Best Tactical JRPGs On The PS5

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

16 Best PS5 Co-Op Games With Great Stories, Ranked

Players who want to dig deep into a good story with their friends should be sure to check out these PS5 games.

Posts

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

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 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?

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.

Posts

By  Mark Sammut

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 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 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

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.

Posts

By  Tristan Jurkovich

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 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

• 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.