Some of the best and most fun games that I have played in the genre you are looking at are the Gauntlet games. It would be cool if you could create something similar in the hack and slash/rpg space only put a twist on it. Each character has their own strengths and their own weapon that they use, along with a special power meter. These special powers have to be carefully assigned, as you can only carry one special power at a time. Specials could include extra attack, extra speed, extra defense, healing powers, etc. There is a power meter and each time you use a special, the meter drops down a little bit. Holding the special button down longer causes the power to have more effect, but also causes the meter to drop faster.
I would love if instead of the knight, barbarian, dwarf, etc. that they use in the Gauntlet series there could be a new setting and a new set of characters. My thought goes straight to cave spelunking for some reason, so it's more of a modern age game, with the characters carrying basic pistols, machetes, and things like rope/whips for weapons. Premise for it would be that there is a cave dwelling species that is threatening the world's way of life, so the heroes must search out and destroy any nests they found within these caves, obviously with sweet boss battles at the end of each one. It would be a bit of a twist, because you would be crossing adventure games with dungeon style games by having the character find and descend safely into each of these caves.
I would make the game have 8-10 different caves to explore with a choice of maybe 8-12 heroes to choose from. I think that having the cave basis for the game would give some freedoms as to what could be in there, humans really have not fully explored many caves on the Earth, plus it's a game, so imagination is key. I think that maybe having a more modern yet still primitive Gauntlet would make for an interesting and fun game.
NNID: Dongo8 XBL Gamertag: Dongos Revenge
