Something along the lines of a SNES, PS1, or PS2-era game. Who would be the antagonist, what would be their motive, and what type of random encounters would there be? Bonus points for secrets and easter eggs.

Perhaps like final fantasy or dragon quest

Some returning ancient evil. Open world. You have to go around in any order finding friends to form the Elements of Harmony. Would go kinda like Ghost of Tsushima, though obviously less violent.

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I don’t know but I would say that the motivation would focus on Ancient Equestria, perhaps during the Era of Grogar. Also if I make a secret, the secret would be a dark secret origin of Alicorns; Alicorns are perhaps the reason why the other races hates ponies.

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The story I'm working on right now takes a lot of influence from different genres, especially RPGs and horror shooters. While the progression's fairly linear, there are tons of side-quests written in to further bolster the character's powers, especially on Equus. I'm trying to cram in as much of my interests as I can before I pack in my writing on FimFiction for good.

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So is this gonna be a oneshot like your other fics?

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No. This one's a full-length novel. It's a crossover between Gen 4 and my own original story that's been in the works for seven years. I wanted to combine my initial fanfic style from the early days with the techniques and skills I've picked up since then. May even be one of the most ambitious projects in the site's history, though that remains to be seen.

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I have gotten inspiration for a pony RPG a little more than a week ago. It's very concrete, so I won't share it in public, but I want to make a pony RPG whose story is as exciting, deep, meaningful and brilliant as the story of "Final Fantasy IX" one day. I have first ideas for it.

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Work on it. Seriously. I'd play it.

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Off the top of my head, I'd probably have a villain with a lot of forces, such as pre-season 6 finale Chrysalis or the Storm King, and have them do some plan comparable to something they did in canon, but they would need to stay mostly in one place as their plan is carried out.

While that happens, the Mane 6, Spike, and possibly Starlight Glimmer, either as part of the Mane 6 & Spike party or a leader of a secondary party, would go around and free areas of Equestria under duress. If the Mane 6 has their Elements, they could be missing and they'd have to travel all over to find them, one by one, in classic RPG fashion. Random encounters would start off as "generic" enemies unrelated to the villains' plans, such as Timberwolves and other beasts like them, with bosses being stronger foes like manticores, cragadiles, or a high-ranking henchman working for the villains. Later, random encounters would start to be foes directly working for the villains (i.e. changelings in the case of Chrysalis being the big bad.)

As for secrets, maybe a hidden scroll could be out there that would allow the Mane 5 and Starlight to temporarily turn into alicorns like Twilight, but only works for certain late boss fights; Spike's version for alicorn status would be some super dragon form. They wouldn't need it to save Equestria and beyond, but if they managed to find this scroll, they would be able to kick even the main villain's butts. Or, there could be a 'true final boss" (maybe Grogar) who was pulling the strings in the background that would require that scroll to win against him.

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Once the time has come, I will.

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Hell yeah. Be lookin' forward to it.