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[JoshuaFH]

I'm more than positive that a thread of this nature already exists, but I simply can't find it, so here I dive headfirst into my rambling nostalgic nonsense:

I'm trying to recall a game I played a long time ago. I only remember the gameplay and the game world loosely, but this is what it was like.

The game started off with you in a cottage or a village. The surface world is very scarce for features, but you're encouraged to go spelunking in a dungeon that looks more like a hole in the ground than a bonified dungeon. This one dungeon comprises the entire game, and as you find out, it's much, MUCH deeper than you can possibly give it credit for. It just keeps going down and down, further and further, necessitating that you sometimes trek back up for supplies and healing, but eventually you get so far down that the trek back up takes too long, and so you just keep going down and down, using the supplies you find to sustain yourself. As you go down, the architecture of the dungeon changes, where at first it's a dark, dank, standard cliche dungeon affair, it slowly changes, becoming more menacing, then surreal, and eventually it's like you stumble into the land before time. It's no longer like a dungeon, but a whole different world hidden deep within the Earth's crust.

Gameplay is straight up turn based strategy roleplaying. You have characters, and you face monsters randomly, but you face off on a map where each character's positioning is taken into account when determining the area of effect of their attacks. I remember that one of my favorite combos was to use a gravity move to pull all the enemies into one tight group, and then use a circular area of effect attack to damage them all simultaneously.

Also, it would seem you weren't alone in that dungeon, because as you progressed down and discovered more of it's secrets, you ran into other adventurers that were either antagonistic, and you fought them, or were friendly, and would join your party. There might have been a cat girl, or atleast a normal girl that's just feral in disposition, I can't remember exactly.

Does this ring any bells for anyone? Because I'm completely dumbfounded, and it's been bothering me for a long time since I'm interested in indulging in my nostalgic gaming past, now that I have the money to do so.

[Shadowgandor]

On what platform was this game?
Was it ASCII? How old would you guess the game was?

[JoshuaFH]

On what platform was this game?
Was it ASCII? How old would you guess the game was?

Definitely either PS1 or PS2, around that era, I can't remember which.

[Flying Carcass]

Azure Dreams?

[freeformschooler]

Azure Dreams?

That was my guess too.

[Neonivek]

Wizardry is also likely... and awsome

[JoshuaFH]

I'm thinking really hard on this one, and I'm not sure if it's either of those.

Since in Azure, you're climbing a tower, not going deep into the bowels of the earth; that and Azure is all about raising pets to help you fight, and I simply don't recall doing anything like that.

And all the Wizardly games don't look familiar at all, looking at screenshots.

To add more detail, it was either fully, or mostly 3D; and random battles took place in their own little zone, separated from the rest of the world, like alot of RPG's.

[Micro102]

I have a feeling it's one of the Disgaea games

[JoshuaFH]

I have a feeling it's one of the Disgaea games

This predates Disgaea by quite a bit, if I believe correctly.

To qualify on the 3d, it wasn't the best, but it was definitely 3-dimensional graphics.

[zombat]

Proper 3d or pre rendered?

[JoshuaFH]

Proper 3d or pre rendered?

Polygonal, perhaps on the level of FF7 characters, somewhere around there; So I suppose it'd be 'proper', though I'm not familiar with that particular term.

[Synzig]

I think I know what game you're talking about.. however it was for the Dreamcast and I can't think of its name.  TO GOOGLE!

EDIT: I think this is it--Evolution 2: Far Off Promise

And a video of the combat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwVgLWC5rxY

[JoshuaFH]

It looks like an awesome game, but I never owned a Dreamcast... so that can't be it.

[Haschel]

I thought it might of been the Evolution series too, but yeah, Dreamcast only... Er, I guess there's a Gamecube version of the first one.

Only other thing that's coming to mind for me is maybe one of the Grandia Series but that's pretty much just a random guess, as I've only played part of the second one. It kinda fits the turn-based RPG with placement elements, not so sure about the rest. There's also the adventure mode of Ehrgeiz, but that isn't turn based and placement only matters in the sense of not being in front of an enemy when it attacks... So, eh.

Gameplay is straight up turn based strategy roleplaying. You have characters, and you face monsters randomly, but you face off on a map where each character's positioning is taken into account when determining the area of effect of their attacks. I remember that one of my favorite combos was to use a gravity move to pull all the enemies into one tight group, and then use a circular area of effect attack to damage them all simultaneously.

This part sounds familiar to me, but I'm pretty sure I've seen a similar idea in several RPGs and I can't think of one that fits the bill for the rest of what you mentioned. Can you add any new information about the game?

[Neonivek]

I have a feeling it's one of the Disgaea games

Of the ones that use tactical spacing it would be Makai Kingdom (which is too new) or Phantom Brave (but that doesn't feature a pit or village). Though neither of them use the map in a similar way so neither of them can be it.

Arc the Lad (one of the many games of the series) is close but if it is anything like the one I have... it isn't the one since moves don't affect enemy possitioning in that game.

Heck the reason I thought this was Wizardry was because it was the ONLY game I played where the dungeon changed on you, where going back to town is part of the game, and where moving enemies is important. Though since the game relies heavily on "team attacks" (the specific one I am thinking of) it probably isn't it. Nor does it use a tactical map.