Hey all, after playing might and magic: clash of heroes demo.. I kinda wanna play a game like fire emblem. I enjoyed playing the demo, but found it a bit too focused on puzzle mechanics for my taste. I know there are quite a few TBS games out there like Heroes of Might and Magic and Kings Bounty, but I'm looking for for a 2D one with a "strong" story. If anyone can recommend some games that are like this it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! :D

Advance Wars for the GBA has many of the same elements in Fire Emblem.

The Last Remnant was supposed to be fairly good TBS aswell. It isn't 2D though sadly.

Yeah, I've played Advanced Wars before but didn't like it as much.. plus, I'm looking more for a pc game.

Frozen Synapse?

@SLUSHiNaToR said:

Yeah, I've played Advanced Wars before but didn't like it as much.. plus, I'm looking more for a pc game.

There are Silent Storm, Jagged Alliance franchise, Fallout Tactics. For more sort of 2D battles like in Fire Emblem there is the Disciples series. Nothing quite like Fire Emblem that I know of.

Nothing is like Fire Emblem except Fire Emblem (and Tear Ring Saga, but that game is basically Fire Emblem in everything but name), as far as the Strategy RPG genre is concerned. Of course, if you're so eager to play a game like them on the PC, why don't you just go the whole way and *ahem* obtain the Japanese games in the series with translation patches? Pretty much all the SNES ones are worth playing, as is the GBA release that didn't reach US shores.

Shining Force

Download  a SNES/gameboy emulator and play the fire emblem games.

@FancySoapsMan: Thanks for the recommendation! I bought the first and second one off steam for less than 2 bucks :)

Unfortunately, you're looking at a genre that was huge on the PC back in the mid-90s, but as 2K would put it are "not contemporary" anymore. The real big one (that I'm suprised no one metioned) would be X-Com. The Jagged Alliance series and Fallout Tactics are good options as well. As a matter of fact, a Jagged Alliance remake is comming out early next year, hopefully that turns out well and reignites developer interest in the genre.

@SLUSHiNaToR: Shining Force is like the poor man's Fire Emblem, but you're welcome to give it a shot. It loses all meaning to me when there is no penalty for failure beyond paying a small resurrection fee; you keep any XP and gold you earn in a fight prior to failing that fight, so you're guaranteed to make a net gain in both gold and XP as long as you kill like 2 enemies. And I think everyone who praises the characters in those games must be wearing rose-tinted glasses, because most characters just have a couple lines of text before they join you; once they join you, the vast majority of character never speak. I know that was probably par for the era on the Genesis, but the best thing you could say is the character designs are neat; the characters themselves are paper-thin.

The other series that no one has mentioned is Final Fantasy Tactics, though yeah, it's not a PC game so you'd have to look into emulation/borrowing from a friend options.

Also, the Ogre series usually has a pretty good story. Again, not on PC, but hear me out. Ogre Battle has one game each on the SNES and N64, and both are available on the Virtual Console if you have a Wii. It's a weird hybrid of map movement, then turn-based, semi-automated battles when you encounter enemy groups. And there's also Tactics Ogre, which is a more traditional grid setup than Ogre Battle. I haven't personally played any Tactics Ogre stuff, but I've heard good things.

@ThreePi said:

Unfortunately, you're looking at a genre that was huge on the PC back in the mid-90s, but as 2K would put it are "not contemporary" anymore. The real big one (that I'm suprised no one metioned) would be X-Com. The Jagged Alliance series and Fallout Tactics are good options as well. As a matter of fact, a Jagged Alliance remake is comming out early next year, hopefully that turns out well and reignites developer interest in the genre.

Yeah, I heard X-Com was amazing. I do have UFO Defense, but I've never gotten around to playing it a bit. :(

@BisonHero: Yeah, I was extremely disappointed once I saw how death was handled in Shining Force.

Yeah, I figured that there wouldn't be a game quite like fire emblem.. I've played FFT and loved it. I would do roms, but video gets too distorted when I try to play it at a decent resolution. I might just have to switch to playing it on my laptop since the screen is much smaller..I've also Heard of Tactics Ogre, but have never tried it. I might check those out as well!