The Strategist's Guide to the Best Strategy Games

[The Strategist]

In this list, I will mention the most memorable strategy games which got me playing for extended hours, and which you can blame for most delays in my participating in the forums. Here are my favorite games, with links to their MetaCritic page, and a brief overview on what drew me into them. Of all the strategy games, I present my top recommendations for your convenience.

1- Rise of Nations (PC)
Metacritic Link
Not to be confused with the inferior Rise of Legends and Rise of Kingdoms, the game is meant for multiplayer play more than most others in the genre. You start as one of history's great civilizations from the stone age and proceed to either wage war immediately with sticks or stones or race to the Nano-technology age and use the more devastating weapons you get access to.

Years from now, strategy games with an emphasis on going through ages of human development, with all their religions, technologies and philosophies, none will be remembered better than Rise of Nations. A classic and one which is near and dear to my heart.

2- Supreme Commander ( + Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance) (PC)
Metacritic Link
Metacritic Link 2
The two games in the series were the cornerstone which sparked the concept of Battleworld in my head. A sci-fi strategy where your battles are fought on different planets. Humanity has split into three factions, each with their own memorable characters: The United Earth Federation, or UEF, are the ones ruling the Earth and several of the nearby human colonies. They are the most traditional faction; the Cybran Nation, those with robotic implants who deem themselves to be superior to humans who aren't augmented; and the Aeon Illuminate, who have met an alien race and adapted their philosophies and religion.

While most strategy games put you in a constrained "map" with a mission to attend to, Supreme Commander allows you to expand your domain across the reaches of the planet you fight in, and focus on long-term strategy, not tactics, to ultimately destroy your opponents.

3- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii)
Metacritic Link
This game is perhaps the only game I still play on the Wii. Combining a cast of memorable characters, detailed world with its subtle conflicts on each side of the main storyline, and its punishing death system to make a game that can be replayed with emphasis to different approaches to character development and in-game tactics.

4- Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
Metacritic Link
This game follows the story of a band of new recruits in their small nation's army after the two nations on both sides of the border decide to wage war on one another. The missions are divided into chapters, with multiple scenes and dialogues which progress the story anime-style. It also has RPG elements to develop your skills and weapons.

The ingenious mix of politics, war, racism and misguided loyalties in a tightly woven package makes this an instant classic.

5- Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (PS3)
Metacritic Link
This game is a parody of all turn-based strategy games as well as RPGs and JRPGs. With its ridiculously-defined characters, hilarious dialogue, terribly ridiculous plot, outlandish items (with ridiculous descriptions), level 9,999 cap, randomly-generated dungeons, over-the-top boss characters, time travel and a crazy cooking instructor who screams "BOOM!" at the end of each sentence and only speaks in food metaphors, this is a game that starts slow but picks up speed as you progress and develop your skills.

[Terethin]

Hmm, I'll list a Few strategy games I played for hours on end.

1: Zelda: Orcania of Time (N64)
If you don't know what Zelda is, and yet you play DnD I'm am impressed. I would not think it possible.

2. Fire Emblem (Gameboy Advanced)
The one with Hector, Lyn, and Elwood. Though I agree Radiant Dawn was fun, I much prefer the original.(English original anyways.)

3. Tales of Symphonia (Gamecube)
Though very predictable and easy, I found myself playing this game for hundreds of hours just collecting things. Great game and the original "Tales" game.

4. Final Fantasy 10 (PS2)
This game is my favorite in the FF series, I loved the game play and Auran Is in my top 3 favorite FF characters. Though I was little irritated with the ending, the blitz ball and monster hunting was incredibly fun and time consuming.

5. Legend of Dragoon (PS1)
This is the one of the first turn based strategy RPG I played (Zelda was close to the first as well.), and I list it here not only because it was one of the games that hooked me on it's genre, it is also a very good game. Though I have not played this game in much to long, and have plans to get it again, It is defiantly one of the best PS1 RPGs.

(I'm listing one more than you)
6.Suikoden 3 (PS2)
This game had me grinding monster for days, leveling all the characters and maxing all of their skills, With the sheer number of characters, skill combinations, and unique magic system, this game was one of the first to shock me. Finding all the characters itself proved to be a great, though sometimes irritating challenge. (I listed Suikoden 3 because i've not played the others, though I have wanted to for a while now.)

[Giant Brother]

Alright, a few things to note here...

First of all, Terethin, I believe you're misinformed on the aspect of what a "Strategy" game is. Final Fantasy X, Tales of Symphonia, Suikoden 3 and Legend of Dragoon are all RPG games, and while they do demand a certain degree of strategy, they are still not labeled under the Strategy label. The only one that would be close is Suikoden 3, but I'm not sure, as I've only played five, which had an alternate form of play that was more loyal to the RTS strategy genre. Legend of Zelda is also not a "strategy" game, it's an action adventure with puzzles as well. However, I will admit that the games you've listed outside of Suikoden 3 are games I have both played and enjoyed. However, Tales of Symphonia is NOT the original Tales game. On the contrary, it's not even close.

On Strategist's post, well, first of all I have to state that you gain much praise for listing Rise of Nations first, as it is an amazing game, and there's this small community in my hometown dedicated to it, going so far as to claim a signiture Nation (I am personally torn between the Iroquois, the Romans and the Aztec) and comparing conquests. However, from there it is just disappointment, either from not seeing the games I feel deserve a place in this slot or from not being familiar with many of the games you've listed. I will say, however, that Radiant Dawn is NOT a good game due to its sheer debasement of the Path of Radiance canon and its incredibly Mary Sueish new characters, Micaiah most of all. Its plot would've been nice, if it had been handled more reasonably, but frankly they just spoiled a perfectly good story that need not be built upon. I feel that a better idea would've been to introduce a new storyline for the Wii. If there is anything the English Fire Emblem on the GBA and its predecessor have told us, continuing a storyline, or building up events before a storyline never ends well. Either you get a mind-splitting wall banger like FE10, or you get a prequel with incredibly awesome characters that you know will wind up killed off no matter what you do in game, like FE7.

I am also apalled that nobody has mentioned ANY of the Command and Conquer games here. Shocked and appalled. Even Generals, GENERALS deserves some mention. (*grumble* Even IF it's not a real C&C game...)

[zandyne]

I don't have 5 strategy games to really list that haven't been already listed EXCEPT:

1. SMT (Shin Megami Tensei): Devil Survivor (DS)
A modern SRPG that mixes quite well with demons. The addition of several different endings and a rather addictive "unit creation" system make it accessible for new players as well as those who are looking for a slightly different SRPG for the DS. The difficulty is rather mixed, some may find it easy, hard or just right depending on their play-style and how much they utilize "skill cracking" opponents (it's a different way of acquiring skills for your human "leader units").

2. Phantom Brave (PS2)
Another of NIS's games that EVERYONE SEEMS TO IGNORE. It's gridless, has a unique weapon system and a rather fresh taste on co-op attacks between party members and how the alive/dead/REALLYREALLYDEAD system works. It also has the signature "sky's the limit" level cap of 9999 and other insane stats that T.Strat seems to love. It is also one of the few games where the "adorable little girl main character" is the strongest character of infinite slaughter. The story is very heartwarming if not idyllic at times.

3. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA!)
Probably one of the only FFs I kind of enjoyed because you could compose a squadron of death-bringing moogles. Throughout the story and its branching missions its incredibly fun to level up your characters, but the post game (aside from a few knot-tying side-quests, which are about 3-5 in total) is a grindfest. Without any spoilers the story can be taken as a fresh one from FF or a really badly executed one given how Marche's mind functions. Yes it is a book-world, however his methods and motivations are quite...merciless without spoiling too much.
*PS there is one mission you can NEVER complete if you use up a CERTAIN item, so completionists be WARNED.