The OAO Strategy RPG Game Thread

[dubq 0]

So I've always been a huge mark for this type of RPG. My first experience with it was Romance of the Three Kingdoms on NES. Myself and two other friends would wage war on eachother, passing the controller around for each turn. Good times.

 

Today, I've been immersing myself in Valkyria Chronicles for PS3. What an awesome game. I'd been eyeing it for sometime but only recently had the chance to pick up a copy. I love the real-time bit that they've included in this game where you actually zoom into the character you're moving and control them outright instead of just selecting move here, now shoot. Makes nailing headshots a lot more fun. I seriously hope that SEGA keeps up with this franchise or this genre, because I'd love to see more. Hell I'd love to see Koei adopt something similar for ROTK.. that is, more strategy, but with some real time action.. but not the crazyness of Dynasty Warriors.

 

Anyone else into these games?

[naiwf 0]

I have quite a few of these games for the PS2. The best one on that system is the original Disgaea which I logged well over 100 hours in and still couldn't come close to beating the last 3 hidden bosses. As of now, that is my favorite game to play ever simply because there are so many things you can do and ways to customize your characters that it doesn't get stale even if you're replaying the same maps to level up weapons/spells/characters. Disgaea 2 looked prettier but was less fun and I never really did much with the extras but managed to finish the regular game.

 

The "Disgaea Family" of games also includes La Pucelle Tactics, Makai Kingdom, Phantom Brave, Rhapsody & Soul Nomad. I have the first three, but Makai Kingdom was the only one I really enjoyed. La Pucelle came out before Disgaea and lacked some of the features and replayability that made Disgaea a great game. If I'd played it before Disgaea I might have liked it a lot more, but it just seemed to be lacking in most aspects. On the other hand I thought Phantom Brave was good, but I just never really liked the combat system because you were limited to a handful of turns with all of your characters except for the summoner who was pretty weak.

 

The only other SRPG I have for that system just came out a couple of months ago, Eternal Poison. I liked it, but wouldn't say it's for most people unless you're a diehard fan of the genre or can get it for $20 in the future. The endgame was almost an afterthought and pretty much bothered me that they spent so much more time and energy on the first 70-80% of the game and just tacked on the rest. I also had Gladius for the XBox, but that was a multiplatform game that was well worth the $8 I spent on it used.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

One of the highlights of my friend's Saturn collection was Shining Force 3 part 1, part 2 & 3 never saw light of day in the UK, but part 1 was amazing. FF Tactics was similar, but a lot slower, and didn't feel as captivating. I also liked, though its a bit of a stretch to fit into this field, Dragon Force.

 

Also, from what I've read and heard, Disgaea series is suppose to be pretty fun, though I'm not sure if they're tactical RPGs or just RPGS. They're most certainly tongue in cheek RPGs though. On a side note, if anyone knows where I can get a copy of Disgaea3 on the PS3 I'll be grateful - its not available here in the UK. So sites that import/export would be great!

 

Shining Force 3 Part 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shining_Force_3

Sega Saturn

1998

 

 

Dragon Force

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Force

Sega Saturn

1996

 

[dubq 0]

My first Disgaea experience will be with Hour of Darkness (edit: which is good because I just realized it's the first one, ). I picked it up for PS2 a few weeks back but I haven't had a chance to crack it open yet.

 

Also, from what I've read and heard, Disgaea series is suppose to be pretty fun, though I'm not sure if they're tactical RPGs or just RPGS. They're most certainly tongue in cheek RPGs though. On a side note, if anyone knows where I can get a copy of Disgaea3 on the PS3 I'll be grateful - its not available here in the UK. So sites that import/export would be great!

 

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bp-49-...2m7o-43-bm.html - I use this site all the time for any imports that I can't pick up locally or on a trip. They're usually pretty quick with shipping, in my experiences, too.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

Thanks for the link Dubq, I'll see if I can shop around for something cheaper but I'll keep an eye on it in case it drops.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I like these too. I'm making my way through Jeanne D'Arc as we speak.

[Broward83 0]

yeah...I'm so not into the RPG scene..when I saw ROTK..I thought it was "Return of the King"..

 

I did however dig Infinite Undiscovery. Partially because of the non-turn based combat system...which probaly explains why I enjoyed Crisis Core as well.

[Special K 0]

The best Strategy RPGS I've played are the original Disgaea, Arc the Lad 2 and Final Fantasy Tactics (not the FFT advance series, those are godawful.) The original Shining Force games, the Langrisser (Wasong) series, Tactics Ogre, Front Mission and Vandal Hearts all deserve honorable mentions.

 

Arc the Lad 2 is really overlooked since it was part of an expensive collection by Working Designs, and most people played through the incredibly lackluster and short first game before playing the second. It was HUGE. Good story, fun battles.

[Rendclaw 0]

I just wish I could get my saturn emulator working so I could play Shining Force III, I beat 1 (to the consternation of my then roommate because I beat it before she did... suck it up, buttercup), got through most of 2....

[fazzle 0]

SPRG is one of the few genres of games that I've never really been able to get into, along with FPSes (and I get exiled out of the video game forum in 3...2...1....) but I did enjoy Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits. I also liked Rhapsody, but mainly because of just how horribly cheesy the game was. It was awesome. I dunno if the DS remake tried to "fix" the cheesyness, but I hope not.

[Psycho Penguin 0]

Front Mission 3 is the pinnacle of the genre, for me anyways. I really like that entire series, but 4 was too uneven in the difficulty, 1 was too easy, and 2 isn't translated. 3 is my favorite SRPG of all time.

 

Disgaea is a lot of fun, FFT is one of the best ones, and La Pucelle Tactics (the spiritual successor to Disgaea, for PS2) is great, also.

 

Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits isn't a true SRPG, but it uses the grid movement system in battles, and it's a whole lot of fun. Probably my favorite SRPG then, if you wanna call it one.

 

Rhapsody DS took out the SRPG battles but left in all the cheesyness.

 

I recently played a game called Luminous Arc for the DS, and it was okay, but again, the difficulty was whack. The first half of the game was SO EASY, then two hard battles, then SO EASY, then more hard battles, then SO EASY, then the final boss is almost impossible without grinding (which takes forever since you can't attack yourself for EXP any more). And there's no job classes. It's SRPG-lite, but still demands lots of grinding. Average game. There's a sequel out now.

 

I might try FFTA 2 next.

[dubq 0]

I just wish I could get my saturn emulator working so I could play Shining Force III, I beat 1 (to the consternation of my then roommate because I beat it before she did... suck it up, buttercup), got through most of 2....

 

Were Saturn's discs CDs or DVDs? I wonder if we could ever see Saturn games released on any of the consoles downloadable networks one day.. that'd be pretty sweet.

[Psycho Penguin 0]

They were CD's.

[fazzle 0]

Ooh, I just remembered about Gladius. Now THAT was an awesome, underappreciated SRPG. I picked it up for $5 a few years ago at that Circuit City sale.

[Special K 0]

I hated Luminous Arc... So bad. Front Mission 3's the best in the series, but I like 1 and 4 too.

 

I don't know why I didn't get into Disgaea 2 as much as the first one... maybe I would have liked it better if it had come out first?

[EricMM 0]

Gladius was pretty cool, but I don't remember beating it.

 

FFT > All, IMO.

[LaParkaMarka 0]

Dragon Force was a wonderful game, nice to see it get some love here. The game had a ton of replayability too...6 factions I think, lots of different strategies to try so it could play out differently each time. I really enjoyed it.

[AndrewTS 0]

Rhapsody DS took out the SRPG battles but left in all the cheesyness.

 

I heard it took out the English dubbing, which was too bad because it appeared to be hilariously awful.

[naiwf 0]

I don't know why I didn't get into Disgaea 2 as much as the first one... maybe I would have liked it better if it had come out first?

 

It's just my own take on the issue, but I don't think any of the characters were as good as Laharl/Flonne/Etna. The battle system was not as easy to understand as the first one was. The suped up Pirates randomly coming in and destroying your party wasn't a lot of fun when you were a level or so away from being able to come out of an item. The camera angles were a lot harder to manipulate so you could see what was going on because some of the boards have levels that had 10 stairs and you'd have to keep fiddling around to see what was below you or above you. I also think the stages being larger made it much more annoying to try and go into the item world. It just seemed like you had to work 2-3 times as hard to accomplish the same stuff as you could in the first one, and you were doing so with inferior characters. I didn't hate Disgaea 2 but felt that the additions were almost all bad and the only thing that was definitively better about the game was the graphics, which is pretty low on the totem pole of important things in SRPGs.

[fazzle 0]

Did the DS version keep the part where they made fun of the main character for being fat, at a "very round 100 pounds?"

 

Cause that was seriously my favorite part of the whole game.

[dubq 0]

I just finished Valkyria Chronicles last night. Good times. I think I'm finally going to crack open the first Disgaea tonight!

[devo 0]

One game that I haven't seen mentioned here that's one of my favorite examples of the genre is Ogre Battle 64. Not that it's saying much but the game is easily the best RPG available for the N64 and a title that I've played through several times. Incredibly deep gameplay, engaging storyline, tons of unlockable characters, events and items, multiple endings - Atlus really put a lot of thought and effort into this game and it shows.

 

Ogre Battle alone kept me from selling my N64 for years. Not that it's lost much value since it wasn't exactly valuable to begin with, but hey.

[Psycho Penguin 0]

Did the DS version keep the part where they made fun of the main character for being fat, at a "very round 100 pounds?"

 

Cause that was seriously my favorite part of the whole game.

 

Yeah. I never played the original, but the script for the DS one is hilarious.

[dubq 0]

Just into the first (Vyers) level of Disgaea. Good shit. This game is pretty damn funny. I had no idea it was this kind of humor!

[dubq 0]

Still playing Disgaea here, and still loving it. I also picked up Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for Gamecube (played on Wii in my case). I really enjoyed the Wii's Radiant Dawn from 2007 so I'd been casually looking for a copy of this so I could play the prequel. Found one on ebay for $25 CAD and just got it in the mail the other night.