Turn Based RPG

Originally Posted by Gorath
Since the recommendations are all over the place, maybe you should clarify how old the games can be, how crappy graphics you're willing to tolerate and if the focus should be on great TB combat or on the full RPG package.

Well, since this was his one and only post, this could be a bot that actually posed a good question for the site it hit. The userid kinda looks like a random generated deal, but we love giving our advice anyway

LOL! You know that talking to yourself is the first sign.

A bot without a link in his sig is a bad bot!

Corwin and I have both run it past the bloodhounds, and it appears legit.

Of course, we've had more than one thread started by a bot that went multiple pages with useful conversation.

Originally Posted by insurancegod
Can anybody tell me what a good turn based (fighting system) rpg to check into would be?

Thanks in advance!

If you're looking for a very complex attention-to-detail combat system in an RPG, check out Jagged Alliance 2 1.13. It's the best turn based system I've ever seen.

Your question is a bit open-ended however. Do you want fantasy/modern/sci-fi, party or single player, 3d-isometric or 1st person view etc? Narrow that stuff down and you'll get answers more suited to what you prefer.

Originally Posted by Fnord
Other games to consider along the line of Ogre Tactics are:
Fire Emblem (series, one of my favourites among these games)
Final fantasy tactics
Grotesque tactics (PC SRPG)

If we're including console strategy/rpgs then I have to mention the Shining Force series. Those were great games from that genre. The original Shining Force was my favorite, and you can actually get that off Steam now.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Although W8 is a bit of a variant. It's phase based. You don't pause for every combatant's turn, you pause once per round for everyone. Then everyone takes their turn in order based on initiative.

Most people don't differentiate between the two. Besides, the battles in Wiz 8 didn't need to be any longer.

No kidding. One 20 minute battle one right after another after taking 5 steps in Rapax castle was a low point of an otherwise fantastic game.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Most people don't differentiate between the two. Besides, the battles in Wiz 8 didn't need to be any longer.

Well in that case, Baldurs Gate etc are turn based and should be recommended. You can auto-pause on the round, define actions and the round will be simultaneously resolved in initiative-speed order.

In order to play Wizardy 8 and Pool Of Radiance 2 without any speed mod, you must be a very, very patient man (and have a lot of free time). I remember some fights that took half an hour. By the way, Wizardry 8 is one of the most complex first person turn based system I have seen so far, I also love the leveling system (which is a combination of good old experience system with skill development with use. Pool of Radiance 2 is not great but a decent, old school dungeon crawler with a deep turn based combat system. One can understand the real value of it after seeing the current state of RPGs. I personally prefer the vast dungeon levels of that game to today's dungeon design that consists of a couple of rooms and some narrow corridors.

P.S: Those who have graphical problems while trying to run PoR 2 on modern systems can contact me. I have a solution to that.

PoR2 is good but Temple of Elemental Evil has the best turn based combat system if you like d&d. No other d&d game is even close.

Originally Posted by kalniel
Well in that case, Baldurs Gate etc are turn based and should be recommended. You can auto-pause on the round, define actions and the round will be simultaneously resolved in initiative-speed order.

Not really I think.

In IE games there aren´t any global rounds afair, the round counters are tied to individual characters.
Moreover, not all the actions are counted towards the counter, at least not feedback-wise (like inventory rummaging/equipping - Staff of the Magi invisibility abuse hello, or movement).
Iirc, in BG2 if you disable AI and set pause on the end of round and all you do in combat is running around, the pause will never trigger. It will only trigger once you employ a char with an action like attack, cast a spell or use an item.
And since the round count is tied to each character separately, using the triggered pause to assign an action to all the other characters isn´t really viable because there are good chances you´d interrupt the others´ current assignments.
By movement you can also interrupt chars´ actions on the fly.
The IE system is imo simply way too hybrid in how it plays and feels to be a good recommendation for a bot hungry for "a good turn based (fighting system) rpg".

On the other hand combat in Wizardry 8 plays out pretty much exactly the same as in the usual TB games since all the actions (movement and equipping included) occur in sequence.
The only difference (though it is a significant one from the tactical perspective) is that player has to assign actions before the initiative rolls, thus more-or-less without the knowledge what the sequence of turns will be.
The phase/round is global for everyone, friends or foes.

Originally Posted by Dark Savant
PoR2 is good but Temple of Elemental Evil has the best turn based combat system if you like d&d.

Yeah, pity its encounter design didn´t quite follow suit.

Originally Posted by Dark Savant
PoR2 is good but Temple of Elemental Evil has the best turn based combat system if you like d&d. No other d&d game is even close.

I wouldn't say that, there is a game in the PSP that is as good an implementation of the D&D rules as I remember ToEE being, without all the bugs.

Originally Posted by wolfing
I wouldn't say that, there is a game in the PSP that is as good an implementation of the D&D rules as I remember ToEE being, without all the bugs.

Are you talking about D&D Tactics?

This game is at once like and unlike any other tactics-style game you’ve played, and also like and unlike many of the classic turn-based RPG’s you might have played long ago. It is this combination that is the game’s greatest strength and weakness. And I think that this combination comes across as a ‘style clash’ in many ways, and that has caused a wide variety of opinions. While I haven’t spoken to anyone who thinks it is perfect, there are many who, like me, are willing to grumble their way through the flaws to reach the meat of the adventure mode and dig in to some excellent D&D combat. Those are typically D&D fans with PC gaming roots used to dealing with game ‘issues’. Console gamers experienced with more traditional Tactics games find this game to be an unplayable and unfathomable mess. In that regard it is perhaps the ‘Dungeon Lords’ of tactics games, though I am hesitant to use that description since this game is better than that. Suffice it to say that you will be telling Mr Owl of the many, many licks it took to get to the solid D&D core of this game, working your way through the messy candy shell.
The game is pure D&D, with all of the good and bad connotations that carries. I had spent well over a year anticipating this game, and had hoped until I had played a couple of hours back in 2007 that this would be a game that I could tell people “buy a PSP and this game – you won’t be sorry”. Unfortunately, if you do that you probably WILL be sorry … that was true three years ago, and is still true today.

Originally Posted by Dark Savant
PoR2 is good but Temple of Elemental Evil has the best turn based combat system if you like d&d. No other d&d game is even close.

Yes, you're right about that. It salways seems to me, ToEE was an updated version of PoR 2 (about combat of course). But I still think a hardcore RPGamer should play both. First PoR 2 (with speed mod of course) than ToEE (with latest CoE mod).

I'd highly recommend Arcanum, you can run it in both real time or turn based, the combat is a little imbalanced but fun none the less, and the story is so complex you can play it 20 times and still find new things about it.

Originally Posted by txa1265
Are you talking about D&D Tactics?

I think so. I'm not saying the game is awesome, but as an implementation of D&D it's very accurate, as good as ToEE I think, but I played both several years ago so my memory might be fussy.

Silent Storm series. I just posted in another subforum about mods, but I think it's one of the best turn-based strategies (with light rpg elements) in the past decade.