Looking for a Tales-like RPG without active combat

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨troyunrau@lemmy.ca⁩ to ⁨gaming@beehaw.org⁩

Hey folks, looking for something that scratches an itch. I love the Tales series, but dislike the active combat system. So I’m looking for something in the vein that is low combat or turn based tactical combat.

For comparison, I also enjoy Fire Emblem but wish it was more of an RPG. And have recently replayed Dragon Age: Origins (and wished it was turn based like BG3). In DaO I preferred exploring the Dwarven city over combat by a huge margin.

Graphics don’t matter. Depth of story matters. Ideas?

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Kwakigra@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series are probably what you’re looking for. Golden age Square JRPGS, especially Xenogears, are also generally great Jrpgs.

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- troyunrau@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’ve played all the old school Square and Enix stuff. FF6 is my goat.
  
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luciole@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Have you played the Trails series?

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- troyunrau@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  No! I’ve heard it is quite the investment if you want to start at the beginning. Is there a later jumping in point that works well, in your opinion?
  
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  - luciole@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’ve only played the two first entries so far (Trails in the Sky FC & SC) and I’ve found them be fun JRPGs. I’d recommend starting by the beginning.
    
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  - _Lory98_@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Not op, but I’ve been playing the series (just finished the sixth game, Cold Steel), and I’d suggest not starting later, as every game references the previous ones in some way. Although even if they didn’t, I’d still suggest starting from Sky, then playing Zero and Azure, as they are really good (and imo much better games than CS).
    
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  - JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You can play Cold Steel 1&2 as your first if you want a more modern introduction to the world and like the persona style school setting stuff, but CS3 is when the stories of all the previous games start merging together, so it’s very highly recommended to have played Sky, Zero and Azure before that or you will miss a a lot of it.
    
    Also there is a 3D remake of the Sky trilogy coming, starting sometime next year with the first game. Though so far it seems to be Switch exclusive.
    
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TachyonTele@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous has crazy depth of story, can be turn based or active combat, and you can adjust a ton of difficulty options to suit your taste. Lots and lots of exploring.

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- soulsource@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  And the predecessor, Pathfinder: Kingmaker is amazing too.
  
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  - luciole@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Pathfinder Kingmaker & WotR are such strong titles in most aspects, but in both instances the mini-game they tacked on top of a perfectly fine RPG got on my nerves. Kingmaker’s management sim and WotR’s Might&Magic-like army battles felt to me pretty rough around the edges (and ultimately tedious), especially compared to how engaging the rest of the games are. Ugh, I love-hate them sooo much.
    
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tal@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Tales-like

I’ve been kind of out of the RPG loop for a while, probably not the best person to suggest, and haven’t played the series, but I’m thinking that if you could expand a bit on that, it might help provide suggestions…I mean, not clear to me what you’re looking for that’s specific to that relative to other RPGs. Similar setting? A long-running RPG series with many entries? The combat system (absent the real-time aspect)?

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- troyunrau@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Sure. Tales games tend to be high fantasy settings where each game is its own setting (much like Final Fantasy in that sense). They tend to have a lot of “war against heaven corrupted” kind of vibes. But largely there’s a lot of places to explore, NPCs to talk to, and a bunch of great little skits that trigger between your team. They tend to be lighter on graphics in exchange for length and depth of story. But it’s also somewhat linear, and carefully crafted and you can sort of lose yourself in finding the next story beat.
  
  But they also typically have active combat systems where it’s about button mashing and combos. This is the part I don’t like :)
  
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  - OrangeEnot@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I second on the Trails suggestion in this thread. Only played the Sky, but these games probably fit your preferences. Long story, large party of characters, short entertaining skits just like in Tales + turn-based combat.
    
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scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ll say DA2 and Dragon Age Inquisition both have story modes, where combat definitely takes a backseat - way more so than Origins. The story only gets better too, and with DA4 coming out next month…

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- troyunrau@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, that’s a good option perhaps. I grabbed em recent because of a steam sale, but never played them before. Appreciate the rec :)
  
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