Concept: Aspects

I was supposed to write a tie-in to something earlier, and ended up waiting until now. Ah well.

Elemental Aspects, or just Aspects. Why are they capitalized? Because they're important.
That's... actually the reason.

The Aspects in this game are based off of a little remix project by DJtheS titled "Disciple Month". This was a three-part project in which he remixed specific sets of songs to match different elements. This project was also based off of something else, being the "Tales of" series of games, specifically Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Phantasia. The first two Disciple Months used elements from the games to set the categories. These were, in order, Wind, Fire, Ice, Darkness, Earth, Water, Lightning, and Light. The third Disciple Month used a few "other elements", being Time, Sound, Magic, and Life/Death. With five songs per set, and one extra, this project had 16 different songs using these elements. I'd highly recommend checking them out, because seriously, they're all really great remixes.
Anyway, I think I'm getting a little sidetracked. Basically, the 8 basic elements will definitely be used in the game, but not really in the way they are in the Tales of games. These will instead be collected as Aspect Orbs, granting our main character the ability to use the respective Aspect. These are found in...
Wait, can't say that yet. Story Spoilers!
I can say, however, that these Aspects aren't easily used. It's a simple process to pick up an Aspect Orb and learn how to manipulate that Aspect, sure. But when has a normal kid, such as the main character, been able to just know how to use these powerful abilities?

This brings us to the Dream World, a land of imagination, ingenuity, and occasionally Nightmares. The Dream World has many uses, one of which being an area that will open up upon finding more than one Aspect. See, the Dream World is the main character's thoughts. Going through this world allows the player to mess with different things in the main character's head. This will be important in a later post, but for now, we're just worried about the Aspect Amplifier.
The Aspect Amplifier is an area that may get a name change in the future. It allows the player to mess with different Abilities that use Aspects, potentially creating different, new Abilities to use in and out of battle. None of these are required. In fact,the only required part of it is going there once an Aspect is mastered, just so you can set the Aspect to be used. Using this, though, will be rather helpful throughout the game...

Anyway, that's my concept for Aspects. A few other ideas may come up later, but the important parts are 1) The 8 Basic Aspects are definitely used, and the other 4 may show up as "combinations" of other Aspects. And 2) The Aspect Amplifier will be used throughout the game to set Aspects into being used after they're mastered in the Dream World.

Until next time!
-Josh