Japanese tactical role playing games or 'Simulation RPG's'

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Hi, I'm currently looking into this genre and wondered if any can point me in the right direction. If the title is confusing, I guess I mean games like Radiant Historia. I'm particularly looking for any recent or planned releases along these lines.

Do you guy enjoy these games? Are there any really good ones?

 

[boag]

Hi, I'm currently looking into this genre and wondered if any can point me in the right direction. If the title is confusing, I guess I mean games like Radiant Historia. I'm particularly looking for any recent or planned releases along these lines.

Do you guy enjoy these games? Are there any really good ones?

Squeenix had a very good tactical RPG call Front Mission.

It got turned into a 3rd person FPS, while still retaining some of the customization abilities, although I think its more of a poor mans armored core now.

If you havent tried out Vandal Hearts of Record of Agarest War, give them a try, since its the closest thing I can think of right now.

 

[Fat Hippo]

All I can think of that sounds like a "Japanese tactical role playing game" is Fire Emblem. Those are pretty good.

 

[Pseudopod]

I am very fond of the tactical RPG genre. My favorite is the Fire Emblem series, with Path of Radiance for the Gamecube being my favorite in the series. I like the way they have big casts of units with unique personalities and how cultivating relationships between your units ("supports) gives you combat bonuses. The combat is entirely top down turn based, and can be rather punishing since your units can die permanently. Sometimes I'm not sure how I can love a game so much when I sometimes have to reset a million times because I refuse to lose a unit.

Valkyria Chronicles is also excellent, with a strong visual style and a neat setting that feels like a fantastic allegory for WWII in Europe. I like that it also has a big and diverse cast of units with lots of personality and dialogue. It's a faster paced game since you take your unit's term in real time, often times while under enemy fire.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Thanks for the answers guys I'll have a look into those games, perhaps I should have given the thread a snappier title! haha.

 

[TheHappySquid]

I'd strongly advise the (mostly ps2, ps3 and psp) Nippon Ichi games, such as Disgaea, Phantom Brave etc. look into them.

 

[Vegosiux]

Disgaea is where it is, I say. You should give it a whirl.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Another one, very similar to Fire Emblem, is the Super Robot Wars series. Some of them have been released outside of Japan under the name "Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation." Another good SRPG is Final Fantasy Tactics, although I'm curious about what you're really looking for: is it the story, or just the turn based tactical combat? Because if you're looking for the latter, you might want to look into some Western-made TBS games, such as the original XCom series.

 

[Tryforlive]

Fire emblem everyone of them is just amazing

 

[veloper]

Tactics ogre

 

[Mistermixmaster]

As someone else said, Valkyria Chronicles. It's seriously great. But I might be biased though with all the hours played and an avatar with the main character from VC.

Another vote for Fire Emblem as well. Even if you don't like the story/characters of one of the games on the Game Boy Advance, there's tons of ROM-hacks which change characters, stories and setting.

The Disgaea-series is supposedly good aswell, but I have never tried one of them as I have heard stories of how freakishly long some of the games can be.

 

[Jazoni89]

Valkyria Chronicles is amazing, seriously...

Get it!

 

[Weaver]

IMO Valkyria Chronicles had some unfair design decisions. It's a hard game, which I appreciate. What I don't appreciate is half way through a mission a story element kicks in where enemies magically "flank you from the east" or whatever and if you're not positioned for it (and if you haven't played the map before, you don't know it's coming) you basically just lose to insta spawn enemies.

Disgaea is a ton of fun. The stories are really light-hearted and humerous. They may as well have called the fourth "Disgaea 4: Break the Fourth Wall". The game is a blatant grind, but I tend to still really enjoy it. It has some bizzare and obfuscated mechanics that I'd recommend looking up online.

I also (and I know it's old and not japanese or an RPG) recommend possibly taking a peek at the first X-Com game. There is really not a story (there kind of is) but the strategy elements are very strong. It also has RPG elements like stats on units, they level up, you can equip them all sorts of new gear, etc.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

IMO Valkyria Chronicles had some unfair design decisions. It's a hard game, which I appreciate. What I don't appreciate is half way through a mission a story element kicks in where enemies magically "flank you from the east" or whatever and if you're not positioned for it (and if you haven't played the map before, you don't know it's coming) you basically just lose to insta spawn enemies.

Fire Emblem has the same problem, with the added bonus that when a unit dies, it dies permanently. That's one reason I like Super robot Wars better; no permadeath. Granted, they're /both/ a heck of a lot of fun.

 

[ImProvGamr]

I've only really played a few, but some of the ones I've enjoyed are:

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions by Square Enix
Fire Emblem by Nintendo
Shining Force by Sega

Not sure if these are what you're looking for, but they're good either way.

 

[ZantetsukenQ]

No love for Bahamut Lagoon for the SNES? What a badass game.

 

[Matthew Cline]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactics_Ogre:_Let_Us_Cling_Together

silly name, amazing game

and yea valkyria, ff tactics, and vandal hearts are amazing

and if you want to play what is in my opinion the bets tactical game ever....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Force

 

[Retsam19]

This is actually one of my favorite genres: I'd definitely recommend the Final Fantasy Tactics games and Fire Emblem:
Since you obviously seem to have a DS, Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced and both the Fire Emblem games for the GBA were some of my favorites. The DS sequels (Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2 and Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon) were pretty good, though not quite as good.
In the Final Fantasy Tactics series, the PSP port (or for that matter, the iPhone port) of the original Final Fantasy Tactics is also worth checking out; though the game has "aged" a little bit. (You could also look for a PS1 copy of FFT, but I personally have a hard time playing these games on -non-handheld devices, I'm afraid)
I'm working my way though Final Fantasy Tactics again, and then I'm going to move on to Tactics Ogre (PSP), which I've heard is one of the best in the genre. (I'm doing FFT first because I'd rather play the weaker game before the stronger one)

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

No love for Bahamut Lagoon for the SNES? What a badass game.

I've been thinking about recommending it, but first of all it would be a second hand recommendation (I've never really played it), and second of all, there's no legal release I know of outside of japan. There's a translated rom, but suggesting someone play that would probably run afoul of the piracy rule.