Posted on February 4, 2012 11:11 PM
Introducing a new concept to the world of War of Ninja: Supports. If you’ve played the Fire Emblem games, you already know how these work. If not, please read the guide below.
WHAT ARE SUPPORTS?
A Support is a modification to a pair of characters that is triggered by placing them on a team together. Supports are built via completing missions, and they alter parts of a character’s skillset. Backed by a strong bond developed between the two characters, Supports strengthen both allies and help them to address weaknesses.
HOW DO THEY WORK?
You can purchase a Support package in the Market for a number of tokens. After purchasing a particular Support, you will have access to its missions. Each Support package comes with 3 missions, as well as dialogue to go with each mission. The dialogue typically displays interaction and the development of a relationship between the two characters involved in the Support.
After completing the final mission, the Support is completed and becomes useable in battle.
To activate a Support, simply form a team including the two characters, and you will be given the option to trigger their Support before the match begins. **Only one Support per team can be triggered in a battle.
Supported characters have new names and an altered skillset. The opponent is unable to see whether or not any of your characters are using a Support.
WHY ARE THEY USEFUL?
Supports bring synergy to character combos that would otherwise be deemed unviable or useless. They allow players to combine the strengths of two characters to amplify the depth of strategy in the game.
They incentivize more unique team compositions by encouraging players to team up pairs of characters for newly-discovered strategies.
Furthermore, support missions provide an additional layer of story to the game, allowing you to learn more about a character’s backstory and personality through his or her interactions with other characters.
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN CREATING A SUPPORT
Don’t create Supports out of characters that already work well together. This is counter-intuitive. If the point of Supports is to create synergy where there was none, it would be incredibly silly to make a Jyouzu/Yukigaaru support, since the two are already an effective duo. Instead, focus on pairs of characters that you don’t generally see in teams together, because maybe their energies clash or their play styles conflict.
When designing a Supported character’s skillset, be smart about balance decisions, and consider how these combos would affect the rest of the game.
When writing dialogue for the Support missions, RESEARCH THE CHARACTERS. Do whatever you need to do to make sure no one is acting out-of-character, because that is not entertaining to read, and it will upset Nori. Also, read up on the concepts and storyline of War of Ninja so that nothing is extremely contradictory.
Be reasonable about the mission requirements. This is self-explanatory.
Not to put restrictions on your creativity, but it wouldn’t make sense for boss characters to be available for Supports, since in terms of the storyline, they aren’t exactly part of the main army. However, if you absolutely WANT to, go ahead.
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So without further ado, I will present to you my first Support -- as soon as its finished.
Feel free to leave comments and suggestions, and write/design your own Supports if you would like to.
: ~growl~
: Oh dear! What happened here?!
: …ugh…
