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Good "isometric/tactics" turn-based game recommendations?

I

Insaniac

Member
Love me some turn-based games, especially the tactics style games like Fire Emblem and Advance Wars and FF tactics. Looking for some recommendations of other ones

I have played:

advance wars series, fire emblem series, Final fantasy tactics series

(I especially love tactics style games with leveling and gear and spells etc)
 
Sounds like Divinity is perfect for you. The enhanced edition just came out, too.

Great RPG with great isometric combat.

Edit - Damn, how could I forget XCOM? Amazing game.
 
Insaniac said:
Love me some turn-based games, especially the tactics style games like Fire Emblem and Advance Wars and FF tactics. Looking for some recommendations of other ones

I have played:

advance wars series, fire emblem series, Final fantasy tactics series

(I especially love tactics style games with leveling and gear and spells etc)
Click to expand...

XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
 
XCOM: UFO Defense, XCOM Terror from the Deep, and XCOM Enemy Unknown with the Long War mod. And Xenonauts.

Devil Survivor

FFTA 2 if you just want a great battle system.
 
If you want a simpler TRPG, but also an under-appreciated gem, play Arc the Lad and transfer your save to Arc the Lad II. Arc the Lad II is the real triumph, but to get the most out of it you should play the first one too. The first one is short, only about ten hours.

Great games with clear, thoughtful stories. But Arc I is really basic. Kind of like Baby's First TRPG.

Both games are PS1 classics that retain their save transfer functionality.

EDIT: Thinking about it, though, they're all sprites. If that's not what you're looking for, nevermind me.
 
What platforms do you own? Also, are you looking for pure turn based tactical goodness or do you want a story as well?

Here are some for the PC I can recommend:

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (sci-fi, minimal story, fantastic gameplay)
Shadowrun: Returns / Dragonfall / Hong Kong (cyberpunk, cool setting, personally didn't really like the combat)
The Banner Saga (dark fantasy, strong characters and story, great music, relatively simple gameplay)
Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition (light-hearted fantasy, allows for a lot of creativity in combat, great music and visuals, single-player or coop, DENSE)
Massive Chalice (fantasy, really interesting meta-layer)
Valkyria Chronicles (WWII but anime, unique combat)

3DS:

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor: Overclocked (modern day tokyo, SMT-style gotta catch 'em all demons, awesome name)
Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (modern day/sci-fi war, throwaway story but surprisingly great gameplay from a 3DS launch title, forgotten gem)
 
Definitely pick up Jeanne d'Arc for PSP. It's in the same vein as FE and FFT, made by Level-5 before they hit it big with Yokai Watch. Great little overlooked game.

And there's always the Disgaea series if you're up for some whacky fun and 8000 hours of post-game.
 
Mercenaries Saga 2 is basically a FF Tactics rip off and it does it pretty well to boot. Like $3 or something on the eShop.
 
SMT Devil Survivor 1 & 2 (3DS) -- I must've put 150++ hours each game to see all the different paths/endings. Amazing game.

Tactics Ogre - Let Us Cling Together (PSP) -- it's basically FFT expanded.

Wild Arms XF (PSP) -- While other SRPG emphasized more on combat grind, this game will have you use your brain in some of the skirmishes. Also, it uses hexagonal tiles instead of the usual rectangle...so it's pretty challenging.

Rondo Of Swords (DS) -- The combat works like checkers where you need to go over enemy to attack them. Pretty hard, but the game is worth looking into for you're looking something different in SRPG.
 
You should definitely check out the X-COM series. The reboot games (XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM: Enemy Within, and the mod Long War) are all excellent and feature nice, modern graphics and UIs. I think coming from FE you'll appreciate the attachment you develop to individual units facing the threat of permadeath. XCOM does not have the narrative focus of FE or FFT, but it does add in a much more interesting strategic layer.

Shadowrun Dragonfall is a traditional RPG rather than a strategy game, but its combat system is isometric, turn-based, grid-based goodness (a close cousin to XCOM, actually). And it happens to have top-shelf writing and role-playing.

Devil Survivor marries grid-based tactical movement to the more traditional turn-based battles of the SMT franchise. As you might expect from the SMT series, most of your units are demons that you buy at auction, raise, and eventually fuse with other demons. So the unit-development side of things is super fun. The story has some neat branching paths too.

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is awesome.

Divinity: Original Sin is a great game with turn-based, isometric battles, but it's not close enough in kind to FE and FFT for me to feel comfortable recommending it.
 
Invisible Inc is on sale right now
http://store.steampowered.com/app/243970/
Can't recommend it enough. Super satisfying turn-based cyberpunk stealth

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ss_f721a289d026943f99e482feff78b3f7bf77103c.600x338.jpg
Click to expand...
 
You should try The Banner Saga, while the gameplay is somewhat simple, the story, characters, world and music more than make up for it.
 
kurahador said:
SMT Devil Survivor 1 & 2 (3DS) -- I must've put 150++ hours each game to see all the different paths/endings. Amazing game.

Tactics Ogre - Let Us Cling Together (PSP) -- it's basically FFT expanded.

Wild Arms XF (PSP) -- While other SRPG emphasized more on combat grind, this game will have you use your brain in some of the skirmishes. Also, it uses hexagonal tiles instead of the usual rectangle...so it's pretty challenging.

Rondo Of Swords (DS) -- The combat works like checkers where you need to go over enemy to attack them. Pretty hard, but the game is worth looking into for you're looking something different in SRPG.
Click to expand...

Are the SMT games anything like fire emblem? I'm not a fan of traditional JRPGs like final fantasy or the tales games and assumed SMT was like these. Am I wrong?
 
Tactics Ogre is probably your best bet if you want a story/gear driven game similar to FFT. Otherwise XCOM and Invisible, Inc. are amazing.
 
Tatics Ogre? Let Us Cling Together?

Fawk Nin said:
Are the SMT games anything like fire emblem? I'm not a fan of traditional JRPGs like final fantasy or the tales games and assumed SMT was like these. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

No. It still has SMT systems. Devil Survivor's only change is player positioning in a battle. Otherwise it's got the same SMT tropes.
 
As a massive Fire Emblem fan, I loved XCOM.

I also really like the Shadowrun games, Massive Chalice, and The Banner Saga.

Valkyria Chronicles is also excellent.

Fawk Nin said:
Are the SMT games anything like fire emblem? I'm not a fan of traditional JRPGs like final fantasy or the tales games and assumed SMT was like these. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

Devil Survivor is a tactics spinoff, the rest of the series is more like a traditional JRPG.
 
I've recently ordered an iPhone and I was wondering if the FF Tactics port is alright? I've always wanted to play it and I really liked FFTA on the GBA.
 
I see a few people here recommending Wild Arms XF. Like most PSP games, there is virtually nothing to read about it in terms of player impressions or actual quality. And, also like most PSP games, the reviews appear to have been mixed.

I would love if somebody could tell me more about the game and why it's good or bad. I decided against it a long time ago because it would have been a blind buy. But a lot of PSP games that only reviewed okay are actually very good.
 
Fawk Nin said:
Are the SMT games anything like fire emblem? I'm not a fan of traditional JRPGs like final fantasy or the tales games and assumed SMT was like these. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

You're kinda right, but there are plenty of sub series of SMT games -- main series are usually first person dungeon crawler, Persona is more of a VN+dating sim+3rd person dungeon crawler, etc...

Devil Survivor series is the only one that's SRPG.
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Click to expand...

And all of them feature the use of creatures called demons or personas (term differs between series.).
Think of them as Pokemon/Digimon.
 
I'll also recommend Gungnir (PSP) since it's a rather solid FFTactics knock off from Sting. And Metal Gear AC!D 1 and 2 (PSP) for something a little different from the genre.
 
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