Turn-based combat has been around since the early days of RPG and strategy games. This style of gameplay allows players to focus on carefully assessing a situation and choosing what actions they'll take, allowing players to rely less on split-second reaction times as they would with physical challenges.
In this list, we will take a look at some of the best games with turn-based combat that you should try out if you're looking for some of the greatest hits in role-playing and strategy games.
Updated October 18, 2022 by Quinton O'Connor: While not a ton has changed in our article, we've taken a fresh gander at more recent turn-based games. Along the same lines, we've added a bit more clarity as to the turn-based combat systems themselves within each of our entries.
15 Phantom Doctrine
This white-knuckle spy thriller drops players into the height of the Cold War. Starting as an agent of either the CIA or the KGB, you'll unravel a worldwide conspiracy that threatens to upend the global order. The game adds a stealth element to grid-based tactical gameplay as your agents use disguises, lockpicks, and silencers to get in and out of secure areas. When things go sour, you'll need to use your wits and your weapons to hold off until your team can be extracted... or cut your losses and strand your agents, risking their capture or worse.
Inspired by real events and (hopefully) fictional top-secret projects, Phantom Doctrine allows players to capture enemy agents on certain turns, interrogating them for intel before making them disappear. Alternately, you can send them home with a trigger phrase and strike your enemies from within. If you want high-stakes espionage with plenty of emergent narrative and tough calls, Phantom Doctrine is <redacted>.
14 Dragon Quest 11: Echoes Of An Elusive Age - Definitive Edition
Dragon Quest 11 is part of a fabled series that was released around the same time as the more Western-popular Final Fantasy series. As with other entries, you don't need to play any of the previous games to jump in. Here, you play as the Luminary, fated to save the world along with a strong and irreverent cast of fellow travelers. The battle system in Dragon Quest 11 is finely tuned, allowing easy entry for newcomers and seasoned RPG players alike.
The eleventh main entry is a completely standalone experience that features new characters, a beautifully detailed world, and an immersive story that will keep you on your toes the entire journey. But perhaps most beloved of all is its fine-tuning of a decades-long series, bringing more bells and whistles to every battle without sacrificing its role as an icon among turn-based combat games.
13 XCOM 2
If you ever wanted a strategy RPG in which you control an organization dedicated to protecting the earth from an alien invasion, yet your trained soldiers miss the aliens' heads at point-blank range, then XCOM 2 is the game for you.
All jokes aside, this is a fantastic sci-fi tactical game where you must think strategically both in and outside of combat. Each character gets their own individual turns, during which they can move, use skills, or attack. XCOM 2 builds on the original and gets you thinking more strategically since you have to make sure the right moves are executed with each of your soldiers during combat and without getting them picked off one by one.
12 Darkest Dungeon
While it's one of the best turn-based combat games out there, Darkest Dungeon is not for the faint of heart. This is a game that will grind up your heroes and spit them back out with physical and emotional scars. The player hires deeply-flawed adventurers to explore the ruins surrounding their vast estate. These ruins are filled with nihilistic cultists, slavering undead, and cosmic horrors from beyond time and space. Death is permanent, and even the mightiest heroes will be worn down by the game's constant onslaught.
The turn-based combat itself introduces a strategic positioning element; each hero and enemy fights in a single-file line, and most attacks can only be used from the correct position. Enemies can only be targeted if they're standing in the right spot, and dead foes leave corpses that need to be cleared away in order to make room to maneuver. The result is a deep and deadly game of strategy where every choice matters and every turn could be a hero's last.
11 Final Fantasy 10
If you haven't played a Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy 10 is a good entry point into the series. The game is centered around Tidus, a star blitzball player from Zanarkand, and Yuna, a summoner on a pilgrimage to defeat the ominous and mysterious Sin, which brings pain and suffering to the people of Spira.
As a party of up to three, you'll enter random-encounter battles, fighting small and large foes in classic turn-based combat. (In fact, it's worth noting that this was the last mainline entry in the storied franchise to ever feature a system not rooted in action-RPG logistics.) With a gripping story, and an interesting sequel for those wishing to extend their journey, the world of Final Fantasy 10 is a great place to start for newcomers.
10 Into the Breach
Into the Breach is a turn-based combat strategy game by the developers behind FTL: Faster Than Light. In this game, you are responsible for protecting civilian structures that support power grids. You protect said structures against aliens called the Vek by commanding mechs equipped with weapons.
While protecting the buildings is typically the main objective, there are often bonus objectives as well. Successfully achieving these bonuses often means thinking several turns ahead. It is an intense game, as the difficulty stays relatively high throughout the game, testing your strategic thinking constantly. We recommend Into the Breach if you're looking for more chess and less checkers in terms of difficulty.
9 Fire Emblem: Three Houses
A list consisting of games with turn-based combat would be incomplete without mentioning the Fire Emblem series. In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, impending war is imminent, regardless of the path you choose. As a professor at the Officer's Academy, you will oversee one of the three houses: Blue Lions, Black Eagles, or Golden Deer. Throughout the game, and depending on the path chosen, you'll lead your students in turn-based combat in various scenarios across the deeply troubled land of Fodlan.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a bit of a misnomer now. Not only is there a fourth path (called Silver Snow) outside of the three houses' respective paths, DLC released which revealed a secret house, the Ashen Wolves, including a separate campaign from the main storyline. If you decide to play all available paths, charge your Nintendo Switch, as each of the main campaigns can boast around 50 hours of gameplay.
8 The Banner Saga
This indie hit spawned an entire trilogy and a board game, and it's easy to see why. Its gorgeous hand-drawn visuals and smart tactical combat make The Banner Saga a game the skaldr will sing about in mead-halls across the land. Each run sees the player leading a group of vikings across a harsh wilderness, fighting for the survival of their entire civilization. This is a game that's sure to appeal to Norse mythology enthusiasts, but it has something for everyone.
The Banner Saga is a work of art on its own, but like the venerated Mass Effect series you can import your save data from game to game, creating a three-campaign narrative that is all your own. There's even a multiplayer mode (yes, a turn-based multiplayer mode!), so you can challenge your friends in battle again and again, just like on the fields of Valhalla.
7 Heroes Of Might And Magic 3
Hailed as the best entry in the beloved strategy franchise, Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is seeing renewed interest more than twenty years after its release. At the time of this writing, roughly 5,800 people are watching the game on Twitch — to say nothing of those who are discovering or re-discovering this classic on their own. If exploration, desperate sieges, and commanding armies of fantasy creatures sounds like a good time to you, there are few games as enduring as this one. Dozens of skirmish maps and multiple campaigns give it plenty of staying power as well.
Each of the Heroes 3 factions has a wildly different roster of available units who can take part in the series staple hex-based battles. Each unit type occupies a single "stack" one tile, regardless of how many soldiers are in the unit - this means that a thousand lowly peasants can overwhelm a mighty dragon with ease, but it works both ways. How will your enemies fare when the dragon has four of its broodmates backing it up?
6 Age Of Wonders: Planetfall
Lots of 4X strategy games have a manual combat option. These tactical battles are usually an afterthought, a minigame that lets the player outsmart the AI. In Age of Wonders: Planetfall, tactical battles are the main event. Don't get us wrong — Planetfall's strategic layer is a top-notch game in and of itself, but this title truly shines when you've mastered the tactical layer as well.
With multiple factions and tech trees to choose from and a huge array of equipment and modifications for each unit, you can tailor your combat strategy any way you see fit. The game's largest engagements — usually an assault on a fortified city in the late game — can see dozens of units on each side, providing tactical depth not seen in many other strategy games.
5 Earthbound
Earthbound, the second game in the Mother series and an SNES must-play, is a fantastic example of a unique JRPG with some of the best turn-based combat, even all these years later. While it wasn't initially a hit with Western audiences, it's now considered a cult classic for a multitude of reasons (including that it's almost a parody of the RPG genre itself). You play as Ness, a baseball bat-wielding kid who must save Earth from imminent—and extraterrestrial—destruction.
In turn-based combat, Ness and his friends will face off with atypical enemies, including Shattered Man, Farm Zombie, and French Kiss of Death. Earthbound changes gameplay modes when you touch an enemy onscreen, going into a first-person view for battles.
4 Chrono Trigger
When talking about RPGs, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't heard of Chrono Trigger. To put it mildly, there are many games from Squaresoft's SNES era that could be on this list, and Chrono Trigger is one of the standouts. It included a turn-based combat system that replaced random encounters with seamless entry from world exploration into battle. This landmark gameplay design aided Chrono Trigger's timeless appeal as one of the most beloved games of all time.
It would be remiss not to mention the replayability: there are twelve different endings depending on your actions, a groundbreaking addition back in its day.
3 Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars
Initially released in 1996 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario RPG was partially overshadowed by the impending release of the Nintendo 64 console. A star this bright couldn't be dulled, as fans applauded the fusion of Mario's world with Squaresoft's master class RPG making. Join Mario, Bowser, fan-favorite Geno, Peach, and Mallow on a journey across the Mushroom Kingdom to defeat the power-hungry Smithy.
This game serves as a great introduction if you're newer to turn-based combat, and unlike more recent RPGs, won't require hundreds of hours of your time. That being said, every minute of playing Super Mario RPG is filled with surprise and delight, from the Axem Rangers to the truth of Mallow's mysterious lineage.
2 Shin Megami Tensei 5
The latest entry in Atlus's long-running series about the eternal battle between gods and demons has Shin Megami Tensei looking better than ever before. Boasting a massive roster of playable monsters and battles ranging in difficulty from casual to ludicrous, Shin Megami Tensei 5 is a perfect fit for hardcore JRPG fans. The fate of the world is in your hands - what you do with it is up to you.
Shin Megami Tensei 5 provides plenty of exploration, including side quests and hidden content. Its multiple endings and New Game Plus mode encourage repeated playthroughs, so you'll be able to experiment with new builds all you like. This is a game that will keep you occupied for a long, long time.
1 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Divinity: Original Sin 2 offers so much freedom that creativity and imagination become the only limitations in this RPG. In Divinity: Original Sin 2, there is a lot of battling involved, often requiring different strategies depending on the enemy. Not only do you have to manage the actions of your party members one by one, but you also strategize how to utilize their skills (of which there are over 200), their items, and the terrain around you as effectively as possible.
In case you're wanting to take on this long and memorable journey with a friend, the game offers online and local multiplayer support.