I don't know how you can say all the games they make play the same. Phantom Brave is amazingly different from Disgaea, and La Pucelle has a lot of distinct differences as well. The art style is almost always identical, but the gameplay mechanics vary drastically in certain ways.

Go figure.  I never got into the maxing scene... instead I usually end up creating a never ending chain of characters until I have 1 of each... and by 1 of each I mean... like all 6 varieties of Fighters, Zombies etc and then level them all up to the same level. 

I usually get bored after a while though, as Disgaea has my least favorite battle system of all the SRPGs i've played.

It's like all the others yet something just... i don't know cheapens it for me after a while.  It might just be that you could grind out for infinity.

Honestly I thnk the one thing Disgaea games are missing is online vs play.  The people setting up teams in that would make the Pokemon freaks with their catching so many pokemon for the right traits/growths look like they were playing tic tac toe. 

You'd just need a way other then level to gauge strength for placements and knowing what you were getting in to.  Possibly adding up the total stat points.

 There's a valid reason why you feel that way.  Fire Emblem is actually more of a Tactical RPG rather than a strategy RPG.  It focuses a lot less on the overall world and much more on the actions during battle.  Things like movement choices, etc make a huge difference.  The AI will absolutely punish you if you leave a hole in your defense.  

It definitely is extremely unforgiving between all the RNG screw, perma death restarts, limited experience (bonus exp doesn't do much IMO) but thats what makes it all that more satisfying I think. 

Eh, I guess.  I need to go back and play some more Phantom Brave when I get the chance.  They got rid of the Grid... and yeah.  I forgot about the manifestations being different depending on what you animated.  So yeah Phantom Brave innovated a lot.

I don't remember much difference between Pucelle and Disgaea though... they changed up the tile system a bit when they moved on to disgaea but that was about it.

It's not like it's a bad thing though.  I mean Fire Emblem pretty much plays the same since the NES days.  Ah that's right i forgot I once played an NES FE game on someones computer.

Oh if your a fan of Tactical games you might be interested in "Battle for Wesnoth" if you haven't played it.  It's a free Tactical War type game set in fantasy times.  It has some Fire Emblem like campaign settings but along with named guys you get generic troops, who you develop from level 1 to 3.  Not for people who feel attached to every generic grunt they recruit though.

Lot of fun, though a bit different then SRPGs since it's less complex in levels and more complex in strategy.

PC game, will probably run on almost anything, free.  Worth a shot if your bored.

Mostly the differences are in the items system and the character selection. Every character is more or less unique in La Pucelle where as in Disgaea they have the generic classes. I can understand how some might view Disgaea as just the natural evolution of La Pucelle but there are some jarring differences going from one to the other.

SRW could come out here; it's unlikely but it could.  Who knows...

And you can't say FE is hard or easy because you haven't played it right? 

I disagree heartily.

FE is even more RPG than other SRPG, in the fact that if your character is beaten in battle, he can't go back to battle anymore (not necessarily dead though). Yes there's no grinding, but the difference in XP points you can get is big, even if XP is still finite.

My latest playthrough, the current one, which I've not finished, focus on maximizing experience. And I've reached levels far more advanced at the same point than on my previous playthroughs.

That you can't make one character extremely powerful is false too. Perhaps if you play with random stats upgrade, but if you play with static stats increase like I do, you can control  pretty much how your stats will grow. RNG doesn't go into account at all in this mode, what counts is which weapon you're wearing, which band you wear, which enemy you killed while gaining level, and of course your growth rate.

So, talking about the RNG only for FE just shows the game is way more complex that you'd think.

Also, strategy is heavy in FE. Choosing which character to send to battle, which weapon to buy when (before they're not available), which band to give to whom, which bonus item to give to whom, planifying who will get most experience, to take more bonus XP or more normal XP, who will have bonds with who, ... All of this will affect your XP and then your tactics in battle, as it should.

I agree with the rest, like it's simplistic and deep at the same time.

There's a world of difference between a newbie that will finish it at easy difficulty, losing lots of characters, and what I'm doing in PoR.

I sincerely hope they Banpresto (part of Namco Bandai) will consider bringing SRW games to the west.  I am ready to get the SRW A remake for PSP from Japan this summer and I would rather have an English version. 

I personally think the reason they don't want to release SRW games here is the lack of market for this sereis.  I am not sure if the audience would feel "connected" to the game 'cause a lot of the rotbot cartoons have never been aired in NA.  SRW series are excellent games to me, but if you take away the robots you are familliar with, they are just like other SRPG, nothing too special.  The list of robots shown in the game is a critical factor of my purchase.  That's why I am not a big fan of OG series, even though everyone says they are great.  What do you guys think?

I really like the battle system myself.  The different weapons, parts, robots...etc are all great.  The New Game+ functionality that was in both the OGs made it fun to replay them as well as still challenging (only 70% was carried forward IIRC).

I've seen quite a few mecha anime, but I'm sure that I wouldn't recognize even 70% of all the mechs in SRW so it's mostly all new to me.  In fact, I think a lot of the OG mechs look better than actual anime mechs (of which many older ones look really dorky).