A way of making an SRPG more action based?

Hey everyone, I'm new here and not quite sure if this is the right place to begin a discussion like this, but I was recently thinking of starting development with a few of my close friends and working on an SRPG(Strategy Role Playing Game).

I think, by nature, strategy games always tend to have a much slower pace to them, random encounter based ones being the worse as you find yourself pushing through the smaller battle just to get a few more items or an underwhelming amount of experience late game. For me personally, I was thinking of developing a 3x3 grid system with a camera based on a side angles view (I guess you could think like a beat-em-up). The problem I have is my out of combat gameplay idea was a sidescoller doungeon crawler (Think Mario, but when you touch a goomba, you enter a battle).

Anyway, was just wondering what you guys thought about making SRPGs more accessible and faster pace.

I love SRPG's because it' all about using strategy to win, and unlike action games it doesn't get boiled down to being able to hit a button faster then the AI to win. I personally have zero interest in an SRPG being anything but turn based. but you can design them in a way to be simple and fast if that's all you want. Just limit the number of actions you can do each turn, a simple move/attack/defend limitation for example, and have the focus of the game be about unit placement and movement rather then what abilities they have and when they activate them. At that point it becomes more of a puzzle game then anything, but if you limit the number of units and the possible actions they can have each turn then that will make it fast.

I don't really understand what you intend the combat to be, how it is action orientated, or which part of this game you would then consider to be strategic. Not trying to shoot you down here, I just don't understand what you mean.

As for games which switch between an out of combat mode and a combat mode (Final Fantasy, Valkyria Chronicles etc.) I think the major room for improvement in those games is making the transitions as snappy and seamless as possible. It's an interesting idea to have the 'out of combat' be strategic and then have the combat be action-based, though usually you end up with something which doesn't do either part particularly well - also, if your design relies on transitions from one game mode to the other, you run the risk of the transition feeling like it takes too long compared to how long you are in the combat mode, which quickly becomes irritating for the player.

Valkyria Chronicles is the pinacle of action combat in SRPGs.

@crusader8463 said:

I love SRPG's because it' all about using strategy to win, and unlike action games it doesn't get boiled down to being able to hit a button faster then the AI to win. I personally have zero interest in an SRPG being anything but turn based. but you can design them in a way to be simple and fast if that's all you want. Just limit the number of actions you can do each turn, a simple move/attack/defend limitation for example, and have the focus of the game be about unit placement and movement rather then what abilities they have and when they activate them. At that point it becomes more of a puzzle game then anything, but if you limit the number of units and the possible actions they can have each turn then that will make it fast.

So basically Fire Emblem?

@Video_Game_King said:

@crusader8463 said:

I love SRPG's because it' all about using strategy to win, and unlike action games it doesn't get boiled down to being able to hit a button faster then the AI to win. I personally have zero interest in an SRPG being anything but turn based. but you can design them in a way to be simple and fast if that's all you want. Just limit the number of actions you can do each turn, a simple move/attack/defend limitation for example, and have the focus of the game be about unit placement and movement rather then what abilities they have and when they activate them. At that point it becomes more of a puzzle game then anything, but if you limit the number of units and the possible actions they can have each turn then that will make it fast.

So basically Fire Emblem?

No idea. I have never played a fire emblem game.

@crusader8463 said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@crusader8463 said:

I love SRPG's because it' all about using strategy to win, and unlike action games it doesn't get boiled down to being able to hit a button faster then the AI to win. I personally have zero interest in an SRPG being anything but turn based. but you can design them in a way to be simple and fast if that's all you want. Just limit the number of actions you can do each turn, a simple move/attack/defend limitation for example, and have the focus of the game be about unit placement and movement rather then what abilities they have and when they activate them. At that point it becomes more of a puzzle game then anything, but if you limit the number of units and the possible actions they can have each turn then that will make it fast.

So basically Fire Emblem?

No idea. I have never played a fire emblem game.

What the hell have you been doing with your life?

@Video_Game_King said:

@crusader8463 said:

I love SRPG's because it' all about using strategy to win, and unlike action games it doesn't get boiled down to being able to hit a button faster then the AI to win. I personally have zero interest in an SRPG being anything but turn based. but you can design them in a way to be simple and fast if that's all you want. Just limit the number of actions you can do each turn, a simple move/attack/defend limitation for example, and have the focus of the game be about unit placement and movement rather then what abilities they have and when they activate them. At that point it becomes more of a puzzle game then anything, but if you limit the number of units and the possible actions they can have each turn then that will make it fast.

So basically Fire Emblem?

Funny, I thought more like the Megaman Battle Network series, a fighting system which I really, really liked. I want to go play that now...

EDIT: Nevermind, you only have one character in that game.

Yep, look at Valkyria Chronicles rather than FFTactics or Disgaea.

Valkyria Chronicles was good, but still had loads of room for improvement - actually playing that game was way slower than it needed to be. I wouldn't say the action side of VC was particularly strong either. It got a lot of benefit of the doubt from people purely because there aren't a whole lot of games like it (kinda like Elder Scrolls in that respect).

@Video_Game_King:I have just never know about that series and had a platform that could play the games that it releases on at the same time. Once the Wii drops to around $50 I plan to pick it up and one of the Fire Emblems games. I also already have a crap ton of other SRPG's on the shelf waiting to be played, so I'm in no hurry.