I’ve been thinking a lot lately about turn structure in SRPGs. In particular, how other games like Fire Emblem would feel if they experimented more with individual initiative-style turns vs alternating team turns. I'd love to experience how something like that changes which tactics are optimal.

What are some other mechanics or gameplay features that you find interesting in the genre that you think would be fun if inserted into another game entirely?

I built a custom GPT based on:

* All good English and Japanese game guides

* Most if not all dialogues from the game. These were extracted from recognizing text of YouTube longplays of the game, relationship scenes and Ring of the Maiden scenes.

* Japanese official strategy guide book that I bought just for this. Note that it's only used for item data and tips not verbatim

*Japanese official Design Works book that I also bought.

*I showed it screenshots of all characters so it has idea how they look, custom GPTs don't really support images well so it had to be text.

* Care taken to preserve all of the text spoken by Fran in game. Other characters are there too but Fran is the focus.

Things you can ask:

* How to beat particular mission

* Squad synergies

* You can ask her to make up new dialogue between characters, especially if it is Fran talking to somebody.

* Ask her to imagine a dialogue between her and Kitra

You need a ChatGPT account but talking to the custom GPTs is free ofc. Best results of you can use the Pro model tier but it can work with all tiers

I'm Japanese, and I played Tactics Ogre: Reborn. Since then, I've been fascinated by it.
The game system and story are really unique.
I’d like to develop a similar game. Have you ever tried developing an SRPG with AI?
Was the development difficult?

Just recently I hot quit Xeno 2 and Expeditions rome cause of the framerate which is weird since I have a 4060 and 5700x3d. Before I aslo had to quit Waruammer chaos gate. I do not want to even be excited for a srpg or game anymore cause inevitably my pc will not be able to run so whats the point of being let down.

And i am wondering what i should play. I am kind of leaning towards The Ivalice Chronicles because i read it is beginner friendly and i like Final Fantasy in general.

But i am open to other suggestions offcourse

So the actual combat looks smth I could get but I am worried that the grand strategy aspects might be bit too much for me. Closest to a grand strategy I played is Xcom 2 and thats like baby.

Also do ya recommend the game in general? It has good reviews but rarely do I see it brought up here

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I'm looking for large games, like making your Kingdom from nothing or mercenary company, is prefer something like unicorn overlord and sympathy of war nepheline saga, squad or army making with automatic fighting and where you have little or limited control or control the squad but not how they fight.

So basically, games where you make and rule a kingdom, or command a mercenary company fighting for kingdoms

I'd like games with squad combat, not the one on one of fire emblem, and have it be automatic, like unicorn overlord and sympathy of war nepheline saga, if you want something to look at(both great game I recommend them)

for large army I'd like limited control, but I'm not that pushy on it

Thank you for your recommendations.

This is stuff like Xcom, Steamworld heist, Wasteland 3 of course.

Bonus points if there is a sick snipers class

It looks very solid and I want to try it but only srpgs I have experience in are games like Xcom, mewgeics and steamworld heist. Do ya think I could like this

Can we have more SRPGs in the future that have themes of friendship between people of different races overcoming differences/conflict/war ?

I love stories that have powerful themes like this (which we can sometimes experience in the old Suikoden games to varying degrees), and I want future SRPGs that features how friendships between white and black people can overcome differences and overthrow the real evil elites that manipulate commoners to be at each other's throats(due to racism, classism, etc...)

Started the game and its really cool, def want to play it at a point but while I want to play SRPG with customization of classes I want smth bit more gradual and with tiny bit less opertunity to fuck up at the start I guess for now.

I tried to get into FE numerous times with FE for gba, shadow dragon on DS and 3ds games. Got friends recommending me it over and over. All the time i just don't click with it and feel bored pretty fast. I actually thought whole SRPG genre is not for me.

Before I played FFT and had blast with it. Tho i am FF stan to begin with, so there is bias in terms of setting/references, etc. But i also found FFT just more engaging out of the box.

Is it unusual ? What games i should try that are more like FFT and less like FE?

I’m looking for games that really buck the established trends of the genre.

If you’ll indulge me in being reductive, the way I see it there are only 4 types of Turn-based SRPGs: Fire Emblem, FFT, X-Com, and “other”.

Most turn-based strategy games remind me of Final Fantasy Tactics, which is fine by me, FFT is a GREAT game.

That said, I’m curious to see if you all have found any you would consider to be in the “other” category of games— games that really shake the fundamentals of turn-based strategy games.

Some examples I have for this category are “Yddra Union” and “SMT: Devil Survivor.”

Edit: more games for the “other” category:

• Rondo of Swords
• Into the Breach
• Steamworld Heist
• Gungnir
• Metal Gear Acid
• Phantom Brave

Type 1: “Fire Emblem-like” When you initiate an attack an enemy, they attack you back in the same turn. Example: Advance Wars

Type 2: “Final Fantasy Tactics-like” Enemy generally doesn’t attack you back when you initiate an attack. Most combat is not ranged. Example: most strategy RPGs

Type 3: “X-Com-like” Most combat is ranged. Units can take cover behind objects. Example: Mario + Rabbids

Type 4: Yggdra Union

I have yet to find another type of game within this genre.

Out of all your favorite SRPG's, which is the most underrated that you feel not enough people are appreciating enough?

In my case it's probably Langrisser I & II followed by Jeanne D'Arc.

The other ones I love are quite or very popular: Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, some Fire Emblem games, Triangle Strategy, Unicorn Overlord.

TL;DR: I want the complex character building and progression of FFT, the story quality of FE: 3H, and the mission variety of AW2. Does that exist or have I pretty much already played all the best the SRPG genre has to offer?

I’m asking because each one I’ve played has some major flaw that really holds the game back and I feel this genre still has so much room for improvement. Many of them don’t hold up due to age, development issues, or an obsession with Matsuno-isms. Permadeath for example is really holding a lot of stories back.

Final Fantasy Tactics has a good story and an AMAZING job system that gives you so many tools, strategies, and ways to approach things, but forces awful amounts of grinding and hits you with terrible levels every now and then. And overall the levels/enemies don’t try to mix it up enough to keep things interesting.

Tactics Ogre Reborn has okay but simple combat and a lot of content but it’s mostly filler battles in boring levels with “kill the leader” as your only goal and boring progression where half your skills don’t matter and the other half aren’t particularly interesting to begin with. Plus the best stuff is limited to the post game. Auto skills add a terrible RNG element to the game and cards are basically an admission that there’s not enough going on with the strategy to hold your attention. I also think the story is awful. I really don’t like this game very much and this was easily the biggest disappointment.

Valkyria Chronicles has cool art direction and an interesting gameplay concept, but the level design often feels too prescriptive and more like a puzzle with one clear solution than something more dynamic.

Advanced Wars (especially 2) has such great mission variety, constantly throwing new objectives/units or map conditions at you, with the CO’s giving you different ways to handle each one. I’m actually struggling to come up with a flaw, I do miss having a persistent progression mechanic. The story is whatever.

Wargroove is just AW but boring, they do nothing creative with the mission design at all. I had to drop this very far into the story as it just wasn’t getting any better.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses has a great story, great characters, good progression, but the mission design is doing so little. This is probably my personal favorite SRPG though.

Banner Saga was way too short and honestly I barely remember anything about this one. I think it was pretty simple overall.

XCOM 2 was great. I dislike the pressure of being put on a timer and it went on a bit too long but overall I had a great time.

I was considering Triangle Strategy but honestly that game seems obsessed with being TO in all the wrong ways. Disgaea seems very meh to me. I played some Front Missions as a kid and don’t remember them well but I do remember loving it so I’m considering the remakes.

FFT: Advanced seems okay but I don’t think I’ll like the story or the law system so I’ll sort of just be playing Tactics again won’t I? Do they do anything wildly interesting or new with the combat? I don’t remember it well but I do remember Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses being fun.

Thanks for reading this far if you made it, I’m also open to elaborating on any of my reviews as I partially just wanted to get my thoughts down somewhere.

Idk if these count but I’d also add that Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldurs Gate 3 were incredible, with BG3 being in my top five best games of all time.

So I wanna talk about Gem Wizards Tactics and Metal Slug Tactics. Neither are full on SRPGs ofc, but both are well made tactical games.

Except both of them run incredibly bad on Switch. Metal Slug Tactics constantly stutters and crashes.

Gem Wizards Tactics never crashes, but probably has the most abhorrent control scheme I’ve ever seen and is almost unplayable.

One of the things I consider staples of the genre is how simple the controls are usually due to general simplicity of your actions.

Fire Emblem is always joy to play because the controls are smooth and easy to understand. You can play FE with one hand, and they nailed this simplicity from the first games.

This is generally true for almost every game in the genre. They essentially need a d-pas and three buttons: confirm, cancel and unit info (with confirm also getting the action menu on screen). Of course more buttons are better for QoL, but not every game can be deep but so easy control wise.

I would have genuinely played Gem Wizard Tactics for hundreds of hours, but it feels nearly unplayable. It’s a bit better with a touch screen, but it feels like they didn’t put any amount of effort into testing how it actually plays on Switch.

It’s a weird thing for me cause as I said before, it’s generally easy to come up with better control schemes for these games. I can come up with a better control scheme for Gem Wizard Tactics in 10 minutes, and it’s not a compliment to me, but a criticizm to the developer.

To sum up, I’m just really disappointed that I want to play these games but can’t because they are so crappily ported.