(I recommend) Infinite Adventures

I wanted to give this game some love. If you like Japanese style blobbers like Stranger of Sword City or Elminage, I can recommend this one. The voice acting can be corny, and the writing and story are pretty clique, but the game is a lot of fun with nice dungeon and character design. I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to reviewing it, but I thought there are some other people on the forum besides me who like these kinds of games.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/607820/

Yup, I've heard high praise from several friends that own this game, I'll be picking it up at some point this year. Thanks for the reminder, I'd forgotten about this game during the holidays.

Pretty unique blend of 2D & 3D. I can stomach anime pretty well and this genre is definitely westernized fantasy so added to list!

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
Pretty unique blend of 2D & 3D. I can stomach anime pretty well and this genre is definitely westernized fantasy so added to list!

It is of course anime, but I find it pretty mild, like in Elminage. There are no little kid pcs or npcs, and the monsters are also pretty standard stuff like orcs, serpents, scorpions, dragons, and that sort of stuff.

Agreed. Any game that styles itself after masterpieces such as Sword City or Elminage will always be acquired by me. All I need is for it to be available at great old games or steam!!

But but, even those faces break any immersion and immersion should be the highest priority .

Well if immersion is your highest priority then you are probably playing something like This War of Mine, but I prefer whimsy. To each his own.

I'll be in computer playing heaven if they ever release such classics as Ogre Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics, or the Emblem series for the pc. Until that day happens, I'll gladly buy and play what is made for my computer!

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
Well if immersion is your highest priority then you are probably playing something like This War of Mine, but I prefer whimsy. To each his own.

Surely, I can find something that is rpg, immersive and even humorous at the same time, I dont need to change my favorite genre to find those qualities. And yes, its all about taste I guess .

I've playing this is a bit, it's kind of fun. The game it really reminds me of, far more than Stranger of Sword City or Eliminage, is Etrian Odyssey. In fact I'd it's sort a blatant copy of Etrian that doesn't make any attempt to hide it. I like Etrian so that doesn't bother me too much, and it does add a few new things and class mechanics.

I only played Etrian 1, I enjoyed until I got bored by the combats. In comparison of similar system I found it a bit weak. It didn't help that I didn't build that well my team which pushed me to some grinding that contributed to the boredom.

But that's a game with many cool ideas. For Inf Adv, despite I have less and less faith for that combat system, and indie on Windows is something I try avoid, i still bookmarked to consider it later.

It probably means nothing but the only three games using a similar combats approach and for which I enjoyed combats really are:
- Might & Magic X, but it's not the same system. Many combats are multi fronts and multi range, and it's mainly those combats that bring in the fun. But then it's not a front to front system.
- Battle Chasers Nightwar, enjoyed quite a lot the combats. But it's possible that because of importance of UI initiative list it cannot work well with more than 3vs3 or requires waves.
- Planet Stronghold, a big good surprise for the combats. Planet Stronghold 2 should come I'm very curious to play it.

For example combats wasn't awful but didn't work that well for me in Lords of Xulima, Loren the Amazon Princess, Cursed Lands, Tales of Aravorn Seasons Of The Wolf. And was even borderline tedious in The Quest, The Huntsman Winter's Curse.

In fact I believe that for cheap budgets, Horizontal 2D combats system have much more potential, but in RPG context, Horizontal 2D is hardly a good context for exploration, and map exploration has limits.

Does it have a mini-map or automap feature ?

Yeah it has a pretty standard mini-map that works well. It's a PC game so obviously your not drawing your own map with a stylus like in Etrian.

Overall it's kind of like Etrian Oddyssey lite. It has a few new ideas and mechanics, but the overall game is significantly less complex.