Final Overworld Movement… I Think…

Okay, I think I’ve settled on how I want to handle movement between continents.  I wanted to find a system that was easy for the player to remember, that opened up world movement in a significant way, that utilized some of the non-progression items in the game, and that tied into the game’s lore in a decently feasible way.

Basically, I’ve added three main transportation systems to the game.  Each system becomes unlocked upon the acquisition of an item.

• Travel by Sea (Bag of Gold).  There’s a ship’s captain who hangs out in the sea near the entrance to Inca Ruins.  Giving him a Bag of Gold (an unused item in the vanilla game) opens up travel by sea from there to the following sea-accessible locations:
  • Diamond Coast
  • Watermia
  • Seaside Palace
  • Babel Tower
• Travel by Plane (Blue Journal).  Finding the Blue Journal (another unused item in the vanilla game) allows Neil to finally finish that airplane he’s been working on.  You’ll have to give him the journal in his cottage, otherwise he’ll never be able to leave — but once you do, he can be found in Euro and Dao.  From those three locations, he can take you to any location below:
  • Neil’s Cottage
  • Euro
  • Dao
  • Babel Tower
• Travel by Sky Garden (Teapot).  Using the Teapot to heal the spirits of the Moon Tribe will make them beholden to you and will allow you to use their Sky Garden for transportation around the world.  You can access the Sky Garden for free from the Nazca Plains, but you can only use it for travel if you get the Teapot.  Getting the Teapot also allows access to the Sky Garden from the Moon Tribe Camp.  Since the Sky Garden is so conspicuous and the Moon Tribe wish to remain hidden, they will only drop you at sparsely populated locations where they can avoid notice, and that aren’t too overrun with monsters:
  • Nazca Plains
  • Seaside Palace
  • Angel Village
  • Natives’ Village
  • Pyramid

On top of these, there are some route-specific passages that can be unlocked with certain items:

• Travel between Watermia and Euro (Will).  This works similarly to the vanilla game, where a Kruk is required for passage across the wasteland.  Acquiring the Will allows you to travel back and forth freely between these locations.
• Travel between Natives’ Village and Dao (Large Roast).  A guide is required to cross the expanse between these two locations, and giving the natives some food grants you the use of their guides for this journey.

All of this is still up for discussion, so any input is appreciated.

When I started this project, it was my dream to come up with a use for every item in the game — however, opening up progression like this means that there’s still no use in the randomizer for the following items:

• Inca Melody (unused in vanilla game)
• Memory Melody
• Magic Dust
• Lance’s Letter
• Necklace Stones
• Lola’s Letter

As much as I’d like to make every item useful, I’ve been struggling to make use of these ones in any meaningful and rational way, and I’ll probably end up removing them from the item pool and adding in some more herbs, Red Jewels, or ability upgrades.  If anyone has any suggestions for how these items could be used, let me know in the comments.