Even though the first post asks for PC or pen and paper, i have to share the first RPG that really just made me sure that even though there were some really awesome games out there, that RPG's just really did it for me, i just enjoy them much more than other games that are too set in how you have to play it.
Ogre Battle 64 for (if you didn't guess) Nintendo 64. I had played some other really awesome RPG's up until that point but the game is just amazing in my opinion. So different than everything else that was out then, and even since then no game has come out like it that i know of, or that holds a candle to it.
The customization was what really did it for me. You make units, which has 5 slots, where if you have a Dragon or Ogre or on of the big characters it takes up 2 slots. Otherwise you can have five people in each unit. You have to have a character strong and smart enough to be the leader of unit. Then you build the unit around the leader. The leader is the unit that shows on the map. Well.. each character in each unit, you can customize their items, change their name, depending on their stats and chaos frame you change their unit type, from mages to archers to healers to paladin's, you get the idea. There are a handful of story characters that you cannot rename but you end up having way more of your own characters.
In the gameplay, you dispatch up to 10 of your units onto a battlefield, and send them in whichever direction you wish on the map, towards towns or just to explore open areas or mountains. As you draw close, and depending on which way your unit is facing, you will see the enemy unit's as they approach. When you get close enough to an enemy unit the battle begins. Another interesting part of it, that some might not like, is that the battles automatically take place. Depending on where you put the units determines how many attacks they have and even sometimes what type of attack. For example, magic units get one turn in the middle or front, or two in the back row. Knights and fighting units get 2 or later get 3 turns in the front row, in the second row they get one or two, in the back they get one. Or also, some characters will do different attacks in different rows, Valkyries will do 2 magic attacks from the back row, 1 physical attack in the middle, or two physical in the front row. Paladins will heal in the back row and attack in the front. Strategy and thinking ahead is the key. Whichever unit takes more damage loses the battle, and is pushed a distance away from where the battle took place, the winning unit staying in place. If your unit is completely defeated.. well you can imagine. There are different strategies you can use, your unit will act accordingly. They can attack strongest or weakest characters, they can target the leader of the unit, which will cancel a lot of options that unit has once the leader falls (or your own), or they can auto attack. Magic users also do really sweet attacks when you combine two or more of them and they are able to attack the same characters. They will combine doing twice the range of damage and multiples of what damage they normally do. Later in the game 2 Mage's or 2 Siren's in the back row can attack an entire enemy unit on their turn.
That's just the beginning. There is also the chaos frame to keep in mind. Which changes whether or not you capture towns, as opposed to liberating them. Doing this depends on if the unit you send to the town has a similar chaos balance as the town's. Very tricky and confusing at first but later it makes sense. Doing this, and also different story points where you make decisions, will change many outcomes in the game and give the game a lot of replay value. Multiple endings, multiple paths, it is an amazing game. Wow just talking about it i want to start it over again.
I just decided to go ahead and explain it some because it is pretty rare and i never meet very many people who have played it.
Has anyone here at least heard of if not played it? There has also been Ogre Battle, the original for SNES. Then they made Ogre Tactic's for GBA just somewhat recently. All decent but OB64 is just one of the best and most unique and original RPG's i've ever played.
