Recommend me some good SRPG's

[pook99]

After about 20 years I finally got around to playing shining force, and man, this game is incredible. I just got to the last chapter so I will probably have it beaten in a day or two and want some more good strategy rpg's to play. I'm relatively unfamiliar with the genre, Warsong is probably my all time favorite SRPG, but I also have limited experience with the genre so I'm looking for good recommendations.

I'm looking for games in the 8/16 bit era, I am kind of interested in maybe trying a fire emblem game but I don't love the idea of perma-death. Was considering jumping right into shining force 2, but I want to hear some other good options before I decide.

[Tanooki]

Perma death is kind of normal, not just in FE but also the other big fish of the decade people go for - Ogre Battle (and Tactics Ogre sequel.) You really don't get around that until very recent releases of FE where you can turn that annoying garbage off. The other way is that is someone chokes, you just hit reset and don't let it really be forever yet you have to start the stage over. Nectaris/Military Madness I'd strongly suggest looking at. I tend to hate the genre overall, but those are worthwhile. If you inched up another decade from like 1995-2005 I'd then say go right to the original Advance Wars and the GBA port of Tactics Ogre and FF Tactics (PS and Tactics Advance on GBA.)

[MrPopo]

Ogre Battle doesn't have perma death of any kind, and I think Tactics Ogre uses the FFT style "you must rescue them/beat the stage before the timer is up" of perma death. If you enjoy the RPG mechanics in addition to the strategy then I'd say go straight to Shining Force 2; it's better than the first in every way. Fire Emblem has the perma death, but it's fairly manageable because of things like the weapons triangle and baiting enemies. Also, the rosters are built in such a way that you're expected to lose some units here and there; you'll find if you go a deathless run that half your team is benched due to limits on characters.

Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics are a specific sub-genre that focuses more on character building and more nitty gritty in battles; elevation and unit facing are both very important in them. I'm personally not a big fan of that style, as I feel it makes battles take too long given the size of armies. Those two are the strongest examples of that genre, with the Disgaea series being the next best (with a more irreverant style).

Finally, if you're interested in trying something a bit more off beat you have Ogre Battle, Dragon Force, and Soul Nomad & the World Eaters. All three are army building games where your direct involvement in conflicts is minimized. Ogre Battle and Soul Nomad are most similar; you build an army out of several units which have different attacks based on their position in a formation and a conflict will consist of each side using their attacks the proscribed number of times. Ogre Battle has a real time component to the army movement (which pauses for battles) and a territory conquering mechanic, while Soul Nomad uses turn based grids for moving your armies around. Dragon Force is more on the strategy end and more mimics games like Lords of the Realm; you have a hero unit that leads an army and you recruit random mooks of a given class into that army, and then you get into self directed fights with other armies across a large strategy map. Conquering enemy castles expands your territory and gives you more recruitment options and leveling up the hero increases the overal effectiveness of that army.

[Ack]

If you're ok with emulating or importing, Bahamut Lagoon may be of interest to you. While you have squads of troops moving about the field, it's more controlled than the open fields of Ogre Battle, and you have powerful dragons to help you devastate enemy squads.

Front Mission may also interest you. It's more tactical than strategic, and you're controlling mechs which have to be maintained and armed based on your needs. The original suffers from artillery being overly powerful, but it's an interesting story and fun to send a troop of mechs to take the field.

Also, since you liked Warsong, look up the sequel, Langrisser 2.

[MrPopo]

Actually, in Front Mission 1 it suffers from literally everything being overpowered if you keep your squad size small and focus a single character on one weapon type. If you stick to four or so wanzers you'll be one shotting everything with that team a few missions in and it stays that way forever.

[Erik_Twice]

Without permadeath, the game doesn't work. But it doesn't represent an increase in difficulty nor makes the game less accessible nor anything of the sort. It just makes it so that you can't shove all your units through a chokepoint and win.

It's also a wargame and in war people die. The game does not truly work on a thematic level if people come back like Jesus after being impaled!

[Arenegeth]

I don't understand the issue people have with permadeath in an SRPG.

Is not like the game (any that I know of anyway) forces the death on to you (like a rouge-like does) if a character dies during combat, just reset the battle and try again.

Doing it without causalities means you've mastered the battle and did it efficiently as possible. Besides, in most of these games some units are un-killable, and if you're smart, you can afford to expend them in risky situations or as sacrificial lambs to weaken a strong unit.

Anyway, I'm also not that experienced with SRPG's and I'm looking to play at least one of them this year, so I'll also be looking at this topic for suggestions.

I have no 8-16 bit era suggestions to give out myself, but from more recent stuff, I would suggest some of the PS1's best SRPG's (that haven't being mentioned already) like Kartia and Vandal Hearts 1&2.

Suikoden Tactics is also a good entry level SRPG I thought, though it also has permadeath, may be a miss for someone who is not familiar with the series and especially Suikoden IV when it comes to the story.

EDIT: Speaking of PS1 suggestions there's also Brigandine. I have no personal experience with the game, so I suggest it simply by reputation, as it is hold in high regard by a lot of SRPG fans.

If you are looking for something more recent, that is actually western developed, but plays pretty much like a classic Japanese SRPG. Look into the Banner Saga trilogy.

[Jmustang1968]

FE works without perma death, it does add difficulty. You have a finite number of characters, so if they die, you have less to use. Permadeath works best in games like xcom. Yeah, if you lose an experienced character, it is a set back, but you can recruit more.

[noiseredux]

permadeath adds a lot of good tension to FE and XCOM. But, if I recall - you can shut off permadeath in FE: Awakenings, which happens to be an amazing game.

What about the Advance Wars series? (oops, just saw that was mentioned, but I'd throw another suggestion in the hat for that one). Also, I rather like the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance & A2 games. They're a little lighter than the original FFT, but still very good.

[Arenegeth]

What about the Advance Wars series?

Advance Wars is pure turned based strategy, no RPG elements as far as I can remember. I only played the first game, so I don't know if they expanded into RPG territory after that.

But if we are spreading into more genre neutral strategy suggestions, Ring of Red for the PS2 is a pretty good choice, especially if you like steampunk mech combat.