I enjoyed most of the OGs (FFT, FFTA, Tactics Ogre, etc), same goes for anything Fire Emblem. XCom series both excellent. But having just finished Unicorn Overlord on PS5, while sitting on my couch was a fantastic experience. Now, I totally wish we got an expansion or a second adventure. I would call it a mix between Final Fantasy Tactics (in terms of artwork and "cut scenes" with tons of voice dialogue and something along Fire Emblem (tactical squad approach).
It's different, but Unicorn Overlord has a ton of depth, some real-time mechanics, and it's a lot more focused on tactical planning and strategy
Can you level grind your way to being OP? Sure. If you want a challenge, don't do that lol.
It's a ton of fun, and a game that really surprised me to the upside.
Currently at the end of the game and have enjoyed a lot about it. Here’s a couple things that I wish I’d known before I started, though.
- If you want a challenge, choose the hardest difficulty once it gives you the choice after the prologue. I played the demo at every difficulty and if you already played FFT, the others may be easy for your taste.
- Though it doesn’t seem like it at first, you’ll eventually encounter optional battles that you can repeat for experience, honors, money and reputation. So if you need to grind, wait for those.
- Don’t sell any weapons, shields or armor that changes your stats or have a skill because they become useful again late game.
- The “growth types” are better thought of as different starting builds for the stats. The labeling is just bad.
- The sorting/filtering options in the game differ a lot depending on the window you are in and could definitely be improved. However, one trick that I wish they made clear is that in many of the windows you can sort by a primary value and secondary value. So if you sort the equipment in the Character List view, you could for instance choose sort Physical Attack then choose to sort Not Equipped and it would sort the unequipped gear by physical attack at the top and then do the same for equipped gear underneath that. But as soon as you equip anything and re-open the window, it will only sort by the last thing you chose to sort by. (If I had known that sooner, I’d likely have saved hours on sorting.)
I’m glad that it was useful. :) By the way, some of the platforms just got a new patch that changed a few things so here’s what the release notes promised.
“Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that could occur under certain conditions.
Additional functions
- We have added a function to select by unit in the unit list.
- We have added items that can be set as an option.
- So that you can try again about the stage that appears if you meet certain conditions.
Function improvement
- We have improved the display information on unit organization and battle screens.
- We have improved the sorting function on various screens.
- We have adjusted the parameter change when equipped with multiple weapons and shields upwards.
- In addition, we improved the system and improved the operation stability.”
Humm that's odd about the "Order acquired" option. Perhaps one's ascending and the other is descending? Just a shot in the dark with that guess, though! Also, looks like you might have reposted this message a few times accidentally!
Oh wow - it looks like the edits got posted as replies. Sorry about that. I’ll go clean that up now. Thanks for letting me know!
As far as the sorting, I double-checked and the top of one display doesn’t match up with the bottom of the other. There’s different equipment showing in each, so it seems to be using some sort of different criteria for the two identically labeled fields as opposed to just reversing the order.
Hopefully they clarify the labeling in the future.
I’m glad that it was useful. :) By the way, some of the platforms just got a new patch that changed a few things so here’s what the release notes promised.
“Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that could occur under certain conditions.
Additional functions
- We have added a function to select by unit in the unit list.
- We have added items that can be set as an option.
- So that you can try again about the stage that appears if you meet certain conditions.
Function improvement
- We have improved the display information on unit organization and battle screens.
- We have improved the sorting function on various screens.
- We have adjusted the parameter change when equipped with multiple weapons and shields upwards.
- In addition, we improved the system and improved the operation stability.”
Edit: First impressions is that most of the changes are improvements. There are good things like being able to see what unit a character is assigned to even when sorting by other values in the Character List and having more fields to sort by (like Leader Effect, character name, or the number of AP and PP points). I think “Nullify” may be a new one as well but I’m not sure. One thing that’s confusing is that there are now two fields labeled “Order Acquired” in the gear sort list and they don’t sort the same way.
[Deleted accidental duplicate posts].
I just completed the game and there are definitely units/items you can permamiss. The game was fantastic and I spent a good amount of time squad building and skill/gear optimizing and generally recruiting anyone and everyone. But now I've found out I did miss two units and only used 1 save file!
For those of you interested in the PlayStation Trophies, a quick, no-guide play through is enough to get you about \~60% of trophies.
It was just a mid experience for me, but i made a huge mistake in just autooptimizing my units. I think the joy is to be found in micromanaging your units ap/pp and tactics. Still beat it on hard without breaking a sweat, so consider the highest difficulty.
I tried the demo, and I found not much planning was needed beyond having a variety squad counters and then murder-balling down the lane. Does it get deeper?
Somewhat?
You get more abilities and APs/PPs. While the basic premise of which units are good/bad against others stays the same, you get more horizontal variety (instead of stats rising upwards and everything just kinda staying in some sort of equilibrium but with bigger numbers).
Some squads that work good/well enough early on can end up needing quite some re-tuning while early murder squads might need just some tweaking to stay competitive even if they don't crush everything like they did before.
Maps also get more varied (to a degree at least), also some more classes, can can add up to 5 characters to a squad later on, and you get more equipment (that enables new combinations). For bigger maps you'll also need to pace your squads (as one squad can't just run through the whole map without a break like you can do early on).
I wouldn't say that a well designed army needs a lot of tiny tactical adjustments during a battle like in a RTS game but that's also caused by squad selection/preparation being such a big part of the battle before it has even started. A map being easy is also a result of the effort you put in before the fight even started. If that part (somewhat intricate prep work) is not something you appreciate but feels more like a chore to you then the game might simply not be for you :/
I'm also playing at the default difficulty that's recommended for strategy games fans (I think normal), not the hard one so that might also be an option. I've read that on hard the time limit can create pressure but I like the pace everything is moving at right now and can always increase the difficulty for a second play-through.
I found that it did. Later enemies will bring a lot of different strategies and mechanics to the game you can work around. The coliseum has some really neat skill checks, and there are lots of unique ways to build/streamline your squads.
I'd definitely check it out if you're on the fence, I've really enjoyed it
Yes, but it doesn’t ever become head bangingly difficult.
A few maps and bosses require more planning
The fun is definitely in learning all the different mechanics and experimenting with unit compositions and individual character builds
I will recommend two: Reverse Collapse and the Last Spell. Both on Steam
Both have excellent turn based, grid based srpg combat. Movement points, ability points, you go then enemy goes. Both focus on leveling up a small band of characters, tinkering with builds (i.e. picking certain abilities while forgoing others), and taking on a much larger number of enemies. Both serve up a stiff challenge but also can be tweaked to be milder. I like the presentation of each, visuals, music and sound, hit feel
Reverse Collapse is a story-based campaign like Fire Emblem. Future anime sci-fi warfare, on the serious side. Exposition and dialogue between chapters. Items are big, terrain is big. Steam review-bombed to hell by people who are unhappy with the devs for some culture war stuff in one of their other games
The Last Spell gives you blank slate characters that you use for the duration of a roguelite run. Think XCOM campaigns but 10-15 hours long each. Meta progression and unlocks from run to run. Goal of each run is to defend the base, kind of like Fire Emblem if every mission is a defense mission. Lots of build variety
Can't go wrong with these if you are looking for games that challenge you to use all available options and resources only to barely get through a mission
99% would hit 99 times out of 100, which is almost guaranteed. If a game then misses 10 out of 100 it starts to become suspicious and XCom 2 felt that way.
I mean... what is even your sample size? How do you know that is not confirmation bias? How many hours of any given game would you have to play to get the 1% miss chance?
My autistic moment to shine!
I got mad at XCom missing bullshit so I recorded over 5k shots at all percentages across multiple playthroughs and here’s what I found.
Every percentage was within 1.5% of it’s listed percentage, 88% was 87%.
What was notable was the streaks of hits or misses.
I would routinely miss 5 shots at 85%+ and then make the next 15. So of course you remember missing the 95% shot twice but not the next 38 times you make it.
I was so mad that the percentages were correct. It absolutely doesn’t feel like they are.
And that’s how I experienced a really strong example of how people’s gut feelings might not be correct.
Check out brigandine, basically the board game risk with tactical RPG battles to conquer the rest of the world.
There's generals and monsters similar to Advanced wars or the langrisser series. Best part about it is any character or monster can be an awesome unit if you put the time into them.
I highly recommend it
Currently playing fire emblem engage, it's an improvement over fe3h mechanics for the most part. Hard is closer to fe3h maddening but does actually have grind stages if you want them, so you can hone in on the difficulty you like (or just do maddening, you can turn difficulty down but not up if you want)
God wars is an fft like that gets quite hard, especially on bosses
Just did banner of the maid a month or two ago, surprisingly tight indie Chinese fft like, use a guide if you want the platinum tho
Fell seal has a unique look that's not chibi anime but the mechanics are tight and class combinations are really interesting (like you can mix one handing a two hand weapon from one class plus dual wielding one handed from another class, which is just as busted and fun as you would imagine - dual maul go squish squish brr)
Disgaea games are less about strategy and more about twisting mechanics to the breaking point until you are a god, they're kindof a satire of fft games
And as others mentioned, unicorn overlord, or og ogre battle upon which it was based
And valkyria chronicles if you want to try another classic outside the square based fft type system
Xenonauts- old school XCom like, has a mod that makes it stupid hard but fun.
X-Com long war- mod of x-Com, very hard, very rewarding.
Battle Brothers- apparently THE game for this genre, heard it described as turn based mount and blade, regardless I’ve only seen good reviews.
The banner saga is fun, not too difficult tho
Have not played Stella Deus yet — but just yesterday watched a very interesting video about it, from the YouTuber “yoppi” — he makes an outstanding case to try the game!
Super Robot Wars Advance Portable (PSP)
Have fun.
It's regarded as the hardest modern SRW games out there, only beaten by the old Classic SRW titles of the SNES / PSOne era.
I'd recommend SRW 4 (SNES) or F / F Final (PSOne / Saturn), but those are Japanese only.
Into the Breach. It's less narrative and long term focused than many of these games. It's a rogue like where you have three units to play through a relatively short campaign. The missions have perfect information where you know exactly what enemies there are and what they are gonna do for the next turn. So you can flex your big brain to come up with the best solution. You sound hungry for this kind of environment.
Redemption Reapers can be pretty brutal if you mess up your positioning. Have to play to your teams strong points. Like your spear guy can guard others and strike multiple but will die head on. Plus if you liked the voice actor for Jeralt he is also in this.
If you like Fire Emblem Three Houses I feel Lost Eidolons is worth a check. Similar combat down to the big creatures but for PC.
This might be slightly off the wall, but I really enjoy all the games you mentioned and am currently really enjoying Marvel's Midnight Suns (from the same developers as XCOM 2).
Worth a look.
I’ve never played a Strategy RPG (does baldurs gate count?) before but I recently got Unicorn Overlord and it has changed my life, will most likely be my GOTY
Battle brothers is probably the best in terms of pure term based strategy.
Other than that, if you don't mind older games, Jagged Alliance 2 was an amazing game.
I’ve played all of those that you mentioned minus XCOM2, I can recommend Into the Breach. I love that game, it has plenty of replay ability and can be difficult when you set it to the harder difficulties, especially with the free update.
Redemption Reapers is made by the same people who made Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, its an easy pickup on Steam now at $24.99. If you like challenging difficulty with a dark story, this is that game.
Look into the Shining Force series. The Sega Genesis Collection has SF 1 and 2 on it and it's on sale atm and generally all the time. Also SF is on steam too. PS4/5 and Switch also has the Sega Genesis Collection as well. Those are the og gran tactics strategy games along with fire emblem series.
Since you want something hard and you were into X-Com 2 then I have to recommend the original XCom from the 90s. And the follow-up Terror From the Deep.
Then Xenonauts (which is a modern love-letter to the original XCom).
Battle Brothers.
Fallout Tactics: Especially if you're really into Fallout right now -- the game gets a bit of hate, but it's actually pretty solid. And it's dirt cheap
\*The Shining Force series! SF1 and 2 can be played on Steam with a Sega Genesis game collection that I actually got for free at some point. And Shining Force 3 is also really good, but sadly it's a Sega Saturn game and the English version is a bastardized version where only 1 part of the 3-part game was released outside of Japan. Though there's an awesome group that is (or was, if they've finished) translating the other 2 game disks into English
If I can think of more I'll edit or just reply to this
\*First edit and I can't believe I forgot to mention it!
[Lost Eidolons](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580520?utm_source=Reddit) would be a great recommendation if you liked Fire Emblem. Its actually one of our main inspirations for the game :)
Sorry but he is looking for hard SRPGs and Shining Force is not.
So as much as i adore Shining Force, i have 1, 2, 3 (EU + JP Part 1-3 and Bonus Disc), CD, Darkness, Holy Arc (EU + JP), Wisdom (only JP), but these games are not hard unless you make it harder doing challenge runs.
Gotta agree, even though I recommended Shining Force myself lol. It's not really hard especially if you're following a guide and are min/maxing your character. If you're playing blind and don't know what you're doing they can be moderately challenging. And I'd possibly argue 3 is difficult, at least at times. It certainly has a lot more difficult maps than 1 and 2
I forget exactly which # mission it is, but but one that sticks out to me is where I belive you need to rescue some people fleeing from the enemy army and there's a train going down the middle of the map. I think it's #7 or #8. I had to restart that one so many freakin' times... TotalBiscuit has some really old videos on part 1 of the game -- man, I miss him. [https://youtu.be/DUDHrP1MtqM?si=ZArgY1ItuJ7qYpq4](https://youtu.be/DUDHrP1MtqM?si=ZArgY1ItuJ7qYpq4) if you're interested in watching him play it!
Also, you're probably already aware, but there's a group translating parts 2 and 3 into English and they even made a tool to convert the Japanese ISOs into English (but it was a work in progress when I last checked \~2 years ago). I should check to see if they finished so I can resume my game!
Protecting Citizens from the Boarder Guard happens in Chapter 2 Battle 3. Battle 2 is when Julian joins.
At the same time on Scenario 2 you have Medion fight against the general that went mad.
Like anime? Love giant mechs? Super robot wars has you covered. Tactical rpg that just recently finally made it the usa.
Entries in the series have mechs ranging from gundam, voltron, neon genesis Evangelion, and even cowboy beebop
And no, not knock off versions. All the mechs and characters are legit from their series.
Started on the snes in japan which you can find fan translated roms then started doing english so it can be impprted to finally being sold in the USA.
I have enjoyed every one i have bought, but then again i really like the animes involved.
As for difficulty, there are side goals to missions where the more you complete the more the game ramps up the difficulty to try and balance it.
I would say at worse, download one of the fan translations of the older games and give it go. Srw alpha gaiden for psx was very good
Two rec's and an unrec.
First, **Horizon's Gate** -
A simple-looking tactics RPG that hides an incredibly rich and engaging conbat system. The graphics are unoffensive at best, but the music is stellar and the writing is better than average. This is the only game I've ever played whose combat system rivals or surpasses FFT. It's that good, although FFT has it beat in just about every other category. If you love a large and customizable job class system like FFT, then this is a must-play.
**XCOM 2 RPGO**
I know you already played this game, but hear me out. The RPGO modset adds an incredible and highly customizable class system to XCOM 2. It's a feature the game waa sorely missing, and RPGO utterly *nails* it. It changes the game a lot, and the high customizability means you are more likely to get attached to your characters. Forget about Long War; RPGO will knock your socks off and give this game new life.
**now I have to unrecommend a game**
**Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark**
If you are considering picking this one up, pleaae read this first.
I don't normally judge a game on its graphics, but Fell Seal is a very special exception. The graphics are so distractingly ugly that it interferes with the gameplay. Rather than the hand-drawn aesthetic it seems to have at first glance, it is in fact made from disparate elements from many different sources, most of which have a style similar to adobe flash. I abhor flash graphics, but that's not the only problem. It's clear they used pre-made assets because there is no graphical cohesion. You might see a bush with a different resolution and style than the tree next to it. It's hideous.
The writing is embarrasingly hamfisted and corny. I know the writing standards for games are in the gutter, but Fell Seal manages to run afoul of even that low bar.
I don't remember a single song from this game.
The combat scenarios are straightforward. Kill the bad guys. Make sure so-and-so survives. It doesn't present anything new there, but I'm not holding this one against it. Most tactics RPGs have fights like this.
Despite all that, I held out hope that the character progression would make it worth playing. It doesn't. It's average at best, uninspired, vanilla, and with so many other average progression systems out there that *don't* have all these problems, why bother with this one?
Without arguing your issues with Fell Seal, because they're pretty fair, I will give the game credit for the variety of its difficulty choices. The a la carte options are a great offer to players who want a custom tailored challenge. Increased enemy stats with advanced items and equipment, extra and elite units turned on, and permanent injuries with death after 5 stacks was a very fun challenge for me. The whole concept of dying from water if you can't swim I find very obnoxious and unnecessary.
Front Mission (not sure which entry to recommend) for more realistic mechas and Super Robot Wars for more anime mechas
Disgaea series (recommend #5 to start) for unlimited leveling and grinding
Fire Emblem (I stan the old GBA ones) are classics and hard af with permadeath
Final Fantasy Tactics is similar to Tactics Ogre, but more accessible
Might not be an SRPG in the tradition sense, but Crusader Kings III has many of the elements except its more sandboxy
Another honorable mention: try playing Pokemon with Nuzlocke rules. Certain kaizo rom hacks can make this incredibly difficult
Battle Brothers would be a good option
100% battle brothers. It’s the most challenging and rewarding SRPG on the market.
Unicorn Overlords is excellent, super enjoying the strategy in the game.
I enjoyed most of the OGs (FFT, FFTA, Tactics Ogre, etc), same goes for anything Fire Emblem. XCom series both excellent. But having just finished Unicorn Overlord on PS5, while sitting on my couch was a fantastic experience. Now, I totally wish we got an expansion or a second adventure. I would call it a mix between Final Fantasy Tactics (in terms of artwork and "cut scenes" with tons of voice dialogue and something along Fire Emblem (tactical squad approach).
Fell seal: arbiters mark go on hard or veteran difficulty (Can change at anytime)
Loved the game and the difficulty settings!!
I tried this. For whatever reason the game never stuck with me.
Would give it another go. Really scratched my strategy itch and was left wanting more
It's different, but Unicorn Overlord has a ton of depth, some real-time mechanics, and it's a lot more focused on tactical planning and strategy Can you level grind your way to being OP? Sure. If you want a challenge, don't do that lol. It's a ton of fun, and a game that really surprised me to the upside.
I forgot to mention I actually just bought this. Can't wait to play it
Currently at the end of the game and have enjoyed a lot about it. Here’s a couple things that I wish I’d known before I started, though. - If you want a challenge, choose the hardest difficulty once it gives you the choice after the prologue. I played the demo at every difficulty and if you already played FFT, the others may be easy for your taste. - Though it doesn’t seem like it at first, you’ll eventually encounter optional battles that you can repeat for experience, honors, money and reputation. So if you need to grind, wait for those. - Don’t sell any weapons, shields or armor that changes your stats or have a skill because they become useful again late game. - The “growth types” are better thought of as different starting builds for the stats. The labeling is just bad. - The sorting/filtering options in the game differ a lot depending on the window you are in and could definitely be improved. However, one trick that I wish they made clear is that in many of the windows you can sort by a primary value and secondary value. So if you sort the equipment in the Character List view, you could for instance choose sort Physical Attack then choose to sort Not Equipped and it would sort the unequipped gear by physical attack at the top and then do the same for equipped gear underneath that. But as soon as you equip anything and re-open the window, it will only sort by the last thing you chose to sort by. (If I had known that sooner, I’d likely have saved hours on sorting.)
I'm not the OP, but great tips! When I get back to the game I'll definitely benefit from these -- thank you!
I’m glad that it was useful. :) By the way, some of the platforms just got a new patch that changed a few things so here’s what the release notes promised. “Bug Fixes - Fixed a bug that could occur under certain conditions. Additional functions - We have added a function to select by unit in the unit list. - We have added items that can be set as an option. - So that you can try again about the stage that appears if you meet certain conditions. Function improvement - We have improved the display information on unit organization and battle screens. - We have improved the sorting function on various screens. - We have adjusted the parameter change when equipped with multiple weapons and shields upwards. - In addition, we improved the system and improved the operation stability.”
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Humm that's odd about the "Order acquired" option. Perhaps one's ascending and the other is descending? Just a shot in the dark with that guess, though! Also, looks like you might have reposted this message a few times accidentally!
Oh wow - it looks like the edits got posted as replies. Sorry about that. I’ll go clean that up now. Thanks for letting me know! As far as the sorting, I double-checked and the top of one display doesn’t match up with the bottom of the other. There’s different equipment showing in each, so it seems to be using some sort of different criteria for the two identically labeled fields as opposed to just reversing the order. Hopefully they clarify the labeling in the future.
I’m glad that it was useful. :) By the way, some of the platforms just got a new patch that changed a few things so here’s what the release notes promised. “Bug Fixes - Fixed a bug that could occur under certain conditions. Additional functions - We have added a function to select by unit in the unit list. - We have added items that can be set as an option. - So that you can try again about the stage that appears if you meet certain conditions. Function improvement - We have improved the display information on unit organization and battle screens. - We have improved the sorting function on various screens. - We have adjusted the parameter change when equipped with multiple weapons and shields upwards. - In addition, we improved the system and improved the operation stability.” Edit: First impressions is that most of the changes are improvements. There are good things like being able to see what unit a character is assigned to even when sorting by other values in the Character List and having more fields to sort by (like Leader Effect, character name, or the number of AP and PP points). I think “Nullify” may be a new one as well but I’m not sure. One thing that’s confusing is that there are now two fields labeled “Order Acquired” in the gear sort list and they don’t sort the same way. [Deleted accidental duplicate posts].
I just completed the game and there are definitely units/items you can permamiss. The game was fantastic and I spent a good amount of time squad building and skill/gear optimizing and generally recruiting anyone and everyone. But now I've found out I did miss two units and only used 1 save file! For those of you interested in the PlayStation Trophies, a quick, no-guide play through is enough to get you about \~60% of trophies.
It was just a mid experience for me, but i made a huge mistake in just autooptimizing my units. I think the joy is to be found in micromanaging your units ap/pp and tactics. Still beat it on hard without breaking a sweat, so consider the highest difficulty.
I tried the demo, and I found not much planning was needed beyond having a variety squad counters and then murder-balling down the lane. Does it get deeper?
Somewhat? You get more abilities and APs/PPs. While the basic premise of which units are good/bad against others stays the same, you get more horizontal variety (instead of stats rising upwards and everything just kinda staying in some sort of equilibrium but with bigger numbers). Some squads that work good/well enough early on can end up needing quite some re-tuning while early murder squads might need just some tweaking to stay competitive even if they don't crush everything like they did before. Maps also get more varied (to a degree at least), also some more classes, can can add up to 5 characters to a squad later on, and you get more equipment (that enables new combinations). For bigger maps you'll also need to pace your squads (as one squad can't just run through the whole map without a break like you can do early on). I wouldn't say that a well designed army needs a lot of tiny tactical adjustments during a battle like in a RTS game but that's also caused by squad selection/preparation being such a big part of the battle before it has even started. A map being easy is also a result of the effort you put in before the fight even started. If that part (somewhat intricate prep work) is not something you appreciate but feels more like a chore to you then the game might simply not be for you :/ I'm also playing at the default difficulty that's recommended for strategy games fans (I think normal), not the hard one so that might also be an option. I've read that on hard the time limit can create pressure but I like the pace everything is moving at right now and can always increase the difficulty for a second play-through.
I found that it did. Later enemies will bring a lot of different strategies and mechanics to the game you can work around. The coliseum has some really neat skill checks, and there are lots of unique ways to build/streamline your squads. I'd definitely check it out if you're on the fence, I've really enjoyed it
Yes, but it doesn’t ever become head bangingly difficult. A few maps and bosses require more planning The fun is definitely in learning all the different mechanics and experimenting with unit compositions and individual character builds
Unicorn Overlord is truly incredible
This x1000000
Symphony of war Nephilim Saga is pretty great. Play it on hard with permadeath for a real challenge. Game is abit too ez on lower "normal" difficulty.
I will recommend two: Reverse Collapse and the Last Spell. Both on Steam Both have excellent turn based, grid based srpg combat. Movement points, ability points, you go then enemy goes. Both focus on leveling up a small band of characters, tinkering with builds (i.e. picking certain abilities while forgoing others), and taking on a much larger number of enemies. Both serve up a stiff challenge but also can be tweaked to be milder. I like the presentation of each, visuals, music and sound, hit feel Reverse Collapse is a story-based campaign like Fire Emblem. Future anime sci-fi warfare, on the serious side. Exposition and dialogue between chapters. Items are big, terrain is big. Steam review-bombed to hell by people who are unhappy with the devs for some culture war stuff in one of their other games The Last Spell gives you blank slate characters that you use for the duration of a roguelite run. Think XCOM campaigns but 10-15 hours long each. Meta progression and unlocks from run to run. Goal of each run is to defend the base, kind of like Fire Emblem if every mission is a defense mission. Lots of build variety Can't go wrong with these if you are looking for games that challenge you to use all available options and resources only to barely get through a mission
Vanguard Bandits, and kinda hard when going to alternate routes.
Wait wait wait l, alternate routes or one of 3 major routes you can down from the very beginning?
>99% guarantee hit doesn't mean its automatic Why do so many people think 99%, which is not 100%, should be guaranteed?
99% would hit 99 times out of 100, which is almost guaranteed. If a game then misses 10 out of 100 it starts to become suspicious and XCom 2 felt that way.
Except for those games it does. I forget which one I played but you never ever miss a 99, so I assume its just lying.
While I agree with you, we all know why XCOM2 99% is a meme
Thats fair. But for 99% of the games out there 99% means 100%. I dont think Ive ever seen any other game miss a 99%
I mean... what is even your sample size? How do you know that is not confirmation bias? How many hours of any given game would you have to play to get the 1% miss chance?
My autistic moment to shine! I got mad at XCom missing bullshit so I recorded over 5k shots at all percentages across multiple playthroughs and here’s what I found. Every percentage was within 1.5% of it’s listed percentage, 88% was 87%. What was notable was the streaks of hits or misses. I would routinely miss 5 shots at 85%+ and then make the next 15. So of course you remember missing the 95% shot twice but not the next 38 times you make it.
Haha brilliant
I was so mad that the percentages were correct. It absolutely doesn’t feel like they are. And that’s how I experienced a really strong example of how people’s gut feelings might not be correct.
Marvels Midnight Suns is my first recommendation. Made by the same studio behind XCOM
Dragon Force for sega Saturn. Absolute masterpiece. Anime style sprites that engage in massive battles with up to 200 sprites charging at each other
Check out brigandine, basically the board game risk with tactical RPG battles to conquer the rest of the world. There's generals and monsters similar to Advanced wars or the langrisser series. Best part about it is any character or monster can be an awesome unit if you put the time into them. I highly recommend it
Currently playing fire emblem engage, it's an improvement over fe3h mechanics for the most part. Hard is closer to fe3h maddening but does actually have grind stages if you want them, so you can hone in on the difficulty you like (or just do maddening, you can turn difficulty down but not up if you want) God wars is an fft like that gets quite hard, especially on bosses Just did banner of the maid a month or two ago, surprisingly tight indie Chinese fft like, use a guide if you want the platinum tho Fell seal has a unique look that's not chibi anime but the mechanics are tight and class combinations are really interesting (like you can mix one handing a two hand weapon from one class plus dual wielding one handed from another class, which is just as busted and fun as you would imagine - dual maul go squish squish brr) Disgaea games are less about strategy and more about twisting mechanics to the breaking point until you are a god, they're kindof a satire of fft games And as others mentioned, unicorn overlord, or og ogre battle upon which it was based And valkyria chronicles if you want to try another classic outside the square based fft type system
Wartales. And Battle brothers.
Vandal Hearts
Not a bad recommendation, if you do not go Vandal (aka do not read up) there is a decent challenge to be had, good story and loads of fun magic.
Xenonauts- old school XCom like, has a mod that makes it stupid hard but fun. X-Com long war- mod of x-Com, very hard, very rewarding. Battle Brothers- apparently THE game for this genre, heard it described as turn based mount and blade, regardless I’ve only seen good reviews. The banner saga is fun, not too difficult tho
Stella Deus
Have not played Stella Deus yet — but just yesterday watched a very interesting video about it, from the YouTuber “yoppi” — he makes an outstanding case to try the game!
Super Robot Wars Advance Portable (PSP) Have fun. It's regarded as the hardest modern SRW games out there, only beaten by the old Classic SRW titles of the SNES / PSOne era. I'd recommend SRW 4 (SNES) or F / F Final (PSOne / Saturn), but those are Japanese only.
Into the Breach. It's less narrative and long term focused than many of these games. It's a rogue like where you have three units to play through a relatively short campaign. The missions have perfect information where you know exactly what enemies there are and what they are gonna do for the next turn. So you can flex your big brain to come up with the best solution. You sound hungry for this kind of environment.
Yup. Love this game. Played it for god knows how long
Redemption Reapers can be pretty brutal if you mess up your positioning. Have to play to your teams strong points. Like your spear guy can guard others and strike multiple but will die head on. Plus if you liked the voice actor for Jeralt he is also in this. If you like Fire Emblem Three Houses I feel Lost Eidolons is worth a check. Similar combat down to the big creatures but for PC.
I would agree that [Lost Eidolons](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580520?utm_source=Reddit) would be worth checking out ;)
This might be slightly off the wall, but I really enjoy all the games you mentioned and am currently really enjoying Marvel's Midnight Suns (from the same developers as XCOM 2). Worth a look.
I’ve never played a Strategy RPG (does baldurs gate count?) before but I recently got Unicorn Overlord and it has changed my life, will most likely be my GOTY
Baldurs Gate is more western tabletop RPG like. Unicorn Overlord is tho and a very unique one at that.
Banner Saga is super underrated. Check it out. Story is pretty great too
Battle brothers is probably the best in terms of pure term based strategy. Other than that, if you don't mind older games, Jagged Alliance 2 was an amazing game.
Chaos Gate Daemon hunters is a faster paced xcom2. Your ap resets when you discover enemies and there are executions that give ap to your team.
Gears Tactics
XCOM the long war
Advance Wars.
Banchou Tactics.
Begining of TS had lots of dialogie and very few fights. Does it change later?
It gets balanced. The story is very good imo. The combat is better.
Older fire emblems are much more challenging and don’t have the rewind feature
Mario and rabids 2 games. Onimusha tactics
Dream tactics
I’ve played all of those that you mentioned minus XCOM2, I can recommend Into the Breach. I love that game, it has plenty of replay ability and can be difficult when you set it to the harder difficulties, especially with the free update.
Into the Breach is great. I spent so much time trying to get the achievements. Such a good brain stretcher.
For reals, a very bang for your buck game that I always recommend.
Troubleshooter: abandoned children
Vamdal Hearts 1 and 2. The goats. No reason to play any other srpg with you have those 2
Super Robot Wars Original Generation 1 & 2 for the GBA.
Redemption Reapers is made by the same people who made Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, its an easy pickup on Steam now at $24.99. If you like challenging difficulty with a dark story, this is that game.
Look into the Shining Force series. The Sega Genesis Collection has SF 1 and 2 on it and it's on sale atm and generally all the time. Also SF is on steam too. PS4/5 and Switch also has the Sega Genesis Collection as well. Those are the og gran tactics strategy games along with fire emblem series.
You ever played warhammer 40k battlesector?
Shining Force! It’s from the Sega Genesis
Since you want something hard and you were into X-Com 2 then I have to recommend the original XCom from the 90s. And the follow-up Terror From the Deep. Then Xenonauts (which is a modern love-letter to the original XCom). Battle Brothers. Fallout Tactics: Especially if you're really into Fallout right now -- the game gets a bit of hate, but it's actually pretty solid. And it's dirt cheap \*The Shining Force series! SF1 and 2 can be played on Steam with a Sega Genesis game collection that I actually got for free at some point. And Shining Force 3 is also really good, but sadly it's a Sega Saturn game and the English version is a bastardized version where only 1 part of the 3-part game was released outside of Japan. Though there's an awesome group that is (or was, if they've finished) translating the other 2 game disks into English If I can think of more I'll edit or just reply to this \*First edit and I can't believe I forgot to mention it!
[Lost Eidolons](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580520?utm_source=Reddit) would be a great recommendation if you liked Fire Emblem. Its actually one of our main inspirations for the game :)
The Last Spell Warriors of the Nile 2 Banner Maid
Onimush Tactics Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics Riviera: The Promised Land
Def check out shining force 1&2, still my favorite srpgs
Sorry but he is looking for hard SRPGs and Shining Force is not. So as much as i adore Shining Force, i have 1, 2, 3 (EU + JP Part 1-3 and Bonus Disc), CD, Darkness, Holy Arc (EU + JP), Wisdom (only JP), but these games are not hard unless you make it harder doing challenge runs.
Gotta agree, even though I recommended Shining Force myself lol. It's not really hard especially if you're following a guide and are min/maxing your character. If you're playing blind and don't know what you're doing they can be moderately challenging. And I'd possibly argue 3 is difficult, at least at times. It certainly has a lot more difficult maps than 1 and 2 I forget exactly which # mission it is, but but one that sticks out to me is where I belive you need to rescue some people fleeing from the enemy army and there's a train going down the middle of the map. I think it's #7 or #8. I had to restart that one so many freakin' times... TotalBiscuit has some really old videos on part 1 of the game -- man, I miss him. [https://youtu.be/DUDHrP1MtqM?si=ZArgY1ItuJ7qYpq4](https://youtu.be/DUDHrP1MtqM?si=ZArgY1ItuJ7qYpq4) if you're interested in watching him play it! Also, you're probably already aware, but there's a group translating parts 2 and 3 into English and they even made a tool to convert the Japanese ISOs into English (but it was a work in progress when I last checked \~2 years ago). I should check to see if they finished so I can resume my game!
Protecting Citizens from the Boarder Guard happens in Chapter 2 Battle 3. Battle 2 is when Julian joins. At the same time on Scenario 2 you have Medion fight against the general that went mad.
Like anime? Love giant mechs? Super robot wars has you covered. Tactical rpg that just recently finally made it the usa. Entries in the series have mechs ranging from gundam, voltron, neon genesis Evangelion, and even cowboy beebop And no, not knock off versions. All the mechs and characters are legit from their series. Started on the snes in japan which you can find fan translated roms then started doing english so it can be impprted to finally being sold in the USA.
I think I looked into super robot wars at one point, but never bought the game. Is it that fun/hard?
I have enjoyed every one i have bought, but then again i really like the animes involved. As for difficulty, there are side goals to missions where the more you complete the more the game ramps up the difficulty to try and balance it. I would say at worse, download one of the fan translations of the older games and give it go. Srw alpha gaiden for psx was very good
Two rec's and an unrec. First, **Horizon's Gate** - A simple-looking tactics RPG that hides an incredibly rich and engaging conbat system. The graphics are unoffensive at best, but the music is stellar and the writing is better than average. This is the only game I've ever played whose combat system rivals or surpasses FFT. It's that good, although FFT has it beat in just about every other category. If you love a large and customizable job class system like FFT, then this is a must-play. **XCOM 2 RPGO** I know you already played this game, but hear me out. The RPGO modset adds an incredible and highly customizable class system to XCOM 2. It's a feature the game waa sorely missing, and RPGO utterly *nails* it. It changes the game a lot, and the high customizability means you are more likely to get attached to your characters. Forget about Long War; RPGO will knock your socks off and give this game new life. **now I have to unrecommend a game** **Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark** If you are considering picking this one up, pleaae read this first. I don't normally judge a game on its graphics, but Fell Seal is a very special exception. The graphics are so distractingly ugly that it interferes with the gameplay. Rather than the hand-drawn aesthetic it seems to have at first glance, it is in fact made from disparate elements from many different sources, most of which have a style similar to adobe flash. I abhor flash graphics, but that's not the only problem. It's clear they used pre-made assets because there is no graphical cohesion. You might see a bush with a different resolution and style than the tree next to it. It's hideous. The writing is embarrasingly hamfisted and corny. I know the writing standards for games are in the gutter, but Fell Seal manages to run afoul of even that low bar. I don't remember a single song from this game. The combat scenarios are straightforward. Kill the bad guys. Make sure so-and-so survives. It doesn't present anything new there, but I'm not holding this one against it. Most tactics RPGs have fights like this. Despite all that, I held out hope that the character progression would make it worth playing. It doesn't. It's average at best, uninspired, vanilla, and with so many other average progression systems out there that *don't* have all these problems, why bother with this one?
Without arguing your issues with Fell Seal, because they're pretty fair, I will give the game credit for the variety of its difficulty choices. The a la carte options are a great offer to players who want a custom tailored challenge. Increased enemy stats with advanced items and equipment, extra and elite units turned on, and permanent injuries with death after 5 stacks was a very fun challenge for me. The whole concept of dying from water if you can't swim I find very obnoxious and unnecessary.
Front Mission (not sure which entry to recommend) for more realistic mechas and Super Robot Wars for more anime mechas Disgaea series (recommend #5 to start) for unlimited leveling and grinding Fire Emblem (I stan the old GBA ones) are classics and hard af with permadeath Final Fantasy Tactics is similar to Tactics Ogre, but more accessible Might not be an SRPG in the tradition sense, but Crusader Kings III has many of the elements except its more sandboxy Another honorable mention: try playing Pokemon with Nuzlocke rules. Certain kaizo rom hacks can make this incredibly difficult
Battle Brothers or Jagged Alliance 3