Queen to A-2May 26th, 2008 by Gloria
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There was a period of time that I was addicted to tactical games. I would stay up until 4am, bleary eyed and waiting for my turn in the battle to come. When it finally did, I would smirk to myself and think: checkmate. Then I’d send out whatever most powerful move or character I had in my arsenal. Except it wasn’t always a checkmate. The beauty of the situation was that my supposed victory move was not always a game winner. Like all games of chess, a smart opponent has something waiting in the wings to throw out in case of an emergency. The game is never over when you expect it.
It’s this ongoing struggle of stratagem that keeps me replaying these games and keeps me addicted.
Tactical games are not for everyone, and I can understand why. At times they’re very tedious and some battles can literally take hours. It seems like a lot of effort for very little payout, depending on how into the game you are and what type of gamer you are. But if you’re finding yourself tempted by the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, here’s a short list of some games that I thought were pretty fun and along the same lines of interest.
La Pucelle: Tactics is a fun but very challenging game. The main characters belong to a church and are members of the demon hunting squad. The plot centralizes on the slaying and purification of demons, namely a Dark Prince. That stays central while other aspects of the story evolve. The chapters of the game are easy to follow along with, and depending on how much you’ve explored or found, the endings can vary. So despite the way dungeons or purification grids can seem daunting, it’s best to explore them all the get a good ending.
The characters are, well, interesting to say the least. Prier is the main character and is hellbent on becoming the next maiden of light. I liked her based on the fact that she wasn’t a typical video game heroine. That role was reserved for her teacher, Alouette. Prier is loud, easy to anger, and brash much like Mint, from Dewprism. Despite her shortcomings, she spends the game looking out for her brother Culotte as well as her friends.
The gameplay is unique in the way it requires the player to manipulate the tactical playing field. Dark portals must be purified so that the benefits in the field can be applied to the characters. Monsters can also be converted fight fight alongside the player in later battles. This was what initially drew me to this game. Unlike other tactical games that involve monster taming, La Pucelle: Tactics is centralized on getting a large party of monsters to help you in battle. This includes training them, leveling them up, and keeping them happy.
La Pucelle: Tactics is tough to master but still fun. I’m sure that everyone expects me to mention Disgaea somewhere on this list. La Pucelle: Tactics is my answer to these pleas. La Pucelle was made by the same company that made Disgaea. I’d encourage anyone to try it, but not get frustrated. Even I reached a point in the game where I had to put the controller down and play something else for a while.
Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance tend to be what most people think of when tactical games are mentioned. It’s true that both games deserve a lot of praise for the attention they’ve gained from non-tactics fans. In truth, FFTA was what got me looking deeper into the genre.
In Final Fantasy terms, the tactics series is one of the few to return to an already created world. Final Fantasy Tactics created the land of Ivalice, and Advance returned to it. Final Fantasy XII was also set in Ivalice, though the world was considerably different. There overall feel of the established setting was still there though. The races, most notably the Viera, remained in the world as well. Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift was released for the DS in Japan in October of 2007. It’s set to be released globally in June, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Final Fantasy Tactics is what I would consider an easy game compared to some of the other tactical games out there. The combat system is easy to master, and anyone who has played the classic Final Fantasy games will know the familiar job system instantly. The stories can be fairly open-ended and yet simple to follow. The addition of law cards and penalties adds a challenge to an otherwise bland battling system. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to go into my first no weapons battle. You have to think to beat this game, but not too hard.
If I had to teach a “Tactical Games 101″ class, Final Fantasy Tactics would be the textbook.
Fire Emblem is top on my list. It took the popularity of Super Smash Bros. Melee’s depictions of Marth and Roy to get it released worldwide. This game series is everything you would expect from a cream of the crop tactical RPG.
Like all tactical games, each combat zone is a basic grid. Occasionally there are obstacles like trees, rocks, and houses in the way. This forces both the enemy characters and your team to maneuver carefully. The goals of each fight range from slaughtering every enemy character, taking over a base, or just trying to survive.
Everything in this game requires strategy. Certain weapons are stronger against other weapons, same with magic. For example: Using a bow on a flying pegasus knight is very effective. I learned that the hard way when my first pegasus knight died within the first 3 battles. Characters can also boost each other’s skills based on their classes and positions in the fight. If you don’t learn to love sweating the details, you will lose every battle.
Fire Emblem has two storylines to play through. This adds some good replay potential. They’re also remaking the first (Japanese only) Fire Emblem game for the DS. Yes, that is the one with Marth. The game has a tutorial mode to teach a new player the ropes, but I can’t stress enough how challenging this game can be. If one of your units dies in battle, it is gone forever. I love that sense of realism, but at the same time you find yourself constantly balancing on a thin tightrope as you try to keep your characters alive and prevent the enemies from breaking through your lines. This game is tough, but fair.
In all, I think the genre of tactical games is one that few people try due to fear of the amount of time and strategy involved. Even for video games, they are pretty consuming. There are a bunch of great tactical games out there that aren’t on my list. Advance Wars, Disgaea, and more. As such, the best thing to do is research a game you might like to try and then dive in. I just hope my partial list helped anyone who may have been on the fence about trying this great genre–and wanting to know more about it before the sequel to FFTA hits shelves this summer.
May 26th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Awesome article! :]
I own all of the games you listed, besides FFTA2 of course, and I am a huge fan of tactical games as well. La Pucelle: Tactics had a ton of personality to it, and Prier had to be one of the characters I could relate to most, as we are quite similar. I did end up using Alouette more for a while as a tank, though. A lot of my recruits ended up leaving me, too. I didn’t treat them very well. XD
Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem are quintessential favorites of mine as well, and there are a TON of others that I spent too much time on as well because I couldn’t get enough. Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars is a great strat-RPG that combines mecha combat with the elements seen in FFT or any of the rest of the titles you listed. Makai Kingdom was great too, and hilarious.
Also, I agree that losing a character in Fire Emblem made it feel more “real”, like you really were fighting a war in an imaginary land. There was no reviving them, so if you happened to have a particular favorite, you needed to try to keep them safe at all costs. It brought a sense of urgency to the game that kept me making decisions on top of decisions about who to keep safe and who to send to the front lines.
May 26th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Great article.
The only series you failed to mention is the Ogre series, and it’s one of the best out there. Tactics Ogre in particular was an amazing game. Tons of secret and rare characters, multiple paths and an interesting item system.
For the amount of traditional Japanese style RPGs that hit the console market every year it’s a shame so few of them are of the tactical flavor. It’s a trend that is slowly changing, and the style of traditional Japanese console RPGs in general is as well but it would be great to see tactical elements in all of the games released.
May 26th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I recently got into Fire Emblem, and its pretty awesome. Game started off EXTREMELY slow, but that is just because its such a deep game that the tutorial took forever.
I would definitely get the DS version, just because I’m such a Super Smash Bros Melee whore.
Marth > Everyone!
May 26th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
I was a huge fan of the Shining Force games, at least the first two (never played three).
Just my contribution.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:06 am
So I get the genre is tactical. But seriously, why do they randomly throw tactics after their name? It’s off-putting.
Good article. The reason why I don’t wanna get FFTA2 has nothing to do with the genre, which I like (albiet never play). I was so turned off by the idea of playing a kid in a game yet again. I really wish they had a more adult character
May 28th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
The “______: Tactics” phenomenon always kinda bothered me, too, but never so much as in “Tactics Ogre”. The original Ogre Battle was more “tactical”, I thought, whatever that means.
So tactical, in fact, that it quickly got dubbed “Menu Battle” by my friends. =\