My own SRPG tier

Strategy RPG is my favorite game genre and I’ve been having a great time with all these games.
So I decided to rank all my favorite SRPGs based on this criteria:

1.- First of all, combat system aspects including map design, difficulty design, level of unit customization, objective variety, incentives to get victory as fast as we could, risk-reward frameworks, fun side objectives, real army management, last but not least: original battle mechanics.

2.- Everything related to the story: quality of the script, character development, world building, pace, dialogues, depth, narrative style, beginning, climax and ending.

3.- Artistic features including music, world art, character art.

4.- Visual related works including UI, sprites, 3D models, combat animations.

I’ve played more than that but I need to play even more games. This tier only shows my favorites instead of every SRPG I’ve beaten. It is not meant to be a comprehensive must play strategy games or anything like that. It’s only my structured recommendation.
And by the way, I already reviewed some of these games here, so feel free to read about them for more detail.

Tear Ring Saga Yutona Eiyuu Senki – combat advice

I already provided data and shared some perspectives about this game here: https://consolesuniverse.wordpress.com/2024/02/28/tear-ring-saga/

So, this post is fuly focused on combat advice.

– Keep in mind you’ll manage two armies, so make sure to query guides in order to learn how to distribute your units effectively. As a general rule, Runan maps are tougher, and his army has no access to grinding maps. They go directly to the story. Holmes army, on the other hand, may grind ulimited number of times as much time as they want to. And they don’t earn only experience while grinding, they can quickly farm rewards like gold and weapons as well.

– Holmes army fight against monsters more often, which means: keep Renee on his team with her Exorcise staff. And have Sol and Luna swords on Homes army’s weapon inventory.

– Runan has more outdoor maps, so they better have more cavalry and flying units to get the upper hand. Besides, the opposite is also true: there are less indoor maps for Runan, which means: cavalry and flying companions won’t be afffected by indoor debuffs very often.

– The game has a heavy focus on skills. Try to evenly distribute all the skills you get to your core team. Most skills are triggered based on the SKILL stat, so give them to proper units that have high SKILL.

– Shields are very useful yet they are also expensive. Try to beat a map with the minimal shields equipped. If things get complicated, equip just a few gradually. Units with high defense may not need shields at all, or they might be fine with just the basic, Leather Shield.

– Always, always, ALWAYS keep track of your units’ AS and the enemy’s AS. And memorize the formula: in order to get a follow up (two strikes), a unit’s AS >= enemy’s AS + 5. Frontliners are units with decent DEFENSE that have good AS regardless of the weapon. AS is a derivative stat obtained from the SPEED stat and the currently equipped weapon.

Tear Ring Saga Yutona Eiyuu Senki (review)

Platform: PlayStation
Developer: Tirnanog
Publisher: Enterbrain
Year: 2001

Introduction

Shōzō Kaga, former game director and designer of Fire Emblem during its early days , parted ways with Intelling Systems and Nintendo on 1999 and continued his journey on his own. He built his own independent studio, called Tirnanog, and Tear Ring Saga Yutona Eiyu Senki was born on PlayStation.

Story
First things first, this is arguably peak storytelling for a Kaga game. The depth, complexity and lore go way beyond what we have on games like Holy War. It’s not an exageration to claim we better write down like a character/kingdom log when we play, as it’s easy to get lost. I’m not spoiling anything but be prepared for top tier good character writing, likable cast, complex villains, plot twists.
There are some good FE tropes here and there, so it’s also easy to please Archanea/Valentia fans, this is a game for you as well.

Gameplay

I describe like a sick mix between Thracia, Valentia and the Sacred Stones. Meaning: we control the management of two allied armies, they have their own arc yet they help and find each other now and then. But, only on this game we can switch soldiers/weapons/items/gold between armies, at specific points in the story. This feature provides a lot of fresh team customizations and a variety of play styles.
Many features are very FE-derivative while others go to a wild, unheard of territory. The way some mechanics like grinding and shields work is just an example but maybe, some of the best ideas are monster summoning, dragon transformation and the peculiar implementation of item/weapon stealing.
And it’s a game designed with unit skills, free unit customization with these skills. This will not only please a hardcore thracia fan but Tellius fans too.
Difficulty design is better than FE4 and older, and some specific maps go to the tough boundaries of T776. Real strategy and efficient army/weapon/item management are key in order to beat many tough challenges.

Art/UI
Game art is very Kaga-ish and arguably better than what was shown on Holy War or Thracia 776. Many UI aspects didn’t age well though, but this shouldn’t be a problem for you, Jugdral fan, right?
However, one of the greatest, maybe the best UI idea is to have this world map to move between battles, just like Gaiden or Sacred Stones.

Music
Overall, the OST was banger for me. I liked most tracks. They don’t have the FE vibe, they are something else yet they match what is shown on screen.

Conclussion
A must play if you are a Jugdral or Kaga fan.
An underrated SRPG gem from the past that will please players looking for an engaging story and a serious challenge.
Score: 9.0