Birth of the Federation
(Most of my other ones have been said already)
I usually don’t like turn-based combat at all, but I still enjoyed Clair Obscur, simply because it’s an amazing game otherwise. I found the battles to be a bit repetitive after a while, but it was still kinda fun.
X-COM. CRPGs. Pathfinder, BG. Have Ledgerbound and the new FF on the line. The last turn based was Zero Company.
Turn based, visual novels or some light hack and slash games are my usual poison.
Right now, I guess Pokémon counts?
I used to enjoy an Angry Birds spin-off called “Epic”, that was one of the better ones.
The first Fallout games. Turn based isometric top down RPG.
They were awesome stories and I spent hours finding as much backstory as I could. By reading and searching every location.
I recently played Chained Echoes, and it was alright for being a fairly blatant Chrono Trigger/SNES era Final Fantasy ripoff. Decent combat, great sprite work, ridiculous story. JRPGs used to be my favorite genre, then they kinda went to shit IMO. They are making something of a comeback with people my age being nostalgic about the good ones making similarly good ones again.
Chess
Worms. Literally any Worms title.
Additionally: Transistor
Divinity: Original Sin 2. Combat system isn’t perfect (my main criticism is that you can unchain your characters to set your party members up in advantageous positions and then trigger combat, which feels cheaty) but it has some cool mechanics. A lot of elemental interactions, interactions with and creation of different surfaces, factoring in high ground for an advantage, etc. I know BG3 is highly acclaimed also by Larian but I haven’t played it so can’t attest to that combat system.
wizardry on the apple II
Yes, I’m a huge Final Fantasy fan and turn-based is what I started out with when I first started gaming. My favorite FF game (and video game of all time) is Final Fantasy X, and I remember playing late one night and falling asleep mid-boss battle. Waking up two hours later for the boss patiently waiting for me to kill it was quite nice, ngl.
Also Clair Obscur. I didn’t shut up about that game all last year. It’s just so good, especially for those who prioritize story in video games!
With the exception of MMOs, I very nearly play exclusively turn-based games.
The Xcom is the obvious answer, but also a big fan of the card games Slay the Spire/Monster Train. I’ve loved all of the older final fantasy games but found the action based newer ones like 15 grating.
Really loving Persona 5 Royal. Though I’m enjoying the life sim more than the action, I do still like turn based games, all the way back to FFVII on the PS1.
Turn based is almost exclusively what I enjoy. I don’t need high octane action. I prefer to drink my coffee and solve the combat puzzle
I’m not usually a fan of turn based combat, but some games that stuck with me from the design point were Mechabellum (if that counts as turn based? It is a (really cool) autobattler), and Into The Breach.
Mechabellum is such a fun game to learn and figure out, and then you watch the battle unfold while thinking about the next steps.
Into The Breach because it tells you what will exactly happen, so it’s more of a puzzle - you don’t have to learn the enemy to know what they can do, and can just play it reactively. And that’s a cool twist. Perspnally not a fan of gating strategy behing a wall of knowledge (i.e TCGs, or Pokemon - if you don’t know the enemy cards/moves, you’re basically playing blind).
