LIGHTNINGLORD2'S PROFILE

Shouldn't you have asked in this forum?

author=Rine
@LightningLord2: If you're looking for a good tactical RPG, just mixed with more JRPG in combat, I would recommend Devil Survivor 1 and 2 for the DS. Tactical combat and some spacing, mixed with SMT's press-turns and demon fusions. Probably some of the best tactical RPG fun you can have on a handheld, in addition to having story choices with real consequences (as in, if you don't meet the character when they ask you to, they will die, gone for good, and the game will point out that you failed them).

In general, I highly recommend the Shin Megami Tensei series. The snes RPGs are a bit grindy, but the ps2 ones are some of the finest RPGs on that system, and that goes for the spinoffs as well. Except for devil children, that can dissapear.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey was massively fun, same for Persona 4. Gotta poke around a bit more.

Telepath Tactics is another one I'd recommend: It's the only RPG I've seen that nearly abolishes the hit rate system. In fact, there's only two classes that can dodge at all (which can be negated by some status effects and using mental attacks). All attacks never miss otherwise and deal a fixed amount of damage (which is influenced by elemental resists, range falloff and hitting in the back). A great example of what combat looks like if there is no luck factor involved.

Background needs to have Kirby in it. Nightmare and a few other characters are also welcome.

You'd think Meta Knight and Dedede have more HP than a Waddle Dee. Also, there's plenty room for the game's helpers to be party members as well.

Terraria is a mixed bag for me - building up things is fun, there's countless ways to tackle boss fights, you have much more diversity in environments than you have in Minecraft and there's tons of crazy weapons to play around with.

However, the game can be extremely hard to get into, with numerous ways to die and lose progress, several only lightly explained mechanics that are crucial to know and the possibility of invasions. But the real kicker is this:



Rather decent, but brutally unforgiving for beginners.

Card Hunter is a more clear suggestion - it's a tactical RPG with a deckbuilding mechanic, that involves equipping items to gain your cards this way. Those items have several skills and drawbacks, which can bring a lot of depth with planning your units. The story is basically you being the player of the Tabletop Game, which is an affectionate parody of various D&D jokes and plots (without any made-up clichés).

As for me, I'd like to have some recommendations based on games I hated but still have a decent framework or good ideas I wanna see:

Lords of Xulima, despite all the faults and the completely automatic gameplay, has a decent base for a party building RPG with emphasis on using status effects with your weapons. I need a game like that that maintains the row-based combat but doesn't undermine the gameplay with level adjustments or RNG overdosage.

Darkest Dungeon has the nice ideas of rotating your party to cure out the mental and physical fatigue of your adventurers and a nice way of implementing this. However, the game is way too easy and the punishment for complete darkness is too light compared to the benefits it brings (in my opinion, there shouldn't be an incentive to being in the dark at all).

Fire Emblem used to be quite fun - you had various classes, nice equipment choices and a solid turn-based engine. However, some of the core mechanics are a huge problem to me - the finite amount of troops and the permadeath makes any strategy that requires any amount of risks incredibly unviable. This is especially bad in later titles that makes it impossible to even field certain units as they'll be swarmed by flying units in a moment's notice. Knight of Lodis is probably closest, but it's a little oversaturated with mechanics, FF Tactics and Shining Force progress too slowly and Disgaea is too stat-reliant.