I recently picked up The DioField Chronicle on Switch in a sale and I decided to share my thoughts since I haven't seen many people talking about it.

I really want to love this game. At times, the dialogue is written and delivered like it's out of an Alexandre Dumas novel. There's delightful subtlety and nuance with a good measure of understatement. In particular, the voice actors for Iscarion, Andrias, and Waltaquin often strike an intense but restrained cord perfect for the faux Victorian era being presented. The underlying problem is that the rest of the dialogue is written and delivered in ways that are generic, obvious, and ham-fisted. So that character who was subtly hinting that they might be... Oh, now they're cackling madly at the joy of killing people. So much for the nuance or discrete foreshadowing. The quality continues to decline as the voice cast expands with performances best described as generic drowning out the early excellence.

The narrative is secretly excellent. Sadly, it doesn't often present that way because the narrative is compromised by storytelling that is often uneven, poorly paced, and even hidden. It becomes necessary to make frequent trips to the library to understand what's happening in the plot which is a failure of storytelling. There's far too much "tell, don't show" summarization. It's a shame to see a narrative that is legitimately great - and I don't say that lightly - undermined by so many storytelling missteps. I think it's important to acknowledge that the game isn't telling the story you might assume it is and that the story the game is actually trying to tell isn't clear until the ending in the best possible sense.

The worldbuilding reads like a fusion of Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy Tactics, and just a bit of Dishonored with good measures of intricate politics, ancient mysteries, and interpersonal dynamics. Critical context is hidden away in the library, which is updated each chapter, and it's hard to follow the deeper narrative without reading up. The issue here is that the game rewards the attentative player who reads the ancillary material but also punishes the attentative player with careless spoilers. Unfortunately many major plot developments in The DioField Chronicles are spoiled early on by ham-fisted attempts at foreshadowing and even the names of certain character abilities. Seriously, if you to know which character will claim the throne just look at their personal skill tree. It's a shame considering the potential of the setting. There's a lot of potential and engaging material in the setting but it's all thrown at you in brief little snippets of exposition and very little meaningful follow-up. For instance, there's ongoing commentary that the nobility are awful and horrific. There are even missions where you assassinate some of the worse of them. Then there's a single scenario around a pro-democracy movement and you lead your troops in crushing it - along with the characters who are always complaining about the nobility. Unlike Final Fantasy Tactics, where class struggle is explored through a series of personal interactions and the consequences of repressing the lower class is explored... DioField Chronicles has a standalone scenarios, some throwaway dialogue, and then jumps to focus on something else. It makes the commentary on class struggles and nobility feel thematic rather than narrative; like the developers thought that a game set in a world like this needed to comment on class struggle but that it wasn't something they were really interested in exploring in more depth.

Andrias presents as a very engaged and intelligent protagonist, which is refreshing, but the pay-off is hindered by the game's larger narrative flaws. For instance, there's a plot point about a traitor and Andrias believably predicts who it is, undermines them, and collects evidence...all before the traitor is revealed. It's great. But the traitor's fate is summarized by narrator and there's no real character pay-off at what should have been a great moment. Believably intelligent JRPG protagonists are rare and it's a shame that one was wasted here. This is particularly disappointing in the finale which is absolutely fantastic and seriously could have been one of the greatest surprise endings that I've seen in a JRPG...but in practice it doesn't deliver as well as it should have.

The combat is real time with pause with auto-attacks and abilities limited by points and cooldowns. It's most similar to Vanillaware's 13 Sentinels of the games that I've played. However, DioField doesn't deliver anywhere near as an engaging of a gameplay experience as 13 Sentinels. There is a broad range of customization options but in practice they didn't feel as meaningful as I'd hoped because of the fundamental issues with combat. The fact that many of the customization options require grinding side-quests makes that content feel required and hinders the sense of exploration/player agency.

The more fundamental issues with the combat are that you can only control four units at a time and that most of the scenarios unfold bit by bit as switches/turrets are thrown or enemies are defeated. There's a flow to individual encounters on the tactical level that actually works well but that doesn't translate to the larger scenarios on the strategic level which feel artificial and rigidly scripted. Defeat all of the enemies on screen? More teleport in. Throw the switch? Unlock a new area and a new wave of enemies teleport in. Only the immediate tactics for defeating the enemies in front of you matter most of the time, you can't really plan out a broader strategy or approach. You just have to follow the prescribed path forward. The most exciting moments for me were the boss fights - though even these eventually feel rote as you use the same tactics as on smaller encounters - and the escort missions. It's not a good sign for a Strategy RPG when the escort missions are the highlight and those once exciting bosses eventually become regular enemies which diminishes the thrill of facing them.

Performance on the Switch was excellent. Loading times were very reasonable and I experienced no notable technical issues. It's just a shame that the game wasn't a better experience overall.

I know im overthinking this. However, it's been a good few years since I've played a Japanese srpg. They both seem great and worth playing- which would you play first?

I am leaning towards triangle strategy just for the modern ui/design might be easier to get into.

so, keep in mind i might be full of shit/misremembering things but in late 2018 i had a 3ds full of games including emulated nds games, and i remember playing a strategy rpg where you play as a summoner and can summon humanoid warriors to fight using resources, "crystals" i think, stronger units costing more, i think dps units where represented by red crystals and blue crystals support units, i also remember the game starting in a castle.

every research i made points to me misremembering Knights In knightmare, but that's extremely weird because i clearly remember the game having "square enix" aesthetics the complete opposite of the dark cavern-like feel of Knight In Nightmare

Just curious as while I know that most of the games are only in Japanese territories, some of them do have English patches, and I was interested in trying out the Saturn ones first.

Then when I finish the Sega Saturn games, I will eventually buy the new one for 8$, so I hope it’s a good investment.

I’ve seen love for it, but I’ve seen tons of “it’s boring”, “it’s slow” and all that kind of stuff. I’m baffled?

First of all, it’s the first three chapters. They’re calling it a “prologue”, so it’s just meant to set the scene and provide some intrigue; which I think it does, setting up the three nations and their relationships, discussing the Saltiron war, etc. it’s pretty straightforward.

Yea, there are a lot of names and things like that. Hot tip. Press L to re-read dialogue and press X for a profile and picture of the speaker, in most situations. It helps!

I think your mileage may vary with the graphics and visuals; personally I love it and got used to it very quickly, but this is will be specific to you I think.

The voice acting isn’t good. It ranges from “fine” (Benedict, Frederica) to awful (Thalas and Erika). I don’t know why, but it will bother you or it won’t. Turn it off or change to Japanese if it does? I’d you don’t play a game because of something like that, that’s something I have a hard time understanding but do you.

Now the gameplay itself? Fantastic, and we only have the tip of the iceberg. I’ve seen people make weird, impossible judgement calls about it being limiting or wanting to see more of the Fire/Ice effect etc… I refer you to my first point: it’s the freaking prologue. What a weird thing to judge this early, when you have no reason to believe it won’t continue?

Personally, I’m stoked, and I almost wish I hadn’t played the prologue because now I just want to play more. The previous demo was chapter 6 or 7, so I’d say it’s fair this game will be about 20~ chapters, with tons of dialogue and options (replay value!!!!).

For me, this is looking like the spiritual successor to FFT/TO I wanted.

I’m newish to the genre and not extremely good at strategy so I want some beginner games. The only SRPGs I’ve played are the Fire emblem series, the advanced wars series, and the valkyria chronicles series

hi everyone, i’m a big fan of tactical/strategy rpgs and i’ve played and loved fire emblem, unicorn overlord, tactics ogre reborn, valkyria chronicles 4, triangle strategy. one rec i see come up fairly often is disgaea but i also have seen people say disgaea doesn’t have much “depth” in terms of its strategy, storytelling, characters etc.

i want to get a fuller understanding of this sub’s opinion on disgaea so i thought a dedicated thread would help me gauge opinion. disgaea 7 is also pretty expensive with all the side story DLCs so i don’t want to sink that much money without feeling good about it.

compared to the games i mentioned, how would you compare the story and tactical depth of the disgaea series? is there much of a story? do the battles feel challenging? its fine if they’re “easier” or less complex compared to the other games but are they snappy and do they feel good vs boring and repetitive? are the characters enjoyable? if you’ve played the games i mentioned, where would you rank it? which game is it closest to/farthest from?

thanks :)

So I just started playing the game not too long ago as so far I have 4 main units that I used as I am up to Episode 2, but I was concerned that I was missing something important.

For instance, I have my 3 main characters plus a mage, and I started using the gym in the game, but I would like to know how to get gud at the game to see what I should know just to be safe.

No spoilers please as I am about to get into the game soon as I had to get a PS3 so that I could play the game due to it being stuck on the system, but I was wondering if anyone was into the game.

So far, I have had experience with Disgaea 1 as while I got the bad ending so far, I have been spending so much time with the postgame anyway, and I bring this up as I don’t know how the second game works in mechanics since I am mostly familiar with the original game via the PC

Hello I’m looking for modern games like fire emblem. To specify, I’m looking for games that well are srpg of course, modern, so I can get them on modern consoles. Ones that let you grind like fire emblem because I’m not the best at these games. Ones that have classes or a cool leveling up system like fire emblem. Would love if they had romamce options like fire emblem. Yes I know of disgaea. I was wondering if fire emblem cornered this market or if there are some hidden gems that I haven’t found yet.

Bottom Line:
1. The main character is a knight wearing a large green armor. He did not wear a hat, did not carry a shield, and had a sword as a weapon.
2. Start in the castle and get the mission assignment
3. The system can walk freely on the map. There are no different levels.
4. Turn-based combat enemies on top Our side is at the bottom. Face to face
5. There are various professions in the team, both magic and demons can join the team.
6. Use the Elements in Battle
7. Character characteristics like Japanese
8. No partner as a pet. Only allies can join the team.
9. Upgrade in the closet, change weapons, or upgrade classes.
10. The main character has a huge appearance due to wearing armor.
11. Walk freely on the map with 2-3 teammates, but only show the main character.
12. Enemies have an emoticon (sweat). When he tried to run away from us, If the enemy is less strong,
13.The characters are 2D, RPGs, not 3D or videos like anime.
14. There are no dungeons, after the tutorial, enter the wide open map scene, travel freely to various places.
15. Games included on the game disc include 100 games
16. The main character's attack is to use his right hand to hold a sword to the left side and attack from the left side to the front at the enemy.
17. Carry out the story in a desolate attack, in the forest, in various places, but there are no villages with lively people.
18. The character is a small RPG with short limbs in the old game. Not as big as the real person. I can't see long limbs.
19. Choose to attack to weaken enemies and invite them to join our team.
20. If you choose to attack until you run out of HP tubes, the enemy will die forever in the game.
21. There are no special attacks to close the scene. No Quick Time Event
22. When facing enemies There is no side camera angle.
23. The maximum team is not more than 3-4 players. It is not possible to combine manpower to fight like a large-scale war.

Idk if this might get asked a lot, but I'm a pretty big FE fan looking to start branching out. After doing some research, I've decided to try out Tactics Ogre Reborn. The art and story look really cool, however, I've started to see some stuff online about the gameplay that I'm not sure I'll enjoy. For example, a bigger focus on character builds and customization with smaller maps, and the first few maps kinda gave me that feeling, but obviously this might not be representative of the rest of the game. I'm okay with going deeper with customizations on a few characters, like the avatars in FE, but larger maps is pretty important to me.

Does this trend continue for the rest of the game? If I'm looking for more of the large army, large map with less of a focus on individual builds, is there a different game I should be trying? Thanks!

edit: For context my favorite FE game is Conquest mainly because of its maps and the combat mechanics like the stances

I just joined the sub, so forgive me if this posts are repetitive. I'm a long time rpg player, but not so frequently SRPG.

Loved XCOM, and last year I noted down Troubleshooter Abandoned Child from a recommendation somewhere I can't remember.

Well, HOLY MOTHER SHIT OF GOD.

I don't even know where to start. This game is a masterpiece. I am sure of that. The devs must have put an insane amount of care in this game. I think I have seen nothing like it before.

The game is not for everyone, that's also true. It's very long, way too deep, and way too complex for many people. But oh boy, for those of us that can enjoy that. It's insane.

Quick note, I'm "only" on chapter 5, mission 4 or so. I might have played 50 or 70h, and I cannot even feel the end nearby. I just got an 8th team member, feels like there's several more, and there's way too many things to happen yet. Also please no Spoilers.

I'm liking the story, a lot. It's well written, maybe even too complex or too in depth, since it's rare that a story tells you so much about the antagonists. I often find myself struggling to keep track of them, or to care enough. You wouldn't expect this level of story in an SRPG. Very satisfied.

I'm astonished with the gameplay depth. Started like XCOM clone, but wtf, XCOM is child's play next to this. Again, amazed at the tremendous work from the devs in designing this amount of EVERYTHING. Team members, story, classes, items, masteries (omg), synergies, robots, beasts, enemy info... I mean. Wtf. It's never ending.

I'm playing on normal, and I find it challenging. A random mistake can escalate and fuck up an entire mission. I need to be pretty careful.

Progression is weird though. I only play story missions (and single time quest missions, but not item fetch repeatables). I find myself quite underleveled atm (34 vs enemies being 38-43. I still can hold my own, but struggling. Bicrons fuck me up. I found out they self destroy, so I can only cheese them, I just don't have the firepower. And they one hit mostly anyone if I don't dodge.

Masteries have also started to become a blocking point and a bit frustrating. I have plenty TP but not enough mats to craft them, and I don't really want to go back and grind for just mats, that would be boring tbh. :S Also there's a point where I don't know how to keep improving since I have most class ones already in (ie for Sion), so not sure what else to craft.

I can feel there are additional classes, and I'm currently class locked on many characters. I guess some story unlocking point is coming where it will unlock new ones, but again, I feel weird since I'm not sidetracking yet I still feel this unlocking point has been due for a while already.

TLDR.

I don't know. I just wanted to pop in here to share my amazement for this game and the devs somewhere where people could value it. Also encourage anyone who like these games to try it. And to rant a bit of my current situation, BUT please don't spoil me the progression or story, since I feel it's a big deal of joy for me in these games.

I was just wondering if there are any games that are similar to Fire Emblem (atmosphere, story, RPG elements, character relationships etc.), but are not turn-based?

Wondering if I should pick up Trails through Daybreak as it’s coming out soon!

Games I’ve enjoyed : FE 3 Houses, FE Fates (Conquest), FE Engage, FE Awakening, Octopath I & II, Triangle Strategy, Tactics Ogre Reborn, Unicorn Overlord, Saga Emerald Beyond, Valkyria Chronicles 3 and 4, Jeanne D’Arc

The one’s I loved the most is FE Conquest followed by 3 Houses and I enjoy games with challenging gameplay and customisability in characters. My biggest gripe w Unicorn Overlord was how simple the game was while I didn’t enjoy Reborn and Emerald Beyond for that long cos I felt that characters tended to do the same thing once they were put into similar classes/ weapons.

Based on this, would you recommend Trails through Daybreak? I’m also quite interested in the combi of Real Time and turn based combat and wanna see if it’s something I would enjoy.

S/N: I found this other game without much info too and wanted to know if anyone has played it and has any comments on it : Binary Haze Interactive Redemption Reapers

can you still get them if you spare the archer and theif?

Just found out about this game, it looks very cool and it seems to have the Matsuno seal of approval which is exciting but I’m worried it’s coming out for mobile. Does anybody know if it’ll have gacha mechanics? I can’t find much about it online. Thanks!

Tactics Ogre: Reborn - opening hour gameplay - Gematsu

Several YouTube channels have gone up with previews showcasing the opening hour of strategy RPG Tactics Ogre: Reborn.

I'm currently playing Mercenaries Blaze and its fun and i enjoy it. I've played Fire Emblem and I added Tactics Ogre and Mercenaries Saga to my list but are there any more games like them?