Though occasionally a little nebulous, the definition of a Strategy RPG (SRPGs for short) is a game where you control a band of adventurers or soldiers who progress with levels and statistics like an RPG but are controlled as an entire group rather than individually. The second, usually unspoken requirement is that you use a gridlike field to move your pieces around like a chess game, choosing advantageous positions for your characters to stand and attack from, as opposed to the standard RPG combat system of facing the enemy in groups of 3 or 4 and attacking in turns.
In this update, I'll once again go through some of the better ideas games of this genre have employed, as well as one of my own ideas should I ever get the chance to work on the Strategy RPG genre again (which I hope to do, as I find them fascinating).
*** The "Dual Movement" System (Vandal Hearts II - PS1): As an attempt to diversify from what people consider a perfectly solid first instalment of Konami's strongest foray into the genre, Vandal Hearts II came up with this rather unique twist when devising a strategy for your battles:
1. The game first of all eschews the speed stat, choosing the older method of allowing the player to move their units in whichever order they choose. It also allows for angle modifiers, where the game adds damage depending on where the attack is coming from: attacking from an elevated position causes more damage than being lower than your target, and attacks from behind and the sides are similarly enhanced over direct face-to-face confrontations.
2. As you move one of your units, the enemy side moves one of his. The AI chooses the enemy unit in the most advantageous position to do damage (either the one standing closest to your units, or having its most powerful unit attack first).
3. Instantly, you're on a whole new level of strategy. You may find yourself moving towards the enemy as he's moving towards you, and missing each other completely. You may also predict that the computer will move that enemy behind your unit for a higher damage attack, and so you move your unit behind where that enemy unit will move to so you can score a powerful blow on him instead. You may find yourself purposely baiting the enemy units with your weakest character, only to move it out of the way and waste an enemy unit's attack. The applications for wise-assery at this point are almost endless.
Though somewhat confusing at first, and difficult to get used to until you start recognising patterns in the AI, the Dual Movement system may have indeed put many casual players of the genre off. However, the system has amazing potential (especially for a two-player mode) and I'd like to see it (and this series) more often in the future.
*** The "Item World" feature (Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - PS2): The most innovative series this genre's ever seen, the Nippon Ichi series of SRPGs (which I mentioned last update) continually tries new features and systems to keep each new instalment fresh. Disgaea's "Item World", a never-ending series of random dungeons based actually inside the items and equipment in the game, is an inspiring way for allowing a player to level-up his equipment and characters. The immediate and most obvious goal of this feature is to increase the power of a piece of equipment by levelling it slightly each time a floor is completed, and levelling it a whole lot once an "Item Boss" (placed on every 10th floor) is defeated. However, each item also has "trainer" monsters, which give any item they live in a bonus to various stats. After finding and taming these monsters (by defeating them), you can move them across to other items of equipment. Finding a group of randomly generated Attack-boosting trainers in an otherwise useless item for example will provide you with an opportunity to enter that item and retrieve them for your character's main weapon.
Needless to say I gushed all over this feature like a rabid fanboy, and spent waaay too much of my time playing through all these item worlds to power up various characters and their weaponry. The best part about this series is every game in it has something like this to explore the possibilities of, though the Item World is by far the best example of their imaginative optional features.
*** Randomly Generated Mutational Skillsets (my own invention): I finish with one of my own attempts to create a new spin on how characters are formed for a game of the SRPG classification. This works ideally for a superhero Strategy RPG (something that is missing from the genre in my opinion), though it could be easily applied to a sci-fi or standard fantasy setting.
Characters in this scenario would gain their powers at a pre-generated rate of level acquisition, i.e. they would gain new attacks once they reached certain levels, a la Pókemon. However a character generated by the player (using a random generating tool, which may be CD-based such as Monster Rancher's fun monster generating system) may end up with several "mutations" (randomly generated with the rest of the character's stats) in their pre-ordained skillsets. This may end up giving a character a powerful attack at an earlier level than usual, or a completely different attack all together. The player can then use these "mutant" characters as unpredictable wildcards when playing against the computer or another human. For example, a character who has ice-based attacks (in a superhero setting, this guy would be like Iceman, or an Icemage in a fantasy setting) might find themselves with an electric-based moveset as well (such as Electro's, or a Thundermage's) so they can surprise enemies expecting standard ice moves. That character may also be fortunate enough to find a passive skill (one that is always in effect) such as regeneration or increased resistance from mental attacks. At a certain point of their development, they can pass on these mutated skills to another character, and the player can unlock various rare abilities and skills from randomly generated characters and merge them with their favorite hero to create an indestructable powerhouse.
As with any complex skillset structure, this will require more tweaking as well as a working demo system to test it with, but it's something I may get around to creating one day. Superhero RPGs are getting far more common (consider the success of X-Men Legends or the City of Heroes MMORPG), so a decent superhero SRPG - which will finally allow a player to properly control a group of superheroes as a strategic team rather than just have them as AI cohorts - will hopefully be on the table in the near future.
