PAX West is only a week away and the list of cool new tactical RPGs debuting at the convention is ever-growing. From high fantasy, to steampunk, to sci-fi and even horror, tactics games are clearly in the midst of a bit of a renaissance, and PAX West will be hosting a healthy assortment of these turn-based strategy games.
Call it the Fire Emblem Effect if you will, players are finally getting invested in this genre that was once so niche that more than a decade passed between Advance Wars (2001) on the gameboy and the reboot of the X-COM series Enemy Unknown (2012) without a single tactics games really becoming a hit in the mainstream.
The genre has gone into hibernation several times since the first Fire Emblem released in 1990, but we're now in a serious boom with games like Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Mario + Rabbids, The Banner Saga, Chroma Squad, and Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden all releasing on the Switch and helping to bring the casual audience into the genre.
Here are just a few of the TRPGs coming to PAX West this year, and some titles to keep an eye out for in the future.
Phantom Brigade Blends Turn-Based With Real-Time
Mech-battle game Phantom Brigade is studio Brace Yourself Games' new tactical RPG that has a cool real-time twist on the turn-based genre. The game, which first premiered a gameplay trailer during the PC Gaming Show at E3 this year after being announced in 2017, doesn't require you to move each of your units one by one on your turn to attack. Rather, you'll select the actions you want all of your units to take, the enemy will do the same, and then the battle will play out in real time.
During the planning phase, players can scrub back and forth on a timeline to study how all of the enemy units will move and attack when the round starts. While in planning, players will assign each of their mech units to move, attack, or use abilities and can plot out when and how each action is taken to avoid collisions, defend from attacks, and maintain an advantage in battle. The mechanic adds a new consideration for timing that no other tactics games has used before. Plus, its a big robot warzone, what could be better?
Iron Danger Has Belching Robots And Time Manipulation
Another outlier in the genre, Iron Danger by Action Squad Studios also offers real time battles on a timelines. Unlike Phantom Brigade though, turns are played out simultaneously and the player has the power to rewind mid battle to adjust positioning and attacks, rather than rely on the planning phase to carefully tune one's turn.
This is a much more action-centric take on the tactics genre, but battle strategy still certainly plays an important role in being successful at the game. Iron Danger is a game that blends sword and sorcery fantasy with medieval folklore and even a touch of steam-punk (did we mention the belching robots?) while also blending genres between tactical and action RPGs.
Solasta brings the D&D Experience To The Core Tactics Fans
Many crpgs have strived to capture the magic of table-top gaming, some have done it pretty successfully like the Shadowrun and Divinity: Original Sin series. Solasta: Crown of the Magister is different from those games, in that it's bringing the traditions of Dungeons and Dragons to the core mechanics of Tactical RPGs, and it turns out, these are two great flavors that taste great together.
In typical table-top fashion, players will roll character sheets for a team of four diverse adventures and set off to explore dungeons and defeat monsters for valuable treasure. Studio Tactical Adventures is promising a deep role playing experience in and out of combat with Solasta, and a tactical system that treats the battlefield as a three-dimensional space where characters can climb, fly, and teleport for position. It looks like a blast.
Looking Beyond PAX West
There's a lot more happening for the genre in the near future, too. The creator of the X-COM series will soon be releasing the spiritual successor to the legacy title. Called Phoenix Point, the game looks to be a classic Sci-Fi tactics experience with gorgeous visuals and highly detailed enemies and environments. There's a ton of lore to comb through on the official website already, and if you sign up for their newsletter, they'll email you a series of dossiers to sink your teeth into before the game releases later this year.
The steam page for upcoming tactical RPGs lists over 20 games, and some of the titles on this list aren't even included. We are entering a golden age of tactics games that fans should be truly excited for and a lot of that is thanks to the Switch and all of the excellent ports available on it (as well as originals like Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and Fire Emblem: Three Houses). Wastelanders 3 is on the horizons, as is Encased, an homage to the original Fallout games.
If you're new to the tactics genre, as many Fire Emblem players are, check out Mutant Year Zero and Chroma Squad on the Switch, and look forward to more news about these upcoming games at PAX West next week.