Will Age of the Beast have any of these features?

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Fred Astaire as a playable character would be all kinds of awesome ;-)

Roel, I want to ask if Age of the Beast will have any bonus stage. Sorry, I forgot to ask this before.

That's still undecided.

I like the idea, something like in golden axe, small intermezzos, to power up a bit

I agree, it worked well for Golden Axe.

Yes! That's what I was talking about! I was thinking in things like the small intermissions of Golden Axe (where you hit the dwarves to get restoring life and magic items) or the "destroy the car" from Final fight as examples. They're entertaining, and serves as a small break before getting back into the real action. A mix between getting points, destroying/beating things and getting items, would be a nice idea. But that means more work for the coder to implement such features. Perhaps I'm asking too much features for the game. Roel is already doing a nice work, and the project consumes a lot of time. I think I'm being a bit selfish asking many things, but I would love to see a nice finished game. Well, that's my opinion.

I don't think you're asking too much, Lobito. Not at all.

will you guys consider adding a levelling up feature to the game, similar to guardian heroes?

It's one of the most obvious possible additions, but Age of the Beast (as a game, not as an engine) certainly won't make use of it. With all due respect to Treasure, level-up systems based on experience points are generally a trademark of lazy and uninspired game designers. Alternative solutions (e.g. items or story-based level-ups) are much more interesting, adding character and depth to the game's story and/or graphics. Besides, a good game should offer sufficient room for the player to develop their own skills, rather than "fake it" through automatic systems. The latter stimulates (or in the worst cases, requires) grinding; fights become an endless loop where nothing really changes save for a number.

It's an opinion of course, so feel free to disagree, but personally I enjoy finding awesome magical swords that shoot fire and lightning much better than seeing "+1" or "level up" 99 times in a row. I honestly feel even the mighty Guardian Heroes could have benefited from a little more depth.

So um... you still interested in that level-up system?

obviously I'm a sucker for finding magical (& preferably dark ) swords  ,however an exp system to level up & more importantly (imo) learn new skills, combos & magic is also a good thing (perhaps combining the two  ).

that way the player can go on a single player quest (or endless duel mode) for the sole purpose of aquiring more skills, which then can be saved (for every new char) & used later to play in a multiplayer game with friends. the gauntlet way (I'm bringing my vmu with my char over & lets get going  )

just an idea (that sounded good in my head)

Sounds like a balance breaker to me, but I'll leave it to you to come up with a solution then.

adding an unfairly hard ultimate mode like pso? which you can only complete with maxed out characters (& some luck)
all for the sake of the replay value

Experience & level up system, this favorite system IMO is best used in games with optional battles. RPG although it has bosses and inescapable battles, is one of these games. Player can avoid battle but OTOH can look for more battles. I only said optional but not saying it's easy to avoid or find battles.

However, for beat'm up game such as Age of the Beast, this system doesn't match cause usually players are forced to kill every enemy which appears. No optional enemy here and no way to add enemies to kill for more experience.
This mandatory killing eventually make experience system vague and level up looks automated .

And, it's not level up or experience that players actually like from this system right ? I'm sure it is the stat increase and extra moves instead. If that's the case, why don't we forget that system and use finding magical objects or anything else Roel suggested above.

As for balance breaker, that's the risk of that system. Players could grow stronger making battles easier than it should be.

Exactly!

Anyone here ever play Muramasa: The Demon Blade? It has an experience system which is quite possibly the most useless thing I've ever seen. Your health, power, defense, etc all increase gradually thoughout the game, but the enemies get stronger at pretty much the same pace. The net result is that essentially nothing changes; fights barely get any easier or harder. It's the same fight over and over again, just with bigger numbers! 

my give up 

Awww, don't give up. If you have a clear idea of what you want and how you're going to do it, you're already miles ahead of the Demon Blade's creators.

Roel, what do you think of upgrade shop in Battle Circuit? Players need to collect coins to buy upgrade.
I think it should suit beat'm game like Age of the Beast.

The tough thing about this system is if player changes character in mid game. That new character must start with certain upgrades implemented so he/she can catch up with level's progress.

I never played it, but I know what it looks like. I'd say Battle Circuit's shop is a step up from experience points, but its presentation leaves something to be desired.

thats good, after all thats also how they did it in wonderboy in monsterland 
although in this situation it could be stuff like a blacksmith . forge standing somewhere on the road or something similar

On some beat 'em ups, not all enemies stays on the map until they're dead or you're killed by them, some of those will hit&run (sometimes even self destruct) or leave the map after a certain period of time or another events/circumstances. Even in Altered Beast, you're not forced to kill all the enemies, you can avoid some of them.

By the way, I was thinking in some features that could be interesting:

- You only start with the basic attacks, but you can use more abilities when you acquire/learn them (see below for more details)
- Enemies can drop skill books/scrolls (special abilities) and weapons (you can buy some of those in stores or NPCs, not all of them because it will spoil the fun)
- Option for upgrading your weapons and abilities via level up, buying from stores/npcs or using scrolls.
- Durability on items: after some use, they will disappear or become unusable. You can repair those items on stores/NPCs or use an special item dropped by monsters in order to restore the health of the weapon and use it again.
- Hidden routes/places with extra enemies, NPCs, items or whatever you want to put in. Finding there unseen enemies, funny things or rare items would be cool.
- After clearing the whole game, unlock an option to choose any of the stages/chapters you already cleared and start from there. Optional: Surprise! Something will be changed at random!
- Combine the power of certain items to create new attacks/magic spells/abilities.