• Forum Moderator applications are now open! If you're interested in joining an active team of moderators for one of the biggest Pokémon forums on the internet, click here for info.

Grand Strategy games - Conquering the world with Ryukyu

Archaic

Archaic

黒い王様
Archaic - Webmaster Scorbunny Fan Sprigatito Fan
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
17,370
Reaction score
2,709
Pronouns
  1. He/Him
If there's one thing I've noticed on the Bulba Discord, it's that we seem to have a surprising number of people in the community who are fans of Grand Strategy games, particularly those from Paradox such as the Europa Universalis series, the Crusader Kings series, and Stellaris.

So what I'd like to know is, do we (still) have a similar group of fans of the franchise here as well? Historically, Bulba has actually had some surprising connections with some of these games over the years, with one former staff member (who'd probably prefer to remain anonymous here, sorry!) having actually had the chance to contribute directly to Europa Universalis in some of its map updates for a major expansion, as well as doing beta testing on EU IV and EU V. In my own case, I've been playing these titles since EUII and the original Crusader Kings, and would probably have a similar amount of total hours playing them as I do playing Pokémon games.
 
I started with Stellaris, and a few years later my friends wanted me to get into EU4. Played some EU5 also a few months after its release, which feels like a very different game. Definitely not used to it, especially the new market system.

Makes you wonder what a Grand Strategy Pokémon game would be like. Maybe you're one of various criminal enterprises and you have to engage in turf wars against competing syndicates at a regional level, Team Rocket vs Team Aqua vs Team Magma and so on. Maybe you have to research new methods of laundering money and stealing Pokémon. You have to build game corners and secret lairs and so on.

I can dream, anyway. The day The Pokémon Company licenses a game where the objective is to do crime is the day Emboar learns Fly.

Maybe Team Instinct vs Valor vs Instinct and you have to struggle over gyms, but that theme doesn't excite me as much.
 
We technically have had actual Pokémon Grand Strategy game in Pokémon Conquest, given the Nobunaga's Ambition series is explicitly considered Grand Strategy. It's just not the map painting Paradox style of Grand Strategy game.

I recall some people trying to do Pokémon mods for various Paradox games at some point, though they were relatively minor. Some Stellaris ones which put Pokémon characters in as selectable species, had Pokémon inspired namelists, and allowed gym badges to be used as part of your flag icons; a Crusader Kings (not sure if 2 or 3) one along the lines of the infamous Horse and Bear events; that sort of thing.
 
I haven't played too many Pokémon spinoff games, just a couple Pokémon Mystery Dungeon titles. Would you recommend Conquest to a Stellaris player?

There's definitely some good EU4 mods out there. I played Alki with some friends and that was very enjoyable, up until the save game corrupted several sessions later.
 
I'm a Grand Strategy fan, though not so much Paradox these days. Really like Nobunaga's Ambition (and the next one was recently announced, though without confirmation of an English release) and its sister series Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
 
Grand strategy is way outside my league.

Not that I haven't played lighter tactical games. If Pokemon Conquest isn't too much more overbearing than Advance Wars or something, then maybe I'm missing out.
 
Back
Top Bottom