Best RPGs That Reinvented Tactical Combat

Tactical RPGs started with simple grid-based combat. It was an easy genre to understand for anyone who had played Chess, Checkers, or any other type of board game out there. Click on a unit, move them within their tile spaces, and then attack enemies if they are nearby.

One great early example is the first Fire Emblem game on the Famicom, which was the NES equivalent in Japan. The genre has come a long way since the NES. Tactical RPGs still use grid-based combat, but even that has evolved over time. Let’s rank the greatest innovations in tactical RPG combat based on how revolutionary the concepts are, regardless of if anyone else copied the idea afterwards.

Card-Based Stealth

Metal Gear reinvented the stealth genre on the NES. Its much later spinoff, Metal Gear Acid, combined grid-based tactics, card collecting, and stealth into one of the strangest games on the PSP. Players could collect cards and move Snake and his partner around the mission maps with them.

Cards could also keep them hidden from view, attack enemies, grant item-based boosts, and so on. While strange and hard to get used to, the stealth did work for a tactical game. No one has thought to combine these three solid genres again outside of the Metal Gear Acid sequel, which is a shame, but there have been other tactical stealth games since.

Front Mission

Mech RPG Origins

Front Mission on the SNES was one of the first great mech-based RPGs, on top of being a good tactical game. Western fans didn’t get to experience a Front Mission game until the third main entry on the PS1, and they wouldn’t see this original game specifically until it received a DS port in 2007. What sets this game apart is that players can customize the mech, or Wanzer, of each key party member, from different legs to weapons.

In battle, players will move and attack on a grid-based map, but it’s not just about destroying another mech to win. Mech parts will be randomly targeted, and it will affect combat if they’re destroyed. For example, a unit cannot attack if its arm is blown up. Sadly, this series hasn’t reached the heights of infamy as big as something like Final Fantasy Tactics, but it certainly has its fans.

Disgaea: Hour Of Darkness

Pass Party Members Around Like Candy

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness may look like another common grid-based tactical PS2 RPG, but it is so much more than that. Strategy here is more involved, as players have to worry about the terrain, which can have different effects, like boosting defenses or lowering attack power. Stranger still, characters can pick up allies or enemies and toss them across the map.

Attaccking characters can be assisted by any allies around them, and attacks are bombastic like anime cutscenes. Also, equipment can be leveled up in separate dimensions. There’s a lot to unpack with all the Disgaea games and Nippon Ichi Software, or NIS, leaned hard into their quirky tactics and haven’t stopped innovating since.

The Banner Saga

An Episodic Journey

The Banner Saga started in 2014, and over the course of three episodes, ended its epic journey in 2018. The Banner Saga took inspiration from Norse mythology for its setting, focusing on a group of people and mystical beings trying to outrun a malevolent force. It can be likened to Final Fantasy Tactics and its grid-based maps, with simple combat and a little bit of The Oregon Trail thrown in for good measure.

Each move in battle feels more significant than the last because of permadeath. The Banner Saga didn’t invent permadeath, but it certainly changed how players approach combat, as character deaths affect the story. It’s a tactical RPG that demands more patience than anything else.

Project X Zone

Tactical Fighters

Project X Zone is a massive crossover RPG that blends characters from Bandai Namco, Capcom, and Sega franchises. Most units come in pairs, like Chris and Jill from the Resident Evil games, and they all move across a grid-based map. When combat is engaged, each character can perform several moves, which will tick down a point system.

Players can build combos, similar to a fighting game, which makes each encounter fun and unique. It’s a shame the two games on 3DS still haven’t been ported elsewhere. Technically, Project X Zone was built on the template of Namco x Capcom, a PS2 game that never left Japan, but Project X Zone is a more refined experience.

Unicorn Overlord

Taking Tactics Into The Open-World

The great thing about Vanillaware is that they are seemingly never satisfied with making the same RPG over and over again. Unicorn Overlord is their take on a tactical RPG, melded a bit with an RTS. During battle, characters can be assigned to move on the map automatically.

Once they reach an enemy, combat will play out automatically as well, but players can prep their squads to perform in certain ways. The overworld is a notable innovation, as it offers an open-world experience outside of battle, albeit on a smaller scale. Players can look for materials, engage in side quests, or fight random enemies, which will then prompt a tactical battle.

Valkyria Chronicles

Where Are The Copycats?

Valkyria Chronicles might be the greatest RPG innovation on the PS3, tactical or otherwise. Players can put together their team of class-based characters who fall into typical military units like medics, tank destroyers, and snipers. Each unit has a meter, and they can run around the battlefield in any direction, as long as they have enough juice in the tank, so to speak.

Enemies can fire freely as characters move around, and time stops whenever players choose to aim their weapon at an enemy unit. The four main games all follow this gameplay style, and it makes players feel like they are truly in a war zone, which adds to the tension. It’s almost unfathomable that more tactical RPGs haven’t copied even a portion of this system.