PSP Strategy games

[Mickeymac]

I was hoping to try some good strategy games on the PSP, and was hoping for some recommendations. I'm more or less willing to try anything, so go crazy.

[Mr. Cheez]

I've heard Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and FF Tactics: War of the Lions are pretty good. Been meaning to get those myself. And there's also this Advance Wars ripoff called Field Commander, or something like that, that I've heard good things about.

[Mickeymac]

Originally Posted by Mr. Cheez

I've heard Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and FF Tactics: War of the Lions are pretty good. Been meaning to get those myself. And there's also this Advance Wars ripoff called Field Commander, or something like that, that I've heard good things about.

Thanks, I'll look into those when I can. Especially Field Commander, since anything that rips off Advanced Wars is bound to be good!

[Kanti 3000]

Final Fantasy Tactics: the War of the Lions is pretty amazing, although it's very different from Advance Wars. It's more of a strategy rpg. Disgea is okay if you like grinding (and it's got a great sense of humor). I also hear that R-Type Command and Jeanne D'Arc are pretty good games.

[Mickeymac]

Originally Posted by Kanti 3000

Final Fantasy Tactics: the War of the Lions is pretty amazing, although it's very different from Advance Wars. It's more of a strategy rpg. Disgea is okay if you like grinding (and it's got a great sense of humor). I also hear that R-Type Command and Jeanne D'Arc are pretty good games.

Thank 'y muchly. I was just looking at D'arc, it looks pretty cool. Tad expensive though. I tried a demo of R-Type Command before, and it was the reason that I got into strategy games in the first place. Unfortunately, I could never find the full game for a decent price(even used was over $30), so I never got it. Might look around some more and see if I have more luck now that it's pretty old.

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

See also DS. Tactical RPG for fans of anime humour and massive grinding. This version features more extensive in-game voice acting but lacks an extra anime humour special feature.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Exclusive. Slight upgrade to the best tactical RPG ever created. It's a job-/class-based tactical RPG with an emphasis on character customization and a deep, detailed, dark plot. Can't recommend this one enough, especially for the bargain bin prices you can find it going for here and there.

Jeanne d'Arc

Exclusive. Competent tactical RPG with strong characters and a nice style. Haven't played enough of it to give it a full review, but you can do some more research on it if you like. It's also available on PSN for an inflated price.

Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone
GBA: Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone

Exclusive. Weird stylized tactical RPG. I haven't played enough of this beyond testing it out to offer a solid recommendation, but some people swear by it. Do some research and/or check out YouTube to see how it plays.

[tantrumario]

Originally Posted by Jogurt the Yogurt

Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone
GBA: Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone

Exclusive. Weird stylized tactical RPG. I haven't played enough of this beyond testing it out to offer a solid recommendation, but some people swear by it. Do some research and/or check out YouTube to see how it plays.

I have the game, so I'll give some more details. This game is very similar to Fire Emblem in map appearance and other ways. Unlike Fire Emblem, there are these cards that determine the movement of your team for a turn. It also controls the ability used in battle. There are different classes like knights, fencers, thiefs, witches, tacticians and many other. But, these classes don't have much difference other than what cards they can use. I clocked atleast 15 hours into it and I'm only in the 18th battlefield out of 45. This game is very extensive, but not much replay value after beaten. Although, there is a hard mode given. I got it for $20 and I reccomend it if you really like strategy games.

[Mickeymac]

Originally Posted by tantrumario

I have the game, so I'll give some more details. This game is very similar to Fire Emblem in map appearance and other ways. Unlike Fire Emblem, there are these cards that determine the movement of your team for a turn. It also controls the ability used in battle. There are different classes like knights, fencers, thiefs, witches, tacticians and many other. But, these classes don't have much difference other than what cards they can use. I clocked atleast 15 hours into it and I'm only in the 18th battlefield out of 45. This game is very extensive, but not much replay value after beaten. Although, there is a hard mode given. I got it for $20 and I reccomend it if you really like strategy games.

Thanks man! For that price, I'll definitely look into it! It sounds pretty cool too.

Jog, does War of the Lions have easily-skippable story scenes? I don't like the sound of that "deep, detailed, dark plot"...

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

It's a very deep and intellectual plot. You wouldn't like it. The animated cut-scenes are skippable as far as I recall, but the in-engine scenes usually aren't. None of them gets very long, though, since they're spread out between so many battles, but a few of them are big.

Still, the game is so good that if you let the story prevent you from enjoying the game you're cheating yourself.

[Diebythesword]

Pixel Junk Monsters

[Mickeymac]

Originally Posted by Jogurt the Yogurt

It's a very deep and intellectual plot. You wouldn't like it. The animated cut-scenes are skippable as far as I recall, but the in-engine scenes usually aren't. None of them gets very long, though, since they're spread out between so many battles, but a few of them are big.

Still, the game is so good that if you let the story prevent you from enjoying the game you're cheating yourself.

If FFTA has taught me anything, it's that an unskippable story can ruin anything.

[tantrumario]

No Problem

[pdRydia]

Originally Posted by Mickeymac

If FFTA has taught me anything, it's that an unskippable story can ruin anything.

I think you should play Golden Sun!

[Phantom]

Maybe you could try Generation of Chaos or Spectral Souls? I have both but haven't had the chance to play them yet, heard they're decent though if slightly slow loading doesn't bother you. (might also be on the psn store? That'd solve the problem)

Also there's Wild Arms XF that could be good if you can find it

[Mickeymac]

Originally Posted by Phantom

Maybe you could try Generation of Chaos or Spectral Souls? I have both but haven't had the chance to play them yet, heard they're decent though if slightly slow loading doesn't bother you. (might also be on the psn store? That'd solve the problem)

Also there's Wild Arms XF that could be good if you can find it

I was wondering if anyone would recommend Wild Arms. Thanks for the link Mac! looks pretty cool, if a tad too much like FFTA. I'll still look into it though, it's pretty cheap nowadays.

Never heard of those other ones though. I'll have to check 'em out.

Originally Posted by pdRydia

I think you should play Golden Sun!

Nice try, but Jogurt already warned me about that 'un.

[Kanti 3000]

Originally Posted by Mickeymac

If FFTA has taught me anything, it's that an unskippable story can ruin anything.

I actually like FFTA, but the cutscenes are horrible. Horribly long and horribly skipple, and in some cases horribly uninteresting. No worries though, War of the Lions is nowhere near as bad, the in game cutscenes aren't to bad, and the animated cutscenes are skippable (Although they are pretty fantastic. I don't know why anyone would want to skip them), and it has a much better plot to boot.

[Mickeymac]

Other than almost getting Jeanne d'Arc, I haven't been making much progress unfortunately. I'll just make a lit of what everybody has listed so I don't have to sort through all the comments.

• Wild Arm XF
• Generation of Chaos
• Spectral Souls
• Pixel Junk Monsters Deluxe
• Yggdra Union: We Never Fight Alone
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
• Jeanne d'Arc
• R-Type Command
• Field Commanders

[bold]=Must-Buy
[italicized]=requires more research
[neither]=good, but not must-buy material

[Refa]

Originally Posted by Mickeymac

Other than almost getting Jeanne d'Arc, I haven't been making much progress unfortunately. I'll just make a lit of what everybody has listed so I don't have to sort through all the comments.

• Wild Arm XF
• Generation of Chaos
• Spectral Souls
• Pixel Junk Monsters Deluxe
• Yggdra Union: We Never Fight Alone
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
• Jeanne d'Arc
• R-Type Command
• Field Commanders

[bold]=Must-Buy
[italicized]=requires more research
[neither]=good, but not must-buy material

FFT should be a must buy, unless you have the PSX copy.

[tantrumario]

Originally Posted by Mickeymac

Other than almost getting Jeanne d'Arc, I haven't been making much progress unfortunately. I'll just make a lit of what everybody has listed so I don't have to sort through all the comments.

• Wild Arm XF
• Generation of Chaos
• Spectral Souls
• Pixel Junk Monsters Deluxe
• Yggdra Union: We Never Fight Alone
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
• Jeanne d'Arc
• R-Type Command
• Field Commanders

[bold]=Must-Buy
[italicized]=requires more research
[neither]=good, but not must-buy material

Glad to know you're certain to get Yggdra Union.

[Mickeymac]

Originally Posted by Refa

FFT should be a must buy, unless you have the PSX copy.

I still need to do more research. From what little I know, it doesn't seem that good. The story sounds extremely convoluted, although I heard the PSP version fixed some of that(it fixed the g-d-awful translation at least - The story itself was still pretty disjointed and hard to follow, apparently). I know nothing about the gameplay, but if it's anything like FFTA, I'll probably hate it.

Of course, I also heard it was more like Tactics Ogre, so I'll just wait for that game to come out on PSN first, and if that's good, I'll get War of the Lions. I already tried and loved TO: The Kight of Lodis(in fact, it's probably the reason why I hated FFTA, since I played it immediately after The Kights of Lodis), so I think it'll be safe to give the PSX Tactics Ogre a shot.

Originally Posted by tantrumario

Glad to know you're certain to get Yggdra Union.

Now that I know how to play it.

[Diebythesword]

Let me know how that R-Type Command is

[Mickeymac]

Originally Posted by Diebythesword

Let me know how that R-Type Command is

Roger-dodger.