Thanks everyone for the recommendations. I'll start checking them out!

No. Some people say it feels like real-time, because of how the time-to-next-turn counter works, but once it's your turn, time freezes like it should. Unlike, say, Anachronox, which uses a real-time-with-wait system: when it's your turn, you have to press buttons as quickly as possible (or impossible, if more than one of your characters get their turn at the same time) or the enemy will end up taking your turn away.

Edit: And I finally found my second review (of 2)! Thanks! I don't even remember writing that. In the mean time, dx11 support in wine has gotten better, so the game isn't as bad (for me). Still no reflections in reflective floors as there should be/were in the DC version, though. Seems to be because the port decided shadows were better (they aren't), but disabling shadows doesn't enable reflections.

Also, to be fair, Grandia 2 has a real-time component: when you walk around in the field, you see enemies. If you get tagged in the rear by an enemy, you start combat at a disadvantage, and if you tag the enemy in the rear, you start at an advantage. Plus some other things I've long forgotten, like that stupid arm-wrestling minigame.

Give Fallout Tactics a try and maybe Silent Storm - this one is not an RPG, but more like Jagged Alliance.

Is Fell Seal at least more balanced than Final Fantasy Tactics was? (FFT is a bit harder than it should be at the start, and then late game you get things like Orlandu and Math Skill, which makes me wonder who thought that was balanced? Interestingly, other Square games of the time, like Final Fantasy 7 and SaGa Frontier, also have major balance issues; it seems like Square did not care about game balance at the time.)

I haven't played Grandia 2, but I *have* played Grandia Xtreme, which to my understanding has a similar battle system. The battle system is, in fact, turn-based; it might look real-time at first glance, but whenever it's time for you to enter a command, time pauses until you do so. (The game provides information on whose turn is coming up and what spells enemies are in the process of casting, so you can try to cancel them if the currently active character has a suitable ability.)

Outside of combat, however, is not turn-based (at least in the case of Grandia Xtreme); enemies move in real-time, and a battle starts on collision.

Not strictly turn-based because of a few things:
* There's a day-night cycle, which runs in real-time.
* Spell durations run down in real-time.
* Random encounters can start even if you're standing still. (This happens even in BT3, even though it didn't in the original versions of said game.)
* Bard's Tale 2 has timed puzzles known as Death Snares at the end of each dungeon; if time runs out, your party gets killed. Also, you can't pause or save in them. (I have a feeling that this is probably one of the more controversial aspects of that game.)

If you can tolerate going ancient technology, Dragon Wars is still a fantastic story and surprisingly complex in the way the game world unfolds.

Fell Seal is has easier mechanics than FFT (no obstacles to aiming, no insta-death, no perma-death by default). If you find it too easy, you can change the difficulty settings in-game. Can't really talk about balance, given that -- having been raised by late 1990s console RPGs -- I grinded quite a bit. I've been OP for most of the game because of that.

Yes, it does. However, there is a catch - PoE2 heavily references events of PoE (some of your companions recall a lot of things in dialogs). And PoE doesn't have turn-based mode. So if you consider knowing story and lore important things...
Well, in that case you definitely should also mention King's Bounty series - that's classics started it all.

Not strictly but it is where it matters and turn based enough i think, I don't think it should be avoided just because a few events has real time in them.

The Banner Saga might work

Acarnum, the Bard's Tale remastered, ,the D&D Goldbox games plus Temple of Elemental Evil and the Dark Sun games, Trails in the Sky and of Cold Steel, The Wasteland games Fallout 1 and 2 and Underrail, The Wizardy games GOG has plus most of the Ultima, and Might and Magic franchises (Everything except Ultima 8, 9, and the Underworld games plus if memory serves all the main series Might and Magic games other then VIII have turn based combat either mandatory or optional),and anything by Spiderweb software in GOG's catalog. (I still have no idea why we don't have Nethergate Resurrection here)

If you want a strategy RPG I would go with Jagged Alliance 2 then any Jagged Alliance game other then Rage or any of GOG's Heroes of Might and Magic games.

Torment - Tides of Numenera has also turn-based combat, although you won't see much of it, if you play it the "talking" way.
In the vein of Bard's Tale/Wizardry (no map/grid in combat) I can also recommend StarCrawlers and
Paper Sorcerer

Newer titles
The Banner Saga
Dead in Vinland
Darkest Dungeon
Slay the Spire
Xenonauts


Older titles
Temple of Elemental Evil
Wizardly series
X-com series
Incubation(part of Battle Isle Collection)

Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a good TBRPG

I know it 's an old thread , but I would strongly recommend Baldur's Gate I & II . GOG does not have the ORIGINAL editions and some people don 't like the Enhanced Editions (which are the ONLY ONES GOG has) and I don 't know why , I , myself , have not still reached the new content of Baldur 's Gate II , so I don 't know why they dislike them , the only difference which I have noticed of the Enhanced Edition of the game is the remastered graphics , of course ,and some improvements such as the fact you can add your own notes on the region (not the world) maps and ,you can also add your own notes in the journal and you can copy the story - related letters in it by pressing a button . In just about the same fashion I 'd recommend Icewind Dale I (again , GOG does not have its ORIGINAL edition , it only haves the Enhanced one) and Icewind Dale 2 - Complete (if you can tolerate having to search for some mod for modern widescreen monitors for this game . Note that NONE of the above - mentioned games is really a turn - based one , they 're all real - time - with - pause ones .

I wouldn't, as those games are not turn-based, and hence not suitable recommendations for this topic.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous both have a turn-based mode, so those two games might be suitable recommendations (though note that, even then, the games are only turn-based during combat).

This is a deal-breaker for me, and is also a deal-breaker for anyone explicitly looking for a turn-based game.