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[Frumple]

Never played Tactics Ogre, but essentially Fire Emblems are just turn-based strategy games with RPG elements for each unit/character and permadeath.

Good few days ago, but the rough answer to how similar they are is "not". Fire Emblem is much more deterministic and limited character wise than TO is, among a host of other differences. It's more strategy than RPG, I'd say. They're both SRPGs, but they're basically at exact opposite ends of the general playstyle's spectrum, and there's very little guarantee liking one will mean you'll particularly enjoy the other (I love TO to bits, but can't stand FE unless I'm whacking it over the head with a cheating method to make some of the mechanics go back to hell where they belong _{yes I'm talking about you weapon durability, back to the pit with you}). That said, FE wise your best bet is... probably going to be whatever is most recent that you can get your hands on. Quality of life has only gone up over the decades for that particular series, heh.

Your best bet for something very similar to TO is probably going to be Final Fantasy Tactics. More the original (which to a degree a spiritual successor design wise to TO to begin with, back when they came out on the SNES) than the later follow-ups, though the former includes the PSP remastering.

Some other off the head possibilities on the PSP would be Wild ARMs XF, Ragnarok Tactics (no relation to La Pucelle Ragnarok, though they're both SRPGs), Jeanne D'Arc, and maybe some of the Disgaea related stuff (which would include that la pucelle, as well as Phantom Brave and probably stuff I'm forgetting), though it tends to be lighter on the plot related junk. Probably plenty I'm forgetting or never really noticed. Some of that would require figuring out how to finagle getting and using fan made translations if you can't read japanese or whatev', though, heh. Also those totally aren't ordered by quality or anything like that, ha. Just throwing out some I can recall with a design style actually similar to tactics ogre.

[deathpunch578]

I want to play yakuza 2, but I really want to play the remastered version. should I wait for the localization, find a physical copy of the original, or just emulate it?

[kulik]

I'm looking for some kind of farming game, but not modern farming like Farming simulators franchise, more like farming before the industrial revolution era.

[deathpunch578]

I'm looking for some kind of farming game, but not modern farming like Farming simulators franchise, more like farming before the industrial revolution era.

I think you would enjoy stardew valley, it's post industrial revolution but you only get basic farming supplies.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I mean you could always farm in Unreal World???

[JoshuaFH]

Your best bet for something very similar to TO is probably going to be Final Fantasy Tactics. More the original (which to a degree a spiritual successor design wise to TO to begin with, back when they came out on the SNES) than the later follow-ups, though the former includes the PSP remastering.

I tried FFT, but I can't get over how irritated I am that the game doesn't let you start off with your full party because for all the beginning missions you get an irritating AI hanger-on, so you wind up training people up unevenly due the space restraint. I know it's a great game, I've played like the first ten missions, I can't get over this one issue it irritates me so much that I can't bring myself to play it.

[Parsely]

In battles there are five party spots (including Ramza), two guest/enemy spots, nine enemy exclusive spots, for sixteen spots total.

The guests are technically NOT taking up spots, there's an early mission where you have 4 party members including Ramza plus two guests (Algus and Delita), the game is just limiting your party's size in story missions. I'm pretty sure there is at least one mission each where you're limited to every possible variation of party size.

For missions where there are guests it's just the game's tendency is to limit your party lower than 5.

It sounds like you're less worried about winning and more about irrational levels of symmetry, which is understandable, but I think you should reconsider because of what else the game has to offer. Unless you're obsessive enough to count which characters are attacking to make sure everyone is getting the exact same XP and JP allotments, you're going to have asymmetry no matter what, and I assure you that you will not be setting yourself up for failure. If you're worried about being underleveled you should save after each story battle, then start the next story battle to see what level the enemies are then load your game.

I would ask you to please try playing some more, but this time pretend that your max battle party size is 4 and the fifth character is just a bonus, or if you really want to waste some time you could upgrade your party to 6 or 8 and rotate people out so everyone fights the same number of battles, but again unless every character does the same number of actions they will never be making the exact same gains.

Before you begin to cope with having to choose which party members are going to be one level (!) behind the rest of the group, I would also point out that you can get unique permanent characters as well as breed monsters, which will further complicate your decisions.

Edit: Also, I'm curious, what other RPGs have you played and how have you dealt with this problem in those games?

[JoshuaFH]

I would actually say that it's one of the worst problems in the Fire Emblem series, that they give you too many characters that you can't realistically level them all without some kind of exploit. I know it's for the bad players that let people die, and so the game gives them enough that they can succeed, and even then the required story characters that are not allowed to die are strong enough by themselves to solo the actually important stages, so you're given several layers of false choices.

[heydude6]

Maybe Battle for Wesnoth might interest you. It’s a free hex-based turn-based combat game where you buy units, level them up, and carry them through a campaign. Each campaign has multiple levels to it (one has 4 for example, another has 20), and objectives are well varied. A campaign is an entirely self-contained instance, with it’s own story and units.

The game has received a lot of support over the years, and the art and music have improved massively since it’s original inception. Give it a try, it’s free. A good first campaign would be the *something* guard.

[Parsely]

I would actually say that it's one of the worst problems in the Fire Emblem series, that they give you too many characters that you can't realistically level them all without some kind of exploit. I know it's for the bad players that let people die, and so the game gives them enough that they can succeed, and even then the required story characters that are not allowed to die are strong enough by themselves to solo the actually important stages, so you're given several layers of false choices.

That's different. In FFT, aside from one infamous section, there is always opportunity to grind so if you lose a fight you can just backtrack.

I understand wanting to grind, because it's fun to make the numbers go up, explore possibilities, or just absolutely facewreck enemies with a bajillion damage, but I don't see how that's necessarily a flaw?

E: If you just like grinding, Disgaea might be for you. I couldn't get into it for some reason though.

[JoshuaFH]

<---------- 1000+ hours in disgaea: hour of darkness. Though that was in my younger days when I had infinite free time to blow on a game.

but it's not just about the numbers going up, it's the the numbers are tied to a subtle but necessary roleplaying element in these kinds of games. When a character classes up in Fire Emblem, he's not just getting da bigga numbaz, he or she has evolved and matured as a person. When I'm trying to play FFT, even though my party is just made out of generic units, I never change their default names because that's THEIR names, and I imagine up personalities and how they relate to eachother, something that is hindered by the fact that aesthetically they're all identical, but I make do with what I got, but it's seriously hindered when I feel that the characters are forced to be mandatorily excluded for no reason. Though I can retry if I go in with the "Party size limit of 4" idea.

I'd say I actually hate grinding. I'm at the very end of Persona 3, a game I haven't fired up in months because the final boss forces you to grind to be strong enough to beat him, something I'm completely not willing to do.

[RoguelikeRazuka]

Wow thank you immensely for your recommendations [on games like Tactics Ogre], actually I think that just playing TO for a second time is exactly what I'm looking for (like, it's a kind of game that should be played more than once). My first playthrough on the psp version, but now I want to try TO for the ps1 or snes as I heard the original was better balanced and more challenging.

I'm also going to buy some new games for my ps3 soon, and I've been thinking about trying the Yakuza series for some time now, and what incarnation (either for ps2 or ps3) do you think it's better to start with for someone who's completely new to the series?

[Parsely]

Yakuza 4 and later entries all have in-game optional recaps for the previous games that include cutscenes from the original games. It's only 1, 2, and 3 AFAIK where you have to worry about story. As for gameplay, I've only watched Yakuza 4 and that prequel game but from what I've heard the LPers say the new games' gameplay is just plain improved.

[Micro102]

I got addicted to playing mount and blade warband, EU4, CK2, Civ 5, stronghold, and Dominions 4/5. I hope there is another game out there I can get addicted to. Old games are fine too if they are really good.

[heydude6]

May I recommend endless legend? It's like civ, but the factions are more unique.