Non-RPG General News - Fantasy General II announced

There's still an interest in that style of game? Seems like young players all want instant gratification now.
 
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Fantasy General I was my favorite game for a long time, and helped me branch out into genres other than fantasy RPGs.
 
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Fantasy General I was my favorite game for a long time, and helped me branch out into genres other than fantasy RPGs.

You used to only play fantasy RPGs to the exclusion of everything else & needed a game to set you free?

Man, that's hardcore. I've never heard of this before so I'm genuinely curious how this came to be? Sounds like a genuinely interesting story is hidden in your post that would make for very interesting reading.
 
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One of my favorites in the 5 Star General series. Would love to see some actual gameplay, though. Will keep an eye on it
 
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You used to only play fantasy RPGs to the exclusion of everything else & needed a game to set you free?

Man, that's hardcore. I've never heard of this before so I'm genuinely curious how this came to be? Sounds like a genuinely interesting story is hidden in your post that would make for very interesting reading.

Thank you for being interested.

This was a long time ago when there weren't nearly as many PC games, plus I was very frugal in what I would purchase, but back in the mid-1990s I had only ever enjoyed fantasy RPGs (Wizardry, Might & Magic, Eye of the Beholder, etc.) and not other types of PC games. When Fallout 1 and 2 were released in the late 1990s I didn't even give them a first look because I had no interest in the setting since it wasn't Tolkien-like fantasy.

Something about the tactics of Fantasy General caught my eye so I downloaded a demo of I think it was Panzer General which was basically the same game except set in World War II. I disliked the Panzer General demo quite a bit and couldn't play for more than maybe 30 minutes because of the setting but felt that the gameplay could be enjoyable if you replace cannons with elven archers etc. As soon as I began playing Fantasy General I was hooked, and I even replayed its full long campaign several times including I think near 2010 at the latest. It's still one of my top 10 games, though I don't know if I would have the patience for another full campaign play through considering I have already played through it 4-6 times.

I think that experience of trying something out of bounds for me (a strategy game, not an RPG) helped me later venture out away from fantasy games into pretty much any other type of setting and other types of games including finally playing Fallout 1 and 2 sometime near 2005. Nowadays I have no specific pull towards a Tolkien-like fantasy setting, and there are plenty of not-really-RPGs that I enjoy.
 
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Well it's not 1996 so it better be an improved version and not just a copy.

Link - https://www.pcgamer.com/fantasy-general-2-is-a-modern-sequel-to-the-classic-wargame/

At least they are going for better graphics.

I am somewhat worried because one of the things I enjoyed about Fantasy General was the very clear graphics in which it was very easy to see what was going on even with a bunch of troops near each other. It was like moving chess pieces on a board, very easy.

These screenshots of FG2 seem a bit confused to me as apparently one hex has several tiny figurines in it to represent one unit in the hex, but I don't get much concerned about screenshots and I'm looking forward to seeing how good the game will be.

Something like 10-15 years ago I think that there was a "spiritual successor" to FG but I don't remember the name of the game. I downloaded the demo and didn't enjoy it but I didn't really know why at the time (and I don't remember now). I don't think it sold well at all.

It's very difficult to capture the "Magic" of days gone by. I think that many times something cultural -- RPG, music, etc. -- can really resonate with someone at the right time, but if it is re-created in a different way in the future it is often not anything close to having the same impact. Fortunately, there is often new "Magic."
 
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Something like 10-15 years ago I think that there was a "spiritual successor" to FG but I don't remember the name of the game. I downloaded the demo and didn't enjoy it but I didn't really know why at the time (and I don't remember now). I don't think it sold well at all.

"Fantasy Wars" I guess? There are more games that captured some of the ideas, but this one was most obviously trying to be a successor.
 
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I think this is using the Panzer Corps 2 engine (sequel to the remake of Panzer General, which is releasing soon). This means it will support things like randoms maps and scripted events on that map. Should be worth a play.
 
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Fantasy General is one of my favorite games of all time. Got it on GoG and did a play thru around a year ago. One of my gaming wishes coming true? What's going to happen next? JVC making new M&M and HoMM games.

I even played the Fantasy Wars game with the expansions. They were good but not Fantasy General good.
 
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I am somewhat worried because one of the things I enjoyed about Fantasy General was the very clear graphics in which it was very easy to see what was going on even with a bunch of troops near each other. It was like moving chess pieces on a board, very easy.

These screenshots of FG2 seem a bit confused to me as apparently one hex has several tiny figurines in it to represent one unit in the hex, but I don't get much concerned about screenshots and I'm looking forward to seeing how good the game will be.

It kind of makes sense to me that the graphics would have lots of figures in one unit. Units in fantasy general are made up of multiple guys, each of which attacks individually and can be killed individually. Keeping track of how many people were left alive in each unit was hugely important and it makes sense that they would want to represent it graphically.

I loved fantasy general, my only issue with it was how units killed in one scenario were permanently dead. This meant that if you had a hard won scenario that you barely finished, it would often leave you in a position of not being able to progress because you were too weakened.
 
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Did anyone mention that Fantasy General had some of the best music of all time? Hope the new one can live up to this.
 
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Thank you for being interested.

This was a long time ago when there weren't nearly as many PC games, plus I was very frugal in what I would purchase, but back in the mid-1990s I had only ever enjoyed fantasy RPGs (Wizardry, Might & Magic, Eye of the Beholder, etc.) and not other types of PC games. When Fallout 1 and 2 were released in the late 1990s I didn't even give them a first look because I had no interest in the setting since it wasn't Tolkien-like fantasy.

Something about the tactics of Fantasy General caught my eye so I downloaded a demo of I think it was Panzer General which was basically the same game except set in World War II. I disliked the Panzer General demo quite a bit and couldn't play for more than maybe 30 minutes because of the setting but felt that the gameplay could be enjoyable if you replace cannons with elven archers etc. As soon as I began playing Fantasy General I was hooked, and I even replayed its full long campaign several times including I think near 2010 at the latest. It's still one of my top 10 games, though I don't know if I would have the patience for another full campaign play through considering I have already played through it 4-6 times.

I think that experience of trying something out of bounds for me (a strategy game, not an RPG) helped me later venture out away from fantasy games into pretty much any other type of setting and other types of games including finally playing Fallout 1 and 2 sometime near 2005. Nowadays I have no specific pull towards a Tolkien-like fantasy setting, and there are plenty of not-really-RPGs that I enjoy.

That's an excellent story, thanks for taking the time to write it.

My experience is almost exactly the opposite. I started my gaming experiences purely as a console player. And at friend's houses, not at home on my own. So computer gaming for me was always, initially, a group thing, be it passing the controller after death on a platformer or beating Streets of Rage with a friend at an arcade or beating each other up in Street Fighter or Mortal Combat.

Eventually I bought my own console, a PlayStation 1. And the magic vanished. I simply couldn't get into any game. Monopoly, completely useless as a solo game, the AI was too retarded for words. Crash Bandicoot was great fun, but lacked any replay value once you'd got the hang of it enough to complete it. Destruction Derby was fun, until a few days later when it just got boring. I found that the price of games wasn't matching the value I got out of them & I found that most of the games I tried left me feeling empty inside. I bought and sold two PlayStation 1s before I gave up on console gaming and bought a PC.

Suddenly almost every game I tried I enjoyed. Be it Worms 2, Civilisation 2, Myth the Fallen Lords, you name it, suddenly I found myself really engrossed in gaming. Not as engrossed as many here, but gaming had now become a real alternative to television.

Still no game really matched my specific personal taste though. Then one day I picked up Icewind Dale, because it looked vaguely like Myth the Fallen Lords. And, oh my days, it was like heaven descended upon my soul. Divine Divinity came close behind and the Neverwinter Nights expansions sealed my fate as an RPG fan. I still play other genres with as much variety as I ever did, but no other genre nor specific genre within the genre can ever hope to match my love for fantasy RPGing, there is no other game available to me that gives me literally my perfect gaming experience.

I did try those old series like Wizardry & Ultima & M&M & etc, but I have no sense of direction & get lost simply by turning right while standing on the spot, but also because I always resented their cynical desire to game their audience with deliberately obscure puzzles designed solely to make you call 0900 numbers or buy cheat books/magazines, sort of the ancient version of loot boxes and pay-to-win bullshit. & That was another thing that was so utterly refreshing about the turn-of-the-century games, games started to be just games, no bullshit. My god that was such a golden era for soooo many reasons.

And, no, I've never viewed fantasy games as Tolkienesque. I wouldn't class any RPG I've ever played as being Tolkienesque. His universe is a really quite dry one that's more suited to a strategy game than an RPG. Sure, there are moment where a small group pf people do stuff, but in the main it's a universe that's much more about the big picture, of capturing and defnding cities, of making allies and etc. Heck, in the movies they even cut out the part where each gang member was given their unique loot becaue it was 'least important'. And, other than reforging the big-bad sword, that's all there is to loot in that universe. Monster variety is weak and consists mostly of just Orcs and Goblins.

I find it utterly bizzare and hugely ironic that such a low magic, low variety and mostly human-biased romb has somehow been applied to the most imaginative and free-wheeling genre it's possible to have. Even in Divine Divinity where most of your foes are Orcs I made no mental connection between LotR and DD. If anything I was always associating the things I saw with such people as C S Lewis or such movies as Night of the Living Dead. Calling fantasy games Tolkien-games would be akin to calling a Guitar Hero game a Guns & Roses-like game.
 
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@lackblogger;: Very interesting, thank you for sharing your story.

Your beginnings of gaming with a group on console is very different from mine. I actually began in the 1970s playing one-off bowling alley games such as Galaxian or Asteroids even though I was not good at them, but it wasn't until Wizardry 1 on an Apple that I really began to take gaming "seriously" in which I look forward to playing whenever I could.

Those old step-wise games like early Might & Magic don't hold up well over the years in my view, and playing them for the first time many years later is not that likely to be fun. Personally, I'm so used to modern conveniences like automaps and decent graphics that I have trouble playing old RPGs.

I am very glad to see how video gaming has grown from where it was, in which sometimes people were ridiculed for it, to where it is now. I am also glad to see other posts with fondness for Fantasy General.
 
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