The Best Strategy/Tactics RPGs of 2024

There’s something immensely satisfying about strategy/tactics RPGs. You have your units, the enemy has theirs, and you move them around the board like an asymmetrical game of chess. This differs from pure board game simulators such as Battle Chess and Archon in that the units are characters, and through these battles, a story is being told.

Fire Emblem for the Super Famicom ignited the current conception of tactical RPGs; Final Fantasy Tactics made it mainstream. Here’s the best ones I played last year.

Endless RPG Untold Tales (Demo)

Question: Does it ever end? Answer: No! It’s endless!

Solo devs are seemingly drawn to tactical RPGs like flies to honey. You draw a grid. You put a character on it. Then you put a monster on it. And then they fight. The original Rogue started it all, but indie devs keep pushing it forward.

Endless RPG plays out on a randomly generated world with randomly generated cities and randomly given quests which made me think “ProgressQuest, but with graphics”. (Note to self: I think I accidentally closed my ProgressQuest tab on the other computer…)

You’re in charge of a four person crew that you create, though as you progress through the game, you can increase your party size via summons. Each member has their own personality, and their own relationships with each other, which rise and fall as they get to know each other. As the party adventures, their faction with the various cities rise and fall as well, dynamically changing the world based on how well you fulfill your missions and whether or not you betray some cities for easy cash.

The tactical battles are straightforward, but it’s easy to get in over your head. Dungeon crawling plays out on a “Slay the Spire”-style map of decision points. They are nasty places.

The game has a demo on Steam. Worth checking out.

Those Who Rule (Demo)

Those Who Rule is another tactics RPG from a solo developer, and I’ve been closely following its progress from tech demo to a fully fledged RPG.

Those Who Rule tells the story of a group of new recruits who bond and grow as they become embroiled in a war between their country, the neighboring realm, and bandits who just want to see it all burn. Where Endless RPG is more inspired by the Mystery Dungeon-type games, Those Who Rule is cut from the Fire Emblem cloth.

Combat plays out on a hex grid, where positioning and terrain play a key role. Like FFT and Fire Emblem, and especially Banner of the Maid, objectives can change during a battle, forcing the player to keep their options open in case they find themselves unable to react to events.

The plot uses visual novel-style conversations to move things along between battles. If you like Fire Emblem, you’re almost certain to like Those Who Rule. Demo is on Steam.

Popup Dungeon (2020)

A decade ago, Sword Coast Legends was set to grab the crown of “RPG toolkit” from the venerable Neverwinter Nights. It failed horribly.

Popup Dungeon succeeds where SCL failed. The game simulates papercraft characters, rooms and terrain, which assemble themselves in a fun way. The pack-in campaign is fully voiced with Star Trek’s John de Lancie voicing the dungeon master. It’s worth the price just for that.

The game comes with a wide variety of characters, but you can create your own, with your own graphics. You can create dungeons, campaigns, monsters, treasures, pretty much anything. The main campaign doesn’t take itself seriously (you can have such critters as internet trolls and terminally online fanboys in your group). John de Lancie brings the snark. And with its tools, you can make your own strategy/tactics RPG campaign with your own plot, characters, enemies, graphics, sounds, etcetera.

It’s a steal for what you get.

The White Raven (Demo)

If your metric of how good a strategy tactics RPG is, how complicated is the story, then The White Raven is going to score pretty high.

You play as someone who is cursed with demonic power (I hope I am remembering this correctly). Your red eyes are a warning for people to stay away, but the truth is, you are no better or worse than anyone else. Nonetheless, you do have this power and are drawn into the battle between a merciless cult and its village victims. To save your own life, you must find the power behind the cultists, and why they are attacking a seemingly innocent town.

The game plays out in an open world where you are free to move, as in any other RPG. It all changes to a tactical grid system overlaid on the map when a battle happens. The battle system is a little more confusing than it has to be, but that’s likely due to it being so early in development. The maps are intricate with a degree of verticality, even though they are two-dimensional. The puzzles aren’t innovative in the demo, but they do raise expectations of better battles in the full game. I had a ton of fun with the demo and think it could be a unique offering when complete.

Unicorn Overlord (2024)

The winner of the best strategy tactics RPG that I played in 2024 was always going to be Unicorn Overlord. Those indie titles are going to be great games, but Unicorn just bowled me over.

For one, it’s a rare real-time tactical game that has various squads being sent to do things around the map. It’s not entirely unknown; the Ogre Battle series dives deep into this; 2022’s “Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga” mined this more recently.

You play as the heir to the throne on the run from a usurper; you must recruit characters (usually by winning a battle with them) and free the conquered nations around yours from the boot of the usurpers so that you can gain their aid for the final battle.

These battles are huge. Lots of scrolling to keep track of things happening across the map. Conditions changing in real time. The battles being a rock/paper/scissors deal that requires you to be directing the enemies to the squads that can best deal with them. The fact that this is pretty easy to do (much easier than in Ogre Battle) shows just how well the game is designed.

If you like strategy/tactical games at all, you owe it to yourself to play the newest, best standard bearer.