Games like tactics ogre LUCT, and FFT

[Beans00]

Recently I replayed FFT, and did a run of tactics ogre LUCT(ps1 version). These are some of my favorite games ever.

I also recently replayed FFTA(not a fan but havent played since like 2006), and half of tactics ogre knight of lodis(beat it 15-20 years ago, not a fan got bored).

So, I'm looking for SRPGs similar to fft and luct. Loved these games since I had them on the ps1 as a kid. I'm not a fan of the gba games, never played FFTA2 for the ds.

The other srpgs I remember playing was vandal hearts, which I also had on ps1. I didn't care for it and I can't remember why.
I also played bahumuts lagoon on emulator as a kid. I barely remember it. I think I dabbled in shining force as well but didn't get far.


I have beaten fell seal, which was ok but really heavy on the status effects which made combat kind of tedious.


If you have any suggestions I am interested. I have never played a fire emblem game. Not sure if they are similar. I also plan on trying the gold box games in the near future, obviously not jrpgs but grid based turn based ect ect.

 

[Nutmeg]

The best of the height mapped, square grid based, move one unit a turn games is Gungnir, from the ones I have played.

Front Mission 5 and Covenant of the Plume are good too, though those are move your whole army a turn games.

Likewise, Wild Arms XF is good, but that's on a hex grid.

Fire Emblem 5, 7 and 12 are great but they are two big design points removed being non-height mapped and whole army a turn games.

 

[Damned Registrations]

You could check out the Disgaea franchise/spinoffs, depending on what aspects of the games you're into. I recommend the first two; they've got better writing and have more than enough features/content. Obviously a totally different atmosphere, they're very tongue in cheek. If you're after the kind of buildporn FFT offered, that's about as close as you can get, but it's obviously got very different mechanics and ways to exploit the system. Don't listen to people that say it's all about grinding levels- the point of the game isn't to fight 9000 battles to beat the next challenge, it's to fight 3 battles against enemies 300 times your current level by mastering the systems and cheesing the fuck out of your enemies. La Pucelle has a more serious atmosphere iirc if that's a hangup. Makai Kingdom is my personal favourite but it's very weird and involves features like vehicles and spawning in terrain during a battle.

There's fire emblem too, which is like a half step above shining force in terms of complexity. They're both very simple in combat, but have a lot of charming characters. Good for a comfy/chill game to zone out and kill time with.

Front Mission series is a thing too if you're into mechs and guns.

My personal recommendation would be Brigandine, either the original or Runersia. I've played both and they've both got their nice aspects. Very cool games with a lot of depth; Runersia offers a lot more challenge. Assuming you don't savescum.

 

[Nutmeg]

They're both very simple in combat, but have a lot of charming characters. Good for a comfy/chill game to zone out and kill time with.

Fire Emblem (not all, only 1, 3, 4*, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12) can be played much more seriously than FFT. First of all the game actually has par turn counts to chase, and the highest ranks require a lot of thought and planning to achieve without save scumming. Second of all, you can't just grind your way around a hard fight.

FFT is the comfy no brain game, IMO. In fact to squeeze any challenge out of it at all, you have to ignore a good chunk of possible builds and skip a good chunk of the content.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The Banner Saga trilogy. The games get easier as they go on, first game is the hardest.

Trails in the Sky. Grid combat similar to FFT, but without the elevation. The characters have preset abilities so no customizing their skills, but you can tweak their stats and what spells they can cast.

Aselia the Spirit of Eternity Sword (no grid). Has a turn limit that will require you save scum a lot if you want to S-rank every mission, but you can ignore the turn limit and go at a leisurely pace and still beat the game.

Vanguard Bandits grid SRPG with minimal customization. Basically The Vision of Escaflowne but as a SRPG.

 

[Nutmeg]

Aselia the Spirit of Eternity Sword

Hey wow something I haven't heard of.

Has a turn limit

Um yes please!

 

[Damned Registrations]

Depends a ton on which FE game, tbh. Some of them are a complete snorefest, others are outright sadistic if you're not savescumming and/or looking up guides (looking at you Thracia!) Also, you can absolutely grind your way out of the difficulty curve, and it's just as tedious as making a punching circle in FFT.

Trying to get low turn counts is certainly a challenge, but seems just as arbitrary to me as playing with no magic classes or something like that. It's impossible to do without advanced knowledge, you'll just end up missing all the characters and weapons. FFT does turn into a complete joke if you use the holy knights or a few of the less balanced classes for sure. But if you're playing blind, you're not likely to unlock those classes very early if you're not grinding. Most difficulty in either game is self inflicted or bullshit RNG.

 

[Nutmeg]

Trying to get low turn counts is certainly a challenge, but seems just as arbitrary to me

I think the LTC thing started among Japanese TBS players (not just FE, IIRC it was Nectaris or probably even earlier with Daisenryaku) as a social thing, and then the developers picked up on it and decided to give players letter ranks based on turn counts and unit survival among other things. Anyway, you're right it's arbitrary in the games that don't acknowledge your turn counts at all, but in the ones that do you could argue that the maps were indeed designed around chasing turn counts as the primary challenge beyond merely beating them, so it's not exactly "arbitrary" in that case.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I mean, if it gives you an actual ranking, I suppose. Just tracking them doesn't mean much though, FFT tracks the days but nobody would suggest a minimum day count.

My real problem with the low turn count thing is it'd be a terrible way to play the game blind because of how FE games dole out characters and items. They're bad enough even when taking your time. Trying to get low turn counts would basically mean skipping half the characters and items.

 

[Nutmeg]

Trying to get low turn counts would basically mean skipping half the characters and items.

You'll end up missing a good chunk anyway when playing blind because FE games are littered with obtuse JRPG trigger design (rooted deeply, going all the way back to the Tower of Druaga), in this case taking the form of "visit this particular house with this particular character before the bandits burn it down on turn 6, oh and you can only get that character 5 maps back if you talk to him with another particular character, oh and if you don't visit the house now you lock yourself out of recruiting that character's sister 3 maps later where you also need to steal the boss' sword".

 

[Damned Registrations]

Trying to get low turn counts would basically mean skipping half the characters and items.

You'll end up missing a good chunk anyway when playing blind because FE games are littered with obtuse JRPG trigger design, in this case taking the form of "visit this house with this character before the bandits burn it down on turn 6".

Like I said, they're already bad enough while taking your time. Of course, you'll also get punished for visiting the house too early, or without backup nearby to solve the ambush, or just by RNG dictating that the NPC you're trying to rescue walked into enemies, missed all his 90% hit chances and ate two crits in a row.

Or my personal favourite: getting a character killed because YOU rolled a crit, killed an enemy, thereby allowing a second enemy to come into that spot and attack as well to finish you off.

I think FE games in general are for people that like to route things out after they know how things unfold and don't mind a massive dose of RNG. Not my cup of tea, which is a shame because I love the aesthetics, especially the last 2D console games. Gameplay wise, I'm much more interested in turning shitty level 1 characters into lategame powerhouses, or figuring out the most overpowered class/skill/equipment combinations that will let one character do the work of 3 of the same level with more generic builds.

 

[Lord of Riva]

They're both very simple in combat, but have a lot of charming characters. Good for a comfy/chill game to zone out and kill time with.

Fire Emblem (not all, only 1, 3, 4*, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12) can be played much more seriously than FFT. First of all the game actually has par turn counts to chase, and the highest ranks require a lot of thought and planning to achieve without save scumming. Second of all, you can't just grind your way around a hard fight.

FFT is the comfy no brain game, IMO. In fact to squeeze any challenge out of it at all, you have to ignore a good chunk of possible builds and skip a good chunk of the content.

Whats that * on 4?

It's the best game in the series.

 

[Nutmeg]

I think FE games in general are for people that like to route things out after they know how things unfold and don't mind a massive dose of RNG

Routing? Certainly. RNG? It's about either manipulating it (mega gay, IMO) or very carefully mitigating it (can be good). I very much agree that the absolutely wild RNG is a poor fit for the emphasis on survival and routing, very awkward and schizophrenic. Fire Emblem's sister series Advance Wars gets RNG and chasing turn counts right, by both toning the RNG down and ofc. having much less emphasis on unit survival.

Whats that * on 4?

Maps are too big and long and full of turns where all you do is move units across vast stretches of nothing, and the *completely fixed* RNG plus the always available, consequence free arena to advance it make for extremely tedious play. It is a beautiful game tho and very ambitious in its rule set in a good way. My aesthetic favorite by far.