Tactical Indie RPGs - The sucessors of X-COM, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics and Heroes of Might and Magic.

[Your Starter for 10]

Just a heads up to anyone curious there's full on titty in the steam store page screenshots. There are "adult" elements to this RPG but otherwise I think it may be interesting.

Titty shot? There is a full on blowjob shot and at least two fully nude sex shots. Adult elements indeed!

 

[NerdShamer]

Just a heads up to anyone curious there's full on titty in the steam store page screenshots. There are "adult" elements to this RPG but otherwise I think it may be interesting.

It's kind of an nonissue. But it just felt half-baked, even for early access

 

[Stephen Rothman]

I'm late to the party, but Menace really captures the atmosphere of Jagged Alliance 1/2 for me. Hell, the cheap martian lady even feels like a M.E.R.C charity case. I don't think I quite get how to play it right just yet, but I'm loving it so far.

 

[The Feline Solution 2]

I think Prelude Dark Pain was the best title of the last Next Fest. Finally a SRPG that is not a puzzle game in disguise (see shit like Hard West 2) and is more in the vein of PS1 and PS2 classics of the genre. I will sink countless of hours into that one, no doubt.

2 Fights in 2 Tight Spaces released into early access.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fAXOHq_b6Ks

If you like the first one you like this one, it's really just more of the same. Had fun with it so far.

Expeditions Samurai announcement:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pZQT1OjonH4

Holy shit, hype! I disliked Expeditions: Rome, mainly because of its retarded combat, but loved Vikings and Conquistador. Will give this one a shot for sure. Shadow of the Road has not convinced me yet (combat was needlessly convoluted in the demo) so here's to hoping for a good Samurai SRPG.

Edit: Christ, should've watched the trailer before posting. The fuck is this voice acting and the character designs?

Stirring Abyss

Underrated, if somewhat flawed, game.

 

[dame dudi jench]

I'm gonna give it another shot, because I really thought Hooded Horse would be able to turn Goldhawk around, I want this to be solid because the first game was basically abandoned and left to the community to patch, but it seems even Hooded Horse's mark of quality isn't something I should just accept uncritically. If Goldhawk hadn't joined HH as their publisher I never would've given them another chance after the state they left the first game, and I'm gonna be honest, I'm not feeling it so far.

The Hooded Horse guy, who if i remember right was a lawyer by trade, does not seem to be good at actually managing developers. Old World and Manor Lords are great but they are pros who did not need dev help. That Alliance of the Sacred Suns game died on the table. Terra Invicta is a busy box for autists the way the paradox games are, but it isn't a fun or well-designed game. Every Day We Fight, Nebulous, Mars Tactics, a few others are the same where they are really cool ideas on paper and the devs have gone completely off the rails without a firm publisher hand to correct them. So I'm not buying HH games early access any more,

 

[Stasi]

I'll add one to your list and having played a bunch of these I'd rate this as the best I've ever played for being tactically fascinating. However, it didn't do well thanks to a major image problem. The game is by the X-Com team and is Marvel's Midnight Suns. The image problem was that nearly everybody looked at it and saw "Collectible Card Game". The gameplay is actually superbly tactical. However, each battle takes place in a single confined arena.

I gave this a go recently after reading your post. Only a couple of hours in and enjoying the gameplay so far, I like the concept.

I have a major problem though. I wanted to play it on my living room TV because this feels like the perfect couch game but the in game text doesn't scale at all at 4k. It fucking tiny and the scaling option in the menus does nothing. The game is perfectly playable other than the fact I need a pair of binoculars to read the card text. I might have to abandon the couch idea and play it on my laptop or something.

Its insane that the devs didn't think "oh people might want to play this on a TV at a higher resolution, maybe we should up the font size on the cards".

 

[Overly Serious]

I gave this a go recently after reading your post. Only a couple of hours in and enjoying the gameplay so far, I like the concept.

I have a major problem though. I wanted to play it on my living room TV because this feels like the perfect couch game but the in game text doesn't scale at all at 4k. It fucking tiny and the scaling option in the menus does nothing. The game is perfectly playable other than the fact I need a pair of binoculars to read the card text. I might have to abandon the couch idea and play it on my laptop or something.

Its insane that the devs didn't think "oh people might want to play this on a TV at a higher resolution, maybe we should up the font size on the cards".

Ah, that's a real shame. I hope it doesn't stop you getting into it. The tactical depth to the game is enormous but I have to realise many people simply cannot see it because they just see "card game". If you want a real challenge and some fun, put the difficulty up every chance it lets you. It forces you to really understand the characters and find interesting synergies. I don't think I really understood Ghost Rider until near the end game where frankly I couldn't afford to be weak with him. And beating it on Ultimate III is tremendously rewarding just to have been able to do it.

I wish the game had done better. It really does seem to be down to a failure to look beyond the fact they used the visual metaphor of cards for the powers and play. Your hunter going light or dark? Or just sitting in the middle?

 

[Stasi]

I hope it doesn't stop you getting into it.

Yeh I think I'll stick with it, just a shame the UI scaling is abysmal, would be a nice game to play on the couch after work.

So far it reminds me a little of Steamworld Quest, though that game is pretty easy once you get your head around it and figure out a couple of strong strategies.

Your hunter going light or dark? Or just sitting in the middle?

I'm only a couple of missions in and haven't gone fully into either but I'm leaning towards going light if it has more support and healing card options.

 

[Overly Serious]

So far it reminds me a little of Steamworld Quest, though that game is pretty easy once you get your head around it and figure out a couple of strong strategies.

There's no easy winning strategy on this. Not unless you play on lower and medium difficulties. You're forced to repeatedly come up with new strategies to capitalise on new powers and characters as they get them. And the card modifying element of the game also has a factor as the right modification on a card can radically change its worth or how it plays.

Also, the way new characters and cards are tied to story missions means you can optimise and improve your teams but only within certain limits. The balance remains very good. And if you do follow my advice and play it on maximum difficulty, the final battle will really push you. For me that's a big part of the fun.

I'm only a couple of missions in and haven't gone fully into either but I'm leaning towards going light if it has more support and healing card options.

Light is a very strong support and healing direction, yes. I went full dark and was just a walking blood sprinkler. The enemies', my allies', mine - didn't really matter. Pure destruction. Spiderman wishes I'd gone light.

 

[moocow]

Its insane that the devs didn't think "oh people might want to play this on a TV at a higher resolution, maybe we should up the font size on the cards".

UI scaling (including card text, etc.) is a solved problem and it's infuriating to see devs continue to get it so wrong. It has to be deliberate at this point. Like, you have to deliberately make a UI toolkit from scratch to avoid the "nicely scales your UI elements and typefaces to fit the resolution and DPI of the output device" feature literally every fucking UI toolkit provides now by default.