Oh, okay, I stand corrected. Thanks for the tip!

That's a step up, but I suppose the combat still takes place outside of the world you explore, on specific battle screens? So I guess this would be comparable to WRPGs like the Goldbox games or Albion? Is there anything more modern, too?

EDIT: Fell Seal perhaps? Does that qualify as a more modern tactics JRPG? Or is it more of a WRPG with anime look?

Chrono Trigger is interesting in some ways.

On one hand, the reduced party size (only 3 characters instead of 4) made the game feel less "epic" than, say, Final Fantasy 6. (I felt that this was OK for a side game, but it wasn't a good fit for the Final Fantasy series, which would shrink the party to 3 in its 7th installment.) Furthermore, there's the lack of customization, as well as some odd decisions about who gets what skills (why doesn't the character who's meant to be the main healer, Marle, get any multi-target healing? why does Chrono get a revive spell, but not a heal living character spell?).

On the other hand, the game isn't prone to the same issues that FF6 has; characters don't end up feeling the same later on, and the game doesn't overdo it with cutscenes and unskipable dialog. (That last point I noticed when playing the DS version. Point of advice: Don't feel obligated to complete the Lost Sanctum that was added in the DS version. It's a whole bunch of repetitive fetch quests, and as such is poorly designed, unlike the rest of the game.)

I also really liked the graphics in the forest area early on, and it's a shame there aren't any other forest areas.

SPOILER (sort of) follows:
* Also, it was a bit of a shock when the game kills off the one character you would not expect to be killed. Sure, you can bring them back, but it is still a surprise, and I don't think there's any precedent to what the game did here (unlike with FF7's famous character death).

Rogue is a bit boring to be honest. I recommend trying Angband after checking some basic guides. it's a lot more fun and not drastically different from conventional rogue-likes.

Honestly, I find that those extra options slow down the game.

I've been playing through Pathfinder: Kingmaker's random dungeon DLC, and what I've noticed is that the battle system tends to force characters to engage with a single foe and not move around, eliminating the strategy of who to attack. If you move, you get exposed to an attack of opportunity and you lose your full attack.

Also, JRPGs can have a lot of strategy, particularly when the game is difficult enough for it to matter. The defend command is surprisingly useful, particularly since it usually works from the beginning of the round (ignoring initiative). Status ailments, when they work (or at least have a decent chance of working), can be interesting, and there's the strategy of when to heal and when to go all out on offense. Then some games have strategically interesting abilities, like Dragon Quest 6 having an ability that's basically a reverse defend (do more damage, but also take more damage), or the ability to store power to do more damage (useful against enemies that heal or that do nasty things when at low HP).

Interestingly, I found that Dragon Quest 2 has some of the most engaging combat of any JRPG, mainly because random battles can be difficult, and status ailments work reasonably often. Sometimes, you need to assess the situation, decide if it's worth spending MP on that status ailment spell, whether it's worth spending a turn to heal (especially since there's an item that restores HP to the user for free, but can only be used during battle), or if it's best to attack and hope for the best, or if you should just run away (and risk failing to run). I really do enjoy watching the later half of Dragon Quest 2 speedruns. Sure, the player needs to gain a lot of enemies to beat the game, but you can't just do the same thing in every single battle, or else you're going to have characters dying (though that could easily happen anyway). (Also, unless you're playing the original Japanese version, death in the final stages of the game isn't too punishing, as you can revive your entire party at the last save point for free.)

It's in the same genre as Final Fantasy Tactics, and in fact is quite similar.

It seems like "souls-like" means "we're going to take away control of saving from the player, and if you die, you'll be punished harshly and your save will be automatically overwritten, so you can't reload", which is one thing I hate when games do.

I'd much rather have death be handled like in Celeste, where you can instantly respawn at the start of the room. Even something like Dragon Quest 2, where you lose half your money but can choose to reset and reload instead, would be better, though I'd honestly get rid of the lose half your money aspect. (Interesting point: In the original versions of Dragon Quest 4 and 5, a defeat costs half your money, even if it's forced by the story. This isn't a significant issue in DQ4 (when this happens, you're at the end of the chapter, and your money doesn't carry over to the next chapter), but is in DQ5 (it happens at a part where you have excess money and nothing to buy, and shortly afterwords, you likely end up with multiple new party members and new items to purchase).

(There's a reason I won't play through earlier Wizardry games (except 4) without save states.)

sports games
goofy games like fortnite or anything goofy and silly , those are horrible
coin catcher platformers
those games which want to punish you with random garbage like dankest dungeon

There are some exceptions to this, like:
* Shining Force series (Gaiden might be an exception here)
* Arc the Lad 2 (and I think 3, but not 1)
* Fire Emblem Gaiden (but not the rest of the series, except maybe that remake of Gaiden that apparently exists)

These games have plenty of exploration, and have battles taking place in the same maps that you explore. (Not 100% sure about that last point with FEG, but I know it has exploration. Then again, FEG has spells costing HP, and doesn't have weapon durability, so it's atypical of the series in other ways.)

Tropico 2 don't know why maybe i didn't play it enough or i didn't like that they changed it to a pirate setting.
So i never could get into it.

I don't recall this to be the case (usually there are multiple resource points of the same type). In one game I had no iron access (and I couldn't trade it), so I was behind other nations, but conquest solves many problems. In the mid-stage it is possible to organize large naval invasions and build harbors, so it's easier to grab what is needed. I agree that Civ 4 handles this better though. I also agree with pds41 that the game is broken in the late stage due to corruption mechanism.

Well, the games would be even faster without any turn-based combat at all, or an autowin button. ;)

Joking aside though, tastes differ, and I think we just enjoy different things in games. I like tactics, but less in an abstract sense and more in a "then my character did this and it was a memorable scene" kind of way. That's also part of why I don't like strategy games because I do not care about units, only individual characters. And I need combat to be combined with exciting world exploration and (preferably environmental) storytelling. That's why my favorite kind of combat is the one that isn't separated from exploration but takes place in the same terrain, with seamless transitions between exploration and combat .

Hm, I think that would bore me as well.

Although, I do remember now that I enjoy Valkyria Chronicles (in shorter bursts), so who knows.

Chrono Trigger does this.

Granted, combat is a separate mode from exploration, and becomes menu-based without an option to move your party members, but it happens on the same map that exploration happens; there's no battle transition.

Of course, there's also roguelikes, where exploration and combat aren't even separate modes.
Ikenfell actually *has* an auto-win button, and I believe Ara Fell does as well. (Well, in both cases it's *technically* a menu command, but it still has the same effect.)

With that said, it's worth noting that neither game has it enabled by default; you have to go into the options to enable it before it can be used.

There's a few games, like Earthbound, that will auto-win easy encounters for you, and some, like Dragon Quest games, that have an ability that will outright prevent easy encounters in the first place. (In early DQ games, it unfortunately doesn't work in dungeons, but that changed later in the series.)

• I absolutely adored VII and VIII.
• I somewhat liked two of the older ones (I don't remember which).
• I hated IX.
• I watched a Let's Play of X and found it mind-numbingly boring.
• I watched a Let's Play of X-2 and hated it.
• VIII Remastered looks like a low-effort cash grab and I've heard nothing but bad things about it.
• I watched a Let's Play of XV and it left so little of an impression that I forgot. I only remembered about a third to halfway through watching that same Let's Play again. It doesn't look worth playing to me. It also doesn't help that I've developed an aversion towards anime tropes, especially character affectations / line delivery and ridiculous outfits.
• I watched a Let's Play of VII Remake. It looked amazing, but there was a lot of filler and it's only like a quarter of a game. Who knows when they'll finish releasing the whole thing, and the combined cost will be exorbitant. • Once again, I watched a Let's Play. I was completely on board with the story and found it immensely satisfying. The gameplay didn't look like anything special.
• TLOU2 - don't get me started. • DAO - I liked it a little bit.
• DA2 - I loved it.
• DAI - I had my issues with it, notably the new online requirement to import your save from the previous game. But overall, I liked more about it than I disliked.
I probably place the most importance on the story, so going from happy (alternate) ending in Max Payne 2 to cliché deadbeat cop was a huge problem from the start.

On top of that, I didn't like the setting. The previous installments were very stylized comic book stories involving the New York mafia. I found those bad guys interesting. I'm chuckling to myself right now remembering how much time I spent skulking around watching Lords and Ladies behind a distracted henchman. In contrast, the switch to realistic portrayal of Brazilian crime just left me grossed out.

I don't have a particular issue with cover mechanics. That's what makes up a lot of the Mass Effect series, and I had a blast with those games (up until the final 15 minutes or so).

The Witcher series (and Cyberpunk 2077). I just don't like CDPR's pacing in their games. They are too jagged and jumpy and filled with weird camera movements simulating a human head and cutscenes galore and dialogue options op the wazoo. The pacing is off and not enough actual roleplaying in these games.

Tyranny
PoE2

i hear this 2 game is absolute great and all but the complexity is just to much for me.

complex story ain't bad but when factions, relationships, history, characters, and lore comes into the equation it just become to much for me.

for example dragon age origins is a complex story but not overwhelming so, so it's a good game.