Shining force 1 + 2 are easily among the best games ever made

Currently playing through SF3 scenario 2, and it's so freaking good.

Cos the devs went onto working for Nintendo?

Shining force is phenomenal and Sega needs to Resurrect the franchise now!

@@maxwellhenschel6956 SF3 gets better and better as you go. Easily my favorite strat rpg.

It at least deserves an honorable mention. I feel like it definitely has a fun quality to it although the endless dungeons to boost weapons is a bit much.

Was looking for this. Disgaea is absolutely bonkers at every level , but it's also what makes it great!

Disgaea, especially later games are so far superior to almost all other srpgs that it makes it hard, if not impossible, to play them. E.g. People have their mile thick nostalgia glasses about FF Tactics but it was not a great game, for its time it was maybe good but it was outclassed not much later but newer games with far better mechanics because FFT has only very primitive mechanics that allow for almost no freedom of choice. Disgaea vs most srpgs, especially stuff like FFT is like playing FF10 International vs playing FF1, complex systems and customizable characters you can do almost anything with and then a mountain of options for various strategies during combat vs almost entirely linear progress and barely any options besides attack, defend and use skill. I love srpgs but the genre is so oversaturated with poorly designed combat mechanics that even something as basic and obviously necessary as the ability to move after attacking is virtually nonexistent outside Nippon Ichi games like Disgaea, etc.. Not to mention the various annoying games that have friendly fire for basic ranged attacks, making archers, etc. borderline useless unless you build your entire strategy around them and of these a good deal are total bs and have friendly fire only for player characters but not for enemies.

oh yeah, I played it back when it released on the PSP, I had a great time!

the sequel is also very good! totally unique turn system that I wish caught on.

Yeah, I was coming here to mention Vandal Hearts.

I second that. The first was the best, but 2 was good too. I wish I still had them or they would rerelease them.

Vandal hearts is awesome and the blood spraying is metal af

@@Blernster I agree, when I first saw that huge comedic but awesome blood spray I knew I was in for a good time haha.

Sadly series is probably dead (underperforming sales). Proof of that: Sega do not celebrated 15th Anniversary of Valkyria Chronicles in 24.04.2023 (even Famitsu mentioned about that, but Sega don't), instead of that they celebrated in 24.04.2023 10th Anniversary of Puyo Puyo Quest (mobile game). What a company ...

Just getting a translated port of the 3rd one would be awesome.

For sure FFT isn't beginner friendly or recommend to kids even if they already played a srpg before.

Definitely one of the best ones ❤

Awww, thank you so much! I'm still chugging along!

While I only played the second one and about an hour of the third one, I found it to be far too grindy and when I saw some of the really high characters stats from others showing off, I immediately lost interest.

Yeah. Maybe he didn’t play them or it’s just not his top 10. For me, I’d include shining force.

@@AntonioCunningham You can beat the story with zero grind, I've done so on all 7 games. The grind is only needed for the post-game stuff IF you care enough to do it. But the story is good enough you really don't need to if it's not your bag.

@@VideoGameVillians I also don't like the whole evil being good in games either but knowing I'll never get things in games because of excessive grinding is enough to stop me right from the start. I mean why play something you know you can't do everything in? To be clear I'm not against grinding itself, but it's why too much in the Disgaea games.

Yeah Disgaea 1 really pushed gameplay and replayability.

For me triangle strategy it's better in mechanichs, fft has the Best job System of history (almost the same of OT 1 and 2) and fft is better in story but triangle strategy make the variatons in the story decision bases and has great side quest and "interaction" outside the battle, the only way to make the Best srpg of all time in My opinion would be like triangle strategy or táctics ogre with octopath job System, the FFT job system or even the ff 12 Zodiac age one, exploration just as the sns Game in this list or Kings Bounty franchise (where You can explore the world and the tactic grid starts after entering the battle) to find secrets, an interesting side quest system where reward would be weapons, healing items, classes and characters even secret ones and some money and for last the battle needs to be as FFT with some mechanichs of triangle strategy

That's very likely, but at least Square could have kept the FFT brand and not let it die just because of the underwhelming handheld games. Just keep making different stories, after all rpg sequels tend not to have direct continuations. I don't even want to have the continuation of the FFT story anyway, as it would be probably exploitative to the FFT success... i just want that srpg gameplay and a great and completely different story.

​@@ivanrojt1862 I think it's not a good combination to put a complex srpg system and the complete conventional rpg model, or at least that's a common idea among companies. Which could explain why i doesn't happen. It must be an attempt to avoid making the game too overwhelming. To begin with it's normal to remove conventional rpg aspects even from simpler srpgs like Fire Emblem. I don't know, maybe even FE is considered to be more complex than normal rpgs battles. And when you have a srpg with conventional rpg free roaming like Shining Force, that still isn't true "free" roaming, and the inventory system is simplified like Fire Emblem: only weapons, accessories and items. Even so a srpg like SF is rare. Now Tactics Ogre, FFT, Front Mission, etc, these games with more complex gameplay AND with conventional rpg inventory system and versatile customization, they lack conventional rpg free roaming. You move over the world like a Mario map. Then there's the case of Treasure Hunter G, that false 3d game from the video: it has total free roaming, customization options (weapon, armor, accessory) and good item variety, but then it has simple srpg gameplay. Not like FFT, even though not as simple as FE or SF either. The game even recovers your hp after every battle, in order to make it bearable. Meaning that the devs must have felt it was going to feel overwhelming. This is a super rare example in rpg history. And all these srpgs were made by veteran companies, that probably weren't insecure even if it's a "new" game genre in the 90s. What I mean is that they can be more confident than if it was a minor company handling a new genre in the 90s, without any established reference from big popular games.

@@carlosaugusto9821 amén brother, i think You are right, i Even Say it knowing it would sell badly, but it would be My dream srpg Game in personal opinion, Maybe the Best Buy at least for me would be i don't know what would be the Best one for other gamers or what would be the most profitable, the think its that i played all the overwhelming games exept for dwarf fortress (i have some self love to play that goddamn torture at least), from ninja gaiden, Ghost and goblins in My Childhood, darksouls and xcom as a teenager and now i play ganes like elden ring, this was of mine, Kings Bounty Even the 2 that sucks in story and football manager, the thing it's that for me i don't care losing, for me experimentation and dominating mechanichs are My favourites, only things it's that Maybe for work, i don't have good reflexes anymore (and i'm only 25), SO i'm changin to more of a "turn based" or "slow pace" games. Maybe for making less overwhelming they can do like You said, recovering all HP and mp/use of spells, fantastic job system as octopath traveler, ogre táctics or FFT but ay least the aspect of going to explore the world, like traveling without random encounters, but when You make an encounters You start the tactic battle, thats would be fantastic, a Game like táctics ogre or FFT but with octopath traveler exploration. And You are more right if see what happened to Kings bounty, it's a goat Game, but TOO OVERWHELMING, in that Game You can't farm, the money yo Buy troops, inventory and equipables are limited, once it's spend, it's gone and You save it's ******, people don't like it for that, the ones who has patience or make op strats or reload the Game to reduce the army casualities after each fight

Thank you! 😃

Agreed! This game almost scratched my FF Tactics itch. It was really good. It's a shame the story wasn't particularly interesting or memorable, but the combat was on point.

While I agree with FE3 houses, I wouldn't recommend fell seal that much. I played it for over 100 hours but still. Something felt a little off. It shows that it is an indie game compared to fft. I like it but not as I hoped it to be.

Things might change the way SE is more and more interested in exploring retro releases. I mean they will run out of mainline FF options.

Zone of the Enders GBA is a very overlooked game. I enjoyed it.

It's been a super long time since I played it, and I barely knew what I was doing. I do remember just ignoring most armor upgrades in place of offense because you could avoid 99% of damage through the game by just strafing in big circles.

Brings back memories. It was my first strategy RPG too. Objectively it probably wasn't a top game in the genera, but it did have an original premise and combat system, great atmosphere and an interesting plot.

100% agree.

I just wish that Saturn emulation were better(although it is leagues better than it used to be I still seem to run into more issues than I'd like, not that long ago I tried to play Magic Knight Rayearth and it seemed to be running fine until it just suddenly crashed and since the intro is so slow I didn't get a chance to save lol). I suppose one day I could do one of the 'real hardware' solutions that are out there nowadays with modding or whatever to play fan translated games and just plain unobtainable games due to crazy prices.

@@Pimpjira87 cant say about issues, but never got a problem emulating Saturn like alot of people have, heck I beat Panzer Dragoon Saga around 2014 though emulation just fine, replayed again last year and was just as smooth (granted my pc is better now)

It is, I played it all. I ran into some emulator issues at times but I was able to make it work and complete it.