Salutations, September! Now that August and the PlatinumGames Game-Along have come and gone, it’s time to switch gears, grab a pumpkin spice latte, and play some strategy RPGs!
If you’re new to the monthly Chic Pixel Community Game-Alongs, all you need to do to participate is play a game that fits the theme and share your experiences! This month, that means picking up a strategy RPG and tweeting, blogging, recording let’s plays, or whatever floats your boat. Be sure to share your impressions using #SRPGSeptember so that myself and others can follow along! If you don’t have time to play something, why not share your SRPG game collection, favorite titles, or things you’ve written about SRPGs in the past? As long as it’s related to the theme, go for it!
Fire Emblem Fates (Nintendo 3DS) – The latest entry in the Fire Emblem series, Fates, is split into multiple versions that can be rather confusing for newcomers. If you’re relatively new to SRPGs, you may want to start with Birthright, which is generally considered the easier of the two – if you’re looking for more of a challenge, go for Conquest. Either way, if you like the idea of pairing up your soldiers with one another just as much as you like the idea of strategy RPG gameplay, you’ll love Fire Emblem Fates!
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (various) – Tactics Ogre is considered by many to be one of the greatest examples of the genre. Directed by Vagrant Story director Yasumi Matsuno and with art by Final Fantasy artist Akihiko Yoshida, it definitely has a stellar staff! The best way to play this would probably be to grab the PSP remake on PSN for your Vita, but if you really want to go retro you could try to hunt down the SNES original or purchase it on the Virtual Console (update: the SNES version is only available in Japanese, sorry for any confusion!).
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3, PS4, PC) – While all of the games I’ve recommended so far fall firmly in the realm of fantasy, as a military-themed SRPG that takes place in a fictional region resembling Europe, Valkyria Chronicles is a tad more realistic. It just came out for PC this past May, so it’s even more accessible than ever!
Disgaea series (various systems) – I haven’t done conclusive research, but I’d wager that Disgaea is one of the most prolific SRPG series to date. For the most recent entry, grab Disgaea 5 for the PS4. Nippon Ichi Software also has a few other SRPGs that are very similar to Disgaea, such as Phantom Brave (which just came out for PC, too), if the whole demon world premise of Disgaea doesn’t really grab you.
This is by no means a definitive list, so if you have any favorite SRPG recommendations that I missed, please leave them in the comments! What will you be playing this month?
Picked up trails SC back up again. Trying to catch up for the Akatsuki no kiseki beta.
Didn’t realize there was a beta coming up! It seems like there’s always a new Kiseki game haha
Two words – Front Mission 3/4, for another couple of “realistic” SRPG’s, though future-set, and Ring of Red, for one that’s set in the 1950’s or thereabouts. A really unique mix of mechanics. In In battle, you can only move towards the enemy, or away from them, so, 2D, but not the 2D of fighting games. On the other hand, all battles run 90 seconds of real time. Actually, Valkyria Chronicles drew quite a bit of inspiration from Ring of Red!
I never got to play Ring of Red because I had one of the PS2s that didn’t do well with CD media (RoR was old enough that they didn’t need to print it on DVD). Luckily I think they have it on PSN now? I remember my friend had it and it looked amazing.
Front Mission 3 is amazing, 4 gets REALLY long and frustrating halfway through the game (at least an hour per mission, yeesh!)
They do. As for “looking amazing”, hey, you get exactly what you would expect to from a game that came out in 2002. And had a translation that can at best be described as fansub-quality.
But there are still so many things about it that I find really cool. Like, how it does away with so many conventions of the RPG – no items, no equipment, no choosing what attacks you have access to, the only thing you really *do* get to pick are your support units. Though that does matter, both in terms of how they affect your stats, and in terms of their own skills.
For both the Front Mission games (and, for that matter, also the first one, on the DS), they’re *all* long and frustrating. But, if you genuinely get a kick out of spending time on tricking out a mech to work the way you want it to – hey, they are all games made very much with you in mind! And, if you are that kind of person, you won’t even mind how long the battles last, either!
Great suggestions! I didn’t know Valkyria Chronicles was inspired by Ring of Red
Not in the sense of the whole game being inspired by, but there are definitely certain mechanics that the designers of Valkyria liked and looked at! Just even the transition between the map and the individual battles!
Unfortunately, Tactics: Ogre was not released on SNES in English. Fortunately, it was released on PSX, and my friend bought me a copy way-back when!
The only SRPGs I never really got to play were Flight-Plan games (Black/Matrix series). I always wanted to try Poison Pink for PS2, but sadly my PS2 died earlier this year :
Ah, thank you for pointing that out! Usually I have more time to do my research before I put up the monthly game-along posts, but I wasn’t able to be as thorough this time >_<
I didn't realize Poison Pink was the JP title for Eternal Poison! I love the art!
Time to hop off Monster Hunter Generations for a bit and finally start Stella Glow, then! I was so excited for this when it was released here – the Luminous Arc duo were two of my favourite DS titles – but I still haven’t gotten around to playing their spiritual successor yet.
Tactics Ogre was fantastic, too. Much as I loved War of the Lions, it was easily my favourite PSP title. Except for maaaaybe Zettai Hero Project…
Stella Glow looks awesome! Do share your impressions, I would love to see more of it 😀
Shall do…I even made a Twitter for it and I’ve never used Twitter before, haha.
Also, if you get a chance or are in the mood for something a little more light-hearted, I’d recommend checking out Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart on Vita/Steam. It has that Neptunia charm despite having a terrifying number of random new characters~
Awesome, that’s so cool that you made a Twitter account to participate! I’ve heard of Noire: Goddess Black Heart but for some reason I forgot it was an SRPG haha >_<