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?
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 :)
I second 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.