Ideas for Future Holo House Updates

[BelphegorATS]

I am not sure if anyone has started a thread for this, though I would like to talk about what sort of additions players, myself included, think would be fun to add to Holo House. I have been thinking about this for some time today because I recently cleared Stage 4 (Hard) as Watame and Mumei. While I enjoy playing around on the different stages as a way to spend some time, I only main these two and will main Yukihana Lamy too if and when she and the rest of NePoLaBo are added to the game.

At the same time, I have found myself spending a lot less time in Holo House because I did everything I wanted to do there. I bought decorations for the house that I wanted and built it in a way I prefer. I did not buy all of the decorations, though, even though some look pretty interesting. I also did not try using workers, fishing, and gardening apart from trying each for the first time. Of the new additions added recently, Ckia's Forge was the only one I went to the most, though I recently found myself not needing to go there for the time being. I tried the tower but was not interested in completing it; I do know what lies at the top but that still did not pique my interest. I looked at the Usada Casino for a bit and played both Tsunomaki Janken with Mumei as Watame twice and the slot machines once, though it was not for me.

Do not get me wrong, Holo House is quite fun to spend time in like clearing the main stages. I enjoy going there as a break from the action. However, I personally feel it is a very limited experience given what Holo House has now. Having gotten what I personally wanted out of it, what more does Holo House have that I can do and what more could be added to it that could make me want to go there more and stay longer?

I am not speaking for the community when I say this, though I think we can agree that there are things we would like to see added to Holo House to improve the experience it offers. Our thoughts on what could be done may differ, as we all have different ideas on what it could be to us individually. So, I created this thread where we could share our ideas about what sort of additions could help Holo House grow into a more dynamic mode.

To help get this discussion going, I would like to share five ideas I thought of that could make for great updates and go well together. First, a party system in which you can choose up to three of the other Holomem to hang out with in Holo House. This would work by sending in-game invitations to the Holomem you are not currently playing as, whether they are present or not. While it would be realistic for them to decline the invitation, I do not see the harm in leaving this rejection out because HoloCure is a single-player game. As a party, you and the Holomem NPCs can do activities in Holo House together to make more progress in grinding or to enjoy seeing your favorite Holomem hang out together, perhaps as units that have never formed in Hololive. I personally would enjoy pairing Watame, Lamy, and Mumei up as a trio, for example. Moreover, you could also be given the option to switch between the different party members to play as them while in Holo House.

Second, more of an open world to explore and hang out in. I am not saying Holo House has to be a massive open world like most overworlds in other games, though I think the area could use more land and structures. Holo House already has a house, a casino, and a tower, each of which are kept in isolated parts of the map. It has a dedicated forge area and a place to fish, cook, garden, and manage workers right outside the house. These are for grinding, of course, as well as to decorate the house. However, I believe it would be pretty neat to have a village or a small town to hang out at, with an environment that can make it feel more cozy. For example, it could be a scenic riverside town with amenities and industries one might find in such a location, like a logging industry, commercial fishing, and taking a rowboat or canoe down the river to other areas. There can be all sorts of shops and other buildings authentic to this part of Holo House, such as a cafe / restaurant based on the environment, and a historical society that archives Hololive's lore in a repository, a library, and a museum, and more houses for the Holomem to live in. You could even gift items to the other Holomem, like in other games such as Stardew Valley. Having a bigger place to visit simply for the Holomem to hang out would make for a cozy experience.

Third, and this can go especially well with the second idea I proposed in the paragraph above, the ability to build more houses and buildings in Holo House. The main house is already pre-built for the player and it looks like a square-shaped building with an identically shaped interior, but it allows them to decorate the interior any way they see fit. Giving players the option to build their own home as it were would let them decide what they wanted the exterior structure to look like too, shaping it how they want. Further, it would expand upon Holo House's interior design by allowing them to determine what each building should be used for. Would it be another house? A shed with a workshop? A cozy little cafe or restaurant? A library? A gaming center? A community center? A town hall? A treehouse? A cathedral? A castle? How many floors would this building have? Two? Three? Would it come with a basement? An attic? A loft? A garret? What kind of windows would it have? What does the property the building stands on look like? Etc.

Fourth, fun and exciting dungeons and dungeon-like areas to explore. This could make for a fun adventure to go on by taking you to all sorts of places full of lore, loot, and enemies to challenge. It can tell micro-stories about each of the different Holomem and where they came from, what their worlds are like, as well as offer HoloCoins and materials to grind as part of the treasure. The enemy variety would be the same as the stages, which function as arenas by comparison, and it would include the bosses seen in those stages as well as new bosses unique to Holo House. If the party system I described above was implemented alongside this or before, there could be a turn-based battle system in which each party member and enemy gets to make their turn in succession or by way of a dice roll deciding who gets the first initiative and the order in which all who follow go.

Finally, dialogue between each of the different Holomem. The dialogue would need to be written as if it were them talking, in their voice, so that it would feel like having an actual conversation. Dialogue should not be excluded to just one-on-one interactions, though, as it would be more fun talking to multiple Holomem at once. This can be done in person or by adding a communication system you can use to stay in touch with other Holomem. In addition, the dialogue system could make use of procedural generation to have radiant conversations that are different every time. It can also have a support system, similar to that from Fire Emblem, particularly installments like Awakening, in which every Holomem can have unique conversations with all of the other Holomem that are specific to each pairing or unit. Some dialogue could sound like things they would say to those they hang out with more often than others in Hololive. Other dialogue could lead them to talking with Holomem they do not often hang out with. It can also work with the aforementioned party system. The dialogue does not need to be voice acted since a text based dialogue system would work just as fine. It would make for more enriching interactions than just the speech bubbles showing different emotes of how the Holomem feel when interacting.

These ideas are just that, ideas of what could make Holo House a more vibrant experience down the line. I do not expect the developers to add any of this into Holo House because HoloCure's main selling point is its core Vampire Survivors-like gameplay. However, Holo House helps distinguish HoloCure from Vampire Survivors and other games like it since it is its own game mode. Implementing new features into Holo House could further improve upon this and make it stand out more. Although Holo House does not have to surpass the core gameplay, I personally think it could do with more so it can better stand alongside the core gameplay by providing players something to experience as an alternative, pun intended. It could certainly make this game mode feel like a game in of itself, which would be pretty cool because you would have two games in one.

Feel free to share your thoughts and your own ideas of what Holo House could use.

[Juno Brier]

I think I'd prefer a major update that makes minimal additions to Holo House so we can get new characters and stages sooner.

[BelphegorATS]

Originally posted by Juno Brier:

I think I'd prefer a major update that makes minimal additions to Holo House so we can get new characters and stages sooner.

Fair point. The rest of Hololive should be added to complete the roster -- as I said, I myself am looking forward to maining Yukihana Lamy alongside Tsunomaki Watame and Nanashi Mumei. Also, more stages would be great to play on.

That said, with regard to the stages, how many more do you think we might get? Looking at the number so far, there are currently five normal stages and four hard stages based on the first four. The only one that is not there yet is Stage 5 (Hard), which, like the others, will be based on Stage 5. I do not know if the developers have plans to add more beyond this last stage that is likely to be added, so I cannot say for certain.

Fewer updates to Holo House is fine, as it is a side mode to the core gameplay. When I made this thread, though, it was created from the perspective of wanting more for Holo House that it feels like it could do with. Right now, there is only so much players can do in Holo House in addition to the core gameplay that it feels limited. I did not do much in Holo House myself as there were only a couple things that really captivated my attention. Once my interest started waning, I found myself wanting more to do because I really like the idea of Holo House. It is, to me, as fun to hang out in as the stages, so I really want to see so much more to do in it.