Best Retro Turn-Based Combat Games on PC

Venaitura

Very solid NES style JRPG, with more strategic depth than many of the classics. Most enemies (I think it might be all) are weak to a certain weapon type, but most characters can only equip a few of the weapon types. There’s a also a slew of very useful status effects when brute force isn’t working.

And to round it out, the writing here is pretty good. It’s not going to win any awards, but important characters are fleshed out enough to be interesting, and some of the dialogue is genuinely funny. The random NPCs are plentiful and build the world quite well, but don’t waste your time with pointless dialogue.

– Real player with 37.1 hrs in game

Read More: Best Retro Singleplayer Games.

Venaitura is a short, fun, charming and sometimes serious game with a good balance of ease and difficulty. With twelve character classes and an absolutely huge variety of options for party balance, my first play through might just be a little biased since I chose Wiseman, Savior, Druid and Companion.

I am one of the early playtesters of this game and although I have not found any bugs, I’ve heard from a few other players there are some, BUT the game dev, Ephiam is very active and I haven’t heard of any game breaking bugs.

– Real player with 31.8 hrs in game

Venaitura on Steam

Finding Light

This is in my opinion the best one in this series of 4 games so far. If you are thinking of playing it I would suggest getting Knight Bewitched first, which is the second in the series. The first one, Black Tower, is rather repetitive and is not really related to the second, even though it is to the rest, so you can come back to it afterwards if you are committed to playing the whole series.

Also Dispel is the worst thing in the history of everything and I hated it with a passion. Otherwise very enjoyable game.

– Real player with 40.5 hrs in game

Read More: Best Retro Fantasy Games.

I really didn’t expect to enjoy this game … 8-bit, greyscale … hmmmm

But the old brain soon adjusts and you’re drawn into the story. Music is retro and really great in some areas - especially the future section of the Black Tower.

Game objectives are clear, though not always easy to achieve. I spent a lot of time running round trying to find things. Battles in new sections are always a challenge too.

Steam achievements are working. And I missed out on defeating the Master Slime and on finding the last alchemical recipes. Also I was playing on Normal - I don’t think I could manage Hard on this game.

– Real player with 28.1 hrs in game

Finding Light on Steam

Mango Mischief

The four protagonists: Sprig, Marion, Merrow, and Arach

Mango Mischief is a throwback to a simpler time - the 16-bit era of video gaming - when JRPGs used (and abused) cliché storylines as vehicles for showing off interesting battle mechanics, difficult dungeons and monsters, complex puzzles, character leveling systems, and customizability through skills, upgrades, and gear.

_Is it time to go on a magic quest to save the world - a quest that only YOU can complete (with the help of three other party members who have different skill sets, of course)?

Do you need to collect several inanimate objects that serve no purpose other than to accidentally help the antagonist at the end of the game?

Is the antagonist merely a puppet of the true final boss (who has multiple forms)?_

Eh, maybe. Or maybe not.

The map at the beginning of Mango Mischief, showing off the early areas of the game

Mango Mischief attempts to straddle the line between paying homage to the tried-and-true tropes of JRPGs, while also parodying the memes of role-playing games with plot twists and comedy.

Self-referential humor and fourth wall breaks augment the narrative and interactions in this game, without detracting from the core gameplay:

Open exploration of a huge, diverse world, full of quests and monsters and loot
Flexibility in leveling up desired classes and gaining new abilities along the way
The freedom to optimize character builds and complete dungeons in any order
Tons of weapons, armor, accessories, and items that allow for a variety of playstyles
A turn-based battle system involving elemental strengths and weaknesses, an assortment of buffs, debuffs, and status ailments, and monsters that scale with your progress, to keep battles fresh, interesting, and challenging
Just enough random encounters to annoy players who prefer visible encounters, and just enough visible encounters to annoy players who prefer random encounters
At least a few interesting NPCs who aren’t merely mindless drones created for the sole purpose of furthering the plot of your special story

Please enjoy Mango Mischief, the passion project of a solo indie game developer!

Read More: Best Retro JRPG Games.

Mango Mischief on Steam

Mage Tower

Mage Tower is an RPG game that blends fixed number turn-based with 2D platformer action adventure.

Player need to match their equipment and use limited resources, take on challenges in carefully designed levels.

A horizontal scroll game with a fixed number of turn-based level design as the core gameplay.
Smooth 2D manipulation, forward dash, double jump, and use your sword to kill enemies immediately.
Powerful equipment system, up to 12 equipment strategies can be set.
Get new equipment and skills constantly! A flexible combination of skills and equipment is the key.
The follow system allows player to get help from NPC.
Rich level elements, including attack gems, defense gems, buffs, keys…
2D pixel animation brings life to countless characters.
The unique visual design brings a unique beauty to the game world.
Up to 200 kinds of monsters! 10 epic boss battles! More than 400 monster skills! Face fierce enemies and defeat evil demons on your journey.
The game is played with beautiful music, created by Bert Cole.

If you have any problems during playing, you can press F10 to call out to feedback.

Mage Tower on Steam

The Unholy Society

I love this style of art, like office clip art. The new way of fighting is also interesting. But this game can’t set screen resolution and window mode, hope to update.

– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game

This one delivers on its promise in spades : full on 90’s occult comedy with breezy and headache-free mechanics. Never outstays its welcome and has more character than MTV 35 years ago. If you like the screenshots, it is exactly the game that you imagine it to be.

– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game

The Unholy Society on Steam

Dungeon Tactics

A retro style party based RPG smashing together concepts from several of my favorite games!

Build a party of 6 characters combining active, passive, and reactive skills from 40 different classes.

Explore the dungeon to protect the people of Airi from the secret threat contained within.

Avoid many traps set in place to hinder your progress.

Dungeon Tactics on Steam

Knight Eternal

Fourth game in the series. Even though the third one is my favourite, this improves on all aspects except writing, which has always ranged between tolerable and terrible, and music, which to be fair I muted 10 seconds into the game.

Your characters get a skill tree, which is a nice touch and offers more options. Considerably easier to deal with resource management, like mana, a quality of life much needed. Tactics, even the same ones from the previous game work better, stats are more meaningful and in general combat as a whole feels more refined. Unfortunately the difficulty doesn’t keep up with all these changes that make you life easier and let you better tailor your party to your preferences, that’s why I still prefer the 3rd one.

– Real player with 32.5 hrs in game

I’m not good at leaving reviews, so I’ll just lay out my thoughts.

I liked that the battles went pretty quickly.

I really liked how this and finding light have mechanics similar to the Final Fantasy Legend games, if I remember them correctly.

There was a large amount of abilities to use and I was always excited to find a new one. Items that gave a lot of abilities were particularly coveted by me. I did wish there were more abilities, but the ones that were available had enough variety that I never felt bored by them.

– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game

Knight Eternal on Steam

Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3

This quickly became one of my favorite RPG’s as well as my personal favorite game in the PAA series, and with good reason. There’s quite a lot I’d like to say, so let’s get to it.

The game takes place 2 weeks after the events of Episode 2, but what’s neat is that you don’t need to have played it to understand the story going into Episode 3, as they immediately give you a summary of prior events upon talking to one of the statues in the Detective Agency. That alone makes Episode 3 easy to pick up and play, and the gameplay will keep you around for the long haul.

– Real player with 105.9 hrs in game

This game was an enjoyable throwback to 16bit turn based RPGs, but with a twist. They improved the combat system by adding some complexity without making it overly complicated. Since the core of all these turned based RPGs is mostly how well and fulfilling the combat is, the majority of this review will go over that section in detail to give you a greater understanding of how the game plays. I broke down the review in bold sections so you can read what is most important or what is most interesting to you in order of importance.

– Real player with 16.2 hrs in game

Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 on Steam

Roguelite 2

RECOMMENDED 7/10

Roguelite 2 is an inexpensive and fun implementation of the traditional rogue game using RPG maker graphics.

What I like most about this game is the “persistence” mechanics.

Each dungeon run has a chance to complete a series of quest-like achievements. These achievements, when completed, will then open up some small bonuses in future dungeon run. These bonuses can come in the form of unlocking new classes, better starting weapons and armor, or even some useful consumables like healing and resurrecting potions, etc. So, when you play this game, the best strategy is to focus on fulfilling the quest requirements and then your next dungeon run will be better.

– Real player with 32.0 hrs in game

JRPG style rougelite as the title suggests, but mostly turn-based so it might be better to call it a rougelike if one bothers to make the distinction.

Pros:

Feels very relaxing and familiar as some one who has played a lot of (J)RPGs & rougelites.
Has good humor and well drawn characters that make it feel enjoyable.
Runs with a 4-person party, which adds a bit of depth which would otherwise be lacking.
Auto-saves at the begging of each floor.

Cons:

Lacks the greater depth and complexity of other rougelites and thus ends up as more of a casual game than a serious intricate challenge of a game.
Graphics will sometimes freeze in a fight forcing you to redo a floor. This is mitigated fairly well by the auto-save which happens after the floor randomization so you will find the same loot & enemies on the replay of the floor.
Boss fights occur every 5 floors & are one of the big limiting factors in succeeding in a run, but are not particularly randomized which is disappointing as it hurts the enjoyment of replayability once the player has become comfortable with each of the bosses after fighting them a few times.

– Real player with 24.1 hrs in game

Roguelite 2 on Steam

DISHARMONY

Set in a world inspired by music, DISHARMONY takes you through an adventure filled with smiles, tears, and maybe a few scares along the way. Expect to see various towns and cities, quirky characters, mind-bending puzzles, and plenty of cats.

DISHARMONY allows the player to explore the dreams of some of the game’s characters. Can you help them overcome their nightmares…?

Going through these optional sequences will teach you more about the characters and their personalities, as well as allow you to uncover the deeper secrets hidden in the game’s world.

The game’s battle system is a mix of classic turn-based combat borrowed from old JRPGs and gameplay typically found in rhythm games. Defeat your enemies with the power of music!

DISHARMONY may be a fairly serious game at times, but it also has a lot of goofy and lighthearted humour. Did someone say “puns”…?

No…?

Oh.

Well, there’s loads of them.

The game features an aesthetic inspired by classic games from the 80s/90s, as well as segments featuring hand-drawn art, frame-by-frame animation, and claymation. There are loads of secrets and easter eggs to find, as well as references to various bands and musical artists. The game also features an original soundtrack!