What happened to all of the Tactical RPGs????

[Caostotale]

I miss tactical RPG's. I'm talking about Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Tactics Ogre, etc.
They were thrilling and gave me some great memories. I remember when games required strategy, not this mindless button mashing. I miss the good ole games that required the player to contemplate their next move. It truly seems like it is a lost art form that I hope someone will revitalize.

It doesn't seem like a lost art form, at least not yet. There are two Disgaea games on the PS3 and a complete edition of the third one was essentially a launch title for the Vita. While it's true that NIS America and Atlus aren't publishing all sorts of new SRPGs like they did for the PS2 or the NDS, it's hard to think that the genre's heading towards collapse.

I can't attest to how good it is, but there's a Growlanser game coming out for the PSP next week. If you know Japanese, the sixth Generation of Chaos game came out over there last month.

[usedtabe]

dabessssssss

[TurboKill]

Really? No mention for Square's first and best TRPG, Front Mission?

I do like Front Mission. I liked the SNES one. I think it was remade on the DS too. I always forget about that one somehow.

Never played the later ones though.

[Panzadolphin56]

The plots got progressively crapper (atleast 3 and 4's plots were pretty wishy washy) but the robots were cool.

5 was decent aswell, though never released outside of Japan -_-

[Wry Guy]

[Caostotale]

This article makes me want to look into NIS's releases a bit more. I really enjoyed what I played of Phantom Brave. While the Disgaea fans I've met seem like creepy man-children and everything about that series seems mind-gratingly weeaboo-batshit, those games are still on my 'need-to-play' list based on reputation alone, just like the Atelier games.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/nip...nipponichi.htm

I also just finished the main quest on the first Luminous Arc title for the DS. I thought the game was great, despite some hideously embarassing anime/otaku tropes in the scripting/characters/etc... The music and the battling more than made up for those drawbacks. I'm definitely planning on playing the sequel at some point. The third game looks good also, but almost certainly won't see publication in the States.

I'm also pretty interested in trying out Wild ARMS XF, which takes the HEX system from WA4 and WA5 as a starting point for a tactical RPG. The turn-based battles in those console games were pretty awesome, if a bit on the easy side.

[Dooshkin]

Just downloaded the original Final Fantasy Tactics from PSN, and ERMAGERD, it's even better than I remember it being. It is a bit weird to hit "circle" to select things, though. The soundtrack is amazing, too. I can't keep myself from sitting and listening to the music at the main menu, lol

[Simon Strange]

If you aren't afraid to dig a bit, there are a TON of great tactical games like this available for the PC.

Jagged Alliance 1&2 are both on Steam - they are some of the best games of this type ever. The recent update is... well I haven't played it yet. But it exists!

The Silent Storm engine - used in a bunch of games - is often considered the best tactical engine ever made. Games include:

Silent Storm
Silent Storm: Sentinels
Night Watch
Hammer & Sickle

If you play games on iOS you can try Hero Academy or Hero Mages for free! These are bite-sized, but quite good.

[TurboKill]

The Silent Storm engine - used in a bunch of games - is often considered the best tactical engine ever made. Games include:

Silent Storm
Silent Storm: Sentinels
Night Watch
Hammer & Sickle

Never heard of those surprisingly, will keep an eye out for 'em now.

[Simon Strange]

You can check out the movies Night Watch (and Day Watch) online - they are pretty awesome. It's a world where some people have the power to enter "the Gloom" - sort of a parallel dimension from which they can observe us, but cannot be seen themselves. There are witches, vampires, shapeshifters...

As a tactical game, this becomes totally hot. You're an urban enchanter, or shapeshifter, or sorcerer. Enchanting flashlights to be laser beams - jumping from world to world where the rules of damage, HP regen, and MP regen differ slightly... Good, good stuff.

[Nihil]

I want a AAA SRPG that would be the SRPG to shit on all other SRPGs.

Even better if it wasn't made by a blatantly Japanese dev team.

[Revuhlooshun]

I do like Front Mission. I liked the SNES one. I think it was remade on the DS too. I always forget about that one somehow.

Never played the later ones though.

2 and Alternative can played with English menus, but the story is in Japanese. 2's a bit of nightmare. There are load times for every action you take, and the battles themselves can become quite large and grueling. 3's probably the most fun out of all of them, and it has a legit localization. 4 is pretty fun. 5 has an English fan-patch now. 5 is actually pretty incredible.



Overall, they're pretty fun games, and are much faster paced than others in the genre. I could never get into Tactics due to being bored to tears during every battle, but Front Mission games have always managed to keep my attention.

Also: giant fucking robots.

[Nihil]

I remember going back and trying to play the SNES one after playing Front Mission 3, and not being able to handle it cause the graphics were shit. The concept was cool but it just wasn't pleasing to look at, at all.

[ClownBaby]

Funny...Giant Bomb just did a quick look on a SRPG that's out on PSN http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-...-moon/17-6360/

Looks interesting. He's fairly early on in the game and it looks like it'll get a lot more interesting further down the line.

[Panzadolphin56]

Oh right, that's that thing Pappa's been on about.

[RichterBelmontsaccount]

I dont know what your talking about there seems to be a ton of ps3 , valkyrie chronicles , disgea 3 and 4 , most of the stuff put out by nisa ?

[Ravenia Darkfae]

Honestly here is what happen... WoW is what happen. Ever since gaming hit mainstream, games gave goten progressively more "casual" (gamer not time). Take a look at the mmo scene. No MMo lasts since WoW was launched. And mmo or befor WoW are getting dumbed down by formor WoW players after they "beat" WoW in 3 mnths per expack. Look @ skyrim... completely dumbed down the guilds and story mission.. (you can beat all of these w/o having a leveled character in a matter of days) So i wouldn't be shocked if trpg get dumbed down or stopped being made due to the lack luster player base playing games now. Cuz of the concept of "casuals" being the majority,

- - - Updated - - -

Honestly here is what happen... WoW is what happen. Ever since gaming hit mainstream, games gave goten progressively more "casual" (gamer not time). Take a look at the mmo scene. No MMo lasts since WoW was launched. And mmo or befor WoW are getting dumbed down by formor WoW players after they "beat" WoW in 3 mnths per expack. Look @ skyrim... completely dumbed down the guilds and story mission.. (you can beat all of these w/o having a leveled character in a matter of days) So i wouldn't be shocked if trpg get dumbed down or stopped being made due to the lack luster player base playing games now. Cuz of the concept of "casuals" being the majority,