Strike Team Gladius

Strike Team Gladius

Strike Team Gladius is a typical Wave Light game, and in my book that’s a good thing. The story serves as the framework for the game campaign’s 40 combat missions, so it’s all about building a team and tactical combat. Finishing the campaign twice took me about 100 hours.

There are 12 different classes, each with a male and a female version. They all have different stats, skills and abilities. You choose 6 of them and off you go. After each mission your units get EXP points and after roughly 5 missions they get an upgrade - if you can keep them alive, that is.

Real player with 145.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best Strategy RPG Tactical RPG Games.


Update:

The game has improved tremendously in early access and a lot of the rough edges have been removed. And the difficulty curve has been mostly smoothed out. A tutorial has also been added that helps quite a bit in getting the player oriented. Two new classes (exo armor troopers) were also added an are a lot of fun! And now it is out of early access!

Definitely recommended for fans of tactical turn based games!

Original Review:

Strike Team Gladius is a solid squad based strategy game by WaveLight games. Your 6 squad members will fight aliens in a variety of outdoor environments, with a large variety of allies and enemies. It is currently in early access and has some rough edges, but progress has been fast on sanding them down. Definitely worth a buy if you are a squad based strategy fan!

Real player with 119.9 hrs in game

Strike Team Gladius on Steam

Kitty Tactics

Kitty Tactics

As an SRPG guy this is a wonderful little treat. The only real issues I have are that the meta is pretty singular– you have to mitigate square takings, and then maximize yours, so it typically becomes befriend a bunch of cats and have kittens to flood the board with cats who shouldn’t take your squares up. Then you just let them sort each other out while you drive around grabbing tiles.

Some extra win conditions, map styles, and maybe an extra beginner class or two to spruce up the early scratch-lick-lick-lick-lick-scratch meta just a pinch. With these, Kitty Tactics would be in a great position as a simple, accessible, but variable and replayable game.

Real player with 3.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best Strategy RPG Tactical RPG Games.


While I am reccomending this game, it is what it says on the box. A $4 game with adorable cats. I personally love the concepts presented, and will be looking forward to any updates/improvements in the future. I feel things that would add to the game a bunch would be local or online multiplayer. This game would be brilliant with friends at a party, imagine the sight of 8 cats fighting it out, teaming, changing teams, and leveling up would be great. I feel the territory is a great idea that could have more added to it, such as buildings or other construction options. I’m not sure if that would take away the game’s simplicity, but I also felt late game it was difficult to keep territory out of enemy hands, which is why I suggested elements of construction such as walls or towers. But overall, worth what I payed for it. Can’t wait to see where it goes in the future!

Real player with 2.2 hrs in game

Kitty Tactics on Steam

Magi

Magi

This is an old and fun game that used to be sold by the standalone developer. It’s a shame strategies are not still posted, for it can really be challenging to win. Music soundtrack is pretty iconic… I don’t think the developer supports it anymore but if you’re into magic duels then you’ve probably spent worse money than this.

Real player with 8.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best Strategy RPG Real Time Tactics Games.


It’s “TUG-OF-WAR” with fireballs and techno-liches.

Other games come to mind, like

“Aeon Command” (space battles)

“Samurai vs Zombies Defense” (goofy samurai warfare)

and

“Puzzle Chronicles” (the illegitimate child of Tetris and Mortal Kombat)

These game elements are constant:

  • try to hold the line

  • manage your defences

  • beef-up your attacks

  • spam your enemies to death

In Magi, you start by opening magical “channels.” These channels enable your spells and strengthen them. Then, it’s a real-time battle as you queue-up spells for casting. It’s like the building queue in Starcraft or Civ… only it’s your shield spell, or a magic missile, or summoning an imp. As your mage is casting one spell, you have time to set up the next. And the next. You can plan a bit… or panic. Apparently, I’m still fond of panicking.

Real player with 7.4 hrs in game

Magi on Steam

Forever and Ever

Forever and Ever

CUNNING STRATEGY AND THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP ARE YOUR GREATEST WEAPONS (BUT GUNS AND MAGIC HELP TOO)

Forever and Ever is an anime-inspired turn-based strategy game with billions of different heroes ready for adventure. In a world of heroes and villains battling for immortal glory, a strange storyteller falls from another world. As this mysterious bard, recruit uniquely generated future legends with diverse appearances, backstories, and personalities. Only your tactics and the bonds of their friendship can lead them to eternal fame and fortune!

CUNNING STRATEGY

  • Build a team from 10 different character classes that support a wide range of tactics!

  • Battle with action-packed abilities that can be customized to fit your strategy!

  • Every fight is fair- win or lose based on your decisions, not how much you’ve been grinding!

THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

  • Discover procedurally generated backstories to reveal your heroes' past, personality, and secret ambitions!

  • Forge friendships on the battlefield whose bonds will save them in clutch moments!

  • You’ll never see the same hero twice! Forever and Ever features over 5 billion uniquely-generated characters!

  • If they die, they’re gone forever (and ever)!

Whether your heroes are ancient defective gardening robots, magical animal children, zombified party addicts, or edgelords from the future, the journey starts with an interview! Learn about each candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, backstories, and personality, and find the heroes that are right for you. Maybe your team needs an Outlaw, a rockstar gunslinger who can’t stop dishing out damage? Or a Crusader, a bulky knight-officer who shields your team from harm with the power of THE LAW? Or a blasphemous Heretic, who dares to use their magic to protect instead of fight? These character classes and more await you in the world of Forever and Ever!

Guide these heroes into battle, and soon they’ll discover Secret Techniques: modifications and additions to their original abilities to expand your tactical options. Develop a fierce warband that fights with your personal flair!

Throughout their journey, heroes develop bonds and relationships that strengthen over time. These bonds show their true power in heroes’ most dire moments, and can save them from certain death. A Crusader and a Punk, once enemies on opposite sides of the law, now fierce comrades, push each other to fight beyond their mortal limits. An Exorcist shouts a word of warning to her wife, letting her dodge a deadly blow at the last moment. A Hermit heals his rival from the brink of death, and friendship begins to replace their antagonistic feelings. What story will you and your heroes tell?

Forever and Ever on Steam

Metroplex Zero

Metroplex Zero

In 2280, Eurasica is ruled by cutthroat hyper-capitalist megacorporations. Only you can thwart ZantoCorp’s attempts to reestablish a dark tyranny. Metroplex Zero brings a new take on roguelike deckbuilding with it’s party-based RPG-style combat.

Visit powerful locations

To resist capitalistic tyranny, you’ll need to power up. Choose your route carefully, different locations give different benefits; upgrade your champion, recruit powerful units, upgrade cards, gain passive bonuses or duplicate any card in your deck.

Strategize to fit your playstyle

With five heroes to choose from, each has its own unique and surprising gameplay. Before each battle, scout your enemies and pick the ideal 36 cards to take on your foes. You are never forced to bring any card you don’t like into battle. During your run you will be able to acquire new cards, equipment, and augments. You can get special surgical implants, level up your heroes, and manipulate corporations into giving you very nice shopping discounts.

No playthrough is ever the same

You’ll never play the same deck twice!

  • Over 250 different cards, allowing for a blend of various playstyles and builds

  • Over 70 unique game-changing augments

  • 5 heroes each with very different gameplay

  • Level up your heroes multiple times in every run

  • Choose your own level up perks every time you gain enough XP

  • More than 20 unique random events

  • Over 30 different enemies

Metroplex Zero on Steam

Dungeoneers

Dungeoneers

Very very fun. Counting the web version, I’ve put hundreds if not thousands of hours in to this game. Strategy is very important. Like backgammon, it’s still skill even with RNG. My review is mostly using the version from about a week ago. I’ll update it when I’ve spent some more time with the new version.

Pros:

Strategy is easy to learn but hard to master

Art is pretty cool

Very few bugs

It manages good variety without excessive complexity

I can’t say exactly what it is, but I really like the gameplay

Real player with 175.5 hrs in game

A great casual hex based strategic beat em up rpg, like a classic D and D one shot campaign. Weigh the options of attacking vs. sneaking and grabbing swords, bows and shields vs. counting your potions and scrolls for the dragons. No story lines to remember, just dragons to beat up, and mummies, and trolls, and those pesky firebugs.

Run in the daily hunt against all other players, how many skeleton elbows can you collect in one run? 100? Inconceivable!

A lot of strategy in each room, should I sneak by the orcs and just grab the loot, hoping to not be spotted? Can I take out the casters and snipers before I get clobbered? Can I handle the rain of fireballs? (p.s. if you get stuck in a rain of fireballs, you are doing it wrong).

Real player with 116.1 hrs in game

Dungeoneers on Steam

Spellpowder: Uprising

Spellpowder: Uprising

Class Tree

Promote your characters to 18 different character classes. From hard as a rock tank to a devastating spellcaster.

Player Character

Create your own custom character to lead the squad. Select from various fantasy races and backgrounds.

Fantasy steampunk setting

A place where technology meets magic. Explore industrial cities, sacred woodlands, vast seas and cold tundras.

Story and Sandbox modes

Experience uprising in a semi-linear style, as in classic tactical RPG’s or power up your squad trough random missions in sandbox mode.

Spellpowder: Uprising on Steam

Final Hope: The Plot

Final Hope: The Plot

Well, this is alpha early access, really rough. The game has not been enjoyable as it is; however, it has all the potential to become a lot of fun if the developer continues to improve (imagine if this is at v.0.3, then v.1.2 would probably be excellent).

It IS really cheap, so you may want to take a gamble to purchase it now on the hope that development continues. You can play if for a while.

I am giving it a thumbs down because, to me, it plays like an alpha (not a beta - early access is supposed to be for tested betas) - but I’ll give it a DEFINITE thumbs-up if the developer continues with development (for that reason, I’ll keep the game instead of refunding it).

Real player with 0.9 hrs in game

Definitely in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics, which is a style of game I like. For what feels like an alpha version, by a solo developer, it is still rough around the edges but has a lot implemented. I am curious to see how it shapes up over time and what the final version will be like.

Man, I got utterly decimated by the orcs in the first fight; those archers are brutal.

Real player with 0.1 hrs in game

Final Hope: The Plot on Steam

There May Be Ninety-Nine Of Us, But We Have To Win In Ninety-Nine Turns!

There May Be Ninety-Nine Of Us, But We Have To Win In Ninety-Nine Turns!

This game is pretty definitely the first time I’ve ever spent hours in training mode in a turn-based rpg. I strongly recommend this game to anyone who organizes spreadsheets in their free time. Even if you don’t, though, the pace at which it introduces new tools and concepts means you’re never totally overwhelmed, and while it encourages minmaxing, it’s never exactly necessary to perfectly tweak every character’s loadout. It’s nice.

Real player with 13.2 hrs in game

There May Be Ninety-Nine Of Us, But We Have To Win In Ninety-Nine Turns! on Steam

Midnight Wave

Midnight Wave

Midnight Wave is a samurai cyberpunk tactical action RPG with immense customization, narrative choice, and innovative gameplay mechanic combinations, set in a world full of katanas, mega corporations, and elemental powers. Inspired by legendary classic titles such as Fire Emblem and Super Smash Brothers and more recent games like the Mass Effect series, Midnight Wave invites you to take part in a total genre mash-up adventure like no-other!

  • Innovative Combat: Plan your attacks on the tactical map, then battle them out in a platform fighter duel! No more RNG percentages. You control the action.

  • Old School Aesthetic: We’ve got pixel art vibes that’ll make you drown in nostalgia!

  • Narrative Choice: The story is yours, say what you want, do what you want, and make difficult choices that shape the world.

  • Characters and World: Everything is fleshed out! Explore and learn more about characters and the world, and watch as they react to your actions.

  • Customization: Customize all of your characters! Not just their equipment, but their appearance, class, and skills too! Unlike other games, in Midnight Wave tactical sprites, portraits, and platform fighter sprites all change appearance accordingly.

  • Elemental Combat: Wreak havoc on the battlefield with the elements! Freeze your enemies, burn them alive, or blow them away! Manipulate the environment to your advantage.

  • Local Multiplayer: Enjoy local multiplayer with up to four friends! Choose your character and fight head to head in platform fighter combat.

Midnight Wave on Steam