Fantasy Strategy-RPGs and the Limits of the “RPG Elements”

While the title of Rowan Kaiser’s latest editorial makes it sound like an attempt to critique an entire sub-genre, a read of the editorial frames it as a critique of the Elemental series. Here’s a snip:

Part of the reason for this is that I find my progress in Fallen Enchantress as a strategy game ties too much into my progress in Fallen Enchantress as an RPG. You start the game with the leader of your kingdom/empire as an in-game hero unit, who has an inventory and goes up levels, just like an RPG hero. It also uses tactical combat, which is fairly simple compared to a pure tactics game like XCOM or Disgaea, but wouldn’t be out of place if compared to older games like Shining Force or the Gold Box series.

Fallen Enchantress also punishes you, potentially severely, for taking too many risks with your RPG units. If your leader is defeated in combat, he or she is teleported back to your capital and cannot move for five turns. This, on its own, could be a pretty severe punishment in the initial race to explore the world. What makes it worse is that it’s combined with an even more punishing system for non-leader heroes, at least one of which will be an essential part of the early game in Fallen Enchantress. Every time they get defeated, they have a random penalizing trait added. Some of those traits are cosmetic, like “Just a scratch,” which does nothing. Some are annoyances, like “Broken nose,” which knocks off a percentage of total hit points. But some cripple the character for good, like those that permanently damage the “Initiative” stat for a character type built around high Initiative.

This has the effect of making me play a strategy/RPG by attempting to consider both halves of the genre without those halves ever actually coming together to make my experience better. I can’t play Fallen Enchantress like an RPG, since RPGs rightfully don’t include these permanent penalties for risk-taking. Nor can I play it entirely like a strategy game early on, because I’m far too concerned about ensuring that individual characters survive. I can make myself balance these two distinct urges and enjoy Fallen Enchantress, but I always feel like it’s holding me at arm’s length.

RPGs don’t include permanent penalties?