This is not an idea that I''m using in the design for my current project, although I''ll probably attempt to incorporate these ideas into some later game. Now... Playing Xenogears (which despite its implementation flaws had some great gameplay ideas), I loved the fact that my character was not limited to the ground and could take damage from environmental obstacles. Needless to say, however, the 2D character graphics and the fact that IT SHOWED ALL THE MEMBERS OF YOUR PARTY ON THE FIELD SCREEN made it rather difficult to space your jumps. You were as likely to hit as you were to miss, which made taking a leap a horrid mini-game where you had to guess just how close your character was to the edge... rather unlike the well-designed but far too easy RPG-platformer, Super Mario RPG. I''ve been thinking about SMRPG ever since I first played it (long before Xenogears), and I''m still impressed. The 3D (well, 2-and-a-half-D, but it amounts to the same thing) platformer aspect was nicely thought out, but still, it was secondary. Now, here''s the only real idea I''m presenting in this thread, other than the proposition that more games with these hybrid principles be made: One could create an RPG which has characters with distinctive attributes and abilities, and change platformer gameplay specifics drastically depending upon which you have as your lead character, rather like Donkey Kong Country. I realize that this would require creating a traditional-style RPG (i.e. shows only single lead character, separate battle screen) in some ways, but it still seems like an excellent idea. It would be even neater if you introduced Zelda-like items to bridge obstacles that none of the characters'' inherent abilities could, and neater still if the characters'' jumping abilities and the like improved slightly with level (or whatever you used) or were based on their attributes. This is not so much like crossing SMRPG with DKC; actually, the 3D dungeon gameplay I''m envisioning is a lot more like Super Metroid than like Mario or Donkey Kong (I''ve never played the 3D Donkey Kong, mind you, but then, I couldn''t imagine that it could surpass DKC2 & DKC3, so...). Any comments about my idea/randomly placed rants against the level system? :D P.S. Actually, I may try to incorporate this into my next project, which features a non-level "every time you do something you get better at it" system a fixed-damage system where you''ll almost never do the same amount of damage twice, because the improvements to your damaging capabilities made by your last attack have already taken place, and a non-linear quest, as per Romancing SaGa 3. I''d planned to have it in Baldur''s Gate field-and-battle-all-in-one mode, but that game actually might work better as a battle-screen one, if an action-battle-in-battle-screen one, so you might see that when that finally gets done. (BTW, my current [and first dead-serious] project will probably take me about two to four more years to complete, so don''t expect the platformer one for at least six years, at the very least)