Hello, it's been awhile since I made a thread. But something has been on my mind lately. Ever since the Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave reveal, I noticed something about the genre that Fire Emblem series is about. That it is very "Packed with content." What I mean by that is there is lots of.... layered system features that the player can engage with that all stacks up to lots of decision making in various different places. There is a lot I had to say so sorry if it's too long for some people. You can skip to the end if you want.
It seems most of the time could be spent managing units in more than a simple "Equip new weapon to power up." In Fire Emblem, There's support units, romantic intimacy, choosing classes when promoting... using weaker weapons cause it has more durability or specific use cases of advantage matchups. But then there is the story... It most of the time feel like tv drama with kingdom politics and betrayal among governments and such. So obviously most of it has you fighting enemies who are just units similar to the players, with monsters sprinkled in to feel like a fantasy game. The stories seem similar with many modern tactical rpg just like Tactics ogre and Final Fantasy tactics.
Then I remembered shining force was localized from the start of the series since the sega (Megadrive) before fire emblem got localizations starting it's 7th game on GBA. Shining force had straight forward stories about evil demons, monsters or dragons and your ragtag team of misfits joining you to save the world. You don't fight any humans enemies so none of the enemies feel like they copy you because they match your class. The game also has variety of fantasy species like Centaur, elves, dwarfs and birdman. Fire emblem does have the rare person that transform into dragon but isn't much variety. The game also had straight forward power up. One linear promotion for each unit and simply equipping items.
While the contrast does seem a bit simple, that isn't bad. It's just focused. With less time spent managing my units and making sure the stats can match up. More time is spent actually playing the game and the combat. So my mistakes are more about if I made the wrong moves rather than "if my weapon didn't break, or if I had stronger support units." It just more grounded and focused on straightforward objective than branching too many variables. Maybe that's the point, Tactical RPG fun comes from management and customization and formulating how your setup can win the battles in your favor. But I think it's too distracting if there is too much to manage. You might end up thinking you messed up early and cost you problems in the future if you continue. (Some even had to restart the whole game cause they got stuck... that is not fun, can't change my mind.)
So I'm just asking, are there any other modern games more like Shining Force & less like Fire Emblem? (or what ever tries to copy it) If I had to specify the things I'm looking for in the game it would be
It seems most of the time could be spent managing units in more than a simple "Equip new weapon to power up." In Fire Emblem, There's support units, romantic intimacy, choosing classes when promoting... using weaker weapons cause it has more durability or specific use cases of advantage matchups. But then there is the story... It most of the time feel like tv drama with kingdom politics and betrayal among governments and such. So obviously most of it has you fighting enemies who are just units similar to the players, with monsters sprinkled in to feel like a fantasy game. The stories seem similar with many modern tactical rpg just like Tactics ogre and Final Fantasy tactics.
Then I remembered shining force was localized from the start of the series since the sega (Megadrive) before fire emblem got localizations starting it's 7th game on GBA. Shining force had straight forward stories about evil demons, monsters or dragons and your ragtag team of misfits joining you to save the world. You don't fight any humans enemies so none of the enemies feel like they copy you because they match your class. The game also has variety of fantasy species like Centaur, elves, dwarfs and birdman. Fire emblem does have the rare person that transform into dragon but isn't much variety. The game also had straight forward power up. One linear promotion for each unit and simply equipping items.
While the contrast does seem a bit simple, that isn't bad. It's just focused. With less time spent managing my units and making sure the stats can match up. More time is spent actually playing the game and the combat. So my mistakes are more about if I made the wrong moves rather than "if my weapon didn't break, or if I had stronger support units." It just more grounded and focused on straightforward objective than branching too many variables. Maybe that's the point, Tactical RPG fun comes from management and customization and formulating how your setup can win the battles in your favor. But I think it's too distracting if there is too much to manage. You might end up thinking you messed up early and cost you problems in the future if you continue. (Some even had to restart the whole game cause they got stuck... that is not fun, can't change my mind.)
So I'm just asking, are there any other modern games more like Shining Force & less like Fire Emblem? (or what ever tries to copy it) If I had to specify the things I'm looking for in the game it would be
- Story with focus on evil forces being monsters, demons, deities, other mythical/magical beings.
- Doesn't become political drama among countries with betrayal and assassinations.
- Battles with enemies units that don't mirror the player's units.
- Character management that requires heavy investment into the multilayered systems (You can have complexity for all who likes it, but shouldn't be dominated by it)
