The story seems generic at first, but it goes places later.
One feature I really liked about this game was that you can adjust the encounter rate, even down to 0%. No in-game consumables or equipment needed, just an option in the menu. If you want to gain a few levels, you can crank it up. If you just want to revisit an old location because you missed an item, you can turn it off.
It looks like there’s a lot of Ogre Battle in there as well.
There is definitely a spot early in Ages where it is very easy to get stuck and not know how to progress, right after the second dungeon. Every time I’ve played the game I’ve ended up spending a least an hour wandering the map trying to figure out/remember how to get the Rope and the Flippers.
There’s also the fact that the dungeon puzzles are some of the more difficult ones in the series. It’s actually expected to get temporally stumped from time to time.
I think those screenshots look like something closer to Ogre Battle or the recently released Unicorn Overlord rather than any RTS.