Topic: Tactics Ogre vs FFTA vs Fire Emblem

[BurnPilot]

To make a long story short I really like the roleplaying/strategy type of game.  I managed to pick up Tactics Ogre: Knights of Lodis a while back but have run into a problem.  The battles are just too long for me to play in the normal sittings I play my GBA in.  I play it in the middle of doing other things (work, watching tv, etc) and have to take short breaks in the gameplay quite often to do work and such.  As a result the battles in TO have ended up lasting me over an hour in some cases.  It gets kinda boring having to keep coming back to the same battle over and over.

Now I know Fire Emblem is made by the same people that made Advanced Wars, which seems to work a little better for my playtime.  Are the battles about the same in length?  What about FFTA's battles?  Thanks for any thoughts.

[kennyb27]

Well, I only have FFTA, so I can only speak for that.  The battles can last anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes (and some longer).  But they do allow you to save mid-battle, which always helps for those few short sessions.  And I think the gameplay in Tactics is just pure fun.

[novastar512]

Well, I didn't mind Ogre Battle, I mean you don't have to play the same battles over and over again, You did know you can save during a battle.  Didn't you?

FFTA, the battles seems a little bit shorter, but I haven't really gotten that far, and as for Fire Emblem, I think they will be a little long, but probably not much longer compared to advance wars.

[Nephilim]

Tactics ogre was the better of the 3 I thought
FFTA gets boring the same old missions and getting annoyed cause u are missing some mission item, FE was cool but its very simple

[Terranigma Freak]

Get Fire Emblem if you liked AW. The battles are around the same length. What's cool about FE is that the game actually has an AI unlike TO and FFTA. FE is also less tedius even though that battles are long. For example the most enemies in FFTA is usually only 6(I don't remember if there were battle with more than 6) and the battle could take half an hour or more just killing those 6, 6 enemies in Fire Emblem can be killed within 3 minute at most. FE has way more replay value than both TO and FFTA. There's 3 different story arcs to play as. A grand total of 44 party members WHO HAS STORY AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. The love effect is still in the game meaning some people's endings change depending on who they made friends with or who they fell in love with. Plus you'd want to play through the game at least 7 times to get all the pictures including a special ending picture with the main character and the girl that was paired with him. The game is simple yet hard to master. Sure both FFTA and TO has tons of depth in class changing but guess what, most of them are pretty much the same thing over and over again... even worst some classes are just plain useless. FE's class system is very simple, what makes the game more complex is the actual inclusion of AI. While it's not as smart as the old Fire Emblems, it'll definitely outsmart any of the enemies in FFTA or TO. Plus if any of your party members die, they're gone for good. This adds strategy and character development since if you lose someone, you might never know their stoyr and background. Nobody in the game is a mindless soldier with a silly name who doesn't talk.

[BurnPilot]

Well from Terranigma's post I think I will go pick up Fire Emblem while it's on sale at Best Buy.  Definitely sounds like the battle system will be more to my liking.  Thanks for all the input everyone.

[novastar512]

Also, check for Tactics Ogre, it seems to be going pretty cheap on ebay.  It is worthy too, because of the awesome story, with multiple endings.  It is worth a cheap price of ebay, I even payed 75 dollars canadian at TrUS, brand new, since it was so hard to get.  I called them everyday for 3 weeks, and then I finally got it, and never saw it anywhere else.

[vudu]

one thing i don't like about fire emblem is the auto-save after every move.  if you accidentally screw up (tell a character not to attack, don't see an enemy character, think you have different equipment, etc) you're s.o.l. if you want to take back the move.  the game automatically saves after everything you or the computer does, so you can't take anything back.  and since characters can die in this game, if you make a dumb move and let your guy die, he's gone for the rest of the game.  

[GoldShadow1]

kingvudu - you mean you can't replay battles AT ALL?  What happens if you lose?

This is a good thread,  as I'm rather interested in a good tactics RPG right now as well.  I'm leaning toward Fire Emblem, because I loved Advance Wars and Fire Emblem sounds great.  Also, Fire Emblem's autosave actually makes it much more portable  - you can pull it out at a bus stop, play a few moves of a battle, and finish it later.  I don't think you can save mid-battle in TO or FFTA (I could be wrong though). AW's mid-battle save was very, very nice.

[Terranigma Freak]

The autosave feature is EXACTLY what makes it so good. It doesn't allow people to cheat. Many games allow you to save during a battle and allows you to reset yet those games aren't even that hard. What makes Fire Emblem so good is the characters. You care and MUST USE STRATEGY. That's the whole point of the game is strategy rpg. You can't reset to fix a mistake, you are severely punished for your mistakes, this has always been a Fire Emblem tradition.

GoldShadow1 you CAN replay battles what the guy means is the autosave does not allow you save before you make a move then reset if you mess up. The game doesn't force you to reset but ask 95% of all Fire Emblem players and they'll tell you they reset if someone dies. If you replay the chapter you replay the entire chapter, not the part where you messed up.

[Padsgoo]

When I first saw Fire Emblem in action, it reminded me of this really great game I played years ago for the Sega Genesis called Shining Force. Man I loved that game. Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced was a litte disappointment for me, I guess I never really got into the Judge and Law stuff, and I agree with the other person above who said it gets repetitive other than the storyline.  

[Terranigma Freak]

Buddy, if you loved Shining Force then you'll love Fire Emblem since Fire Emblem was the game that inspired Shining Force. There wouldn't be strategy RPGs to begin with if it wasn't for Fire Emblem.

[Ian Sane]

"you CAN replay battles what the guy means is the autosave does not allow you save before you make a move then reset if you mess up. The game doesn't force you to reset but ask 95% of all Fire Emblem players and they'll tell you they reset if someone dies. If you replay the chapter you replay the entire chapter, not the part where you messed up."

How do you do that if you can't just reset?  Is there a menu option for restarting a chapter?

I plan on getting Fire Emblem if anything just because it's something different from Nintendo that I've always been curious about so at the very least I want to try it.  Plus if it gets good sales then it will send a message to Nintendo to release more Japan-only games here.  I'm pretty good at FFTA but I make a lot of dumb mistakes that get party members killed so Fire Emblem sounds like it's going to be a challenge.  Sacrificing party members for the greater good is usually part of my strategy so I'll have to rethink everything for FE.

[Terranigma Freak]

Let me explain the auto save. The game saves automatically like evertime you make a move. You make a move to attack the game will save. If you die and press L,R,A,B at the same time you reset the game. If you load again the game will load exactly at the spot you reset thus the out come of the battle will be exactly the same. You can't just reset and hope you can live through that battle. If you do lose a party member and reset you'll have to reset the entire chapter. If you're in chapter 10 then you restart from the beginning of chapter 10. YOU CAN NOT BRING PARTY MEMBERS BACK TO LIFE. This is very important cause most people don't understand that. Fire Emblem is very unforgiving and thus truely requires strategy. Randomly making a move and hope you win is how most people play games like FFTA, SF, and others. Trust me, you will need to rethink you strategy for Fire Emblem since it's not an RPG, it's a true strategy rpg.

[Flames_of_chaos]

You can restart the chapter the only con is that you loose the "suspended save" and thats the midgame save

[Jonnyboy117]

Haven't played FE, but Tactics Ogre is better than FFTA.  The battle is much more satisfying, and the story is more interesting, and the graphics and sound are just as good or better.

[CHEN]

What everone has failed to mention is that the auto-save of FE makes it the best pick-up-and-play strategy title for the GBA. Make a few moves, turn it off, a few minutes later, play where you've left it. That's a huge plus if you're traveling a lot. And don't worry about when one of your characters dead, he/she's gone forever. You can always reset and play the chapter all over again. It's also less tedious than FFTA and TO:TKOL in my opinion. In FFTA assassin's are way broken with their Last Breath + Concentrate and in TO:TKOL Mana Flow (or something, forgot the name, it's where a girl Shaman takes damage to replenish a unit's mana) + any summon is broken. In FE no one is way broken and every class has weaknessess. Although I have to admit Luna is way too good, but only two characters can use it and one of them only appears in the end. So you probably know now for which to go for...(FE you stupid) .