Tactics Ogre: Reborn - remaster based on 2010 release

[Grunker]

By recruiting do you guys mean in towns/castles or during combat with the recruit skill?

I mean the story characters that join your order if certain events/triggers happen. Like the annoying archer girl that joins you if you don't kill her for long enough. Or Raveness who Died By Story in my game.

Bunch of newfags ITT.

Just sayin'.

For this insult by someone joining a month before me, I shall name my next pitiful recruit after you. Perhaps a faerie

 

[Sentinel]

By recruiting do you guys mean in towns/castles or during combat with the recruit skill?

Generally people mean recruiting unique characters in maps. They are recruited by following certain steps not related to the recruit abilities (for example, not killing them).

 

[somerandomdude]

I haven't been impressed with Wizards so far, but I just got Paradigm Shift and that certainly seems like it has potential. My Enchantress has been on the team for giggles than anything, but with the AoE-stuff unlocking she's a bit more useful.

I love gishes but I also haven't been impressed with Rune-Fencer/Valkyrie. Seems like a poor man's Ninja for the most part.

EDIT: I'm expecting my Enchantress to become quite a bit better once I unlock the +3 range staff though. Because she can't use Baldur Mace, she skips the +2 weapon meaning you get a huge increase when the +3 staff becomes available.

Mages are really toned down/nerfed in this version. You'd have to have perspective about how good they used to be vs how they are in this version. The reason why mages are shit, is because finishers use MP in this game, which sort of invalidates mages as an offensive tool. In the PS1 version, mages got an area 2 AOE with the basic spell (once their INT level increased), and then learned a summon spell which could multi-hit one target for big damage (usually a oneshot), so they were pretty powerful. In this version they're not even 1/4 as good. Not only that, but mages are super squishy, and the enemy AI tends to go out of their way to isolate them. Rune Fencers are 90% as good as mages with spells, and can also use a heal, and don't get easily picked off by enemy archers, and have MP regen for finishers. Rune fencers also learn a 0MP cost activation skill in the late 20s, early 30s, so that level 3 missile spell or heal ends up being free. I gave my rune fencers spears. At 30 skill they learn a ranged AOE finisher that hits in a + that does big damage for 60mp cost. The sorta offense I wish I had on a mage, but they never actually get. Even if mages get better options in post game in this version, I say too little too late.

 

[Tigranes]

OK fine I am trying this

When do the 'real' battles happen? Trying Reborn on normal, clearly the battles until Duke saved were tutorials, but then a couple battles after that could also be won with a lobotomy. Just want to know whether to play on Normal or Hard first time.

 

[spekkio]

I haven't been impressed with Wizards so far, but I just got Paradigm Shift and that certainly seems like it has potential. My Enchantress has been on the team for giggles than anything, but with the AoE-stuff unlocking she's a bit more useful.

I love gishes but I also haven't been impressed with Rune-Fencer/Valkyrie. Seems like a poor man's Ninja for the most part.

EDIT: I'm expecting my Enchantress to become quite a bit better once I unlock the +3 range staff though. Because she can't use Baldur Mace, she skips the +2 weapon meaning you get a huge increase when the +3 staff becomes available.

Looks like somebody got the japtactical bug. Welcome to the sect.

For this insult by someone joining a month before me.

I meant newfags to the game OFC. But I was certain You joined waaay before me, it looks like I'm more of and oldfag than I thought.

In the PS1 version, mages got an area 2 AOE with the basic spell (once their INT level increased), and then learned a summon spell which could multi-hit one target for big damage (usually a oneshot), so they were pretty powerful. In this version they're not even 1/4 as good.

:lookhowtheymassacredmyboy:

Mages / Liches were indeed fucking killers in vanilla version (Snes / PS1).

 

[Jinn]

OK fine I am trying this

When do the 'real' battles happen? Trying Reborn on normal, clearly the battles until Duke saved were tutorials, but then a couple battles after that could also be won with a lobotomy. Just want to know whether to play on Normal or Hard first time.

Unless I'm missing something, there aren't any different difficulty modes for the game. There will most definitely be some difficulty mods released in the near future though.

As for general challenge, the next couple battles should be ramping up a bit. Not every battle is equally challenging in the game, just like in the original. There's some seriously ball-busting ones, some middling challenging ones, and some downright easy ones. I personally like this, especially in a game where the majority of the gameplay takes place on the battlefield. Gives a nice break to the player sometimes and helps give a feeling of variety to the pacing.

 

[Grunker]

I haven't been impressed with Wizards so far, but I just got Paradigm Shift and that certainly seems like it has potential. My Enchantress has been on the team for giggles than anything, but with the AoE-stuff unlocking she's a bit more useful.

I love gishes but I also haven't been impressed with Rune-Fencer/Valkyrie. Seems like a poor man's Ninja for the most part.

EDIT: I'm expecting my Enchantress to become quite a bit better once I unlock the +3 range staff though. Because she can't use Baldur Mace, she skips the +2 weapon meaning you get a huge increase when the +3 staff becomes available.

Looks like somebody got the japtactical bug. Welcome to the sect.

For this insult by someone joining a month before me.

I meant newfags to the game OFC. But I was certain You joined waaay before me, it looks like I'm more of and oldfag than I thought.

Here I am making a light-hearted jest and you rate me butthurt

(Also you joined right before me - Sep '09 as opposed to Oct '09 )

 

[Grunker]

Also I guess it's not exactly right that this is my first japtac - that would be Troubleshooter, which I really liked (the gameplay that is - story and aesthetics are absolute ass compared to this game), though I burned out on it before finishing it. Might still do that some day.

 

[somerandomdude]

:lookhowtheymassacredmyboy:

Mages / Liches were indeed fucking killers in vanilla version (Snes / PS1).

Yes, the mighty have fallen in this game. I do agree that archers were too strong in the PSP version, and they needed to be nerfed, but perhaps the nerfs were a bit too much. Now archers are total shit as well, sort of in the same situation as mages. Unless you're shooting a cleric or mage with a bow, the damage is pretty well shit, like even less than a missile spell from a rune fencer in most situations. So, I didn't use any archers, or wizards in this version. It's a totally difference game, and I get that, so I adapted my play to fit the new mechanics. IMO, you're better off only using units who can hold their own with little to no support. Take the UGTOW approach (Units going their own way), spread out, and take advantage of the new mechanics for card buff spawns which litter the maps randomly. Certain units will grab more attack cards than others, and then you could press harder with whatever units the RNG gods bless with plentiful buff cards.

 

[Tigranes]

OK fine I am trying this

When do the 'real' battles happen? Trying Reborn on normal, clearly the battles until Duke saved were tutorials, but then a couple battles after that could also be won with a lobotomy. Just want to know whether to play on Normal or Hard first time.

Unless I'm missing something, there aren't any different difficulty modes for the game. There will most definitely be some difficulty mods released in the near future though.

As for general challenge, the next couple battles should be ramping up a bit. Not every battle is equally challenging in the game, just like in the original. There's some seriously ball-busting ones, some middling challenging ones, and some downright easy ones. I personally like this, especially in a game where the majority of the gameplay takes place on the battlefield. Gives a nice break to the player sometimes and helps give a feeling of variety to the pacing.

Thanks, I mixed that up with another game in my senility, my bad. Sounds fine and I'll see how the ride goes then. Likely noticing it more after "every battle is a zero-error optimisation problem" in Vestaria Saga 1

 

[Grunker]

OK fine I am trying this

When do the 'real' battles happen? Trying Reborn on normal, clearly the battles until Duke saved were tutorials, but then a couple battles after that could also be won with a lobotomy. Just want to know whether to play on Normal or Hard first time.

Unless I'm missing something, there aren't any different difficulty modes for the game. There will most definitely be some difficulty mods released in the near future though.

As for general challenge, the next couple battles should be ramping up a bit. Not every battle is equally challenging in the game, just like in the original. There's some seriously ball-busting ones, some middling challenging ones, and some downright easy ones. I personally like this, especially in a game where the majority of the gameplay takes place on the battlefield. Gives a nice break to the player sometimes and helps give a feeling of variety to the pacing.

Thanks, I mixed that up with another game in my senility, my bad. Sounds fine and I'll see how the ride goes then. Likely noticing it more after "every battle is a zero-error optimisation problem" in Vestaria Saga 1

Game scales up difficulty veeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrryyyyyyy slowly in my experience so far. There's a Necromancer fight early on that's very tough (though the internet tells me that its difficulty is new in this version), but besides that, I've gone from Very Easy to Easy to now, in Chapter 3, being something that feels like Normal difficulty for me (meaning I can't be lazy anymore, I actually have to pay attention to stuff).

 

[Axioms]

Can we ever get a tactical game with good mages and ideally without a story that's been done to death by japtac games? Like perhaps no story at all? Just let me fight cool merc battles damn. Is that so hard?

Also of note, the main strong result I found in my quest for cool non-pure damage combat was a TroubleShooter game. Abandoned Children specifically. Just get me that gameplay in a fantasy non-narrative game and I will be in heaven.

 

[notpl]

I haven't been impressed with Wizards so far, but I just got Paradigm Shift and that certainly seems like it has potential. My Enchantress has been on the team for giggles than anything, but with the AoE-stuff unlocking she's a bit more useful.

I love gishes but I also haven't been impressed with Rune-Fencer/Valkyrie. Seems like a poor man's Ninja for the most part.

EDIT: I'm expecting my Enchantress to become quite a bit better once I unlock the +3 range staff though. Because she can't use Baldur Mace, she skips the +2 weapon meaning you get a huge increase when the +3 staff becomes available.

Mages are really toned down/nerfed in this version. You'd have to have perspective about how good they used to be vs how they are in this version. The reason why mages are shit, is because finishers use MP in this game, which sort of invalidates mages as an offensive tool. In the PS1 version, mages got an area 2 AOE with the basic spell (once their INT level increased), and then learned a summon spell which could multi-hit one target for big damage (usually a oneshot), so they were pretty powerful. In this version they're not even 1/4 as good. Not only that, but mages are super squishy, and the enemy AI tends to go out of their way to isolate them. Rune Fencers are 90% as good as mages with spells, and can also use a heal, and don't get easily picked off by enemy archers, and have MP regen for finishers. Rune fencers also learn a 0MP cost activation skill in the late 20s, early 30s, so that level 3 missile spell or heal ends up being free. I gave my rune fencers spears. At 30 skill they learn a ranged AOE finisher that hits in a + that does big damage for 60mp cost. The sorta offense I wish I had on a mage, but they never actually get. Even if mages get better options in post game in this version, I say too little too late.

Agreed that mages feel useless next to Rune Fencers. Magic IN GENERAL isn't useless, though. If anything, it was redundant before, when Archers made every class pointless. Now if you want to take down enemies at a distance you need an even mix of magic and archery depending on the enemy's armor type, and Rune Fencers/Valkyries actually become extremely useful for being able to deal either type of damage depending on the enemy you fight.

The problem is that by whatever change happened under the hood, wizards just aren't that great at magic compared to the hybrids. My generic valkyrie outdamages the generic wizard with the same spell, it's absurd.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Also I guess it's not exactly right that this is my first japtac - that would be Troubleshooter, which I really liked (the gameplay that is - story and aesthetics are absolute ass compared to this game), though I burned out on it before finishing it. Might still do that some day.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Can we ever get a tactical game with good mages and ideally without a story that's been done to death by japtac games? Like perhaps no story at all? Just let me fight cool merc battles damn. Is that so hard?

Like FFT?

 

[mediocrepoet]

What Karhu? In FFT, you can build a mage that can one shot entire maps. Not sure how much better a mage could be...

 

[Retardo]

What Karhu? In FFT, you can build a mage that can one shot entire maps. Not sure how much better a mage could be...

But do we have TRPGS, where plot is centered on mercenaries doing mercenary things?
Not fighting for grand ideas or pretty princesses, just "served for lord Jackass while he cotinued paying, then switched to Peace Duke, then went overseas and took part in some grand war, war sure is hell duh, and then retired". In short, like Battle Brothers, but somehow less sandbox-y and more plot-oriented.

 

[mediocrepoet]

What Karhu? In FFT, you can build a mage that can one shot entire maps. Not sure how much better a mage could be...

But do we have TRPGS, where plot is centered on mercenaries doing mercenary things?
Not fighting for grand ideas or pretty princesses, just "served for lord Jackass while he cotinued paying, then switched to Peace Duke, then went overseas and took part in some grand war, war sure is hell duh, and then retired". In short, like Battle Brothers, but somehow less sandbox-y and more plot-oriented.

I haven't played them, but there's stuff like this:



Now is it about Mercenaries? I don't know, but it's literally called Mercenaries, so... I hope so.

I think this would also qualify, but like I say, I haven't actually played it so YMMV.

 

[Axioms]

Can we ever get a tactical game with good mages and ideally without a story that's been done to death by japtac games? Like perhaps no story at all? Just let me fight cool merc battles damn. Is that so hard?

Like FFT?

Maybe I only played the GBA one? That definitely had a stupid save the world plot. The classes were good, but not quite Troubleshooter level I don't think as far as non-damage stuff.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Maybe I only played the GBA one?

PSX FF Tactics is on a whole different level. Excellent game.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Can we ever get a tactical game with good mages and ideally without a story that's been done to death by japtac games? Like perhaps no story at all? Just let me fight cool merc battles damn. Is that so hard?

Like FFT?

Maybe I only played the GBA one? That definitely had a stupid save the world plot. The classes were good, but not quite Troubleshooter level I don't think as far as non-damage stuff.

I was talking about the original Final Fantasy Tactics, not Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. (I haven't played War of the Lions, but that's just a re-translation and re-release of Final Fantasy Tactics.)

Plot-wise:

Spoiler

It starts out as a political civil war that seemed interesting to me 25 years ago, then turns into the revelation that the setting's not-Christianity is all bullshit, Angels and Demons are all basically equivalent and ends with you killing the incarnation of not-Jesus/God in true JRPG style. So... Depends what you're in for, I guess. It's not the plot of all tactics style games, though.

I don't really play tactics games primarily for the plot, so depends what you actually want anyway.

 

[Sarissofoi]

I wasn't sold on bongistani english dubbing but it really add to atmosphere.

 

[Rafidur]

Bunch of newfags ITT.

And Here's Why That Is A Good Thing

 

[1eyedking]

What the royal, flying *fuck* is this goddamn remake?

I don't even know where to begin...

Let's see... I'll make it a bullet point format. Brain-addled, ADHD zoomers like bullet points. Yeah, that'll work:

• Party Level Cap™: Yeah, let's start with the big one. Let me set this clear: this site was born out of spite for games like Oblivion that introduced ass-cancer mechanics such as level-scaling, and guess what, motherfuckers? This type of shit is in the same vein of game design and should be nuked from the orbit of gaming. Forever. With extreme prejudice and absolutely zero tolerance.
• "B-B-But muh balance and challenge..." I can already see the towering pile of fanboys who swallow whatever shit comes out already seething and dilating. Fuck off with your artificial difficulty barriers. Fuck off to your Dark Souls ball pit or whatever other shitty games with asinine surrogate replacements for real challenge it is you play. The PSP game was already challenging and required thinking and planning to overcome your obstacles. Yes, you could just brute-force grind your party to level 50 and recruit nothing but Hawkmen from random battles in Chapter I, arm them with crossbows, and set them loose to unleash such hell from the sky the motto 'Death From Above' would fall short... But then again, this is not what most people did (it was still a very cool thing to do, but you no longer can because the game has been retardedly streamlined). What most people did was enter a battle, get their ass handed to them, proceed to dissect—with their 9000-million IQ—how to put up a better party and skill combination, and redo the battle this time utterly destroying and annihilating their opposition. It's the only way a tactical RPG should be played. No, there are no other ways these games should be played
• Let's take for example one of the most iconic battles, fucking Qadriga Fortress:

• I see that layout, and already I am trembling in despair... This battle is everything that is right in Tactics Ogre. It's also annoying as fuck, but whatever. You'd play this back in the PSP remake (I don't give a fuck about the SNES version), and you'd instantly know this game took no survivors. The way you typically handled this back then was trying the battle out as soon as you freed Leonar and the priest, getting your ass rekt, and then returning after meeting with the Lodis badass troupe (or some shit), this time with a couple more levels and skills under your belt. You didn't need to be 10 levels above, just one or two, enough to equip 'Sidestep I' on your Clerics, Wizards and Archers, buy a good bunch Exorcism scrolls, and then proceed to run up this infernal gauntlet, unrelentingly and systematically eliminating and exorcising your opposition until you took down the Bad Man himself, Nybeth.
• This battle was the perfect example of good encounter design. There were three main challenges to overcome: undead you needed to Exorcise, who would otherwise resurrect or block your path towards Nybeth (who had 'Sidestep II' to avoid archer cheese), a clear height and space disadvantage, and archers raining down hell on your troops. Sending Canopus alone was suicide because he'd get focused by all the archers and mages and get destroyed. But once you realized you had to actually use your brain and equip your party with the proper skill and spell set, you were a-ok.
• How do you handle this in the remake? You train until you reach your Party Level Cap™. You wait until the Physical Damage and Critical Buff Cards™ drop. You grab them with Canopus™. You one-shot the Target™. The End. This is how you handle 99% of all encounters by the way. There's no skill assignment. There's no use of Exorcism scrolls. There's no need to re-arrange party composition. You just have to grind the Party Level Cap™ and brute-force your way to the target hoping the buff cards pile up nicely along the path. In this particular encounter there's an even higher annoyance factor due to Catiua's retarded AI not spending her MP on Exorcism and instead using it on Heal. You must also pray your priests' RNG proc Medidate fast enough to have enough MP since you can't have them use Magic Leafs anymore because you can no longer buy them in shops, and you can't get them from random encounters. They did this because TP is now 'streamlined' into MP, and it would have been 'unbalanced' to have 'abusers' use Magic Seeds to have 250 MP from the start to use your Finishers on Turn 2. TP avoided this retardation. Again, patching up shit design they made as they go. You'll see this is a trend in this remake, this patching-shit-up-as-they-go thing.
  
  
• There Are Buff Cards™ In My Tactics, How Long Till They Lie In My Anus?: I mentioned them in the example above, but this, of course, deserves an entry of its own. I can already imagine one of the absolutely retarded designers going "'Tactics'? As in Tactics Ogre? We don't like that. We like retarded RNG. Why? Because that's roguelike, and roguelikes are like mega cool. Hell yeah! I know what we should do. We should add an (insanely) retarded amount of buff cards and have them drop randomly on the map that players *need* to grab because otherwise they won't do damage or regenerate MP cause fuck it, we placed a goddamn Party Level Cap™ and now we must start to patchwork everything around it. 'Do you grab the game-changing card or not?!' Fuck yeah! That definitely sounds like tactical decision dilemma."
• This also had the collateral effect of making the amazing battlefields this game has look absolutely retarded once they become flooded with the absurd amount of cards each encounter shits out.
• Bosses Have Temporary Card Buffs: by the time you start facing bosses you've probably stockpiled and crafted some Magic Seeds that allow you to instantly have 250 MP to run your Finishers on Turn 2, and since this a challenging, Dark Souls-like, zoomer-friendly game, we can't have that. Do you like Bethesda games' unkillable characters? Well this is the same shit, but at least it's temporary. What it really is though is yet another chapter in the patching-things-up-as-they-go saga to make ammends to their retarded design decision-making, this time the TP into MP thing that who the fuck knows why it was made; probably so the zoomer brain doesn't need to keep track of two counters, or whatever-the-fuck.
• The Great Skill Gutting: since from above we can evidently surmise devs thought zoomers apparently lack a brain (which was actually good reading from them), and instead of making the UI intuitive, they decided to completely gut TP skills that were manually activated and turned them into 'Auto-Skills' that are basically RNG cooldown™ procs, because fuck it MOBAs and Dark Souls games have cooldowns and zoomers play those games. In the previous iteration of this gem now turned into a piece of trash, *you*, the player, would decide precisely *how* and *when* to spend your TP per character to activate their special abilities and skills. They also removed Strengthen, Parry, Knockback, Counter-Attack, Deflect, Sidestep, Fortify, and a myriad other situational skills that presented the problem of occupying a skill slot but also enabling certain tactics or workarounds for class weaknesses. Some of them got merged into intrinsic item properties (Why? To give them more 'uniqueness'? Why remove player choice in the first place?), others merged into classes, and because they did this, it brings us to the next patchwork of their mess...
• The Great Spell Gutting: "Gee, now, since we've removed magic skills and merged them into classes or whatever, that'd make them very overpowered since they'd be able to cast all spells from all the elements. How do we fix this? Oh, I know! Let's further remove player choice! Yeah, we'll say it's now 'challenging' and 'restrictive', strategic even, because I mean who the fuck will remember that to cast a certain element type you'd have to assign the skills we've now removed?". Fuck this remake in the ass, multiple times, violently.
• No Class-Shared Skills: "You said you liked tailor-making your own builds and parties? Well, fuck you, because we don't want to balance another nightmare, this is serious Dark Souls RNG roguelike game with limits and challenge now."
• No Random Encounters: instead now we have 'Training'—which is always the same except for the location—to reach the mandatory Party Level Cap™, which you *have* to reach otherwise it'll be all up to the Buff Cards™ (spoiler: even if you reach the Level Cap, it will still be all up to the fucking cards). The original SNES had training in it, I know, but fuck the SNES version. And fuck this remake. It's retarded to fight your own troops. There was no reason to remove random encounters. None. They added spice and variety. They allowed you to get extra gold. They allowed you get extra experience. They allowed you to get new troops. They allowed you to correct the retarded Chaos Frame system the game had with Death Marches. They also added an additional window of opportunity to recruit special races and steal/get rare items. And you know what's worse? The training music track. It's awful. The SNES version had the awesome Harvest Dance theme. It was fucking awesome, and perhaps the only thing better over the PSP remake. Just listen to this beautiful track, 16-bits in all its glory. Zoomers will never experience it. Fuck zoomers. And fuck this remake, again. Instead all we have now is a generic, bland, orchestrated™ training track that sounds way too cheery for all the carnage that is supposedly going on in the screen. And you'll be listening to it a *lot*, because guess what, motherfucker, training is mandatory unless you like whacking at targets 500 times until they die and leaving the outcome of all battles to RNG card placement.
• Voice-Acting: yet another instance of sedated, sitcom British voice-acting. This seems to be the very plague of modern games nowadays, I'm not even surprised. There's not a single game out there that out of sheer blandness doesn't fall back into recruiting the most sedated, most bland and most emotionally-devoid voice actors and having them just read lines while sounding as British as possible. You like that shit? Well you're in luck because the English VO of this absolute trainwreck is just like that.
• B-But what about the Jap VO...? It's actually OK, perhaps the only decent thing out of this garbage, but still suffers from some voices not aligning with the portrait or personality, and it feels weird listening to lines you used to read in your head, but otherwise OK... In the end I guess they added them because they couldn't justify the full price tag otherwise.
• Let's Us Cling The OST Into An Orchestral Version: because having an orchestra means it'll always be higher quality and won't change the music's character whatsoever. Yeah... Also let them put the most annoying theme as the training BGM, which'll be the track you'll be listening the most to, over and over again, constantly reminding you of how much money you paid for a game that is a direct downgrade from the original.
• Forced Scaling Filter: why... why do developers keep doing this with remakes that had good pixel art... I won't even expand upon this, it's self-explanatory, and completely stupid for it not be an optional feature.
• The Mouse+Keyboard Controls: a tactics game where you have to click three times and go throught two separate sub-menus to just make a character move doesn't have any right to exist. None.
• They didn't restore the original SNES portraits. They were awesome. They kept the PSP ones, which though higher in resolution, lack the grimness and contrast the originals had. Whatever, it's nit-picking at this point given all the problems above, but it's still a point I had to make.
• They didn't change the retarded PSP translation. The proto/faux-Shakesperean writing is fucking unreadable. I don't care it has literal Shakespeare quotes in it (ie., Nybeth saying 'When the war is won and lost'). I don't give a fuck. I don't want to read text and dialogue that is so out of character it reads like it was run through an English-to-Yoda translator and then forced through a thesaurus. No, they don't need to be iliterate scotsmen peasants. No, it doesn't need to be shit like it was in the SNES/PSX version. Just make them talk like human beings and places read like real places. Why write Weald when you can write Marsh, or Forest? Why write Moors when you can write Hills or Mountains? Why write Abuna when you can write Priest? Retarded.

All in all we're left with a game that is a shell of its former self.

There's none of the stuff that made Tactics Ogre fun.

And seriously, fuck anyone defending these retarded, ass-backwards-into-Elder-Scrolls-Oblivion-tier design choices that remove player choice and sells itself as 'hardcore' and 'challenging' design when it's just artificial difficulty.

 

[Hobo Elf]

What Karhu? In FFT, you can build a mage that can one shot entire maps. Not sure how much better a mage could be...

But do we have TRPGS, where plot is centered on mercenaries doing mercenary things?
Not fighting for grand ideas or pretty princesses, just "served for lord Jackass while he cotinued paying, then switched to Peace Duke, then went overseas and took part in some grand war, war sure is hell duh, and then retired". In short, like Battle Brothers, but somehow less sandbox-y and more plot-oriented.

Brigandine wouldn't be what he's looking for. You play as nation leaders. Still, it's a fun game and I can recommend it for the gameplay.