By Tristan Jurkovich
Thread
Your changes have been saved
Email is sent
Email has already been sent
Please verify your email address.
You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.
Manage Your List
Follow
Followed
Follow with Notifications
Follow
Unfollow
Link copied to clipboard
Video Games
Related
The Best Twin Stick Shooters You Can Play On The PS5
8 Best Rhythm Games You Can Play On The PS5
The Best PS5 Games For Kids (Across Multiple Genres)
Highlights
- PS5 offers a variety of tactical RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Marvel's Midnight Suns with customizable characters and engaging gameplay.
- Front Mission 2: Remake has a long history but mixed reviews due to menu issues, offering deep mech customization for strategic gameplay.
- Unicorn Overlord by Vanillaware is a triumphant return to traditional RPGs, featuring a semi-open world and colorful characters for tactical battles.
For only being a few years old, the PS5 has built up quite a library of tactical RPGs. One of the biggest was released in 2023, Baldur’s Gate 3. Players could customize their character and then recruit others to join their team like Gale and Karlach.
Related
15 Co-Op Games With Great Stories You Can Play On PS5
Players who want to dig deep into a good story with their friends should be sure to check out these PS5 games.
Another good example is Marvel’s Midnight Suns which also gave players a customizable avatar who could then interact with famous Marvel heroes like Blade and Iron Man. Those two games are good Western-developed tactical RPGs for the PS5 but there have been some good ones from Japan too. Let’s take a look at what they have been brewing overseas over the past few years.
8 Front Mission 2: Remake
26 Years In The Making
Front Mission 2: Remake
Tactical
RPG
- OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Rating:71/100 Critics Recommend:26%
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch
- Released
- October 5, 2023
- Developer
- G-Craft Storm Trident
- Publisher
- Square Forever Entertainment
- Engine
- unreal engine
- ESRB
- t
- How Long To Beat
- 120 hours
This game was originally released on the PS1 in Japan in 1997. It took almost three decades to get this Front Mission game in North America but it finally did on the Switch in 2023 followed by other consoles like the PS5 in 2024. Reviews for Front Mission 2: Remake weren’t that high on aggregate sites like Metacritic as many reviewers dinged the menu system and other faults. It’s the type of series either players are going to be into customizing their mechs to a wild degree in menus or they are going to dislike it. Front Mission 2: Remake is a better game than most think, adding a deep level of strategy to typical tactical RPGs by giving players that wealth of features for their mechs.
7 The DioField Chronicle
Smaller Maps, Bigger Challenges
The DioField Chronicle
- OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Rating:71/100 Critics Recommend:43%
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS5 , PS4 , Switch , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Xbox One
- Released
- September 22, 2022
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix , Lancarse
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
The DioField Chronicle is a hybrid of tactical RPGs and RTS games. Players typically don’t have a lot of units going into battle, but they have many enemies. On their turn, players can move hero units freely without a grid and perform several actions from abilities to attacks. Such abilities usually have a range of power, and putting characters in the right position to do the most damage can be finicky. It may not have been a sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics like most fans wanted from Square Enix, but The DioField Chronicle was still a solid and challenging tactical RPG that hit most of its marks.
6 Persona 5 Tactica
The Final Spinoff For The Phantom Thieves?
Persona 5 Tactica
- OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Rating:78/100 Critics Recommend:68%
- Platform(s)
- PC , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Xbox One , PS5 , PS4 , Switch
- Released
- November 17, 2023
- Developer(s)
- P-Studio
- Publisher(s)
- Atlus
There have been a lot of spinoffs post-Persona 5. Persona 5 Tactica is the latest and it might be the last, changing the art style to a more radical, cute form. The story involves The Phantom Thieves being pulled into another world that is being taken over by an oppressive army.
Related
The Best Twin Stick Shooters You Can Play On The PS5
Twin-stick shooters might not be as common as they used to be but PS5 owners still have some great games to pick from.
Characters can move freely during missions, within an allotted area, and then they can issue commands once they stay still. There are combo attacks too, so positioning is a big deal in this game which adds to the strategy factor. There haven’t been a lot of tactical spinoffs in the wider Shin Megami Tensei series and this definitely ranks up there.
5 The Last Spell
A Combination Of Tower-Defense And Roguelikes
The Last Spell
Tactical RPG
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch , PC , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5
- Released
- March 9, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Ishtar Games
The Last Spell was a smaller indie game that combined a lot of genres into one. The game takes place in a post-apocalypse wherein cities across the wasteland are trying to hold back zombie and other monster invasions from snuffing out the last mages who can defend the realm. Players can deploy a random assortment of heroes, who change from run to run, to fight back the terrors of the night through grid-based gameplay. It’s a tactical RPG along with a tower defense game as players can create fences and turrets before battle along with a roguelike as everything is randomly generated. It’s a three-way mashup that works well but is challenging beyond belief.
4 Live A Live
Multiple Stories Colliding Into Each Other
Live A Live (2022)
- OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Rating:81/100 Critics Recommend:88%
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS4 , PS5 , Switch
- Released
- April 27, 2023
- Developer
- Historia, Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix , Nintendo
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, Language, Suggestive Themes
- How Long To Beat
- 22 Hours
Live A Live is a combo RPG too. It’s played like a traditional turn-based RPG wherein players can initiate combat by running into monsters while exploring. In battle, players can move around a grid and positioning does matter. For a game that was originally on the SNES, this recommendation is a remaster, Live A Live was forward-thinking with this combination of battle systems. It’s also a wild RPG in that players go through separate campaigns from a Western to a caveman adventure which were all seemingly separate narratives. However, once all stories are completed, a new campaign will open up to tie up loose ends.
3 Disgaea 7: Vows Of The Virtueless
The Franchise Goes Back To Japan
Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless
- OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Rating:84/100 Critics Recommend:95%
- Franchise
- Disgaea
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS4 , PS5 , Switch
- Released
- October 3, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Nippon Ichi Software
- Publisher(s)
- NIS America
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes
- How Long To Beat
- 25 Hours
These games keep getting progressively wilder and they started at an eleven. Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless is the latest entry which is the first to theme the underworld as a feudal version of Japan. There are ninjas, samurais, cherry blossoms, and the whole nine yards.
Related
8 Best Rhythm Games You Can Play On The PS5
The PlayStation 5 might still be a rarity, but it already has several fun rhythm games for fans of the genre.
Settings aside, what fans love about this series is the DEEP customization options. They can create characters, shape their faces, give them classes, and so on. Besides playing through the campaign in grid-based maps, players can also plead with a demon court to unlock features or dive into item dungeons to make said items stronger. It’s a lot to take in, but fans are used to it by now.
2 Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Let Us Cling Together
Tactics Ogre: Reborn
- OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Rating:84/100 Critics Recommend:96%
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS5 , PS4 , Switch
- Released
- November 11, 2022
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- ESRB
- T for Teen due to Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a remaster of the 1995 SNES original, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. It’s more like a remaster of a remaster because the game has been re-released on more systems than one can count. At its core, it’s a lot like Final Fantasy Tactics which is not bizarre as the director, Yasumi Matsuno, worked on this before Final Fantasy Tactics. Players can form parties, equip their soldiers with gear, and change classes before combat begins. There are mages, knights, and even other races like The Winged Folk who can gain huge territorial advantages in battle by flying and shooting arrows down from above.
1 Unicorn Overlord
Vanillaware’s Triumphant Return To Traditional RPGs
Unicorn Overlord
- OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Rating:88/100 Critics Recommend:99%
- Platform(s)
- PS5 , PS4 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Switch
- Released
- March 8, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Vanillaware
- Publisher(s)
- Sega , Atlus
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
- Metactrilc Score: 86
Unicorn Overlord is a return to what Vanillaware does best: make RPGs. Their last game was 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and while it reviewed well, it was more of a light novel than an RPG much to the dismay of fans. Unicorn Overlord does some interesting things specifically for the tactical genre. Players can explore a semi open-world and take on side quests along with capture territories. Once engaged in battle, players will form units based around one hero and then they will attack automatically on their turn. The music is triumphant, the characters are colorful, the art is gorgeous, and there’s a reason why this 2024 hidden gem keeps coming up as fans really do want to sing its praises.
More
The Best PS5 Games For Kids (Across Multiple Genres)
Sony's PlayStation 5 caters to the whole family. Here are the best PS5 kids games across a wide range of genres.
- Video Games
Your changes have been saved
Email is sent
Email has already been sent
Please verify your email address.
You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.
Manage Your List
Follow
Followed
Follow with Notifications
Follow
Unfollow