Don't make 'em like they used to.

For those of you who don't know, I work in the video games industry. I'm also an avid fan of video games.

That said, I've recently added Popolocrois to my video game collection. (Increasing my video games collection for the PSP by 25%.) I'm a good 3 hours into that game, and for some reason, I wandered over, picked up my beloved GBA SP, and started in on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. AGAIN.

Which got me thinking about the original Final Fantasy Tactics. Gads that game was great. I still own it and am now contemplating playing it again. (I also own a real, legit, legal copy of Virtual Gamestation, allowing me to play FFT on my Mac. JOY!)

So all this made me think "Why don't they make more games like this?" And then I realized, they try. Then I realized, hey, I'm part of "they". Granted, I have absolutely no say in what games get made nor what features go into those games, but I have the ear of a few Producers who might listen.

But I digress (just a bit). There have been games that have tried to emulate Battle Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, and the whole tactics genre:
Tactics Ogre, Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis, Fire Emblem, Disgaea, Stella Deus, La Pucelle, Advance Wars, Suikoden Tactics, Lord of the Rings Tactics...

And there are more.

A few of them are good, but mostly, they suck. Why is that? Why can't we get a good story with good graphics and nice tactical gameplay?

If you have tips on a good tactics game, let me know.