Any games like Criminal Girls?

[Specter Von Baren]

I don't mean in terms of the story, but in terms of the gameplay. Something I absolutely ADORE about Criminal Girls is that all of your party members have a purpose and a use and you're not expected to just play a numbers game of just attacking and healing for every single fight, here's the crux of my question.

Status effects actually work on enemies in Criminal Girls. As apposed to the usual way that games have it so that 90% of the time an enemy is immune to status effects or it takes forever to get one to actually work that it's not worth the small pay off, 90% of the time enemies WON'T be immune to status effects, you're actually expected to use poison, paralysis, damage debuffs, ect. to beat both bosses and normal enemies.

You use all the spells in your arsenal, buffs, heals, resurrection, damage reduction, status effect clensers. You even use items almost every turn.

So are there any other games like this out there (NOT Shin Megami Tensei games, I want skillful use of your abilities, not grind fests to get the exact set up that will beat the next boss and then doing it over again for the one after that)? I love it when an RPG actually expects you to be clever and use all your skills and ingenuity rather than just hitting something till it falls down.

 

[CaitSeith]

Well, Xenoblade Chronicles has a pragmatic status effects system. The Mechon (the mechanical of enemies) are pretty much immune to normal damage. There are two ways to remove their immunity: enchant your party or debuff the enemy with the topple effect (which requires the enemy to first be affected with the break effect). There are also buffs that need to be used when prompted to save your party members life from an otherwise fatal enemy attack. I feel that the chaos of real-time action battle limited its potential for deeper gameplay though.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

I don't mean in terms of the story, but in terms of the gameplay. Something I absolutely ADORE about Criminal Girls is that all of your party members have a purpose and a use and you're not expected to just play a numbers game of just attacking and healing for every single fight, here's the crux of my question.

Status effects actually work on enemies in Criminal Girls. As apposed to the usual way that games have it so that 90% of the time an enemy is immune to status effects or it takes forever to get one to actually work that it's not worth the small pay off, 90% of the time enemies WON'T be immune to status effects, you're actually expected to use poison, paralysis, damage debuffs, ect. to beat both bosses and normal enemies.

You use all the spells in your arsenal, buffs, heals, resurrection, damage reduction, status effect clensers. You even use items almost every turn.

So are there any other games like this out there (NOT Shin Megami Tensei games, I want skillful use of your abilities, not grind fests to get the exact set up that will beat the next boss and then doing it over again for the one after that)? I love it when an RPG actually expects you to be clever and use all your skills and ingenuity rather than just hitting something till it falls down.

Skyrim on higher difficulties makes the illusion skill useful since mobs cant be damage dueled but are still effected by level specific berserks. The hint is to check the level of the mob you are going to fear/frenzy. The trash enemies make for great meat shields.

 

[Kaimax]

If we're talking about skill and abilities matter to big enemies and some bosses, then Bravely default comes to mind.
one example is using the classic rule of fighting undead in fantasy games (Healing them damages them). Also the job system is so deep that if you have the right kind of setup it can bulldoze bosses.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Well, Xenoblade Chronicles has a pragmatic status effects system. The Mechon (the mechanical of enemies) are pretty much immune to normal damage. There are two ways to remove their immunity: enchant your party or debuff the enemy with the topple effect (which requires the enemy to first be affected with the break effect). There are also buffs that need to be used when prompted to save your party members life from an otherwise fatal enemy attack. I feel that the chaos of real-time action battle limited its potential for deeper gameplay though.

There's also the damage over time debuffs like Bleed, Chill, Blaze and Poison. I found them very useful since they have a decent chance of proccing even against overleveled enemies and they can be stacked for sizeable damage, letting you take down beasties that would be hard to beat otherwise. Naturally, I never went anywhere without Riki in my party, since he had an 4 DoT abilities, one for each type, on top of a number of other useful buffs/debuffs and a healing ability.

 

[ManutheBloodedge]

I would recommend "7th Dragon III - Code VFD". The Bosses are not immune to most status effects, and if you don't debuff them, they will destroy you. What I also like is that most boss battles are not wars of attrition, because the bosses don't have that much health, they just hurt like crazy.

Apart from that, you have widely different classes that make experimenting and developing synergies fun. For example, one class has a skill that does fire damage at the end of a round depending on how much fire moves you used so far. Another class can apply a debuff that hurts the boss with additional fire damage everytime he takes fire damage, and a third class has a skill that buffs the fire damage of the entire party. And that is just one skill each. Every class has like 20.