Pretty much any video game that you see nowadays has the tag of role-playing game attached to it (rather loosely, I may add). This is because of the basic concept that most modern video games exist in a world that you somehow influence, which seems to be enough for role-playing to slip into the description. The games that are most deserving of this tag, and subsequently tend to handle it the best, are turn-based RPGs. These games adhere to strong principles placing immersive settings, branching stories, addictive exploration, and in-depth combat at the forefront of their experience.
Often simplified as tactical role-playing games (TRPGs), they are noted as being directly influenced by tabletop RPGs, especially classic Dungeons & Dragons. In no particular order, we’ve gathered together a list of some of the most immersive and thoughtful TRPGs available guaranteed to tease your imagination with fantastic feats and epic tales.
1.) Baldur's Gate 3
The latest from Larian Studios, which gave us the critically acclaimed Divinity series, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited sequel to the classic Baldur’s Gate series originally released in 1998 and developed by BioWare and Black Isle Studios. The game revolves around the world-setting and concepts of 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons which supports a vast universe and lore to explore. Currently, the game is still in early access but offers both single-player and co-op gameplay featuring a small party of unique and/or custom-created characters and abilities in which to experience and influence the story along with its many secrets.
Unfortunately, I would recommend that players wait to purchase the game as it is limited to the first act and developers have stated that any save data from the early-access version will not roll over to the full release. All the same, for TRPG lovers this is a must-buy and quickly shaping up to be one of the best of all time. Keep your eyes peeled for updates.
2.) The Banner Saga 3
Buckle in for a deeply crafted story filled with misery and loss with Stoic Studio’s final entry into the Banner Saga series. You’ll be facing an ongoing war with enemies known as the Dredge and facing the series’ looming danger, The Darkness. The game was released in 2018 and is the culmination of Stoic Studio’s Viking culture-inspired story originally released in 2014. In a slight alteration from the previous games, players will take control of two caravans, one traveling through The Darkness in hopes of ending the threat, and one poised to protect a city from certain destruction through decision making and management.
The Banner Saga series has molded its foundation on storytelling, but that is not to say that its combat is anything to simply rollover. There are minutiaes about combat that can prove challenging to new players but things tend to progress with a certain predictability. This has held true for The Banner Saga 3 with little changes overall and a stock interest in developing and driving the ample storyline it presents.
3.) Bastard Bonds
An indie title released in 2016 by Bigfingers, risque is the best way to describe Bastard Bonds due to its content and proclivity for representing pixelated art with nude or near-nude characters. The game is quite clear about this and comes with ample warning as to not sneak up on anyone but overall I would say that the content is mostly mild and something most mature people can overlook.
Now, if you aren’t turned off by the explicit nature of the game, you are in for a treat full of captivating locales, a wild and gritty tale revolving around a prison colony, and fast-paced combat. Much of the game takes place switching between a world map exploration style and a much more intimate instance style where combat and character interaction will take place. The combat itself is similar to what you could expect from most turn-based RPGs, Final Fantasy Tactics for instance, but puts a spin on it by introducing a risk/reward mechanic that incentivizes taking chances in battle. In fact, it's practically necessary to master in order to achieve repeated success.
4.) Battle Brothers
A dark fantasy TRPG about traveling the land and managing a mercenary party, Battle Brothers was released in 2017 by Overhype Studios. Its gameplay puts players in the role of seeing to the day-to-day trials and tribulations of an extremely customizable and unique party of would-be heroes while adapting and responding to an ever-changing world where starvation is just as likely to kill as an armed raiding party.
Each instance of combat is an intense struggle where wounds are the byproduct and can cause significant detriment to your units and subsequently your party as more and more of your forces suffer both physical and emotional scars. For this reason, players must manage who goes into combat and who is allowed to rest, hopefully, to lick their wounds and see many more fights to come. On top of managing equipment and skills, Battle Brothers is an in-depth game about making lasting choices in a world that is looking to beat you down and take everything you have.
5.) Dark Deity
Sword & Axe LLC’s debut title, Dark Deity, is a classic high fantasy adventure released in 2021 that sets the player in control of a small band of fresh military students in the looming shadow of a forthcoming war. The visuals and aesthetic of the game are very reminiscent of traditional TRPGs, reminding players of classics like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy titles. The art style is a gorgeous combination of 2D illustrations for a familiar visual novel and finely crafted lower-res almost pixel-like renders of which there are a couple of styles where a more defined combat screen shows the individual hits and animations of units locked in combat.
Dark Deity’s cast of characters, your original four, and the 26 other characters that you can recruit, bring plenty of depth to its story and character interactions with most characters having unique dialogue and situations that they go through with others. Not only that, but classes, skills, and weapons are aplenty allowing for great diversity from one game to the next. Players will not be lacking in diversity despite what is mostly a linear game.
6.) Darkest Dungeon
A beautifully gothic and downright stress-inducing game, Darkest Dungeon was developed by Red Hook Studios and released in 2016. It presents itself as a psychological horror game with gripping narrative descriptions combined with gritty visuals in a Lovecraftian universe under the tormenting assault of horrific monstrosities spilling onto the land from the depths of the world. This game is notoriously vicious to its players, wreaking havoc on the player’s units with a ruthless determination.
Darkest Dungeon is carried by its theme and its dedication to perfecting its aesthetic to create an immersive experience that can attract as many people as it puts off due to its nature and cruelty. In it, players control a band of wayward heroes and delve into all manner of hellish terrain in a roguelike dungeon crawl. Players will choose between various classes such as Plague Doctors, Houndmasters, Barbarians, Clerics, and more. At its core, the game focuses on tactics and management as you not only have to tend to the needs of your party while adventuring but must also support them from your base of operations where you can apply various buffs and upgrades, but more importantly tend to their wounds and the stress they will accumulate.
7.) Divinity: Original Sin 2
The sequel to Larian Studios’ magnificent fantasy adventure released in 2014, Divinity: Original Sin, Original Sin 2 picks up the story centuries after the last game and continues to expand upon Larian’s original universe that the Divinity series resides in. This game, like its predecessor, highly resembles table-top RPGs in its function, putting players in control of a character with stats, skills, equipment, spells, and various other intricacies to manage and utilize while interacting with the world.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 puts player choice at the forefront allowing you to personalize and tweak almost every aspect of your party. Pre-built characters can be customized to the player's specifications and the stories that come along with them are interactable in intriguing, never betraying player choice. Some particular nuances of play include branching paths heavily influenced by what skills you have available, story choices,, intricate crafting with various benefits, and a system that emphasizes the environment in which you are fighting.
8.) Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
Based on the table-top RPG, Mutant Year Zero, this tactical adventure adaptation developed by The Bearded Ladies Consulting was released in 2018. The game splits its play between real-time exploration and turn-based combat. In real-time, the game emphasizes stealth and this can be maintained by either avoiding or eliminating the enemies without alerting others to the player’s action. Throughout the game, players take control of three characters, each mutants in their own right and plagued by radiation, that are amongst the rarest of Earth’s survivors with the skills to survive a twisted and devastating world.
In 2019 an expansion was released for the game that works to provide an ending for the story as well as providing new team members, enemies, maps, and more with hours of more exploration and combat to be had. Ultimately it is still much of the same and may not lead to the conclusion of a story that particularly stands out but it holds strong to what the base game setup.
9.) Octopath Traveler
2.5D is not quite isometric, not quite top-down, but incorporates both and takes it a step further. Octopath Traveler handles this art form well with dynamic angles and finely tweaked graphics. Developed by Square Enix and released in 2018, initially exclusively on the Nintendo Switch, Octopath Traveler feels like a step back in time giving players retro-graphics along with the familiar strategic turn-based combat all under modern graphical and system limitations to provide this visual marvel.
Narratively, Octopath stands shakily on its feet where the game had marketed a strong focus in that regard. That aside, the game presents a well-polished and innovative mechanical experience presenting well-designed tactical RPG combat and systems that help to keep the combat intriguing and worthwhile (albeit rather grindly like RPGs of old). These high points benefit from the diversity of its class system which lays itself open for experimentation and innovation.
Overall, Octopath Traveler is a flashback and adheres to that idea well. This idea can be intriguing to veteran TRPG players and those just stepping onto the playing field.
10.) Persona 4 Golden
Known under the Megami Tensei series, released as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 internationally, the Persona 4 game was originally released in Japan in 2008 on the Playstation 2 but re-released in 2014 on the Playstation 3. This game, developed by Atlus, is chronologically the fifth installment in the Persona, a subset of Megami Tensei. This game sits amongst a long line of titles that were previously only available on the Japanese market but have since braved the bridge and are regularly available to North American and European markets.
Persona 4 bases itself in a more simulation-style than other turn-based RPGs, emphasizing character interactions, relationship management, day-to-day activities, and a time progression that is broken up by events. In this regard, the game enjoys a much slower pace which is all very deliberate since the time frame of its story takes place in a relatively short amount of time. Persona 4 sets itself up as an extremely intimate game allowing its characters and scenarios to take the focus of the game but never taking away from the competent design and control of the combat.
11.) Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Shadowrun: Hong Kong is the third of Harebrained Schemes’ venture into the Shadowrun series, a science fantasy tabletop RPG universe where magic meets cyberpunk, horror, and detective elements, and is all very reminiscent of Bladerunner. Harebrained Schemes released the game in 2015 which is the culmination of the company's work to adapt the franchise and bring it to the video game industry. Seeming nearly like expansions, from the first Shadowrun: Returns game to this one, players will enjoy expanded mechanics while remaining familiar with the systems that were already in place. Hacking has been expanded upon, adding new elements and complexity, for instance.
Utilizing the Shadowrun universe, these games take off on a narrative path telling the intricate tales of the player-controlled team of Shadowrunners full of personality and unique flair. While the player is left to build a custom Runner, they are introduced to a specialized team with their own set of abilities which can be tweaked but it is important to understand what each team member is capable of to be successful.
12.) Star Renegades
Developed by Massive Damage, Inc and released in 2020, Star Renegades is a roguelike turn-based adventure RPG that brings an old-school 16-bit flair to the genre along with excellent experimental electronica. Exploration and interaction fit into the realm of many other TRPGs like Final Fantasy but in this case, your party is one of time-skippers that hop between points in time to intercept the activities of the Imperialist nation and their attempts at conquering.
While a TRPG at heart, the game’s combat is heavily centered around reactionary combat featuring combos, counters, and interrupts that change the flow of combat and push initiative to create opportunities. Controlling the flow of combat is the name of the game in this one and some of its nuances can take a bit to master but once you are there the game doesn’t tend to throw many new curveballs your way. Star Renegades offers an interesting mix of genres that is a dazzle to interact with and easily something I’d like to see more from and take more chances.
13.) Wasteland 3
Wasteland 3, developed by and released by InXile Entertainment in 2020, takes a healthy helping of influence from the Fallout universe originally designed by Black Isle in that it grips with and couples together a rough and sarcastic post-apocalyptic playground that simultaneously doesn’t take itself too seriously and yet consistently berates the player with heavy narrative decisions and the darkness that the wasteland can bring.
Players take control of customizable Rangers who have taken it upon themselves to serve as the law of the wasteland in the absence of a well-established, or even mediocre, government. It is up to your squad, derived of up to six Rangers, to trek out across the wasteland and respond to SOSs, altercations, major and minor requests alike, as well as issues such as raider and animal attacks. All the while you will be faced with the outcomes of your decisions and challenged by your morals.
14.) XCOM 2
In 2012 the XCOM series was rebooted by Firaxis Games and hit the market as XCOM: Enemy Unknown featuring hard-hitting tactical combat with an emphasis on risk and reward. In 2016 Firaxis released yet another impressive addition to the TRPG genre with XCOM 2 which aimed to improve upon everything its predecessor had to offer. Following the events of the first game, Earth has been seized by the alien threat and it is up to the now ramshackled XCOM forces to step up as humanity's last chance to push the aliens from our world.
In XCOM 2 the enemies are vastly improved from their counterparts present in the war years before and in many cases wield new technologies and powers. XCOM must utilize guerilla tactics in a war against superior odds and turn the enemy’s equipment and abilities against them. Players will meet on a familiar battlefield but should be prepared for new twists across every stage of play.
And in case you are looking for that extra edge, extra challenge, or a new design for your army, XCOM 2’s mod community is an extensive one worth diving into.
15.) Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Yakuza: Like a Dragon breaks away from the mold of the rest of Sega’s stellar Yakuza series which traditionally shapes itself up as a beat ‘em up franchise featuring action-adventure and roleplay elements. Not only that, but it also steps away from the series’ protagonist, making room for a new hero for players to explore the world with. Not to worry, however, the game maintains much of what makes the series as a whole a beloved rollercoaster of flying fists and dramatic twists.
Released in 2020 and developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the game takes a new spin on combat delving into the turn-based world allowing strategic squad-oriented altercations. Even then, the game steps away from your traditional turn-based combat. While enemies cannot attack you, it is still possible for them to move around the environment which allows for the setup of environmental attacks and the extra consideration when AOE abilities are available and when to use them.
