaughtered by kobolds on the first floor etc. Magic and "magical items" seem to be a lot of what people play games for, but I'd risk being a little less magically delicious and possibly a little more science/sci-fi with some dabs of magic for good measure. I'd also probably venture into the material components territory but I wouldn't make it ultra sloggish in that regard. I'm not sure about a fatigue system, while it sounds cool in the drawing room, most games I've played with anything of a fatigue/hunger system it winds up becoming extremely unenjoyable making sure I ate enough mushrooms or whatever to be able to fight. I think that's more of a table top ingredient and should remain there, I don't know what or how to make it more entertaining. Maybe steal an aspect of mmorpg's and make the food give some temporary buffs. Another thing I like is how Grand Theft Auto San Andreas let you lift weights for some benefits and you could see your character change as you began to lift. Perhaps as a perk system, your characters could invest in training of some kind between outings, and gradually over time your beef cakes can become beefier, and your cupcakes can become cuppier.. Or something.

I'll leave my ramblings here. If I were going to design a game I'd probably have elements of this stuff in it. I am somewhat understanding a story is good to have, but if your game sucks it just doesn't matter how convincing World Eater Joe is of a villain, the game play sucks and I'll be content to let him just eat the world and maybe watch a youtube play through if I'm just dying to know how it got handled.