My two favourite genres...

I'd have to recommend Disgaea and Starcraft in addition to the three you've already shown interest too.

Finally someone mentioned Disgaea :D That SRPG is very fun. It's pretty deep so it lasts long, but it's not to hard to start with. Same goes for Jeanne D'Arc.

For RTS, I'd recommend the old C&C and Red Alert over C&C 3. But Starcraft and Total Annihilation are great RTS games.

ecurbj said: DKII said: Most RTSs have tutorials or start off the campaigns real easy and teach you basically what every single button and unit does, so just starting out isn't too bad. The difficulty can ramp up quickly after that though depending on the game and its speed. That's what I thought...I'm going to buy Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars on the Xbox 360 and then buy Jeanne D' Arc for the PSP and more than likely Fire Emblem for the Wii. Is there anymore suggestions about this genre other than telling me its difficult genre to get into?

 Do not buy C&C fot the 36, I made the mistake after already playing it on the pc, a friend of my said it wasnt to bad with the controller, well I couldn't disagree more RTS on a controller really sucks. Buy Jeanne D'arc first really easy (that's why I didn't like it that much, but it is a very good game).

In regards to Turn based strategy RPGs, start with Advance Wars. It's weak storywise, but it has the easiest learning curve and by far the most balanced gameplay. Fire Emblem is just too wishy washy with it's rock/paper/scissor approach to SRPGing. Advance Wars offers more in depth strategy in my opinion and will help ease you into games that are much more difficult, like Nippon Ichi games and FF Tactics.

You say that like fighting random encounters is easy in FFT. That's just not true in the original, as random encounters take your party's levels into account, and some are the hardest battles of all the game (chocobos raids or dragons raids). So no, you just don't have only to grind. And the firstbattles can be quite hard. I remember one where you fight on roofs at the start of the game, which was the hardest I ever had to play in this game (well, I'm always trying to get everything, so perhaps that was why).

If you do that in Fire Emblem, you're toast. Often, you can't even succeed in a mission with this basic flawed rules. Actually, you'd be dead quick with this stupid tactic in FE. It works better in FFT, and even then it doesn't always work: it's a sure way to make you destroyed by spellcasters and invokers. You do that when you cornered one last enemy, to gain experience or skills.

Advance Wars is not a SRPG. That's just a pure strategy game. There are no RPG elements in Advance Wars. That's why it's weak story wise, like in most strategy games. FE has no rock/paper/scissor approach to SRPGing, you should learn how they are played instead of saying nonsense. That's not the first time I hear this BS. Lances being stronger than swords doesn't mean that Lances always win against swords for example, that just means they have an advantage, which can be reduced or even destroyed completely if you have a good strategy (and tactics in the latest one).

ookaze said: Onyxmeth said: In regards to Turn based strategy RPGs, start with Advance Wars. It's weak storywise, but it has the easiest learning curve and by far the most balanced gameplay. Fire Emblem is just too wishy washy with it's rock/paper/scissor approach to SRPGing. Advance Wars offers more in depth strategy in my opinion and will help ease you into games that are much more difficult, like Nippon Ichi games and FF Tactics. Advance Wars is not a SRPG. That's just a pure strategy game. There are no RPG elements in Advance Wars. That's why it's weak story wise, like in most strategy games. FE has no rock/paper/scissor approach to SRPGing, you should learn how they are played instead of saying nonsense. That's not the first time I hear this BS. Lances being stronger than swords doesn't mean that Lances always win against swords for example, that just means they have an advantage, which can be reduced or even destroyed completely if you have a good strategy (and tactics in the latest one).

Why is Advance Wars not an RPG? In Dual Strike for instance, your CO can gain levels. The fighting system is very similiar to almost all other turn based strategy RPGs. It even features no central map to explore just like some of the Fire Emblems and Disgaea. The only difference I see is you have disposable units.

Regarding the "rock/paper/scissors" comment I made, you must have never played any Fire Emblems if you'll deny it's the truth. It's in the manuals themselves made by Intelligent Systems that the three main weapons and magics all work off a rock/paper/scissors system. Here's straight from the Wiki page on Fire Emblem:

The combat system bases itself on a rock-paper-scissors method of fighting,^[2] as each weapon type has both an advantage and a disadvantage against other types. From Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu to the most recent game, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the weapon triangle has been lance beats sword, sword beats axe, and axe beats lance.^[10]Bows are unaffected by the triangle, can attack from a distance, and do higher amounts of damage against flying units like pegasi and wyverns,^[2] but this is offset by the bow-wielder's inability to counter-attack direct melee strikes. A similar trinity of magic, that varies from game to game, has also existed. In the Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games, light beats dark, dark beats anima, and anima beats light.^[11] In other games, fire beats wind, wind beats thunder, and thunder beats fire. Magic is also unique in that magical attacks can be used from either a distance or in melee range.

So what you're telling me is that you believe the developers of the Fire Emblem games don't know their own combat system? 

 

SRPGs can be somewhat difficult to get into as opposed to other genres, but it's not horrible. If you enjoy RPGs then you'll be at home in the genre.

FFT isn't a bad place to start; however, I'd recommend Tactic Advance for beginners. It takes out some things like charge time and makes it a lot easier to pick up for first timers.

I will certainly get into this genre real soon guys!!!

I think my next purchases is:

Jeanne D' Arc for the PSP and Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii.

I might buy Advance Wars for the DS also...

Your CO has levels that have few effects on the game, except giving you abilities. Levels always make your character the same, there's no customization possible, that's like gaining hearts in Zelda. The only difference is not that your units are disposable, which by the way, is a sign that you're playing a strategy game, not a RPG. Your units can't be customized, they can't gain levels by gaining experience.
In every SRPG, you have at least some units on the battlefield that can gain levels. Plus, they always have customizable items.
I'll let you believe Advance Wars is a RPG, but it's clearly not, it's a strategy game.

That's BS. I've played FE enough to know what you say is plain BS. And no, the manuals don't say that except perhaps to try to illustrate the system to people that have trouble understanding the triangle system, which is what they talk about. FE has always had a triangle system, which has nothing to do with "rock/paper/scissors", except that it's a triangle too.

Wikipedia and Gamespot are not the developers of FE. And even Wikipedia explains the triangle system, and says all weapons actually are not part of the triangle.
"The combat system bases itself on a rock-paper-scissors method of fighting" is different from "Fire Emblem is just too wishy washy with it's rock/paper/scissor approach to SRPGing".
The Wikipedia article is wrong anyway, and full of inaccuracies.
Besides, that's a pretty high difference between a strategy game like Advance Wars, and a SRPG like FE. In FE, even if originally lance has an advantage (and not beats) over sword, you can actually have a character with a sword that will always hit a lance wielder with its sword, while the lance wielder will have nearly no chance to ever hit. But you have to actually play these games to know that.
In Advance Wars, infantry will always have a disadvantage agains tanks, and you have to use the terrain to help them. It doesn't make Advance Wars too wishy washy with its triangle system (well, it's more than a triangle, with all the types of units).

If you're new to tactics. You should start with a game that has familiar characters/settings. Mostly likely, Final Fantasy ones.

Do not start with Rondel of Swords. That tactics game will not let you pass the tutorial, lol.

For RPG, don't start with Etrian Odyssey. You won't last 15 mins.

I found Final Fantasy 4 to be quite easy to get into. It's coming out soon for DS, that might open the doors for you into the RPG world.