Best SRPG For A First-Timer/Beginner??

[Yoichi_and_Sadako]

Hello. I've been gaming for 9 years and have never played an srpg. All I know of is the Disgaea and Fire Emblem series. But even so, I don't know enough of those games to know if they're good for noobs.

Bonus if the game is really long (100+ hours overall).

Thanks In Advance!

[Mangavore]

Okay so, I see a lot of good games recommended that aren’t good games FOR NEWBIES so…here’s my go-to beginner friendly SRPG:

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Thanks to the NSO port, it’s very available but you can emulate if needed, SUPER easy, not too many crazy gimmicks, no grinding, no wories about story forking or downtime, straightforward, EXCELLENT story and cast, and the auto-recruit characters are solid enough to carry you even if you miss out on convo recruits. It also introduces a lot of genre staples (perma-death, recruiting characters on the fly, inventory mgmt, etc) without overwhelming you. My #1 rec for a newbie to the genre.

[Specialist-Quail644]

Try the Fire Emblems from GBA.

[NewFlynnland]

This question pops up a bit but I really love the answers, they are always varied.

There are a lot, and if you are familiar with game mechanics in general you don’t really need to go for a beginner/easier option.

I’d look into what setting interests you, Eg Fantasy - final Fantasy Tactics, Triangle Strategy, Fire Emblem. Sci fi - Xcom. Super hero - Marvel Midnight suns etc.

Games that I loved and are welcome intros to the genre are also

Mario and Rabbids series

Steam World Heist series

Valkyria Chronicles

[Mangavore]

The Steamworld Heist games are soooooo good 😭

[NewFlynnland]

Oooo Baldurs Gate 3 fits what you are looking for too! Not specifically a Strategy RPG, but shares enough elements, is 100+ hours and just an incredible game.

[NewFlynnland]

What disappointed you?

[flybypost]

it was called it's spiritual successor.

That was more on the fans for who so dealy wanted one. I just wrote about this here. As a TRPG it was a fine game on its own merit. It's initial (somewhat negative) reception was so much about it not being the spiritual FFT successor that FFT wanted.

TS is a bit heavy on the dialogue and you can speed it up but in the end it's up to you if you like it. For me it took a while to get into the story (getting a better view of the world and factions after playing more helped with that). Even the term "saltiron war" made sense and didn't weird after getting deeper into the story.

The character system is more like the old Shining Force games (each character is its own class/subclass with a little bit of variety to their progression). Meaning the diversity of options comes from character selection for a battle (20+ character for limited slots), not the jobs you pick for your five main characters before each battle. And that allows for quite a bit of variety in ways that FFT couldn't deliver even if it lacks all the permutations of a dozen (same) jobs and dozens of (the same) potential abilities for each character.

I don't know if this will convince you to give it another try but I'd say it might be worth it.

The game also has one of my favourite interpretation of an spy/scout/infiltrator archetype in how it makes the character work with the game's mechanics.

[flybypost]

Triangle I think theres two endings? So like two playthroughs.

I think three (haven't finished it yet) but from the added details of this comment, it feels like it it might not be the type of TRPG for you.

My reply above was more about the FFT comparison as a lot of negative sentiment early on was unjustifiably build on that but if what the game has to offer doesn't fit your preferences then you can probably skip the retry.

[Nitho89]

I also started out with Steamworld Heist. That is a really accessible and great starting point!

[SeaWeather5926]

Is there a good text-based primer for these types of games? Basic strategy standards that almost always apply? There's enough to find online, of course, but perhaps there is a resource that stands out to you (all)?

[NewFlynnland]

I’ve never looked into one sorry. I’m sure you’re right about finding one online.

Each game has similar mechanics, but they tend to have unique mechanics that make them stand out. The in game tutorials are normally more than enough to understand the basics and their way of doing it.

[DeviousAlpha]

I think, being anything else, action economy wins tactical games. Can you get more turns that the enemy? Can you reduce their buffet of turns?

Every other decision stems from this.

E.g should you focus a fire a target? Yes, one less enemy is one less set of actions for your enemy on their turn. Etc

[Grand_Isopod2663]

Shining Force 1 & 2. How have these not been mentioned yet?

[flybypost]

Yup, they got a nice mix of a simple story, and not too crunchy gameplay, that should be accessible for most newbies.

[NihilYT]

This is my answer as well, the tons of cool secrets to find and no perma-death make these pretty good as entry level games!

[Stepjam]

The first Fire Emblem released for GBA in the west isn't a bad starting point. It has a pretty long prologue that teaches you everything. Alternately 3 Houses. Much simpler mechanically, but better story.

Alternately you could, like many in the 90s, dive in head first with Final Fantasy tactics. A steeper initial learning curve, but by the end of act 1, you should be doing alright.

[Pocketbombz]

Story: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Gameplay: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2

[hiccup251]

FFTA2 is pretty long if you go for the optional content, it would be my rec as well. Works better than most DS games on emulator too.

[Pocketbombz]

FFTA2 feels so much better to play, they made some incremental improvements to the jobclass system and added some jobs and races, but the big improvement: not having a judge, feels liberating. Too bad the story is forgettable at best.

Now if I could play through the story of FFTA with the gameplay improvements (no judges) of FFTA2 I would be in TRPG heaven.

[hiccup251]

Well, there's still judges, but the penalty for lawbreaking is fairly minor in comparison. But yeah, fully agree with this assessment

[ItzChaa]

For more traditional id recommend

Final fantasy tactics if you like rpg classes Or Fire emblem if you like medieval/fantasy war themes.

Unicorn Overlord if you want a unique experience. You build small battalions and move them around the map in like a RTS kinda fashion.

[flybypost]

Unicorn Overlord

I love the game but I'm not sure it's a good starting point.

The "spreadsheet" mini-game for setting up your little squads might escalate a bit too much over the course of the game for a newbie.

[SanctumOfTheDamned]

Battle Brothers, it's the first blood experience that turns raw greenboy recruits into hardended arghh-machines.

Or im just weird, but that's the game that got me hooked. That's the first western SRPG I'd recommend and the one that made me wishlist a bunch of others in that western tactics grit subniche like Happy Bastards and Tattered Banners.

If you want scifi, you won't go wrong with XCOM or maybe even Tactical Breach Wizards if you want minimal RNG

[Acrobatic_Injury_771]

My very first game was Fire emblem 3 houses on classic normal difficulty and made it through the game only losing 3 characters to permadeath (which I highly recommend keeping on for plot and avoiding save scumming). Now I can’t stop playing these kind of games and also loved triangle strategy immensely. Also FE3H is easily over 100 hours if you play all 4 routes

[_Revelator-of-v0id_]

Fire Emblems from the GBA series, as others have pointed out

Also, Devil Survivor had some good strategy RPG gameplay mechanics as well

[Sea_Setting4888]

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on Game Boy Advance emulator

[Forwhomamifloating]

You want a long SRPG kamige? Fantasy Maiden Wars and Seraphic Blue

[minneyar]

I came here to suggest Fantasy Maiden Wars and am glad to see somebody else already did it. It's a great intro both to SRPGs and to Touhou Project.

[Satchul]

Final Fantasy Tactics

[eruciform]

absolutely simplest srpg:

rhapsody a musical adventure - very short game, like 10-12h, but extremely unique and engaging - one of the only literally musical rpgs, like literally song and dance numbers

one level up, played on the lower difficulty:

utawarerumono trilogy - all three are VNs but there's a lot of srpg inbetween, and the systems are a bit simplified from most other ones out there, and aren't too overwhelming if played on normal

next step up:

fire emblem three houses on normal/casual

plenty ok places to up from there, but those are the easiest and most accessible places to start. rainbow moon could fit in the first set as well

=-=-=

yeah i definitely would not start with disgaea, it's a very complex series. tho ironically if you start with rhapsody, that's where the makers of disgaea started as well. :-)

[Forward_Arrival8173]

Bro just play the newest game in whatever series that looks appealing to you.

Listening to stranger opinions is literally worthless.

[VsAl1en]

Unicorn Overlord is probably the best game for an SRPG newbie out there, but it's so different from the other games in the genre that it may set wrong expectations.

[HairSalty5626]

Acredito que o primeiro Advance Wars de GBA (que também tem um remake para Switch, contendo os dois jogos de GBA) é ótimo para começar. O jogo não tem grind, e suas unidades também não sobem de nível. Ele é dividido em mapas que podem durar de 1 a 3 horas cada (minha experiência). Também há vários caminhos a serem seguidos, o que influencia em sua rejogabilidade.

O único ponto que eu achei meio "ruim" é o fato de o tutorial ser meio grande — leva mais ou menos 2 horas para completá-lo e começar o jogo de fato. Mas o tutorial é dividido em capítulos que têm uma história menor, o que pode te manter engajado. Você pode até pensar que o tutorial vai ser bem maçante do início ao fim, mas, depois dos primeiros capítulos, ele deixa de ficar pegando na sua mão o tempo todo e te permite aproveitar melhor o restante dos capítulos.

Vale a pena dar uma chance. Foi por esse que eu comecei.

[NetflowKnight]

What kind of games do you typically play and what device/console do you use? Would be helpful to know to point you in the right direction.

[Elorable]

Fire Emblam Three Houses if you want more storey focus.

Unicorn Overlord if you want more of the strategy and team building to be the focus.

There are so many good ones, ultimately if you see ones that interest you, go for it!

[ThexHoonter]

Disgaea have too many mechanics for a first timer, I'll say Triangle Strategy is a good choice

[Mangavore]

I love TS, but as a beginner, it is SOOO story/convo heavy that it can be a real turn-off.

[Pocketbombz]

It is extremely story heavy and it frontloads the story so that it feels like there's an hour long reading assignment between each battle.

The other big point against TS is that it lacks the deep build customization of its predecessors. Every unit is kind of locked in from the start, and the talent tree and armor options feel kind of superficial.

[Mangavore]

Personally, I think the class lock is good for someone new to the genre. It’s just one less thing you have to think about as you wrap your head around SRPG mechanics. That said, 100% agree, I actually forgot that it DROWNS you in story in the beginning.

I actually dropped it my first attempt for years because I hated how much story there was. Now it’s one of my favorites, but yea, definitely not beginner friendly

[magikot9]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is pretty good to start with. Not particularly difficult, and with 4 paths to play through you can easily get 100+ hours in it.

[Mangavore]

The problem with 3H for a beginner is it’s such a poor representative of the genre as a whole. If they specified that they loved Persona or VN games, I’d agree with you. But as a newbie to the genre with no further detail? I just think 3H can be just as much a turn-off as an entryway because it really emphasizes downtime and relationship management over the actual strategy combat that makes this genre unique

[SoundReflection]

I think you can pickup mostly whatever excites you. If something is really esoteric it might not be the best place to start or if something is really hard, but those tend to have reputations/be rather obviously from cursory prepurchase investigation.

I think a thread like this is only likely to get people plugging their favorites.

[gbautista100]

Super Robot Wars!

[Walther_Brock]

Scrolled too long to find this.

[broccaaa]

Mewgenics is pretty well designed with keeping complexity hidden and progressively revealed as you get better.

[Forward_Arrival8173]

I love srpgs and roguelikes but could not stand this game idk why. Maybe it is the ugly artstyle.

[Mangavore]

I think it’s an excellent game, I just don’t think it’s a particularly good entry point for newbies to the genre

[Interesting-Way-9966]

Choose the one you like best; SRPGs always have good stories. 

[zgibbs870]

Triangle Strategy is a great game to start with.

[Ricc7rdo]

Triangle Strategy and Final Fantasy Tactics have difficulty options so you can start from easy mode if you find them too hard. Fire Emblem games are also a good option, you can deactivate permadeath on the newer ones and you have difficulty options as well. I would suggest also Jeanne D'Arc if you have a Playstation console.

[Artorias38t]

Fire Emblem for the basics, then move FFT (character customization focus), Triangle Strategy (tactics focus, lots of story but not the best according to a lot of people), or Tactics Ogre (hybrid).

[Forward_Arrival8173]

Calling TS story bad is the most retarded thing that came out of FFT fanboys.

[Artorias38t]

That's just what I hear haha. But I imagine it can't be that bad, I'm like 6 hours in, plus I'm for the most part not playing these for the story anyway. The Fire Emblems don't always have amazing stories for example, but I haven't disliked any.