Learning about the Phantom Brave sequel made me realize I haven’t played one of these in years, aside from Unicorn Overlord.
But when I went looking for some discussion of Phantom Brave 2 rather than simply buying it (because it’s very expensive), I learned that the story and characters are reportedly more childish and comedy-oriented than the first game. It seems they abandoned the more “serious” themes that set the original apart from titles such as Disgaea (which I wanted to like more because of the deep mechanics but I could never get past the writing enough to really enjoy it).
Not too long ago I tried Tactics Ogre Reborn, but I didn’t like the look of the upscaled character sprites and I think that made me more conscious of the game feeling kind of like a slog compared to something like Final Fantasy Tactics (or at least my memory of it).
These are my favorite games in the genre:
Final Fantasy Tactics (but not the sequel)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (and Radiant Dawn to a slightly lesser degree)
Growlanser 2 (and 3 to a much lesser degree but not 5)
Phantom Brave (and Soul Nomad to a lesser degree)
I think I’d like to find another game of this type to play, but I’m not sure I have the patience for one that doesn’t grab me the way the above titles did. There are a bunch of handheld ones I’ve missed that might be good.
I probably will try the Phantom Brave sequel eventually when it gets cheap, and I might go ahead and play the PS5 port of the first game in the meantime because I’ve probably forgotten most of the story by now anyway.
Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 4 are worth a look in this space. They get quite trope-y at times but have some nice serious points regarding war themes and characters. 13 Sentinels has a similar profile.
i used to have a copy of eternal poison but i never ended up playing it and sold it for a bunch of money…
personal weirdo deep cut recommendation: wild arms xf, valkyrie profile covenant of the plume (i havent played either in a longggg time but i remember thinking they were both really good lol…)
weird games i hope i play someday: armodyne, operation darkness, natural doctrine, wachenroder
imo, the handful of recent CRPGs that are more combat focused and have decent writing are overwhelmingly better than Japanese SRPGs are these days.
like, if you want to play a modern game that has similar appeal to FFT, you should be playing BG3 or Rogue Trader or Wildermyth or Tactical Breach Wizards… the narrative/padding conventions of Japanese SPRGs are just bad these days imo, I think because they remained relatively cheap to make on the DS/PSP when the rest of the Japanese game industry was experiencing severe growing pains so they went to anime hell and never came back.
(13 Sentinels is great though! and FM3 is worth it)
I love computer tactics rpgs. Jagged Alliance 2, Battletech, Battle Brothers, Xenonauts… those games are more or less aligned with traditional srpgs in a lot of ways. even stuff like Panzer Corps, Order of Battle WW2, Strategic Mind… I think a lot of people think about those as purely wargames but the mechanics of core units carrying over, leveling up and being able to upgrade them into new types of units is just srpg stuff. I don’t like stuff like unity of command 2 because it doesn’t have any of that.
One of the best ways to get me to care about a rpg besides presenting a compelling world is to give me like squad tactics and lots of options. Unfortunately a lot of rpgs these days are bad at that or just kind of annoying about it like Larian games (which don’t have good stories either so lol)
Interesting to see 13 Sentinels mentioned in this context. It’s one of my favorite video games but I’ve never thought of it as a tactical RPG. I see it as a Shadow of Destiny-like with a hint of tower defense.
But of course the connection here is that it fits with what I mean by “serious” storytelling in the tactical RPGs I like, and it’s the type of game I’d be very happy to discover through a recommendation in a thread like this were I not already familiar with it.
christ, I do want to play rogue trader one of these days. but it kind of fits into that ‘idiosyncratic, buggy 120 hour long thing’ space that is daunting enough to only pick up a couple every decade. highly competitive space to be in!
fwiw I finished it in like 60 and it’s much less buggy than it had a reputation for on release. it’s not perfect – the pacing is weirdly distended at times, chapter 1 for example throws way too many trash mobs at you before the combat has gotten particularly interesting, which it really does – but the writing is imo exceptional, it’s a really fun use of 40k, and there haven’t been many full fat CRPGs contemporary with BG3 compared with 5 years ago when there were a lot of like 80% great ones. if you can put up with it at its driest it really is great.
Tactics Ogre Reborn is my favorite.
People do take a while to kill in general, to encourage defensive strategies and status effects. Breach enemy defense with a terror knight before going in with heavy hitters, use poison and stun, pick up the cards, raise MP for finishers, etc. It’s totally a slog (on purpose) but the fast speed makes up for it IMO
The original (SNES / PSX) has issues, but it is more beautiful, and you can just gather a bunch of archers to walk all over it if you want to extract all Matsuno from it
PSP version is obsolete now honestly
Exhausted just remembering about it. Great game though
I don’t think I’ve heard of this one but it looks like it’s worth a try. And mention of PSP reminded me that the R-Type Tactics remake is still coming out eventually.
I never played the original (or any other PSP game) but I always liked the idea of it. I think I crowdfunded the new version, though I remember the campaign being a little confusing. Like maybe it was just for a DLC expansion.
