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Turn-Based Strategy RPGs: An Appreciation
- Thread starter RestEerie
- Start date
Ctrl+F Brigandine
You guys... T_T
It's really such a shame they didn't make a franchise out of this. It's all rather crude but I love the basics there, evolving monsters, the classes system. Probably my first kingdom building/territory management game +the srpg battles.
Elementary school me can't get enough of the battling cutscenes though they'd probably drive me crazy nowadays lol
You guys... T_T
It's really such a shame they didn't make a franchise out of this. It's all rather crude but I love the basics there, evolving monsters, the classes system. Probably my first kingdom building/territory management game +the srpg battles.
Elementary school me can't get enough of the battling cutscenes though they'd probably drive me crazy nowadays lol
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Strategy rpgs focus much more on the strategy aspect than the rpg aspect. In some games, the rpg elements were barely there.
For most S.RPGS, the goal was to conquer the map (capture all strongholds, defeat all enemies/heroes, etc) which than the game will progress to the next map with the same objective (or a variant of it). The RPG part came from either with the hero units/faction able to level up and learn new skills or equip some artefacts, etc but those aspect were never the primary factor.
Divinity original sin is a C.RPG with bladur's gate as its template. So no, i dont really think it is a S.RPG.
Somebody please correct me if i am wrong.
Yoy're not going to find anything at that level of quality, but something like The Alchemist's Code isn't too bad.
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It's one of my top 3 fav genres (my fav is still metroidvania) but i have a pet peeve regarding the general gaming populace and their treatment of s.rpg as a genre.
Almost every genre in existence were at one time held 'at the top' of the games industry. 2D sidescroller during the 8/16bit era, RTS during the late 90s/early 2000s, fps (now), etc...heck even puzzle games were king when tetris was first introduced and got a resurgence with candy crush (for better or worse). But the SRPG and its genre never seems to be held at the top of the industry ever and even the most prolific games of its era (HOMM, ff tactics, fire emblem, etc) were considered AA at best instead of AAA (i know people's gonna reply me that fire emblem is AAA but let's just say we agree to disagree).
As such, budget dedicated to the SRPG games always seems to stop short of 'premium', with its production values seemingly always 'compromised' (at least to me).
Anyone feels the same as i do?
Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity (PS2)
I really like the art style. The battles are actually really well-designed and require a decent amount of strategy, for the most part. The characters and story are pretty interesting and enough to keep you involved. And there are team/combo attacks! Everybody loves those.
Each town has "training areas" which are pre-determined battlefields filled with generic enemies so you can level your squad up. You can accept jobs at bars kind of like FFT, which sometimes leads to recruiting new characters.
The one thing that bugs me is it's one of those games with multiple endings where the "true" ending (and some recruitable characters) is hidden behind a bunch of obtuse, difficult tasks like killing specific characters in specific battles or completing random tasks in battles. Almost impossible to complete in one playthrough without poring over a walkthrough the entire time.
I really like the art style. The battles are actually really well-designed and require a decent amount of strategy, for the most part. The characters and story are pretty interesting and enough to keep you involved. And there are team/combo attacks! Everybody loves those.
Each town has "training areas" which are pre-determined battlefields filled with generic enemies so you can level your squad up. You can accept jobs at bars kind of like FFT, which sometimes leads to recruiting new characters.
The one thing that bugs me is it's one of those games with multiple endings where the "true" ending (and some recruitable characters) is hidden behind a bunch of obtuse, difficult tasks like killing specific characters in specific battles or completing random tasks in battles. Almost impossible to complete in one playthrough without poring over a walkthrough the entire time.
What are some SRPGs beside Fire Emblem that let you use large (10+ units) groups on the battlefield? Most I've played outside of FE allow about six characters, and while I've enjoyed them, I really prefer bigger armies.
Super Robot Wars has a crazy amount of units to field at once, as do the SD Gundam games. Especially towards the end:
Those are all player units. Plus as a bonus, the attack animations are even cooler than GBA era FE.
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Langrisser is all about this. You control a number of commanders - the equivalent of normal units in most SRPGs - each of whom has their own battalion of generic units which can be controlled manually or automatically.
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Growlanser II is the best in the series, sadly it's only on PS2, but so worth it. Massive battles(nine character parties!), great story, tons of replay value.
Shining Force. While you start out with a small group in those games the max units you can have on the field on battle is 12. In most of the games you can recruit a total of 20-30 characters all of which are different in one way or another even those that share the same class.
As to the rest of the topic at hand and Speaking of Shining Force...
I've said this before but I feel like it deserves repeating until the end of time but I think if you enjoy SRPG's you absolutely need to play Shining Force (seriously its 1$ on Steam, so is the second game). It is easily the masterclass on battle design. The game has so many iconic battles (Circus tent, Laser eye, Dragonia, ect) none of which are ever really filler. Even the simple battles early on are teaching you about how the enemies group up into certain formations and how different terrain effects movement for different characters all of which is done via just playing the game not the game explaining it to you or needing dozens of NPC's to tell you little tips like that (I love Fire Emblem but christ even the old games have a ton of this).
The games design is absolutely genius and I'd go as far to say in terms of the battles its the best in the series if not at the top of the entire genre. It's a game thats dated in many ways now (the item management sucks) but if you actually break down battle by battle whats going on its seriously impressive how the developers designed so many interesting battles despite it being their first attempt at it.
I don't think the game is perfect, despite my praise about the battle system the game itself is easy but I actually think thats a testament to how good the battles themselves are because even if the game is easy the battles themselves are still very memorable and also very easy to replay as well. It's also impressive at just how much variety in the battles you get. Some are in big open areas, others are in much smaller arenas. Some have traps that you have to deal with others have the enemy rush you from the get go. Not one battle in the game feels wasted and thats really amazing.
There's been a real dearth of SRPGs on PC. It's made me really appreciate games with SRPG elements, like XCOM and Age of Wonders.
It's only been the last few years that the genre seems to be a thing again, on PC.
It's only been the last few years that the genre seems to be a thing again, on PC.
Just a quick correction: Divinity: Original Sin has always been directly inspired by the Ultima games, though it also shares a lot in common with Baldur's Gate (and CRPGs). Its whole thing is about player freedom, which is from the Ultima side of the equation.
I'll be the first one to cite both Devil Survivor games? Seriously? Easily my favs in the genre. Holy fuck i need a third game so bad D :
Tactics Ogre is also a fav, it's Matsuno's masterpiece, no contest. FFT is also great but not at the same level imo.
From the western side, i really love HoMM3 but i really suck at the management part. I feel like western srpgs are too complicated for my lazy ass tho i'm really interested in trying Xcom stuff eventually.
Tactics Ogre is also a fav, it's Matsuno's masterpiece, no contest. FFT is also great but not at the same level imo.
From the western side, i really love HoMM3 but i really suck at the management part. I feel like western srpgs are too complicated for my lazy ass tho i'm really interested in trying Xcom stuff eventually.
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Ctrl+F Brigandine
You guys... T_T
It's really such a shame they didn't make a franchise out of this. It's all rather crude but I love the basics there, evolving monsters, the classes system. Probably my first kingdom building/territory management game +the srpg battles.
Elementary school me can't get enough of the battling cutscenes though they'd probably drive me crazy nowadays lol
Such s great game.
It reminded me of the awesome Master of Monsters on Sega Genesis.
Others I loved were Vandal Hearts 1, and 2, Front Mission 3, Arc the Lad series and Ring of Red.
Some of my favorite games ever are SRPG, but I don't play a lot of the genre, maybe because they tend to be long.
-I've played all the localized FE games, one of my favorite game sagas. I love the Tellius games, Echoes, the GBA games and 3H so far.
-Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 4 are amazing, even if the game balance is bad.
-I've completed all Disgaea games except 3, I like them but the big emphasis on grinding and post-game is not something I enjoy.
-I've bought the Tactics Ogre PSP game, and played it for a few hours, but never got that interested. Is one of the games I plan to revisit soonish.
-Played lots of XCOM (the new games) and Might and Magic with friends, but never by myself.
-Played the first Devil Survivor game for a few hours, but man the game is brutally hard at the beggining.
-I've played all the localized FE games, one of my favorite game sagas. I love the Tellius games, Echoes, the GBA games and 3H so far.
-Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 4 are amazing, even if the game balance is bad.
-I've completed all Disgaea games except 3, I like them but the big emphasis on grinding and post-game is not something I enjoy.
-I've bought the Tactics Ogre PSP game, and played it for a few hours, but never got that interested. Is one of the games I plan to revisit soonish.
-Played lots of XCOM (the new games) and Might and Magic with friends, but never by myself.
-Played the first Devil Survivor game for a few hours, but man the game is brutally hard at the beggining.
Just want to chime in a little love for Dragon Force, One of my favorite games of all time and still beautiful to this day. Its a shame that its still only available on the Saturn in the west (I know there was a PS2 Sega Ages release of it). Mysteria, also mentioned in this thread is a lot of fun as well and of course Shining Force 3. For a short lived, not very popular system, The saturn produced some great Strategy RPGs.
Big fan of the genre. But I think "tactical RPGs" is a far more fitting name for it.
Some of them don't even have a strategic overlay.
Some of them don't even have a strategic overlay.
Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre are REALLY different. Ogre battle is more like an RTS, while Tactics Ogre is a traditional SRPG. There are other games in the series, but Tactics Ogre, afaik, is the last one Matsuno directed himself.
There is an Ogre Battle 64, and Tactics Ogre Knights of Lodis on GBA.
Front Mission 3 is probably my favourite game in this genre.
The in game 'internet' where you can browse web pages seemed quite a novel way, back then, to flesh out the story and build up the world of the game.
I'm not sure if X-Com counts as an RPG given that you really have no say over the plot and all your choices are purely tactical.
I'd argue that XCOM 2 is much more of an RPG, even if it's not nearly as granular in terms of gameplay.
I'd argue that XCOM 2 is much more of an RPG, even if it's not nearly as granular in terms of gameplay.
Some of my all time favorites like UFO and Jagged Alliance 2 have already be mentioned, so I'm going with two of the most recent releases in the genre that no one is paying attention to.
One is XCOM 2, to which I dedicated a thread just recently: https://www.resetera.com/threads/th...well-be-one-of-my-all-times-favorites.125574/
In particular with the War of the Chosen expansion it really climbed its way to the top of my preferences, despise being lukewarm about the Fireaxis reboot at first.
The second is Battle Brothers:
It's basically what you'd get if Mount & Blade Warband was a 2D game with fantasy elements and turn-based tactical battles.
EDIT: there's also the even more obscure Warbanners, which is closer in principle to old classics like Warlords 3 etc:
One is XCOM 2, to which I dedicated a thread just recently: https://www.resetera.com/threads/th...well-be-one-of-my-all-times-favorites.125574/
In particular with the War of the Chosen expansion it really climbed its way to the top of my preferences, despise being lukewarm about the Fireaxis reboot at first.
The second is Battle Brothers:
It's basically what you'd get if Mount & Blade Warband was a 2D game with fantasy elements and turn-based tactical battles.
EDIT: there's also the even more obscure Warbanners, which is closer in principle to old classics like Warlords 3 etc:
Yeah, it's absolutely nuts. There is just an absurd amount to explore on it.
Also, on the subject of Divinity: OS, while I wouldn't consider the two current games SRPGs, the upcoming spinoff definitely is:
The announcement made me pretty happy, since I miss the days random franchises would receive SRPG entries during the GBA/DS/PS2/PSP days (Suikoden Tactics, etc).
The Banner Saga Trilogy is now one of my all-time favorite games, both story and tactics gameplay. I immediately wanted to replay it with different choices and focusing on leveling different heroes.
Wasteland 2
Xcom series
Fiyah Emblem series
Civilization series (yes im aware. But it still counts imo. It is def a roleplaying game)
Divinity OS series
These are my favorite (in no particular order). Most of these series are pretty new if you've noticed. I am still relatively new to the genre. I havent played classics like you all have been listing in this thread so far. But these are games that I sit there and play all day! Whenever I get my hands on them that is. I dont have a switch yet, but I hope I can get one soon to play the new fiyah emblem. Meantime, I am hungry for some new, meaty Srpgs on PC.
Xcom series
Fiyah Emblem series
Civilization series (yes im aware. But it still counts imo. It is def a roleplaying game)
Divinity OS series
These are my favorite (in no particular order). Most of these series are pretty new if you've noticed. I am still relatively new to the genre. I havent played classics like you all have been listing in this thread so far. But these are games that I sit there and play all day! Whenever I get my hands on them that is. I dont have a switch yet, but I hope I can get one soon to play the new fiyah emblem. Meantime, I am hungry for some new, meaty Srpgs on PC.
Amusing but very oversimplied and fundamentally linear in its progression.
You will play a series of fixed missions in a pre-established order, with pre-defined goals and occasional optional ones.
That's it.
Civilization is a 4X game.
We could have back and forth about some of the other franchises but this is the one that DEFINITELY does not belong to this thread.
Reeaaally didn't like it, though it riffs on a bunch of things I love. The gameplay is just super shallow.
imo it does. It is definitely a role playing game. And it definitely is a 4x grand strategy game. I would argue it is more of a roleplaying game than most mentioned in this thread. I'm firm on this.
I'll always have a place in my heart for HoMM 2&3. So many fond memories of playing hotseat with my friends and brother. It's sad to see how far the series has fallen since then, which is why I'm extremely looking forward to Songs of Conquest which was revealed at E3.
If I cared enough I would argue this at length. Let's just say I completely disagree.
For one, it simply doesn't have a tactical component at all, unlike the entirety of all the titles listed so far.
It also doesn't have even the slightest thinnest coating of "RPG mechanics".
And yes, it IS a 4X, as I already said. Which is not true for the rest of the titles here.
HoMM 5 (which still didn't match HoMM toe-to-toe) was the last good entry in the franchise.
Then Ubisoft made what was possible to run it into the ground.
Thanks for reminding me of this game. I really want to like it; early on it teases some themes that could've been really neat to explore; is it worth "harvesting" nature spirits to ensure the livelihood of mankind, if it's the only way to save humanity? But then of course it dismisses the "only way to save humanity" part and goes full on "technology is bad" pretty quick if I recall. And the fact that some of your party members' magic is powered by spirits (not really a spoiler; IIRC you learn it within the first hour or two) is glossed over after a few angsty cutscenes (maybe it's readdressed later). I only got about 10 hours in before I had to call it quits as the difficulty ramps up really quick and (at that point) I had to spend ~1.5 hours on the generic maps for every story mission.
Artstyle is great and probably the main reason I'd recommend it. Music isn't bad, but not amazing (although somehow the guild theme really gets me). If it had some kind of difficulty settings so you didn't have to grind between the story missions, it'd be really great. IIRC Hoshigami Ruining Blue Earth was somewhat similar, although I never got even an hour into that one (even the remake had a grindy reputation).
While I'm writing a post anyway... other interesting/lesser known games in the genre I like a lot
Langrisser (1/Der; the scale of these makes it more interesting)
Growlanser (4/HoW, latter mostly for the story)
Saiyuki: Journey West (how can a game be so relaxing AND so frustrating)
Vandal Hearts
Dragon Force (though IMO the repetition bogs it down somewhat)
Other interesting games I want to like but struggle to
Ring of Red (cool concept, runs too slow for me)
Front Mission (liked 3; but I couldn't get far in 4 before the missions got too long for me)
Vandal Hearts 2 (simultaneous turns are weird)
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I know I'm super late on this but I meant to reply much earlier, sadly life got in the way and completely forgot about it until now.
Console SRPGs are my favorite genre in videogames and I've played a shitload of them, and while I could write half a book on my experience with some of them I'll keep it simple and mention one that will always be one of my favs but rarely gets mentioned nowadays.
Vandal Hearts
This one is in my opinion one of those games that would serve really well as someone's first SRPG, it's a game with a nice little story and a very streamlined amount of RPG elements, there's close to zero management involved and none of the complications that come with the more known more hardcore series. The depth on this one is more related to the maps themselves which are all different to the point every mission feels very unique, there's battles on boats, on trains, near volcanos, at a dam that you can use in your favor to get rid of much more powerful enemies than you, etc. It's honestly kinda gimmicky, but totally worth experiencing imo.
Console SRPGs are my favorite genre in videogames and I've played a shitload of them, and while I could write half a book on my experience with some of them I'll keep it simple and mention one that will always be one of my favs but rarely gets mentioned nowadays.
Vandal Hearts
This one is in my opinion one of those games that would serve really well as someone's first SRPG, it's a game with a nice little story and a very streamlined amount of RPG elements, there's close to zero management involved and none of the complications that come with the more known more hardcore series. The depth on this one is more related to the maps themselves which are all different to the point every mission feels very unique, there's battles on boats, on trains, near volcanos, at a dam that you can use in your favor to get rid of much more powerful enemies than you, etc. It's honestly kinda gimmicky, but totally worth experiencing imo.
Should check out Front Mission 5. It's overall an improvement on 4 (and has a pretty good fan translation).
It's nice to see all the Vandal Hearts love in here too.
Speaking of Front Mission... Any chance someone in the thread has played Soukou Kihei Armodyne on the PS2? It was never localised, but I've heard / seen it's fairly FM-ish, and was developed by Sony's Japan Studio, so I've considered importing it for a while now. Plus it has a sick cover:
And speaking of other random Japanese only SRPGs, I've had a copy of Venus & Braves (a Namco PS2 one) sitting around, waiting for a rainy day for ages, after I saw a member on here (or the old country, I forget?) rave about it. There's a metric shiton of awesome PS2 SRPGs that were never brought over (I've gone through literally everything Flight-Plan released during that era and was really impressed by most of it, especially Dragon Shadow Spell).
I hope that Fire Emblem's Success leads to more Strategy RPGs. Like bigger budget ones with actual push and promotion. Besides XCOM, Mario & Rabbids, and Fire Emblem Three Houses; the genre really doesn't get a lot of titles in recent times.
Funny thing is that I bought a rare PS2 game yesterday called La Pucelle: Tactics from the market store. I picked it up because nobody's else is buying it and it used to be a 90 bucks and I miraculously got it for free because of I purchased 3 games with it.
I haven't opened it yet and I have like several ps2 (physical) games in my backlog. (I still playing FeTH atm)
I haven't opened it yet and I have like several ps2 (physical) games in my backlog. (I still playing FeTH atm)
Kadokawa is kind of trying - their in-house development studio is entirely dedicated to SRPGs, and has so far resulted in the (terrible) Natural Doctrine, and the (pretty good) God Wars (which is getting a sequel after it managed to do some pretty decent sales (100k in the first month alone I think?)).
its a really good game, was a precursor to the Disgaea series by NIS. One interesting thing is you can level your characters really easily by having them attack each other. Not that its really necessary, it was just a funny little thing I remember from when I played it when it originally came out.
Druidstone, from the creator of Legend of Grimrock series is freaking fantastic. Highly recommended.
Phantom Brave is incredibly underrated.
It is one of the many PS2 era SRPGs put out by Nippon Ichi, but Phantom Brave is easily the standout. While it borrows heavily from Disgaea and La Pucelle, there are some rather big changes that make it unique even today. The most noticable is that maps are not grid based. Your range of movement is a circle, and you can plop your character anywhere within the circle. AoE attacks also function this way, giving you a big ball instead of a grid. This can be cumbersome to use sometimes, but it also presents a lot of freedom in positioning and allows you to really cheese the terrain.
Instead of your team just appearing at the bottom of the map, your main character brings allies into the battlefield by using items as mediums to summon characters. This allows allies to enter battles with specific stat buffs. Like if there's a cactus that grants +10% magic, you would summon your mage character. Your characters are also present for a limited time, which sounds hella annoying but actually adds to the strategic element. This would force you to sometimes wait and summon characters later instead of unleashing everyone at once.
It's a NIS game, so there is an incredible degree of customization. You can equip items you found in the battlefield to characters, or fuse them to characters to boost stats, and give them titles which you can also upgrade. If you like numbers going up, this game is for you. I also liked how the character's color scheme would change based on the titles you gave them. Oh and there are randomly generated dungeons which you can also affect by giving them specific titles, so you can custom make dungeons to grind for specific reasons.
Fortunately NIS did not just completely forget about this game. It was originally on PS2, but got a PSP and Wii port... and an HD version is on Steam! Right now! For under $20! Hopefully a Switch port is on the way.
It is one of the many PS2 era SRPGs put out by Nippon Ichi, but Phantom Brave is easily the standout. While it borrows heavily from Disgaea and La Pucelle, there are some rather big changes that make it unique even today. The most noticable is that maps are not grid based. Your range of movement is a circle, and you can plop your character anywhere within the circle. AoE attacks also function this way, giving you a big ball instead of a grid. This can be cumbersome to use sometimes, but it also presents a lot of freedom in positioning and allows you to really cheese the terrain.
Instead of your team just appearing at the bottom of the map, your main character brings allies into the battlefield by using items as mediums to summon characters. This allows allies to enter battles with specific stat buffs. Like if there's a cactus that grants +10% magic, you would summon your mage character. Your characters are also present for a limited time, which sounds hella annoying but actually adds to the strategic element. This would force you to sometimes wait and summon characters later instead of unleashing everyone at once.
It's a NIS game, so there is an incredible degree of customization. You can equip items you found in the battlefield to characters, or fuse them to characters to boost stats, and give them titles which you can also upgrade. If you like numbers going up, this game is for you. I also liked how the character's color scheme would change based on the titles you gave them. Oh and there are randomly generated dungeons which you can also affect by giving them specific titles, so you can custom make dungeons to grind for specific reasons.
Fortunately NIS did not just completely forget about this game. It was originally on PS2, but got a PSP and Wii port... and an HD version is on Steam! Right now! For under $20! Hopefully a Switch port is on the way.
I like SRPG like FFactics where the individual customization of your units are a big part of it and where the maps are more like playgrounds rather than puzzles