Incline Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children - isometric tactical Korean SRPG

[Reinhardt]

Frankly, with how good the game is, it shouldn't be buried in the jRPG forum, and should've been moved to the strategy one ages ago.

so no one will ever see it. At least jrpg subforum is somewhat active.

 

[Reinhardt]

Look at your tacticool gaems subforum - most threads even on first page were last posted in months ago. Codex is sooooooo prestigious.

 

[Suicidal]

Instead, it exists for all Japanese-, Chinese-, and Korean-developed games, RPGs or otherwise, except those that instead end up in General Gaming for whatever reason.

The sad part here is that a lot of codex regulars avoid jRPG like the plague, and usually for good reason. If moving a genuinely good game into another appropriate sub-forum (not like we get a lot of korean developed games anyway, especially not indie titles like this) gives it more exposure, it should be done unless we wanna contribute to the decline of the last 20 years of game development by judging a game on its looks instead of its actual gameplay. Troubleshooter is much more akin to games like Hard West, Xcom, Shadow Tactics, Phantom Doctrine or Phoenix Point which are all in sRPG.
Lobbing everything in here that fits the "developed in asia" standard is a good approach imo, but if a game actually fits the criteria of a more sophisticated sub-forum, it should go there instead. But maybe thats a discussion best had in Site Feedback or Prosperland.

Problem is that a lot of the locals who never visit the JRPG section because they think playing anime games will give them cooties or whatever would not touch this game even if it was in the "normal" RPG section. A large contingent of codexers like to bitch about the decline/death of gaming while drowning themselves in shitty first person shooters and mediocre Kickstarter tripe that passes for RPG in the west nowadays, but will ignore legitimately good games because the characters are drawn with big eyes and spiky hair. Kinda like incels that complain about not getting women while at the same time refusing to date anyone who's fat/ugly/has tattoos/etc. even if they might be a good match for eachother.

Also, what Reinhardt said above - the strategy section is even deader than JRPG.

 

[Reinhardt]

Locals don't really care about games at all. At least in jrpg subforum there are people who still play games so this game is right where it belongs.

 

[Nortar]

Look at your tacticool gaems subforum - most threads even on first page were last posted in months ago. Codex is sooooooo prestigious.

It's not that there are no tactical games to talk about.
Dungeon of Naheulbeuk, Battle Brothers, KotC2, Gloomhaven, Burnden of Command, Iron Oath
are all being discussed in GRPG, although all of them have heavy emphasis on tactical combat before anything else.

But nowadays who would risk to mis-genre games by calling them tacticools, when they self-identify as arpeegees?

 

[Reinhardt]

Look at your tacticool gaems subforum - most threads even on first page were last posted in months ago. Codex is sooooooo prestigious.

It's not that there are no tactical games to talk about.
Dungeon of Naheulbeuk, Battle Brothers, KotC2, Gloomhaven, Burnden of Command, Iron Oath
are all being discussed in GRPG, although all of them have heavy emphasis on tactical combat before anything else.

But nowadays who would risk to mis-genre games by calling them tacticools, when they self-identify as arpeegees?

Well, why would they? To be locked in some ded subforum?

 

[Zumbabul]

Recently, I was thinking that overleveling spoils the game and that some level cap feature will improve the game. Then it occurred to me that I can implement this feature by myself. In online mode, the save files are stored on the devs servers (so, you cannot cheat). However, in offline mode, you can edit your save files as much as you like. For example, you can edit your levels to fix the overleveling.

I found a steam guide for editing save files. It turned out that the save file is an SQL table, which you can edit with an sql-browser. After editing, the save files are ok, and the game doesn't crash. So, you can implement level cap by manually editing your save file after each mission. But this will be inconvenient when there will be more team members, beasts, and robots. So, I spend a little time to level up my coding skill and wrote a python script that does the job. You still need to launch it after every mission, but it is less than 30 seconds (mainly loading times). I think this is a reasonable price for such a feature.

To test this feature, I restarted my fourth run. Currently, I'm at the beginning of the chapter 3, and I'm having a lot of fun (despite the fact that this is my fourth run). The game is really better with level cap. The most appropriate comparison is the low level Dnd/Pathfinder game: at this stage, the game is simple in structure but has respectable difficulty. I needed to restart even some ordinary cases. I cannot send Irene in hero-mode for a long period of time, I need to return her for healing. In some missions, I cannot allow my self hero-mode, and need to keep the party together, which forced me to use a more party oriented build for Irene. In previous runs, I received little damage, so I used Anne as a witch. But with level cap, I need healing. In previous runs, the only intrigue about Ryo was whether he will drop his sword or not. But when you approach this mission at lvl 14 and Ryo is 30+, he is a dangerous target. At first attempt, he just raped my party. On the second attempt, only Sion survived. Overall, I confirmed my thoughts. The game has very well designed missions, but some of their beauty is lost due to overleveling.

Recently the devs announced that they are planning to introduce level cap option in the future. So, probably, in a month or two they will add it. I think, when they officially introduce this feature, the game will become even better than it currently is.

 

[vonAchdorf]

The JRPG forum is the right place for a game lovingly crafted by gamers for gamers.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Lobbing everything in here that fits the "developed in asia" standard is a good approach imo, but if a game actually fits the criteria of a more sophisticated sub-forum, it should go there instead. But maybe thats a discussion best had in Site Feedback or Prosperland.

 

[CyberModuled]

it should be done unless we wanna contribute to the decline of the last 20 years of game development by judging a game on its looks instead of its actual gameplay.

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. It's why people should look at the JRPG subforums more. Turning away from a game purely because of it having an "anime" aesthetic is about as retarded as someone not trying a game for having a high fantasy aesthetic.

Also being quite blunt, it's a bit ironic to hear the "people avoid JRPGs for good reason," when comparatively, the JRPG subforum is a lot more placid when it comes to people talking positively about games that are well liked within the genre when the main RPG forum is usually a clusterfuck whenever it's a modern CRPG even when there are more passionate people frequently playing and discussing it unless it's extremely niche like Knights of the Chalice.

 

[Lhynn]

Blaine Have you checked this game out? Pretty much the best turn based tactics in the market.

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Is there a mod that permits you to activate the challenge mode for scenario missions (when you play them for the first time in your playthrough and not start the mission from the case record screen)? Has such a feature ever been requested from the developers? Or perhaps it is there in some form and I missed it somehow? I imagine this would mitigate the issue with overlevelling (making most missions laughably easy) somewhat, and why it isn't available for scenario missions from the beginning is beyond me. But I noticed an option 'Always challenge mode' in the difficulty settings. Does it affect scenario missions too?

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Lobbing everything in here that fits the "developed in asia" standard is a good approach imo, but if a game actually fits the criteria of a more sophisticated sub-forum, it should go there instead. But maybe thats a discussion best had in Site Feedback or Prosperland.

To be honest it plays more like a normal (tactical) jrpg to me, the xcom-like in-combat presentation and *maybe* the fact that you are often faced and supplied with dozens of 'regular', 'disposable' units are the only things that give me the tactical games vibe. I think its placement in the jrpg subforum is warranted.

 

[Zumbabul]

Is there a mod that permits you to activate the challenge mode for scenario missions (when you play them for the first time in your playthrough and not start the mission from the case record screen)? Has such a feature ever been requested from the developers? Or perhaps it is there in some form and I missed it somehow? I imagine this would mitigate the issue with overlevelling (making most missions laughably easy) somewhat, and why it isn't available for scenario missions from the beginning is beyond me. But I noticed an option 'Always challenge mode' in the difficulty settings. Does it affect scenario missions too?

If you enable 'always challenge mode' the majority of the story missions will be in challenge mode (with a few exceptions). Challenge mode helps, but it does not solve the overleveling completely.

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Yeah, thanks, by the way I'm not quite a fan of game's approach to managing difficulty of missions. How about, instead of throwing 30-40 puny trash mobs at the player (who could possibly win only thanks to the fact they get more actions in a turn than the player), you make these dorks more capable and powerful, while also reducing the size of their packs? At least make them miss less frequently, it does not seem they can fight at all (that alone would help with the underwhelming challenge tremendously, as it looks to me). Also something could have been done about the composition of enemy groupings. For example, recently I got access to Anne, a fairly competent healer (now that I've brought her level closer to that of the rest of the party), so why not introduce shamans into the enemy parties too so that they could counter that? Otherwise, pretty neat and pleasant game, but imo the lacking difficulty severely undermines its merits in the character building and tactical combat departments.

 

[Zumbabul]

Yeah, thanks, by the way I'm not quite a fan of game's approach to managing difficulty of missions. How about, instead of throwing 30-40 trash mobs at the player, you make these dorks more capable and powerful, while also reducing the size of their packs? At least make them miss less frequently, it does not seem they can fight at all (that alone would help with the underwhelming challenge tremendously, as it looks to me). Also something could have been done about the composition of enemy groupings. For example, recently I got access to Anne, a fairly competent healer (now that I've brought her level closer to that of the rest of the party), so why not introduce shamans into the enemy parties too so that they could counter that? Otherwise, pretty neat and pleasant game, but imo the lacking difficulty severely undermines its merits in the character building and tactical combat departments.

In terms of difficulty, the game takes off gloves in the middle of chapter 3. If you play on cruel/challenging, some of the missions will force you to shit bricks. In the future, there will be shaman enemies and there will be more variety in how the game creates difficulty.

What I found playing with level cap mod is that even in the first two chapters missions are challenging. That is why I asked devs for the level cap feature, and that is why I'm happy that the devs will implement it in the future.

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Yeah, thanks, by the way I'm not quite a fan of game's approach to managing difficulty of missions. How about, instead of throwing 30-40 trash mobs at the player, you make these dorks more capable and powerful, while also reducing the size of their packs? At least make them miss less frequently, it does not seem they can fight at all (that alone would help with the underwhelming challenge tremendously, as it looks to me). Also something could have been done about the composition of enemy groupings. For example, recently I got access to Anne, a fairly competent healer (now that I've brought her level closer to that of the rest of the party), so why not introduce shamans into the enemy parties too so that they could counter that? Otherwise, pretty neat and pleasant game, but imo the lacking difficulty severely undermines its merits in the character building and tactical combat departments.

In terms of difficulty, the game takes off gloves in the middle of chapter 3. If you play on cruel/challenging, some of the missions will force you to shit bricks. In the future, there will be shaman enemies and there will be more variety in how the game creates difficulty.

What I found playing with level cap mod is that even in the first two chapters missions are challenging. That is why I asked devs for the level cap feature, and that is why I'm happy that the devs will implement it in the future.

What do you mean by level cap? Is there any information about how it is going to work according to the developers?
It'd be sensible to adjust the amount of experience gained in the optional missions if their level is lower than the average level of the player's party (doesn't the game do it already?), or maybe even allow you to optionally *freeze* level progression of your characters.
So far I imagine the following viable approach for preserving the challenge throughout your entire playthrough: you only play the scenario missions, choose the difficulty level and enable the challenge mode as per your ability, and do the optional missions and requests *only* if you are unable to progress further into the story without acquiring the more useful masteries, more powerful equipment and skills. But what if I wanted to play the optional missions purely for the sake of the addictive, rewarding tactical combat or I wanted to check out the different combat scenarios the game has to offer? The game would simply punish me by eventually rendering my characters significantly overlevelled and too overpowered for the scenario missions which would have a negative impact on my appreciation of game's scenario missions and story. That's why I was asking for the challenge mode for scenario missions as a means to counter game's weird difficulty balance and overlevelling.

 

[Zumbabul]

What do you mean by level cap?

I wrote myself a script that edits my offline save file. I run the script after every mission, and the script strips off extra exp and levels.

Is there any information about how it is going to work according to the developers?

The information is very vague. They are considering to implement this feature, and they started a discussion about it on the Steam forums. From their message, it seems that they want to do the following. This will be an optional feature, like a challenge mode. If you are in a mission with a recommended level X, once a character reaches level X, it stops gaining exp. However, it is not clear how exactly they will do this. It is also unclear when they will implement it. If it is the next update, then in a couple of weeks. Otherwise, in a couple of months.

 

[MpuMngwana]

How about, instead of throwing 30-40 puny trash mobs at the player (who could possibly win only thanks to the fact they get more actions in a turn than the player), you make these dorks more capable and powerful, while also reducing the size of their packs?

Hard disagree on this part. There’s plenty of squad vs squad tactical games, and Troubleshooter’s willingness to sometimes throw triple-digits number of foes at you is one of the things that make it special, even if some missions take like two hours to complete as a result.

That said, enemies do get trickier later in the game, there are more frequent boss units, and generally speaking the only way the difficulty goes is up.

 

[Blaine]

Blaine Have you checked this game out? Pretty much the best turn based tactics in the market.

Yeah, it's been in my library since July 2019, before this thread was started.

I played it for a while and drifted away from it—had some performance problems to sort out, then never got around to it before moving onto the next thing—but I'm sure I'll be going back to it eventually.

As for the meta-discussion ITT of some Codexers not wanting to touch weeb shit, in this day and age Eastern computer games are the last true bastion of incline—though there's still plenty of decline across the ocean, it isn't as all-pervasive as in the West.

That includes Eastern Europe, Russia, Japan, Korea, and even China at this point due to a few interesting entries.

 

[distant]

Anyone have a comparable game to play next? Outside of JA2, SS, Tactics Ogre, FFT. Valkyria Chronicles? What else is there?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Anyone have a comparable game to play next? Outside of JA2, SS, Tactics Ogre, FFT. Valkyria Chronicles? What else is there?

Realms of Arkania HD

Spoiler

Give dungeons of naheulbeuk a try too. Also battle brothers

 

[Abu Antar]

Fell Seal is supposed to be very FFT inspired in gameplay. It's in my backlog.

I enjoyed Blackguards.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Anyone have a comparable game to play next? Outside of JA2, SS, Tactics Ogre, FFT. Valkyria Chronicles? What else is there?

Solasta and Dungeon of Naheulbeuk are both intended to be RPGs, but they have such limited exploration in favor of a focus on tactical, turn-based combat that they aren't far removed from a squad-based tactics game with character progression/customization such as Troubleshooter.

 

[GhostCow]

Anyone have a comparable game to play next? Outside of JA2, SS, Tactics Ogre, FFT. Valkyria Chronicles? What else is there?

How has no one mentioned Fire Emblem yet? Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a great game if you haven't played it. Best in the series easily.