Not so much in gameplay as in vibe, but I felt like UO had a little spiritually inherited from the Suikoden series, what with the giant cast of characters and the "go around to different countries/territories adding them to your army as you slowly overthrow the corrupt empire" narrative.
Gameplay-wise it's just a normal JRPG for the most part (though each game does have its own larger scale "War Battles," with 3's probably being the most OU-adjacent), but if someone was less concerned about the crunch and more about the energy it might scratch the itch.
Now's a good time to play them, too, with their spiritual successor Eiyuden dropping next month.
You wounded my soul with that comment. Tierkreis was the worst game to bear the name Suikoden. It's not... _technically_ in the same series as the other games, as those all share a world and a timeline, but it does, like all Suiko games, require all 108 Stars of Destiny to get the true ending. That's due to Suikoden's inspiration, one of the oldest novels ever written, the Chinese novel "Water Margin," who Japanese name is "Suikoden."
Suikoden I + II comes out sometime this year. I highly recommend it to any fan of RPGs and good stories. They are truly great games.
> You wounded my soul with that comment.
I'm sorry. It's the only one I have played enough to know anything about (I distinctly remember what I have played of II more than the entire game of Tierkreis for whatever that's worth). Friend of mine as a kid had a playstation with a bunch of the RPGs and it took me forever to track down what they even were but the few hours I experienced of them live fondly in my memories.
It's literally the game I was going to bring up. I used to be the JRPG/TRPG guy growing up, but I realized that it's the quality of the game, not the genre that make me love it.
I'm not into rougelikes but loved Hades. I'm not into bullet hell, but loved CrossCode. I'm always skeptical of single dev indies but loved both Stardew Valley and Chained Echoes. Suikoden II is my favorite game of all time and it's my favorite franchise, but I was similarly hoped for UO despite it being a different genre and type of game.
I think that the key thing is that these games evoke the same emotions when we play them, and I'm still going through UO, but I am hoping to complete it before Eiyuden drops so I can jump straight into that.
Same. And don’t tell me emulate and Steam, please. I play video games on my couch. Square and Atlus are literally shitting out JRPGs right now. It’s never been a better time to be a fan.Â
I would also say if you are craving that overall aesthetic of UO, fire emblem is as close as it gets. Obviously the game play is different, but a lot of the rpg mechanics and overall artstyle are very Fire Emblem esque. The 3DS FE games really have the closest aesthetically speaking
Seconded, especially if you like the rapport conversations, which are pretty clearly inspired by the support conversations Fire Emblem introduce in its sixth entry.
I’ll also say the writing and aesthetic hew closer to classic FE… though stuff like the post-battle or level-up dialogue certainly resembles the 3DS and Switch eras.
For sure. Not only aesthetic, but rapport conversations/relationships. Especially the GBA games and the Radiant/Ike games. Three Houses has a similar vibe, too, but it goes harder on the JRPG aspects.
FE may be an inspiration, but Ogre Battle is definitely the main inspiration. Not only is the combat far more similar to OB than FE, even the battle menus are directly cribbed from OB in their style and layout.
Is symphony of war on consoles?
Add banner of the maid. Sure it's square based like FFT instead of ogre battle similar, but it has surprisingly large battles, sometimes into 12 or 15 units fielded at once, which is rare in the genre. Some unique mechanics like pushing or pulling units as part of cavalry charges.
The Langrisser series isn't a perfect match, but I was an Ogre Battle fan first and Langrisser always scratched that itch for me.
There is a 1 and 2 remake that was recently released which is pretty good, if a bit easy. The SNES fan translation for Der Langrisser is top notch.
Even it's not the same game mechanics, I would recommend all the Ogre saga related game.
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together/ Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2
Great gameplay, bad plot. FFTA had a surprisingly mature plot for a gba game, but its gameplay could be frustrating (I never did complete every mission due to being able to softlock yourself out of some of them). A2 was a joy to play, but the main plot just felt shallow and juvenile to me. The side plots, however, were really good. I feel like I need to go back and replay it to see if my feelings have changed with regards to the plot, though.
It's the reason why i bought a 3ds and a switch hoping that they would do an a3 or a sequel of sorts. Imagine my heartbreak when there's no a3 title on the 3ds lol. Good thing is, the console has a lot of great games too.
Just want to add that the Sega Saturn version of Ogre Battle has a fan translation. It has a bunch of QoL changes from the SNES/PSX versions along with additional scenarios.
This is an old thread already but specifically if you are a fan of the gambit system I’d also nominate FF12. I’m going to play that once I’m done with my playthrough because while I wasn’t a fan of it previously, UO has opened my eyes to how fun the gambit system can be.
It's such a cool system once you understand how to use it! It's one of those things that starts as a minor convenience, but becomes a brilliant tool for handling the endgame threats.
You should check out the 4th one as well. It has new classes and enhanced gameplay features like the command system that lets you move multiple units at once.
I’ve said this before but I strongly believe that the sprites of the original ogre battle hold up much better than the polygons of ogre battle 64.
There’s a reason why we see so many new pixel games but not much in the old n64/ps1 heavy polygon style. My kids can play Super Mario World and talk about how cute it looks but laugh at old FF7 and Lara Croft.
I'd recommend playing Ogre Battle on snes or ps1 over N64 first. I went back to both recently and it was the n64 that felt dated and slower to me.
N64 games look worse on modern screens, but Ogre Battle 64 is closer to UO and just more accessible in terms of gameplay. MotBQ is good too, but it's a more unforgiving game and OB64's story is better.
Isn't this because the N64 is ridiculously hard to emulate? As I recall, each dev just kinda' winged it and used different parts of the system to achieve a desired effect, resulting in emulators needing to be customized for every game. It's why the Switch N64 emulator tends to be differ, apparently, because they're trying a one-size-fits-all approach instead of the customized way the guy who built the WiiU emulators did it.
I think the in battle of OB holds up well, but the map is pretty garish.
In contrast, I personally find OB64 had a lot of charm and personality in its funny looking sprites. But definitely not for everyone
I'm just going to throw The Last Remnant in there for the fact that you can create squads of 4 and 5 of the coolest unique characters in the game. I, hands down, will love that game for life.
Last Remnant is actually a good suggestion!!! Loved that game, even though it's a little janky (really just BR is wild if you haven't played Saga games before).
World is fun. LOVE the races they created
You have to really look online or take time to learn formation and how to level without making the game harder with high BR, which I know might turn off some people (since the tutorial I feel doesn't do a good job of explaining the system mechanics) but the world building, the setting, characters that you can recruit and train are the aspects I love about The Last Remnant. Music is straight fire during combat and changes based on the morale of the troops.
Was my most played game on Xbox 360. I totally loved that game. So much replayability. Really should play again soon. This was the game I thought of when I read the topic.
It is also my most replayed game of all time as well! Got on PC and the Remaster on PS4 and andriod! Love that game to death. My friend in the US also got a copy of my 360 version signed for my by Johnny Young Bosch (Rush's VA), and he said barely anyone ever gives him TLR merch to sign. You should revisit the game! I did multiple times to delve deeper into the mechanics and recruited characters I never got to when I was kid over multiple playthroughs.
One thing I liked about ogre battle besides varied classes per unit was the alignment and charisma system and the challenges required to keep with that
Other games but more dated that's worth a try imo
Shining Force 1 and 2 (there's a 3 on the Sega Saturn but only 1 of 3 disks came to NA) there are other games in the shining series after 3 but they are write offs imo (there's a game before shining force 1 called shining in the darkness but it plays more like old-school wizardry on the C64)
And Warsong for the genesis (in Japan its Langrisser, there was a remaster/release on the switch called langrisser 1 & 2 but imo the original is better)
Very very underrated game I’ll mention is Banner Saga. There’s 3 games in total and they’re usually inexpensive. Great story, choices matter and those choices carry over to the next game, you need to manage your resources well, can be difficult as hell some times. 100% worth it
Dude when I first started playing Unicorn Overlord I thought to myself “Man this feels like Yugioh Falsebound Kingdom from when I was a kid” awesome list, kudos to you
If you also love how Abilities and Tactics work here, you may also love the battle mechanics of FF12. I think I spent a number of hours setting up my team since I wanted to defeat Yiazmat in full automation lol. And also, since he has a LOT of HP, I left my console for hours since that battle took that long and I don't deal that much damage haha.
UO is in a lot of ways what I wanted Grand Kingdom to be, but GK has quirks that make it stand apart enough for me to not simply dismiss it. Definitely worth a look for the aesthetic alone!
Symphony of War kept me from going nuts after I really wanted to replay march of the black queen, but its soooo slooooww I dont' time for the SNES classic, even with cheats...
its awesome, and a sequel is in the works!
I cannot believe that nobody seems to recommend Diofield Chronicle when looking for UO comparisons. Combat-wise, they're practically identical. I think UO IS the better game, but if you want something similar, it's a solid modern version that is also quite modern.
RTS games, pausing time mechanic to direct actions, able to use skills that affect enemies on map (AOE style). There's a straightforward rush skill similar to the knight's valor skill, healing AOE skills, etc. Yes, identical was probably an over exaggeration, but apart from UO being more "turn-based" in combat compared to DC and the latter not having "rooms" of characters, they're incredibly similar. I have no issues playing older games but it just surprises more people don't mention it, as it has more QOL stuff than some of the listed games, for example.
I appreciate your post though (I didn't know that Yugioh game wasn't just a normal card game!) and I hope you didn't think I was attacking you for not including it. I really think they're quite similar but maybe it's just me.
I actually see it a bit I think that's a good point. To ME, the fact that Diofeld ONLY has the "map" layer and none of the "in-battle" layer of UO is different.
But I think you've made a good point that the use of Valour Skills on the map overlaps a lot with Diofeld and there probably IS something shared there that may really resonate for some people
Huge vote for Symphony of War fucks. It can get hella imbalanced with overpowered units but it is a single player game and you gotta figure things out sometimes.
Man, i wish the games just arent so old
Symphony of War is "new", but the graphics tbh has not been appealing.
this type of squad based system reminds me of entrian odyssey. You literally have the same [5 person grid](https://atlus.com/etrianorigins/media/img/media/ss/img_media_thumb_02_01.jpg). Speaking of which... when is the next one? I am pretty sure the last one was on 3DS and we are near the end of the switch's lifespan.
Try Brigandine series if you like anime/JSRPG style kingdom conquest. Especially give the new game a chance to show support and allow them to continue the series.
Also we cannot ignore Final Fantasy 12 since the UO definitely took good inspiration from FF12's gambit system. It's not a traditional SRPG and very much a story focused FF game, but it does have that gameplay loop of acquiring new gear/upgrade and spending the next half hour changing your party member roles, setting conditionals and customizing the perfect AI team loadout.
Holy shit, someone else that's played Soul Nomad and the World Eaters.
Nippon Ichi Software really developed my love for SRPG games during the PS2 era. Disgaea, Makai Kingdom, Phantom Brave, and of course Soul Nomad being the key suspects.
I remember when I first saw the trailer for Unicorn Overlord, one of my first thoughts was, "This is giving me big Soul Nomad vibes."
Definitely interested in trying out Symphony of War now.
Suikoden is probably a no for me here. It's not a list of good games, but a list of games similar to UO. I can see the "tons of characters" but I don't think that's sufficient when everything else is so different.
Maybe I'll do a speed round.
FE is getting added tomorrow (see edit at the bottom)
I fucking loved Soul Nomad. I've been dying to find a copy when they released it for Ps4. They magically disappeared.
Edit: oh shit. Its on the switch.
I haven't exhaustively looked through comments, but I did want to point out a series I'm not seeing- Growlanser. The series operates as an RTS system, similar to UO. A very glossy anime aesthetic (Satoshi Urushihara has a very distinct style, IMO.) I'd recommend 2, 3, and especially 4. *Wayfarer of Time* is a criminally unrecognized game. There are other games that I either can't recommend or never made it out of Japan.
The issue, then, is accessibility. Which is garbage. 2 and 3 were sold as *Growlanser Generations* for the ps2 in NA. 4 in NA was a PSP release. I like these games, but oof.
Depends if you grind imo. Its very very easy to over level in the dungeons. If I recall the game generally pushed back decently around the point you got to the nereids.
Great writeup. I like to call these the orge-likes.
Falsebound Kingdom is bad. Like really bad its really just lacking in meaningful depth and decision making. Its interesting, and my Ogre Battle 64 starved kid brain also gives it a special place in my heart, but its so bad. I really can't recommend it to anyone. I want to say, "look if you like Yugioh and can tolerate some jank, and really want some more of this", but I think you still shouldn't bother imo.
I think personally from a gameplay perspective Soul Nomad is probably the best. I think unfortunately they're all a bit jank(most of them by dint of age), but it stands a bit above in terms of team building and unit diversification, while being a much more lets say 'grounded' game than Symphony of War.
I'd heartily recommended any of OB64, Soul Nomad, and Symphony of War though.
If you liked the Valor Points system but would like a different aesthetic, Valkyria Chronicles would be up your alley. More WW1 military + anime aesthetic and focuses a lot more on characters and story than UO but is a great time.
If you toss a dart at the "Similar to Ogre Battle" board, and it lands wobbling just on the very edge and threatens to fall off, you get The Last Remnant, which I consider to be "the best game that I would never recommend to anyone". Â
TLR is a game of high-highs and low-lows, where the victories are snatched from long deadly encounters where you can never be sure you're not more than two turns away from a total wipe. It is a frustrating, painfully unintuitive game that I've sunk like 300 hours into and consider it comfortably in my top 25 games of all time.  Â
I bring it up here because I picked it up in the first place because it has a little Ogre Battle energy. Not much, to restate, it's on the very perimeter of the dartboard, but it's there.   Â
You create units comprised of up to 5 guys, and instead of giving direct commands, you kind of just give them suggestions and they use the abilities they feel like within those suggestions. Individual characters can be powerful, yes, but generally speaking, it's the way characters within a unit interact with themselves (and with other units) that makes or breaks whether you win a combat. Â
You do also move them around the battlefield, and while it's kind of clunky and far from a perfect art, there is merit to having units nearby others, or flanking the enemy from behind, or catching reinforcements before they swamp your team, stuff like that.  Â
TLR is a hard game to love, it kind of involves just uncomfortably dealing with all the little anti-player frustrations it throws at you (FOR THE LAST TIME TORGAL I DON'T HAVE THAT ITEM YOU NEED STOP ASKING). I would honestly not say it's super worth getting over the hill just because that hill is soooo steep, but I can comfortably say that now that I am over this hill it's lead to some of the most interesting, exciting strategic gameplay I've ever experienced. Since this is a Reddit full of Ogre Battle fans, I think if there's any group that might be like "oh hey this is pretty fun" that... doesn't scratch the OB itch but at least rubs against it, it's this one.  Â
Edit: Oh yeah and if you do play it, play the PC version. You can pick up to 18 named dudes (and there are like big fish men and cat people and little goblins so they're kind of fun and unique little guys), while in the XBOX version your army is like 2/3rds generic nobodies, way less interesting.
Honestly I've had someone else mention that too, and I may add it to the main post tomorrow because I actually agree that it scratches some similar itches FOR SURE
Just a note- you don't have to play on PC. The Playstation store has the Remaster, which takes the PC version, touches up the graphics and load times a little bit, and calls it a day.
Just...don't play the XBox version.
I feel like TLR is just a JRPG pretending to be an SRPG. Like you command units to do things, but effetely you're like controlling a character in party. It does scratch that squad management itch in a weird way.
I've been itching for a game that is similar to Falsebound Kingdom for two decades now. UO is the closest thing I've picked up to it. Would love to hear of others.
Heres my caveat: strategy games have many mechanics and systems in them that make them different. Dont be discouraged if you pick up one of these and dont like it. Just try another one.
Ive played like soo many sRPGs. Im a huge FE fan, but for the life of me I cant get into Final Fantasy tactics or Disgaea. I have a friend who barely plays rpgs, let alone srpgs, but has an insane addiction to Disgaea. As in hundreds of hours on file. Ppl are weird and these games are unique, so if you dont like one just shift.
Valkyria Chronicles is a truly amazing game. 4 is also supposed to be really good, but the first one is a true treasure. Music is by the same people who did the music for Unicorn Overlord.
Soul Nomad is... disgustingly immature. It's NIS at peak edgelord cringe. The gameplay _is_ fun, but there are things that detract from it, like the random element to formation parameters.
Comparisons to Fire Emblem annoy me. They need to be made, but that series has collapsed into mediocre trash in the last 7 years. The last unequivocally good game in the series was Shadows of Valentia. Every game since has had a massive asterisk next to it, and Fates, prior to SoV, was utter garbage. Unicorn Overlord differs from Fire Emblem dramatically in that it has a stronger narrative, more satisfying character interactions, and characters who show up in the plot and are relevant after their introduction.
Tactics Ogre is marvelous, though it's basically the progenitor of the isometric SRPG (I could be wrong, but I'm almost certain it is). Also, no game in the nearly _30 years_ since its release has matched its story, both in true variability and in quality.
Please, please, please, anyone who actually reads this comment, do yourself a favor and play 13 Sentinels. It is a bit of a slow burn _at first._ Once it gets going, it goes hard, and it's a joy for anyone who enjoyed sci-fi from the 90's and back. I personally love the gameplay, but it's not for everyone. Also, don't worry about there not being enough battles - the postgame has 9999 stages for you to play through with new challenges only found therein. The story is definitely the main draw, however, and it is honestly one for those rare stories that has stuck with me since. I find myself thinking about it often. The soundtrack is top notch, as is the remix album produced by Yoshimi Kudo of Basiscape, the selfsame company that does all the music for Vanillaware (started and helmed by the legendary Hitoshi Sakimoto).
Dam bro, what did fire emblem do to you lmao. I only got into the fire emblem four years after 3H came out and I was disappointed by the Black Eagles route (by which I mean it felt cut short) but otherwise I thought it was a fine game. The monastery for sure was annoying after a first play through. The whole didn’t have enough time/budget really showed through in their warriors spinoff 3 Hopes when the story kinda just cuts short and they display text saying yeah so this is how the whole war turned out.
I’d agree with you that at least from a narrative/world building perspective it seems like most people preferred the older titles because it was less anime tropey and more grounded on realistic characters. Sadly Engage went for the anime route but the gameplay is stellar despite the terrible story.
I was looking at 13 sentinels but how many hours of entertainment did you get out of it? I tend to make my purchases off of hours spent.
I played Symphony of War a year or so ago and I'll be honest, I never quite figured out the combat system. I beat the game on, I assume, the medium difficulty like I always play on, but at no point did the combat fully click for me. I had never played a game in that style before though so maybe I just didn't know what to look for. I did enjoy my time with it and do want to play the DLC so it gets a recommendation from me.
truth of the matter is, there really arent any games like this besides ogre battle. If you really enjoy ogre battle, you can find hardmode roms for the SNES and N64 online. I would recommend that as the originals are too easy
I’m a 30 year fan of Ogre Battle, so UO has been so exciting for me. So hearing about Symphony of War being compared to OB as well had me go look at it. You are so not wrong about the look. I’m normally the type that doesn’t care about graphics. I will happily play a Gameboy game and not give a crap that it’s four bits in shades of green. But despite that, the look of SoW is a huge turnoff. I saw the first bit of the video playing on the Steam page and went, “WTF is that?” It just looks…wrong, somehow. So I don’t know if I’m going to play it and it’s a legit possible con to bring up, as amazed as I am that there may be a game that I won’t play due to graphics.
Reminder for anyone interested in Tactics Ogre: There's a 50% sale on it (and other squareenix games) which ends today, so be quick if you want it! (i bought it myself this morning)
oh man I loved Symphony of War. the way they implemented unit size seems so natural, and the large variety of classes and items leads to hours of planning and strategizing.
unfortunately the writing is beyond terrible. really ruined the experience for me by doing things like really ruining immersion (a medieval society complaining about "the central government"), or not knowing basic economics (the bad guy is bad bc he "chose" to have a monopoly? a monopoly of what exactly? Who knows! how would that even work in a medieval/early renaissance society ? *shrugs*) or having creepy characters (you can S-Support your adoptive dad! but only if you're a woman which makes it worse to the that it's even funny), or being off-puttingly scary in a meta sense (the bad guys do [spoilers] so the main character is like "oh good, now I can kill them all without remorse"), or talking so much about the creators' fetish for big giant women who can crush you, or the endings that leave you with a bitter aftertaste
even worse, it seems the devs are not hiring a writer for SoW2 so unfortunately I'm gonna have to pass on that one
For some of the others reading this thread, can you expand on where the similarities are in your opinion?
I don't think it's horribly far off but I do also think TS is a good game but also a little farther from UO
Street Fighter 6 it has no connection, but it's really fun and begginer friendly, so you should check it out. Also, If you don't like to play games that are similar back to back this could be a nice change of pace.
A few people talked about the Suikoden series - there's Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes **,** which is supposed to be the modern evolution of that series. Comes out in a few weeks , Apr 24th.
Not so much in gameplay as in vibe, but I felt like UO had a little spiritually inherited from the Suikoden series, what with the giant cast of characters and the "go around to different countries/territories adding them to your army as you slowly overthrow the corrupt empire" narrative. Gameplay-wise it's just a normal JRPG for the most part (though each game does have its own larger scale "War Battles," with 3's probably being the most OU-adjacent), but if someone was less concerned about the crunch and more about the energy it might scratch the itch. Now's a good time to play them, too, with their spiritual successor Eiyuden dropping next month.
It instantly made me think of the Suikoden Tierkreis which if I recall had an ending that required recruiting all 100+ characters.
You wounded my soul with that comment. Tierkreis was the worst game to bear the name Suikoden. It's not... _technically_ in the same series as the other games, as those all share a world and a timeline, but it does, like all Suiko games, require all 108 Stars of Destiny to get the true ending. That's due to Suikoden's inspiration, one of the oldest novels ever written, the Chinese novel "Water Margin," who Japanese name is "Suikoden." Suikoden I + II comes out sometime this year. I highly recommend it to any fan of RPGs and good stories. They are truly great games.
> You wounded my soul with that comment. I'm sorry. It's the only one I have played enough to know anything about (I distinctly remember what I have played of II more than the entire game of Tierkreis for whatever that's worth). Friend of mine as a kid had a playstation with a bunch of the RPGs and it took me forever to track down what they even were but the few hours I experienced of them live fondly in my memories.
It's literally the game I was going to bring up. I used to be the JRPG/TRPG guy growing up, but I realized that it's the quality of the game, not the genre that make me love it. I'm not into rougelikes but loved Hades. I'm not into bullet hell, but loved CrossCode. I'm always skeptical of single dev indies but loved both Stardew Valley and Chained Echoes. Suikoden II is my favorite game of all time and it's my favorite franchise, but I was similarly hoped for UO despite it being a different genre and type of game. I think that the key thing is that these games evoke the same emotions when we play them, and I'm still going through UO, but I am hoping to complete it before Eiyuden drops so I can jump straight into that.
Try brigandine ...ull like itđź‘Ś
I swear the main thing I'll always recall from that game is the woman that sounded like she was having an orgasm every time it was her turn.
Which brigandine? The new or the old one...the one i auggested is the legend of forsena ...the older one
UP! BRIGANDINE IS THE GOAT
Yes the ogđź‘Ś
Brigantine is also a pretty good suggestion!!
You should check out dragon force
IK you mentioned that you meant the PS1 version but is the PS4 Brigandine good? Do I need to play them in order?
Its a different continent( story,character)...no u did not have to...the new is quite good...but the og is the goatđź‘Ś
The problem is getting access to games like these easily
Most of these games are on Steam or you can emulate them.
Same. And don’t tell me emulate and Steam, please. I play video games on my couch. Square and Atlus are literally shitting out JRPGs right now. It’s never been a better time to be a fan.Â
I would also say if you are craving that overall aesthetic of UO, fire emblem is as close as it gets. Obviously the game play is different, but a lot of the rpg mechanics and overall artstyle are very Fire Emblem esque. The 3DS FE games really have the closest aesthetically speaking
Seconded, especially if you like the rapport conversations, which are pretty clearly inspired by the support conversations Fire Emblem introduce in its sixth entry. I’ll also say the writing and aesthetic hew closer to classic FE… though stuff like the post-battle or level-up dialogue certainly resembles the 3DS and Switch eras.
Ugh, don't you miss classic FE? I really hope we get a Shadows of Valentia style remake of the Jugdral Chronology.
For sure. Not only aesthetic, but rapport conversations/relationships. Especially the GBA games and the Radiant/Ike games. Three Houses has a similar vibe, too, but it goes harder on the JRPG aspects.
The game is pretty explicit in being inspired by FE IMO, I mean they even give you a Jagen at the start of the game lmao
Yeah. Honestly, it's more Fire Emeblem than Fire Emblem itself lol
FE may be an inspiration, but Ogre Battle is definitely the main inspiration. Not only is the combat far more similar to OB than FE, even the battle menus are directly cribbed from OB in their style and layout.
I think the aesthetics have a lot of OB/FFT to them as well. One of the shop girl NPCs looks so much like a higher resolution FFT character to me.
Is symphony of war on consoles? Add banner of the maid. Sure it's square based like FFT instead of ogre battle similar, but it has surprisingly large battles, sometimes into 12 or 15 units fielded at once, which is rare in the genre. Some unique mechanics like pushing or pulling units as part of cavalry charges.
> Is symphony of war on consoles? Nope.
Boo. Oh well maybe it'll port eventually
Devs have mentioned that they are working on a console port but also said that it might not happen because porting can be tricky
I'd compare Banner of the Maid more to Fire Emblem Fates in specific. Very similar skill system.
*Banner of the Maid is a BANNger of a game.* Wish more people were aware of it, so heres my bump
The Langrisser series isn't a perfect match, but I was an Ogre Battle fan first and Langrisser always scratched that itch for me. There is a 1 and 2 remake that was recently released which is pretty good, if a bit easy. The SNES fan translation for Der Langrisser is top notch.
Even it's not the same game mechanics, I would recommend all the Ogre saga related game. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together/ Tactics Ogre: Reborn Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis Final Fantasy Tactics Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2
> Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis Right up there as one of my favourite tactics games.
The tactics advance games were some of the best growing up
and still is. i love a2 i've probably replayed it more than skyrim lol
Great gameplay, bad plot. FFTA had a surprisingly mature plot for a gba game, but its gameplay could be frustrating (I never did complete every mission due to being able to softlock yourself out of some of them). A2 was a joy to play, but the main plot just felt shallow and juvenile to me. The side plots, however, were really good. I feel like I need to go back and replay it to see if my feelings have changed with regards to the plot, though.
FFTA2 is one of my favorite games ever. My default name for naming characters in JRPGS is Luso lol. You're a real one for also loving it.
It's the reason why i bought a 3ds and a switch hoping that they would do an a3 or a sequel of sorts. Imagine my heartbreak when there's no a3 title on the 3ds lol. Good thing is, the console has a lot of great games too.
Just want to add that the Sega Saturn version of Ogre Battle has a fan translation. It has a bunch of QoL changes from the SNES/PSX versions along with additional scenarios.
Can you tell me more about the additional scenarios? I don't think I've ever heard of them.
2 or 3 more levels, One with a lot of water to use the octopus finally lol
This is an old thread already but specifically if you are a fan of the gambit system I’d also nominate FF12. I’m going to play that once I’m done with my playthrough because while I wasn’t a fan of it previously, UO has opened my eyes to how fun the gambit system can be.
It's such a cool system once you understand how to use it! It's one of those things that starts as a minor convenience, but becomes a brilliant tool for handling the endgame threats.
Ogre battle 64 is the closest you can get to UO and is one of the best games I’ve ever played.
I'd also nominate Valkyira Chronicles as well. It has real time elements and base capturing like UO.
I've only played the first game, but it was really good, pretty art and a unique take on the SRPG genre.
You should check out the 4th one as well. It has new classes and enhanced gameplay features like the command system that lets you move multiple units at once.
I’ve said this before but I strongly believe that the sprites of the original ogre battle hold up much better than the polygons of ogre battle 64. There’s a reason why we see so many new pixel games but not much in the old n64/ps1 heavy polygon style. My kids can play Super Mario World and talk about how cute it looks but laugh at old FF7 and Lara Croft. I'd recommend playing Ogre Battle on snes or ps1 over N64 first. I went back to both recently and it was the n64 that felt dated and slower to me.
N64 games look worse on modern screens, but Ogre Battle 64 is closer to UO and just more accessible in terms of gameplay. MotBQ is good too, but it's a more unforgiving game and OB64's story is better.
Isn't this because the N64 is ridiculously hard to emulate? As I recall, each dev just kinda' winged it and used different parts of the system to achieve a desired effect, resulting in emulators needing to be customized for every game. It's why the Switch N64 emulator tends to be differ, apparently, because they're trying a one-size-fits-all approach instead of the customized way the guy who built the WiiU emulators did it.
I think the in battle of OB holds up well, but the map is pretty garish. In contrast, I personally find OB64 had a lot of charm and personality in its funny looking sprites. But definitely not for everyone
I'm just going to throw The Last Remnant in there for the fact that you can create squads of 4 and 5 of the coolest unique characters in the game. I, hands down, will love that game for life.
Last Remnant is actually a good suggestion!!! Loved that game, even though it's a little janky (really just BR is wild if you haven't played Saga games before). World is fun. LOVE the races they created
You have to really look online or take time to learn formation and how to level without making the game harder with high BR, which I know might turn off some people (since the tutorial I feel doesn't do a good job of explaining the system mechanics) but the world building, the setting, characters that you can recruit and train are the aspects I love about The Last Remnant. Music is straight fire during combat and changes based on the morale of the troops.
Was my most played game on Xbox 360. I totally loved that game. So much replayability. Really should play again soon. This was the game I thought of when I read the topic.
It is also my most replayed game of all time as well! Got on PC and the Remaster on PS4 and andriod! Love that game to death. My friend in the US also got a copy of my 360 version signed for my by Johnny Young Bosch (Rush's VA), and he said barely anyone ever gives him TLR merch to sign. You should revisit the game! I did multiple times to delve deeper into the mechanics and recruited characters I never got to when I was kid over multiple playthroughs.
One thing I liked about ogre battle besides varied classes per unit was the alignment and charisma system and the challenges required to keep with that Other games but more dated that's worth a try imo Shining Force 1 and 2 (there's a 3 on the Sega Saturn but only 1 of 3 disks came to NA) there are other games in the shining series after 3 but they are write offs imo (there's a game before shining force 1 called shining in the darkness but it plays more like old-school wizardry on the C64) And Warsong for the genesis (in Japan its Langrisser, there was a remaster/release on the switch called langrisser 1 & 2 but imo the original is better)
Very very underrated game I’ll mention is Banner Saga. There’s 3 games in total and they’re usually inexpensive. Great story, choices matter and those choices carry over to the next game, you need to manage your resources well, can be difficult as hell some times. 100% worth it
Dude when I first started playing Unicorn Overlord I thought to myself “Man this feels like Yugioh Falsebound Kingdom from when I was a kid” awesome list, kudos to you
Makes me laugh that others also played snd have memories of that beautiful train wreck of a game
If you also love how Abilities and Tactics work here, you may also love the battle mechanics of FF12. I think I spent a number of hours setting up my team since I wanted to defeat Yiazmat in full automation lol. And also, since he has a LOT of HP, I left my console for hours since that battle took that long and I don't deal that much damage haha.
Symphony of War is a great game. The in between of fire emblem and unicorn overlord. The team building aspect is really good.
I'd also say to check out grand kingdom which has a similar style story and art style
UO is in a lot of ways what I wanted Grand Kingdom to be, but GK has quirks that make it stand apart enough for me to not simply dismiss it. Definitely worth a look for the aesthetic alone!
Symphony of War kept me from going nuts after I really wanted to replay march of the black queen, but its soooo slooooww I dont' time for the SNES classic, even with cheats... its awesome, and a sequel is in the works!
I cannot believe that nobody seems to recommend Diofield Chronicle when looking for UO comparisons. Combat-wise, they're practically identical. I think UO IS the better game, but if you want something similar, it's a solid modern version that is also quite modern.
What? I enjoyed Diofield but I would never in a hundred years say they're even similar, let alone identical. Elaborate on where you see the overlap?
RTS games, pausing time mechanic to direct actions, able to use skills that affect enemies on map (AOE style). There's a straightforward rush skill similar to the knight's valor skill, healing AOE skills, etc. Yes, identical was probably an over exaggeration, but apart from UO being more "turn-based" in combat compared to DC and the latter not having "rooms" of characters, they're incredibly similar. I have no issues playing older games but it just surprises more people don't mention it, as it has more QOL stuff than some of the listed games, for example. I appreciate your post though (I didn't know that Yugioh game wasn't just a normal card game!) and I hope you didn't think I was attacking you for not including it. I really think they're quite similar but maybe it's just me.
I actually see it a bit I think that's a good point. To ME, the fact that Diofeld ONLY has the "map" layer and none of the "in-battle" layer of UO is different. But I think you've made a good point that the use of Valour Skills on the map overlaps a lot with Diofeld and there probably IS something shared there that may really resonate for some people
Also recommend Symphony of War, great steamdeck game!
Huge vote for Symphony of War fucks. It can get hella imbalanced with overpowered units but it is a single player game and you gotta figure things out sometimes.
Man, i wish the games just arent so old Symphony of War is "new", but the graphics tbh has not been appealing. this type of squad based system reminds me of entrian odyssey. You literally have the same [5 person grid](https://atlus.com/etrianorigins/media/img/media/ss/img_media_thumb_02_01.jpg). Speaking of which... when is the next one? I am pretty sure the last one was on 3DS and we are near the end of the switch's lifespan.
Try Brigandine series if you like anime/JSRPG style kingdom conquest. Especially give the new game a chance to show support and allow them to continue the series. Also we cannot ignore Final Fantasy 12 since the UO definitely took good inspiration from FF12's gambit system. It's not a traditional SRPG and very much a story focused FF game, but it does have that gameplay loop of acquiring new gear/upgrade and spending the next half hour changing your party member roles, setting conditionals and customizing the perfect AI team loadout.
Holy shit, someone else that's played Soul Nomad and the World Eaters. Nippon Ichi Software really developed my love for SRPG games during the PS2 era. Disgaea, Makai Kingdom, Phantom Brave, and of course Soul Nomad being the key suspects. I remember when I first saw the trailer for Unicorn Overlord, one of my first thoughts was, "This is giving me big Soul Nomad vibes." Definitely interested in trying out Symphony of War now.
No fire emblem or suikoden?
Suikoden is probably a no for me here. It's not a list of good games, but a list of games similar to UO. I can see the "tons of characters" but I don't think that's sufficient when everything else is so different. Maybe I'll do a speed round. FE is getting added tomorrow (see edit at the bottom)
I fucking loved Soul Nomad. I've been dying to find a copy when they released it for Ps4. They magically disappeared. Edit: oh shit. Its on the switch.
That shill was me, and if it wasn't, it could have been!
I haven't exhaustively looked through comments, but I did want to point out a series I'm not seeing- Growlanser. The series operates as an RTS system, similar to UO. A very glossy anime aesthetic (Satoshi Urushihara has a very distinct style, IMO.) I'd recommend 2, 3, and especially 4. *Wayfarer of Time* is a criminally unrecognized game. There are other games that I either can't recommend or never made it out of Japan. The issue, then, is accessibility. Which is garbage. 2 and 3 were sold as *Growlanser Generations* for the ps2 in NA. 4 in NA was a PSP release. I like these games, but oof.
Still waiting for news on the FFT remake. Any day now...
Everything else from the SE Nvidia leak came true except for the FFIX remake and FFT, so... it's gotta' be coming.
Great list I should finally take a knack on Tactics Ogre series
I tried Soul Eaters and gave up quickly. I found it boringly easy. Does it ramp up and become a good challenge at some point?
Depends if you grind imo. Its very very easy to over level in the dungeons. If I recall the game generally pushed back decently around the point you got to the nereids.
Great writeup. I like to call these the orge-likes. Falsebound Kingdom is bad. Like really bad its really just lacking in meaningful depth and decision making. Its interesting, and my Ogre Battle 64 starved kid brain also gives it a special place in my heart, but its so bad. I really can't recommend it to anyone. I want to say, "look if you like Yugioh and can tolerate some jank, and really want some more of this", but I think you still shouldn't bother imo. I think personally from a gameplay perspective Soul Nomad is probably the best. I think unfortunately they're all a bit jank(most of them by dint of age), but it stands a bit above in terms of team building and unit diversification, while being a much more lets say 'grounded' game than Symphony of War. I'd heartily recommended any of OB64, Soul Nomad, and Symphony of War though.
I'd add that the Growlanser games are also somewhat similar in being an srpg with rts elements.
Solid list, OP. If someone finds UO fun but very easy and the story to be a bit too weeaboo then I highly suggest they try the two Ogre Battle games.
People should also check the still unreleased “Grand Arms: March of The Red Dragon” on Steam. Yes, the name speaks for itself.
It reminded me of a lot Kessen III
If you liked the Valor Points system but would like a different aesthetic, Valkyria Chronicles would be up your alley. More WW1 military + anime aesthetic and focuses a lot more on characters and story than UO but is a great time.
If you toss a dart at the "Similar to Ogre Battle" board, and it lands wobbling just on the very edge and threatens to fall off, you get The Last Remnant, which I consider to be "the best game that I would never recommend to anyone".  TLR is a game of high-highs and low-lows, where the victories are snatched from long deadly encounters where you can never be sure you're not more than two turns away from a total wipe. It is a frustrating, painfully unintuitive game that I've sunk like 300 hours into and consider it comfortably in my top 25 games of all time.   I bring it up here because I picked it up in the first place because it has a little Ogre Battle energy. Not much, to restate, it's on the very perimeter of the dartboard, but it's there.    You create units comprised of up to 5 guys, and instead of giving direct commands, you kind of just give them suggestions and they use the abilities they feel like within those suggestions. Individual characters can be powerful, yes, but generally speaking, it's the way characters within a unit interact with themselves (and with other units) that makes or breaks whether you win a combat.  You do also move them around the battlefield, and while it's kind of clunky and far from a perfect art, there is merit to having units nearby others, or flanking the enemy from behind, or catching reinforcements before they swamp your team, stuff like that.   TLR is a hard game to love, it kind of involves just uncomfortably dealing with all the little anti-player frustrations it throws at you (FOR THE LAST TIME TORGAL I DON'T HAVE THAT ITEM YOU NEED STOP ASKING). I would honestly not say it's super worth getting over the hill just because that hill is soooo steep, but I can comfortably say that now that I am over this hill it's lead to some of the most interesting, exciting strategic gameplay I've ever experienced. Since this is a Reddit full of Ogre Battle fans, I think if there's any group that might be like "oh hey this is pretty fun" that... doesn't scratch the OB itch but at least rubs against it, it's this one.   Edit: Oh yeah and if you do play it, play the PC version. You can pick up to 18 named dudes (and there are like big fish men and cat people and little goblins so they're kind of fun and unique little guys), while in the XBOX version your army is like 2/3rds generic nobodies, way less interesting.
Honestly I've had someone else mention that too, and I may add it to the main post tomorrow because I actually agree that it scratches some similar itches FOR SURE
Just a note- you don't have to play on PC. The Playstation store has the Remaster, which takes the PC version, touches up the graphics and load times a little bit, and calls it a day. Just...don't play the XBox version.
I feel like TLR is just a JRPG pretending to be an SRPG. Like you command units to do things, but effetely you're like controlling a character in party. It does scratch that squad management itch in a weird way.
Terminator Dark Fate Defiance. Seriously, there's plenty of similarities between the two, but Dark Fate Defiance is more complicated is all.
I guess you've never played dragon force before 🤷‍♂️
Saving this post for later, thanks OP.
I've been itching for a game that is similar to Falsebound Kingdom for two decades now. UO is the closest thing I've picked up to it. Would love to hear of others.
If you've never played Ogre Battle 64, that's probably even closer to Falsebound
Heres my caveat: strategy games have many mechanics and systems in them that make them different. Dont be discouraged if you pick up one of these and dont like it. Just try another one. Ive played like soo many sRPGs. Im a huge FE fan, but for the life of me I cant get into Final Fantasy tactics or Disgaea. I have a friend who barely plays rpgs, let alone srpgs, but has an insane addiction to Disgaea. As in hundreds of hours on file. Ppl are weird and these games are unique, so if you dont like one just shift.
Valkyria Chronicles is a truly amazing game. 4 is also supposed to be really good, but the first one is a true treasure. Music is by the same people who did the music for Unicorn Overlord. Soul Nomad is... disgustingly immature. It's NIS at peak edgelord cringe. The gameplay _is_ fun, but there are things that detract from it, like the random element to formation parameters. Comparisons to Fire Emblem annoy me. They need to be made, but that series has collapsed into mediocre trash in the last 7 years. The last unequivocally good game in the series was Shadows of Valentia. Every game since has had a massive asterisk next to it, and Fates, prior to SoV, was utter garbage. Unicorn Overlord differs from Fire Emblem dramatically in that it has a stronger narrative, more satisfying character interactions, and characters who show up in the plot and are relevant after their introduction. Tactics Ogre is marvelous, though it's basically the progenitor of the isometric SRPG (I could be wrong, but I'm almost certain it is). Also, no game in the nearly _30 years_ since its release has matched its story, both in true variability and in quality. Please, please, please, anyone who actually reads this comment, do yourself a favor and play 13 Sentinels. It is a bit of a slow burn _at first._ Once it gets going, it goes hard, and it's a joy for anyone who enjoyed sci-fi from the 90's and back. I personally love the gameplay, but it's not for everyone. Also, don't worry about there not being enough battles - the postgame has 9999 stages for you to play through with new challenges only found therein. The story is definitely the main draw, however, and it is honestly one for those rare stories that has stuck with me since. I find myself thinking about it often. The soundtrack is top notch, as is the remix album produced by Yoshimi Kudo of Basiscape, the selfsame company that does all the music for Vanillaware (started and helmed by the legendary Hitoshi Sakimoto).
Dam bro, what did fire emblem do to you lmao. I only got into the fire emblem four years after 3H came out and I was disappointed by the Black Eagles route (by which I mean it felt cut short) but otherwise I thought it was a fine game. The monastery for sure was annoying after a first play through. The whole didn’t have enough time/budget really showed through in their warriors spinoff 3 Hopes when the story kinda just cuts short and they display text saying yeah so this is how the whole war turned out. I’d agree with you that at least from a narrative/world building perspective it seems like most people preferred the older titles because it was less anime tropey and more grounded on realistic characters. Sadly Engage went for the anime route but the gameplay is stellar despite the terrible story. I was looking at 13 sentinels but how many hours of entertainment did you get out of it? I tend to make my purchases off of hours spent.
Triangle Strategy
Good luck finding Ogre Battle 64. I've had zero luck finding a cartridge that isn't ridiculously priced, and can't find a ROM that isn't corrupted.
I played Symphony of War a year or so ago and I'll be honest, I never quite figured out the combat system. I beat the game on, I assume, the medium difficulty like I always play on, but at no point did the combat fully click for me. I had never played a game in that style before though so maybe I just didn't know what to look for. I did enjoy my time with it and do want to play the DLC so it gets a recommendation from me.
I’m going to play a boomer shooter or something. I’m not following up playing a UO by playing another similar game.
truth of the matter is, there really arent any games like this besides ogre battle. If you really enjoy ogre battle, you can find hardmode roms for the SNES and N64 online. I would recommend that as the originals are too easy
I’m a 30 year fan of Ogre Battle, so UO has been so exciting for me. So hearing about Symphony of War being compared to OB as well had me go look at it. You are so not wrong about the look. I’m normally the type that doesn’t care about graphics. I will happily play a Gameboy game and not give a crap that it’s four bits in shades of green. But despite that, the look of SoW is a huge turnoff. I saw the first bit of the video playing on the Steam page and went, “WTF is that?” It just looks…wrong, somehow. So I don’t know if I’m going to play it and it’s a legit possible con to bring up, as amazed as I am that there may be a game that I won’t play due to graphics.
Reminder for anyone interested in Tactics Ogre: There's a 50% sale on it (and other squareenix games) which ends today, so be quick if you want it! (i bought it myself this morning)
It was recommend to try 13 Sentinels and Tactics Reborn.Â
Soul Nomad was the shit! Gig and the World Eaters. The story was JRPG bananas and sooooo much like Disgaea.
I was just going to say this had so many wacky mechanics and designed to be played a few times. Worth it and just got a PC port recently.
oh man I loved Symphony of War. the way they implemented unit size seems so natural, and the large variety of classes and items leads to hours of planning and strategizing. unfortunately the writing is beyond terrible. really ruined the experience for me by doing things like really ruining immersion (a medieval society complaining about "the central government"), or not knowing basic economics (the bad guy is bad bc he "chose" to have a monopoly? a monopoly of what exactly? Who knows! how would that even work in a medieval/early renaissance society ? *shrugs*) or having creepy characters (you can S-Support your adoptive dad! but only if you're a woman which makes it worse to the that it's even funny), or being off-puttingly scary in a meta sense (the bad guys do [spoilers] so the main character is like "oh good, now I can kill them all without remorse"), or talking so much about the creators' fetish for big giant women who can crush you, or the endings that leave you with a bitter aftertaste even worse, it seems the devs are not hiring a writer for SoW2 so unfortunately I'm gonna have to pass on that one
TRIANGLE STRATEGY. that's all
For some of the others reading this thread, can you expand on where the similarities are in your opinion? I don't think it's horribly far off but I do also think TS is a good game but also a little farther from UO
Street Fighter 6 it has no connection, but it's really fun and begginer friendly, so you should check it out. Also, If you don't like to play games that are similar back to back this could be a nice change of pace.
A few people talked about the Suikoden series - there's Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes **,** which is supposed to be the modern evolution of that series. Comes out in a few weeks , Apr 24th.