Alvora Tactics

Random small indie dev no one's ever heard of punches way above their weight unexpectedly makes a great game. This has the kind of intuitiveness that something like Fire Emblem has and which few tactical rpgs manage to do so well, while also having decent depth and variety of character building options. If there's one minor criticism it's that the room layouts and setups become very similar and recognizable after just a few runs, sort of undermining the proc gen aspect to the game. Not a big deal since the small variations allow for enough to make the occasional grind less repetitive. Also why is the music so good?

It feels like this series was evolving from Voidspire to Horizon's gate, but then regressed with this game. It almost seems pre-Voidspire. The world expanded into Horizon's Gate (with it's towns, dungeons, different mechanics, exploration and classes) and then suddenly became claustrophobic (you can't walk around town, classes are reduced etc.). It may have been trying to fulfil a different space than Horizon's Gate but if it is, Voidspire is already in that space and fulfilling it much better. It is also a shame they changed the music (which gets tedious quite quickly almost like constant Final Fantasy battle music). I read the reviews and thought I'd give this game the benefit of the doubt and try it but it just isn't engaging.

More combat-focused than Voidspire Tactics, also very good.

Little too short, but still fun.

Short, but deep. Good game.

If you're like me and every other TRPG cannot stand up to Final Fantasy Tactic's combat and class systems, Rad Codex's tactics games are for you. They all have a hybrid class system just like FFT, with some changes that I like and there aren't any useless meta classes like the mediator or thief (instead you just get loot off of enemies when combat is over). Each game has a different type of campaign, but they all share the same class and combat. Also, you gain XP at end of combat instead of per action so you are not incentivized to drag out fights to maximize XP gain. Particular to Alvora, there is almost no story and endless combat. If you ever wanted to grind in FFT in fights that were fun and not meaningless like the random battles in FFT, but don't care if it has a great story, this is a fun game for you. You go on dungeon runs and fight enemies and solve a handful of puzzles, then you can exit when it gets too hard. Its not a roguelike/lite. If you wipe then its game over and you go to a load screen. also if your characters faint then their max HP is lowered which incentivizes you to have more than the maximum team amount, and also you can permanently unlock a class for all…