Huh, what it sounds like you have here is Final Fantasy VIII that kicked Harry Potter in the face, and they both rolled in a conglomeration of Naruto and Mana Khemia. Nothing wrong with that. I actually like the idea, and I have suggested ideas similar to that myself, except they are more traditional RPG type games and what have you. Personally I don't have any experience with Naruto, I can give it a glance though and get to know it, but all in all, if you figure out what you want, the idea could work!! What kind of game do you want? A JRPG style game, or WRPG style game? Personally I don't like how most Western RPGs play, but I did enjoy Fable. Also, what kind of characters y do you want, what can they do, and what are the weapons and history? There is going to be a lot of lore tied up in something like this. Well anyway I figure there is. There is nothing wrong with having it be a magic school, and there is nothing wrong with it being a military type academy where they use magic often (FF VIII). Personally I like what you are thinking, but the thing is to meld sort of, into one coherent idea. Basically take these ideas, marry them, wife makes husband chuck a bunch of crap, husband has wife get rid of her hat and purse collection, and afterwards, see what you have left. It can definitely work. Anyway, good luck!!

I'm not sure it would qualify as either a JRPG or WRPG, though it's an interesting question. The interactive story elements are more traditionally an adventure game thing, while the sandboxy elements are more traditionally a SIM thing, and both of these can be hybridized with either type of RPG. What I'm taking about would have both interactive story and sandbox elements, and a double-hybrid like that is getting a bit far away from RPGs to call it one.

I think that the key point of this story concept is the 'nakama' part, which in English I'd call team building. The idea is to enable a player's fantasy about becoming a member of such a close-knit team, developing personal strength and skills, using these to benefit the team and overcome obstacles faced by the team, and helping other team members get stronger without 'being' the other team members in the way a standard adventuring-party RPG puts the player in the position of 'being' all playable characters. As a single-player game, all the recruitable team members should be NPCs. (That part is more of a JRPG element.) As an interactive story game the player should be able to develop their character to fit one of several roles within the team. (That part is more of a WRPG element.) Perhaps I should mention One Piece - this anime begins with a character who wants to become a pirate captain, and follows him as he acquires crew members and a ship, and the characters squabble but start acting like a team as they face various villains-of-the-week and also environmental difficulties.

So as far as the worldbuilding goes, what I need to imagine is a world where everyone needs to be in a team to advance past childhood. (By childhood I mean socially not being considered an adult, not age or individual power level.) I need a world where two or three people who are individually, say, level 5, can beat a singleton who is level 15. I need some way to show advancement - a tournament doesn't quite work, since it doesn't allow for shifts in team makeup. One Piece uses the unrealistic RPG approach of a planet which somehow has a 'natural' difficulty gradient; I'd like to avoid that, but I'm not sure how. I need a world where someone who advances with a team, then leaves that team, needs to automatically get booted back down from the physical location that fits the team's level to the physical location that fits their individual level, where they can meet other individuals of similar levels. I also need a reason that a level 30 individual, for example, can't just go to the starting area and attack a bunch of level 5s; but at the same time, a higher level character who wants to visit their children or do some teaching should be able to go visit the location where the low level people are. Also, I need a reason that higher level physical locations are desirable places to be that enable adulthood. (In the social sense of economic independence and reproductive ability and self-customization, etc., not age.) The low level characters need to be highly motivated to advance, even if it requires teaming up with someone they don't get along all that well with. I also want the characters to be motivated to specialize in ways that makes them individually limited, but more powerful within a team.

I think that the key point of this story concept is the 'nakama' part, which in English I'd call team building. The idea is to enable a player's fantasy about becoming a member of such a close-knit team, developing personal strength and skills, using these to benefit the team and overcome obstacles faced by the team, and helping other team members get stronger without 'being' the other team members in the way a standard adventuring-party RPG puts the player in the position of 'being' all playable characters. As a single-player game, all the recruitable team members should be NPCs. (That part is more of a JRPG element.) As an interactive story game the player should be able to develop their character to fit one of several roles within the team. (That part is more of a WRPG element.) Perhaps I should mention One Piece - this anime begins with a character who wants to become a pirate captain, and follows him as he acquires crew members and a ship, and the characters squabble but start acting like a team as they face various villains-of-the-week and also environmental difficulties.

Have you thought of the mechanic yet? Would all characters have the same granularity of stats (or is it the player having tons of stats while others (NPCs/team) have simplified, and the player can push these NPC skills in desired direction while manually able to change only own skills).

Have you thought of the mechanic yet? Would all characters have the same granularity of stats (or is it the player having tons of stats while others (NPCs/team) have simplified, and the player can push these NPC skills in desired direction while manually able to change only own skills).

The second option. Probably each NPC would have a predetermined tree of available skills, and their interaction with the main character would determine if they unlock anything beyond the basics, and which advanced skills get unlocked first/at all. If you're familiar with the idea of a class-specific quest chain in an MMO which is required to unlock class-specific abilities, it's like each NPC has one of those. This is kind of an ironic choice for me, since I like micromanagement games, but it seems necessary to make the NPCs really seem like other people, not just puppets of the player.

It's a single player game, unless by cooperative you meant cooperation between the player and their team of NPCs. The team, including the player, would be no larger than 7, though I'm not sure exactly yet. I have to make a list of possible team roles (which are sort of like classes).

Interactive story games don't usually have a problem with feeling directionless. (I have that problem of feeling disoriented and goalless in storyless sandbox games too.)