/vr/ - Retro Games

Kamidori: Alchemy Meister for the item creation. But that isn't retro so...

Warsong is fun.

Fire Emblem Seisen no Keifu(also called FE4) is probably my favorite, despite being a little archaic in it's gameplay elements.

If you haven't played yet, I highly recommend you do so. Despite it's age, it still has the best story in the entire franchise.

Jagged Alliance

Not technically retro since it's a remake, but god damn this game is good. The UI in particular is so perfect that playing anything else feels like a chore in comparison.

>still playing console trash

Join the master race and play Jagged Alliance 2.

>>952575
What a coincidence.
I recently started JA again and installed Wildfire. Now, that might be muddied memories, but: Did Wildfire change something about the hitrates? For some reason my mercs can't seem to hit SHIT. Hell, even my main guy that should by all means be the best shot on the goddamn planet can barely hit a fucking barn at ten steps.

Can Orge Battle join?

>>952585
Most Definitely

>>952585
Most definitely

>>952585
>Being muh nigga
I seriously hope you do this

>You can never recruit him
Also, anybody who claims to have beaten him on their first try without having the guide or surfing the internet for cheap exploits is a fucking liar.

>>952674
>Die
>Die
>Die
>Turn everyone into ninjas with maximum move/teleport as available
>Throw shit and run and hide and pray
>Still barely win
Fuck that guy. At least I can move on
>Next battle
>Protect the rape victim who has no armour because I stole it and no levels because who uses NPC anyways against teleport OHKO assassins and their vampire lord

>>952674
This is as far as I ever got in the game, I was too dumb back then to keep multiple saves, and I rarely used Ramza at all because of him dieing = game over. So this resulted in me having a significantly underleveled Ramza and no way to go back to grind.

>>952691
>used both saves

>>952691
I literally had to have two bodyguards on either side of Rapha in front of that door to prevent those bitches from killing her.

Screw the RPG part! Just go tactical!

>>952826
Yeah!

>>952826
Naw, this was the best tactical.

>>952826
>>952828
>>952831
Those are good games but that's not what this thread is about. Also Advance Wars is not retro.

>>952674
I did, but I was a retard and raised Ramza as a mage. I OHKO'ed him with Flare, no lie. But for what its worth my final party was basically Orlandu and 4 corpses

I started up the first disgaia game and Im disappointed with the level of tactics required.

It seems like grinding is a more effective way to deal with difficult maps than actual tactics.

Lots of the story-relevant characters are just directly better than the characters you create.

Experience is given only to a character if they land the killing blow so wanting to level a new character is horribly tedious since they miss most of the time and dont do any damage

Does the series get better in later games?

>>952851
You know there are about half a dozen Famicom Wars games on the Famicom, SuperFami, and GB, right?

tie between Shining Force 2 and Shining Force Gaiden 2.

Probably soon to change when I get back to my hometown to play that Shining Force 3 I ordered.

Contemporary favorite is most likely SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked

Final Fantasy Tactics and Shining Force 1+2 are the only ones I've really gotten into. What's a good Fire Emblem to start with?

>>952874
definitely not Awakening. don't be fooled.

>>952871
If you want a serious challenge, I really recommend Rondo of Swords for the DS. Quite innovative and easy to learn, but it's also the hardest SRPG I've ever played.

I recently tried playing Ogre Battle, and I really like the idea and the game engine is surprisingly sophisticated (especially for a SNES game), but I just couldn't bring myself to play very far into it because of the boring exploration aspects with the slow unit movement (searching for hidden cities and items etc). That combined with the boredom and slowness of watching the same unit battles (even with animations turned off) over and over again just ruined it for me.

>>952856
>It seems like grinding is a more effective way to deal with difficult maps than actual tactics.
That's pretty much the crux of the entire series. They're not deep games to be taken seriously. For me, they're just mindless time wasters.

>>952859
I was talking about the screenshot of advance wars you posted. I guess saying "Advance Wars" in the post wasn't clear enough.

>>952716
The ai is pretty simple and will attack tend to attack the weakest target. So if you strip another character of their gear then they'll ignore her completely.

>>952874
Probably the GBA ones (though not retro) because Fuuin no Tsurugi and Rekka no Ken both have good tutorials.

Seisen no Kiefu is generally the most recommended, but I would not recommend it to someone that's new to the series.

>>952856
If you're looking for a game that actually relies on tactics then stay away from Disgaea.

>>952831
I'll have to agree that beats the shit out of Famicom Wars.

Famicom Wars didn't really become any good until GBA.

>>952890
Sounds interesting and I've seen this game at my local FUCKING gamestop for $20.

And seeing as it's by the guys who made Cotton ain't bad at all.

Isn't Fire Emblem the exact opposite of tactical?

The Shining Force III games are GOAT.

>>953125
Why do you say that?

>>952930
>>952716
Or you can cast Life 1 / Life 2 from White Mage on Rafa, AI will ignore her, because AI generally know that it's useless to kill a unit that will revive in the next turn.

>>953125
In the context of combat, Tactics would refer to the actual decision making on the battlefield, like maneuvering your units and trying to figure out how to beat the stage. Strategy is the long term decision making, like unit organization and planning.


If anything, Fire Emblem would be the opposite of Strategy while being a highly tactical RPG, as the only long term decisions you make are planning what characters you want to us, class changes, and in the case of Genealogy of the Holy War and Awakening: eugenics.

>>953170
Well really since there is quite a bit of unit planning Fir Emblem requires both strategy and Tactics

>>953408
which fire emblem game actually requires unit planning? out of the 8 or 9 ones I've played, I always picked the 1 or 2 chars that seemed to have good stat growths and watched as they wiped out the entire enemy army.
The only customization there was "give them the best weapons" and picking one of 2 classes. Real intense stuff.

The majority of the usual adversity you'll see in FE games is in very early battles where the enemy's boss unit can oneshot any member of your team if the RNG decides so, which I am personally not comfortable calling "difficulty". I get some enjoyment out of being a literal demi-god, but its really not what I would call great for tactics.

>>954086
Thracia 776(FE5) is actually a really, really hard game and requires you to use more of your units because of the Fatigue system.(using a unit too much makes it unable to fight in the next chapter)

It will make you rage quite a few times though, as not all maps are very well designed. However, it does have quite a few gems.

Unfortunately, the fan translations currently available are severely lacking. The first one only translated the menus, the second translated all the text but left tons of garbage data in the menu screens/interface, and the third is trying to fix this, but crashes halfway through.

No one played Just Breed?
Oh man.

>>954302
I've been planning to for a while after seeing a thread here, I'm just lazy

>>954281
this looks intimidating as hell

>>954710
It's just Fire Emblem before it was casualized on the GBA.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the Final Fantasy Tactics Insane Difficulty romhack. It fixes the issues that were glaringly wrong with certain Jobs and characters.

It feels really well-balanced and is punishing, yet highly-rewarding when you do get through even a random encounter.

I just can't get into Tactics Ogre. The writing is puke worthy (UR BAD, NO U, NO U AND NEXT UR MY NME), the combat system is asinine (everything being level dependent means that a stage is trivial if you're +1 level but ridiculously hard if you're -1), melee characters are useless (I love getting retaliated on for a third of my health!) and the lack of variety in maps and enemies encountered all just get on my nerve quite badly. I loved Ogre Battle/FFT/FFT1.3/Vandal Hearts 2 and other tactical games like HoMM3 and SR, but god damn Tactics Ogre just pisses me off.

I'm in chapter 2, about to assassinate my own leader because he's a douche bag, but that battle outside the castle just annoys me. I want to use my melee units, I really do, but what's the point when my valkyries and archers do as much or nearly as much damage and don't take counter attack damage and don't take melee damage because the rain of arrows and spells obliterates those knights and that dragon before they can do anything. I could train my army so that everyone is one level higher and then not have to worry about my melee units dying, but it feels incredibly stupid that I'm "forced" to do that.

A tip for FFT1.3: for the 1v1 Gafgarion fight: send only Ramza and some disposable monster unit to the fight. Use Speed Save and Move hp-up and let Gafgarion and the enemy units hit you until your speed is at 30+ and then proceed to unleash the rape train.

I bring /vr/ Faselei! For the Neo Geo pocket color. It's a turn base RPG that features Mechs and Mech customization, it was created by the same people who made Shadow Hearts/Kouldelka series. It's not too long, but the story is fairly decent. It's worth playing if you got the time.

>>954817
Forgot picture

>>954760
You gotta play the PSP remake.

>>954760
Play the PSP remake. The translation is so much better

>>954892
>>954919
I'll try that.

>>954760
Is there a patch for the PS1 version that adds WotL's translation or just fixes the translation errors?

>>955041
No clue. Dig around on http://ffhacktics.com/ to find out!

>>955041
I'm pretty sure there is. I think theres also a patch for WotL that fixes the problems with that version (slowdown etc)

One of my favorites is Daikaiju Deburas on the Famicom, I even bought my own on copy. It's pretty unique.

It's basically the army vs. this giant Godzilla-esque monster bent on destruction. You have to protect an egg from him, for some reason I couldn't tell. Much better than that one crappy Godzilla strategy game.

>>954086
Getting max rank in Thracia, Genealogy, or Blazing Sword is no joke. New Mystery's two hardest modes are really good too, although it and Blazing Sword aren't retro. Sealed Sword is kind of hard but a lot of it is because it's really roulette-ish (awful hit rates all around).

The rest of the games are pretty easy (but then again must Tactical/Strategy RPGs seem to be), and Awakening is just shit.

>>954760
It should be noted that the PSP remake also fixes the combat. It's way better than the original, and damn it's slow.

>>955501
I meant the original combat is slow. Sorry

>>954817
Can I grind there? Level up, gather monies and buy new things?

>>952523
>Warsong
Mah nigga.

I've been playing through its sequel, Der Langrisser. It is really good and really awesome. It has villains with actual motivations that make sense! In a JRPG! They're not just 'Muwahaha I'm going to blow everything up.' It's a great breath of fresh air, I tell you what.

How has no one brought up brigandine ?

I really love Vanguard Bandits. I'm really not sure what about it got me so hooked because really there are much better SRPGs out there, but I just could not put this down

>>956682
>That Ruin Branch

>>954281
FE5 is all around a really strange game. It came after FE4, which wasn't too hard, and cranked the difficulty up to max. Also, it was released on the SNES as late as 1999.

The GBA games are a lot easier by comparison and dropped many mechanics, most likely because of Shouzou Kaga's departure.(FE's creator) It's unknown why he left, but it was most likely because Nintendo wanted the series to have a more mainstream approach. He went on to make Tear Ring Saga on the Playstation, which was meant to be a FE side-story called Emblem Saga. Nintendo didn't like this, so they sued him.(and lost)

This is a great game in it's own right, a fan translation is in the works. It's basically a FE ripoff, with extremely good 2D graphics.

>>957679

>>957679
>>957695
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/1746/

Waaaaay past in the works, it's essentially complete, I played it for quite some time the other day

EDIT: THANKS FOR THE REDDIT GOLD ANON

>>956682
I somehow own this but never played it

>>952674
I beat him on my first try, but my Ramza was higher than he should have been due to grinding. He ate the first couple magic sword attacks and auto-potioned them, and then killed him with 2 Katana hits.

>>957679
Can you really call it a ripoff when it's made by the director?

>>953029
Actually Cotton is a secret character you can get in RoS. She's a little unbalanced though, on the too powerful side. I probably wouldn't have been able to finish the game without her.

>>958478
Well, it was by the FE creator himself.

Nintendo thought it was so similar they tried suing him, but it didn't go so well.

The Shining Force III games are god tier, but I have a hard time enjoying some of the other entries in the series. Not too sure why.

Not entirely related, but Shining the Holy Ark is also a fucking great first person dungeon crawler.

>>958478
Not saying that means it's bad, but it is basically a FE game. The interface, graphical style and music are extremely similair. Hell, Thracia 776's artist left with Kaga and worked on TRS, which is why they got another one for FE6.

There actually exists a PS2 sequel(also JP only) which took a drastically different direction. It's also damn good. Shouzou Kaga unfortunately went into obscurity after that.

>>957679
It seems like Kaga wanted to continue creating new mechanics with every FE installment(FE2's RPG elements, FE4's generation/love system, FE5's Fatigue, fog of war, capturing) while the higher-ups rather wanted the series to go back to basics.

FE6 actually didn't do very well in Japan. Many series veterans felt it was dumbed down far too much,(especially those who actually bought FE5 with the SFC being 10 years old) and it failed to attract many newcomers.

FE7 however was clearly aimed at a western audience(tutorial, player-insert as the tactician, lower difficulty) and managed to do quite well worldwide. Ever since FE7, most sales came from the US/Europe, especially FE9/10 which flopped disastrously in Japan.

With FE13 however, they basically turned that around, no doubt because of the artstyle and support mechanics.

>>954281
That image is extremely misleading. The chapter is really well designed; note the positioning of the ballistae, which are threatening enough to force you to play defensively. There's a constant stream of reinforcements, but it's easy to take a defensive position near the gate. And if you make use of charisma and support bonuses, you can even put a unit in the space under the central stairs and have them slaughter waves of enemies. The reinforcements appear at the ends of the map so you'll have time to react before they arrive, and in fact the chapter will end before they reach the gate if you just draw back (waste of exp, though). The boss at the bottom left and the other enemies there are guarding a house, which holds a valuable item (it's not essential, though, and you can get it easily if you use warp and rescue staves; those are valuable, too). Bosses in Thracia 776 have leadership stars, so he also gives a boost to his troops' hit and avoid.

Difficulty in Thracia 776 is completely opposite the "bullshit" type of difficulty that that image implies. If you just plan out your strategies carefully you won't lose unless you mess up. It's an extremely well-crafted game.

FE5 is my favorite TRPG. Coincidentally, I just finished an ironman run (no resetting, game over -> delete file) of it today.

Some of my other favorites include Tear Ring Saga and Langrisser II.

I know they're not TRPGs and pardon me for being off-topic but are the SNES versions of DQ 1+2 similar to the NES versions in terms of difficulty?

>>952874
Here's my take:
Must play (but not ideal to start with): 4, 5, (Tear Ring Saga if you count it), 9
Good and accessible: 8, 12
Solid games: 3, 6
Worth playing if you like the series: 2, 7, 10, 1
Best place to start (but kinda dull otherwise): 11
Don't play if you want a tactical TRPG: 13

Also check the FAQ from the Fire Emblem general on /vg/.

>>957720
Once you get past the first ~10 chapters things start falling apart. Also you need to switch to the unpatched ROM at one point to prevent it from crashing. Which is really a shame, since it's a solid game (despite a major lack of difficulty).

>>958697
There actually is a hint for the mages if you visit the houses. I think this chapter is one of the best in the game, and one of the most unique.(Modern FE sorely lacks defense/escape chapters) Some specific maps have a few issues with being dependent on luck, but that isn't gamebreaking unless you can't handle seeing a unit die.

FE4/5 also have my favorite story in the franchise, and go quite well together. FE5's story often gets ripped on for being so dependent on FE4, but it actually has very good writing.

>>958720
This. Just a tip: play FE4 without getting spoilers. Also, don't play FE5 without getting at least to chapter 6 in FE4, as even the intro spoils 4's story.

>>956620
In Faselei!? Hell yeah you can, but keep in mind some upgrades require you to progress in the story a little more. Not only that lvl 4 upgrades you have to grind for.

>>958767
I got almost (I think) to the end of the first generation in FE4, but then I got discouraged when I realized that my pairings weren't optimal and it was too late to fix them. Is it worth going back and continuing?

Also it was annoying that a few guys left and took all my best equipment with them.

>>960491
No, the pairings aren't a big deal. The game is pretty easy even with no pairings at all.

>>959054
Sounds like my new obsession! Thanks for reply kind anon.

Is Front Mission worth playing if I don't particularly care for mechs?

>>966165
Depends. Do you like fun?

Because if you like fun than yeah!

Thank goodness I found this thread, I was just going to ask something about Fire Emblem 5 (Thracia 776): ¿Do you know any website where I can get a good translation patch or a decent translated ROM?, the ones that appear on Google are poorly translated and I can't get to understand the menus.

I wish nes SRW was translated it has a different feel to it.

>>966217
I forgot to mention that I just finished playing Seisen No Keifu (FE4) yesterday and was awesome and I wished to continue with this very related game.

>>952545

what is this?

>>954760
It sounds like you didn't take advantage of the elemental/terrain system. If used properly the chances of them hitting you are very low and your chance of hitting them is very high, essentially allowing the ai to kill itself when they attack your melee units. I'll agree with you on that one level above makes the game too easy and one level below makes it too hard.

>>966217
Check Serenes patch section (google it). They always update with the latest available.

>>952521
Langrisser and Super Robot Wars would be my favorite series

Langrisser games had some kick-ass powermetal tunes on the sega systems, loved every second of the music

>>966246
that's the PSP remake of tactics ogre mate

>>966217
The best translation patch still has garbled menus (and a couple other issues; some conversations use the wrong characters and you need to turn HP-popups off before chapter 24). Fortunately you've just played FE4 and they're pretty similar.

>>966329
Indeed, the Serene Forests patches appeared between my first Google results, then I patched the Japanese rom but the menu is still fucked up

>>966409
Yes, but there are slight differences that can really affect game, these differences being the capture and fatigue system, ¿could you or anyone else care to explain to me, pleas?

>>966490
Capturing: Can only be done if you have more build than the enemy or if you're mounted and they're not (and you can't capture anything with 20 build). You initiate combat with the enemy with all your stats halved. If you "kill" them when using capture, you'll be holding them and can take their items and stuff. Your stats are decreased when holding them, like when rescuing an allied character.

Fatigue: For every unit, every action you do adds 1 fatigue to the counter (except Leaf). Staves sometimes use more than one fatigue, depending on the staff. If the fatigue exceeds the units HP at the beginning of a chapter (starting chapter 8), they're forced to sit out unless they're holding a stamina potion.

Scrolls: Holding onto them increases your growth rates and reduces the enemy critical rate to zero (excluding wrath).

Pursuit critical attacks: Some characters have an increased chance to critical when doubling enemies.

>>954751

I really recommend this, though I also recommend also getting the easy mode of this patch as well.

I ran into the issue of leveling one level and suddenly all the enemies had next tier equipment and there was no way to farm equipment (for some reason the enemies at barius hill all have maintenance and their bodies don't drop treasure or crystal).

>>966537

just a note that you can play hard and easy mode interchangeably just gotta have a copy of each

>>962494
No problem! Just remember plan everything out before you go on any mission. Also don't be discouraged if you have to start chapters over, it takes patience.

>>952674
what game is this (SORRY FOR SHITPOST)

So what should any good Tacitcal RPG have, in your opinion?

>>966780
grinding should not be a part of the game, it should be either not possible or not actually contribute to your odds of success

multiple ways to win battles instead of a few tactics that you are much better than anything else. If you are having difficulty you should be thinking about new tactics to apply rather than just grinding up your numbers

any sort of animation or movment should be very fast so turns come up quick

minamial amount of equipment managment, disgaia is a great example of why this sucks. You have constantly have to check shops for new items and you are always getting new weapon drops that you just end vendoring

rock-paper-scissors elemental weakness is fine but it shouldnt be the most importaint part of battle

>>966636
try searching the file name

>>952542
i would play the shit out of this if the was a eng translation.
i can't speak or read that dragon lady talk

>>966878
Perhaps you should use the translation patch, then.

It has some holes, but it's passable.

>>966535
Thanks for your guidance, it greatly aided me in understanding the basics of the game.

>>967751
I mean the slightly different game's mechanics

1.3 is more like a challenge/puzzle mode game for FFT veterans, you can get stuck on battles for a very long time. Also a fuckton of issues are still unresolved, grinding is even more encouraged (JP grinding and unlocking jobs, not to mention the tedius poaching), some classes are still shit.

If you want to have fun with it, just hack your save to give you all jobs and abilities once you reach ch. 3;

Legend of Cao Cao

there's an official engrish translated tactical rpg released by falcom for free a while back. you're a summoner that can call elemental spirits and you must beat down your opponent by capturing strategic points while beating down the enemy spirits until you can attack him directly. there's 30+ stages and also multiplayer if you can get it to work.

>>966631
The game's untique.
Its not point-hero-to-do-this-or-this, but you use "chips" to move forward, use weapon or turn. Tactics are there, of course. And fun

Do you know any good emulators? Im using neopop and its not very enjoyable. Skipping sound is not nice, but mute-button isnt there for nothing.

Game seems like child of Front Mission and psx programming mech game that i forgot name, and thats compliment.

A tactical role playing game genre thread, and none of you have mentioned Cyber Knight? Man, so many popular Square Enix titles listed. C'mon /vr/ step it up.

>>956682
Love this game and would have love a sequel or an anime or some kind of expanded universe. I thought it was neat and had a lot of potential.

>>956815
Ive never been able to unlock that one. :[

>>956673
Can we talk more about this? i looked it up and it looks cool.

captcha: skenjob drowning