Best Japanese Military Games

From Battlefield to Call of Duty, console and PC players have a lot of choices when it comes to military games in the West. After a while, despite settings like Vietnam, World War 2, or the future, they can all start to feel the same. While they may not reach the same level of popularity as Call of Duty, there are plenty of military-intense games from Japan.

For players who like driving tanks, running with armed soldiers, and dropping bombs, these games are worth looking into. These will be ranked based on quality and how intense the military focus is. They don’t necessarily have to be about the Japanese military either, so long as they were made in Japan about some sort of military unit.

Ball Bullet Gun

An Unknown Entry From Japan

• Developer: I’MAX
• Publisher: I’MAX
• Released: December 1, 1995
• Platform: SNES

Ball Bullet Gun is a secret fan favorite of strategy fans as it was never officially released outside of Japan. There’s a certain culture that likes to dress up and participate in mock battles with airsoft guns, which anime fans may have seen before, like in FLCL.

That’s exactly the premise of Ball Bullet Gun, as all characters are cute in design without a lot of violence going down. It may not be a realistic game about bloody war, but the bite-sized missions make it a fun strategy game on the SNES and more fun for those who have figured out how to make it a portable experience. Also, there is an English fan translation floating around out there online.

Earth Defense Force 6

EDF! EDF! EDF!

The Earth Defense Force series started as a bunch of budget titles in Japan under the Simple label in the early 2000s. Thanks to its popularity, Earth Defense Force became its own franchise, and fans have been screaming “EDF!” at the top of their lungs for decades now. The premise is as easy to pick up as a B-movie from the 1950s with giant alien bugs and robots invading from space.

To fight back against the alien scum, a global army was created, the Earth Defense Force. Earth Defense Force 6 is the latest numbered entry, allowing players to choose a class before each mission, like the Wing Diver, which can fly through the air and attack enemies from above. With a noble military spirit and tons of weapons to collect for Earth Defense Force 6’s classes, this is a wild game that players need to experience at least once.

Trouble In The Desert

Nearly every game in the Metal Slug series is worth recommending. The main games primarily feature a rogue group of agents fighting a vague war in a Middle Eastern setting with run-and-gun action through a comical and over-the-top lens. There was a 3D entry on the PS2 that’s not as well remembered, but it is a more hectic war game if that’s what players want.

Most recently, SNK lent its license to DotEmu to make a tactical roguelike spinoff called Metal Slug Tactics. Featuring familiar heroes and villains, players can choose their squad and then go through randomly generated maps. Gameplay is tactical with characters moving and operating on a grid-based map, and upgrades becoming temporarily available on runs, with some things unlocking after at HQ. If military strategy is the desire, then this is the entry to check out; otherwise, Metal Slug 3 is a fan favorite.

Iron Storm

A Hidden Strategy Series

• Developer: Sega
• Publisher: Working Designs (NA Version)
• Released: May 8, 1996 (NA Version)
• Platform: Sega Saturn

Daisenryaku is a long-running series of strategy games in Japan with more realistic depictions of places and people from history. Very few of them have made it to the West, but one notable game hit the Sega Saturn in 1996 called Iron Storm.

Players could fight for the American, German, or Japanese armies and try to conquer as much as possible. It’s as iconic a strategy series in Japan as Command & Conquer is in the West. For players who want a direct history lesson, albeit with a twist, Iron Storm is a great military game to check out, although finding and playing it is a different story.

Binary Domain

Robot Rebels

Binary Domain is set in the near future, wherein robots are commonplace. However, when they start to rebel in Japan, the International Robotics Technology Association (IRTA) sends in a Rust Crew comprised of Dan, the leader from America, who is aided by a global cast of soldiers. Rust Crews are designed to take out rebellious robots. Players will primarily control Dan in third-person shooting segments, implementing squad-based tactics and cover along the way.

The better the orders, the more Dan’s crew will appreciate him, and then level up their relationship. While it’s not a military vs military game, the squad-based gameplay invokes Western franchises like Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. Fans of that series may want to check this one out, along with fans of The Terminator series.

Valkyria Chronicles

Liberate Europa!

Valkyria Chronicles takes place in an alternate reality or fantasy world, but it may as well be about the German-European conflict of World War 2. One empire gets too greedy and wants to take over the whole continent, and a passive nation gets roped into the war. Players can gain new allies as the game progresses, each falling into a class like sniper or medic.

The core team members are integral to the story, but even the generic units have personality in battle, which can even give them bonuses. Also, players got a tank to use in combat, which was best used as a way to shield units as they moved in this unforgettable tactical RPG from the PS3 era.

Advance Wars

Let The Console Wars Begin

Advance Wars

Systems

Released

September 10, 2001

ESRB

E // Mild Violence

The Wars series is the ultimate example of a military game made by a Japanese company like Nintendo, and Advance Wars was the first one released in the West on the GBA. It’s more of an RTS, even though players move their units on grid-based maps. Players have hero generals who command their troops, but they don’t participate in battle. Instead, players can create certain squads or vehicles to roll out and destroy enemy units or bases.

It’s one of the most challenging strategy series Nintendo has in its catalog, and any fan curious can check out Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp on Switch, which collects and remakes the two GBA games. For clarity, Advance Wars was made by Intelligent Systems, while the remakes were made by WayForward, a Western company.