Gameplay style for “Youkai Slums” spin-offs and what should I choose when make it with RPG Makers that do not have the UT battle system plugin available for them

Akira here!

This spin-off series, currently codenamed “Youkai Slums”, focuses on the adventures of three youkai in the Slums that lead to the Tenjou Cathedral. Even though initially I wanted to make it using the same tools as the main series (RPG Maker MV, LMMS and Piskel), but using the same thing for different subseries can be time-consuming and boring, so I decided to use a different RPG Maker and different music and graphics software to do this thing. The UT battle system plugin is still not available for the older RPG Makers and RPG Maker MZ yet, but I still trying to find a way to think up new gameplay mechanics for this spin-off series.

Here is some basic gameplay mechanics proposals for this spin-off:

• Yume Nikki clone: This is fairly easy for n00bs, since the only thing that we do in such games is walking around and collect items that give us unique effects, both passive and active. Many fangames utilize this gameplay mechanic, but since I want to create an original game out from scratch, I need to combine it with something else more unique...

• Overworld bullet-hell: There is a plugin by Galv that helps us to create overworld projectiles similar to a similar plugin used in RMMV. These projectiles can be scripted to give then unique actions that will be triggered upon hitting the player. In the main games, being hit by these projectiles will results in a short battle sequence which utilizes the UT battle system plugin for MV, so in the spin-off I might do the same too, but minus the UT battle system.

• Puzzle game: Also fairly easy. But only for those who are very, very creative, and I’m not good at thinking up puzzles, since... I rarely ever solve puzzles and I knew next to nothing about how these puzzles work! But I can research in the most common puzzle types that appear in video games in order to aid me in this thing!

So what do you think about this? Which of these gameplay mechanics should I combine to add a new gameplay mechanic to the spin-offs in lieu of the UT battle system in RMMV? Please vote for me or leave a comment below!