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[Shouta]

You say this, yet you admit earlier that there aren't any SRPGs that have difficulty without permanent death. Disgaea was mentioned, but it is a fairly easy game, especially with the many opportunities (some even required and encouraged) that leave you with an overpowered army. With permanent death, Disgaea would be extremely and immensely more difficult.

What do the two have in relation though? Even if there aren't many difficult RPGs that don't have permanent death, it doesn't change the fact that permanent death can be a crutch for game design.

Besides, Disgaea works around the concept of not having permanent and is specifically tailored to such situations. It doesn't rely on permanent death to provide interesting scenarios and combat. Sure, having permanent death would make it harder but if it did have it, it certainly isn't relying on it for challenge.

The bottomline is that it's not a problem, it's just the standard way of enforcing scenario play that requires you to 'master' the game, rather than just play blindly, throwing your best units at enemies, leveling up, etc. Really, the only reason why people rally against permanent death is because they don't like being frustrated by their SRPGs.

It may not be an issue with you, but I like to see games that aren't mindlessly designed and actually test the tactical thinking of the player. It's a sad state of affairs when I can go into most SRPGs with the same strategy each and every time and be successful without putting real effort into it.

 

[jarrod]

Yeah, the upcoming Growlanser IV: Returns was reported to be an action game (although I assume action RPG). There hasn't been much info about it though.

Really? Hmm, I wonder if WD would consider bringing over both G4's in a package then?

 

[Shouta]

I believe Vic's mentioned the thought.

 

[iapetus]

Well I don't really consider Kartia much of an SRPG either to be honest. But I've had very limited exposure to the game ...

You have a set of main human characters who level up and must be kept alive, but they have the ability to summon monsters which are disposable and vaguely fixed in their abilities. The power of the monsters is determined by the runes that the human characters know and the cards that they write them on. It's actually really rather neatly done - one of the more interesting PSX SRPGs in my book, even if it's flawed in other ways.

Well, er, you can check enemy stats by placing the cursor over them and pressing R.

(and some other stuff)

Yes, I know all that. I mean in the fog of war type levels - you can't see the equipment of an enemy until you can see them, IIRC, and you certainly can't find out where they are. Which means you can end up moving into range of a powerful unit with a reasonable critical chance.

Especially by grunts. Most enemy units have something like 3% as their HIGHEST critical. Even for promoted classes. So that's just CRAZY in my eyes.

Let's assume they average out at 0.5%. How many times were you attacked in the course of the game? Certainly enough to make it likely you've taken a few criticals. Perhaps the RNG just hates me.

You and me both.

Hell, I might even put in some time on it over the next month or two. Won't restock on GBA games once I've finished my current set, and do some number crunching and on-paper playtesting on the train. If I managed to write a novel on the train in November, I'm sure a couple of months should give me a passable design for an SRPG.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

You have a set of main human characters who level up and must be kept alive, but they have the ability to summon monsters which are disposable and vaguely fixed in their abilities. The power of the monsters is determined by the runes that the human characters know and the cards that they write them on. It's actually really rather neatly done - one of the more interesting PSX SRPGs in my book, even if it's flawed in other ways.

Kartia was one of those games I always meant to look up. Seems I have a reason now.

(and some other stuff)

Yes, I know all that. I mean in the fog of war type levels - you can't see the equipment of an enemy until you can see them, IIRC, and you certainly can't find out where they are. Which means you can end up moving into range of a powerful unit with a reasonable critical chance.

Well I was pretty sure you knew that stuff, but just to make sure. Also in fog of war you have your thieves, your torches and your Torch Staff (hello abuse ahoy). Unlike the WARS games, enemies can't hide in forests, so if you have any of the above you're usually pat. (With the notable exception of Ballistas, but they suck and almost never hit so there's not a problem.)

Let's assume they average out at 0.5%. How many times were you attacked in the course of the game? Certainly enough to make it likely you've taken a few criticals. Perhaps the RNG just hates me.

Well I will say that I have the highest LUK stat of people I know when it concerns myself VS the CPU. The most widely known example I can give off hand is how dumbfounded I was that Kefka can actually do "Fallen One" as a regular turned attack. I thought it was soley scripted for his first turn. So I could seriously see that happening.

Now against real live people, I am I have literally negative LUK. I'd be worse than Sonja of Yellow Comet in that respect, so it all works out.

Hell, I might even put in some time on it over the next month or two. Won't restock on GBA games once I've finished my current set, and do some number crunching and on-paper playtesting on the train. If I managed to write a novel on the train in November, I'm sure a couple of months should give me a passable design for an SRPG.

I just wish I could code. It'd be a start. As it is, any ideas I have would be absolutely rubbish since there's no way for me to make them a reality as of yet.

 

[slayn]

if you guys ever become serious about making an SRPG, contact me, I'd be up for it. I was toying with the idea of trying to make one after I finish my current GBA project.

 

[Amir0x]

For me it's...

Fire Emblem >> Tactics Ogre: Knights of Lodis >>>>>>> SF Remake > FFTA >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>x38347 OT