>>55694425I am aware that making extra animations or scenarios was too much to ask for, but one method that I think could have worked was to give us a hybrid visual novel story mode.
Many years ago I remember buying a Japanese sequel to Rival School, it was basically the same original game with a couple of new characters, I finished the arcade mode in a couple of hours with several characters, before throwing away the game I found a strange mode where you created your own character, this one learned techniques through the interaction you had with the main cast, I never really understood what the story was about, but I had more fun than just fighting the CPU because depending on which characters you interacted with, the plot changed and the stats and movements of your OC. And as I said, you can see that it didn't require much work, most of it was just selecting answers and the characters represented with static images only changed their expressions according to them, perhaps the only expensive thing was that it had a voice cast.
I think something that simple could have worked, not that it was mandatory, the battle mode would always exist, but it would serve to pass the time and not feel like you just bought a battle simulator.
