Crawl Tactics

Hours fly by and I don't even notice. I highly recommend, if the gameplay (FF Tactics) appeals to you. Crawl Tactics engages me, despite not having a story. The complexity of the battle system keeps me coming back for seemingly endless replayability. The personalability the character customization and classes provide, coupled with the implied lore, get me invested into the role-playing nature of this RPG. At time of writing, I've only finished one run (16+hours) and am starting a new run with a completely different set of classes in use, and a different affinity (previous was Good/Holy, new run is Evil/Dark). I've also only done Dungeon Mode so far. I've played one Skirmish (local, hot-seat PvP, using Steam Remote Play). I haven't played the Quest Mode yet, but looking forward to it. I will speak to Dungeon Mode since it is mainly what I've played so far. You select a starting team, customize them as you wish (name, looks, gender, etc.) and begin. You must complete 10 "dungeons" to win. Each dungeon is of a particular biome, which significantly affects combat. The desert, for example, would feature specific creatures that can tolerate heat, while having blistering hot whether, which evaporates water and makes ice abilities weaker. A rain forest, as another example, would rain a lot, decreasing the accuracy of bow and gun abilities, while strengthening lightning abilities by making them spread to nearby tiles (water conducts). Within each dungeon is a series of interconnected rooms. Each room offers an event, such a Creeps (hostile monsters), a Neutral Party (another band of adventures who offer trade, but can be attacked to steal their loot), an event (a lone survivor is looking for a new party), among several other cases. The last room of a dungeon is a boss fight. In-between each dungeon, you stop at your town, which you use resource to build up, which in turn offers services to empower your team. Drop off items in storage, upgrade your characters or weapons, hire new mercenaries, etc. Your team each has their own race, class, level, equipment, etc. They can sometimes even have quirks. One hire, for example, required we pay them 50 gold for 5 battles before she became loyal to us. If we didn't have the gold to pay her, she would refuse to fight with us. Each character can be a different race too. There are many to choose from, each with different racial abilities. Ex: Dragon-men can breathe fire while frog-men heal and are unimpeded when in water. Characters also have perma-death, requiring an emergency revive (if you have the ability or item for it) or you having to find a new hire elsewhere. It is forgiving, though, since new hires do not start from level 1 again - they remain relevant to your level. I do love and appreciate the difficulty of the game. Playing on "Veteran" (normal mode), I've found the challenge to be a perfect level. I lose some units, I get close with death, fights always seem winnable and I can always recover from failure/setbacks. And even if that wasn't enough, the game's difficulty is heavily customizable. Almost every little system about the game has a setting you can adjust to make it as easy or as difficult as you want per system. Overall, great game. Highly recommend.