6 Near-Perfect Tactical RPGs With Creative Progression

A long, beefy tactical RPG is only as good as its progression systems. Role-playing games in general often live or die on the back of how well they handle progression, but it's even more crucial for turn-based titles. Unlike, say, an action RPG, which challenges players' reaction time and quick-thinking skills, a turn-based game has to work with a slower, more methodical moment-to-moment gameplay process.

Turn-based RPGs require players to strategize, which is naturally far more satisfying when approached from a long-term view. In other words, build-crafting and preparation are what make a turn-based RPG satisfying in the end, as those concepts result in well-planned, efficient, creative, or fulfilling gameplay experiences. And in the case of tactical turn-based RPGs, which generally factor movement and positioning into the equation, strong build-crafting, leveling, and progression mechanics are even more impactful. The following titles demonstrate just that.

Mewgenics

Mutate, Injure, Gear-Grind, Cross-Breed

Mewgenics is notably creative on several levels, from its sense of humor and music to its complex encounter design, but progression might be its tour de force. Building on other Edmund McMillen games like The Binding of Isaac, which has limited cross-run progression, I wasn't expecting much in this respect, but Mewgenics surprised me.

The core progression loop in Mewgenics revolves around breeding your various feline operatives. The stats of an offspring cat are calculated based upon the combined stat values of the parents, with better outcomes becoming more likely depending on how you customize your base. Mewgenics also considers factors like incest and mutations, which lead to all manner of complicated and unexpected effects in new cats, creating an unpredictable progression path that provides moments of elation and hilarious confusion in equal measure.

Final Fantasy Tactics

Career Mobility

Despite being well over 20 years old now, Final Fantasy Tactics feels like it could have come out last year. Its turn-based tactics remain incredibly sharp and easy to understand, and the ways you can develop and customize your party members help keep the game interesting over the course of its extensive campaign.

Each character's progression is split into two separate paths: character EXP and Job Points, or JP. Character EXP works the same way it does in a traditional RPG, and increasing a character's level communicates permanent stat increases. But JP increases independently of a character's level, allowing that character to grow more powerful within a particular Job (class), which can be swapped for another at any time between battles. When one unit gains JP for a given job, all characters get JP for that job, which further facilitates interesting, compelling team synergy.

Triangle Strategy

Simplicity Is The Heart Of Elegance

While its progression systems are definitely simpler and more linear than many of its contemporaries, it's actually this straightforwardness that allows Triangle Strategy to provide an exciting sense of overall growth. Unlike something like Final Fantasy Tactics, Triangle Strategy doesn't allow for freeform job-switching, but it makes up for that by having more unique, pre-defined squad members that develop in interesting ways over time.

Because of this, and a separate leveling system for weaponry, upgrading your characters in Triangle Strategy feels like a process of organic, meaningful exploration. You might not be crafting them to your precise specifications, but you are unfolding their potential and learning to better use them in conjunction with each other. For what it's worth, promoting characters to access higher levels requires the use of a finite in-game resource, so there is still some degree of player agency in the progression process.

Wartales

You Have To Take The Good With The Bad

Wartales is a grand-scale simulation game similar to something like Mount & Blade, but with a turn-based twist on its gameplay. Given this premise, it was essential for Wartales to offer an engaging progression system, and thankfully, that's precisely what it does.

It's the simulation elements of Wartales that make its progression work so well. Mercenaries you recruit for your team drain resources like food, and some units will even consume more resources due to the Negative Traits feature. Every unit has two positive traits and one negative, adding extra complexity to Wartales' recruitment mechanics. Assigning different jobs to units, thereby opening the door to new abilities and perks, while also wrestling with Wartales' resource management elements, makes long-term progression especially interesting and multifaceted.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Hit The Books

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is an exceptionally replayable tactical RPG, so it's not surprising that it has an interesting suite of progression mechanics. There's quite a dizzying number of different ways to improve each Three Houses team member; here are just a handful of them:

• Cooking to provide one in-game month's worth of buffs.
• Having "Support" conversations with characters to increase their Support Level, improving combat effectiveness.
• Training Byleth's staff with Faculty members.
• Holding class to upgrade units across specific vectors.

The expansiveness of Fire Emblem: Three Houses' progression system is admirable in and of itself, but these methods also come together quite nicely. That is to say, the game isn't just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, but rather presenting different pieces of a progression puzzle and letting the player put it together.

Star Wars Zero Company

Team-Building Exercises

Call it recency bias, but Star Wars Zero Company absolutely deserves praise for its incredible design, of which overall squad management is a major part. Something that especially stands out is Zero Company's unique bond mechanics, which essentially allow for endless improvement of your favorite characters.

Zero Company assigns a level of 1–8 for each pair in your team: protagonist Hawks has an 8-level bond scale with each squad member, but they all have separate bond levels with one another as well. Once a given pair's bond level increases, both characters get a stat buff, like increased melee damage or max health. This means that even if you're not especially drawn to a character, you will still be rewarded for bringing them on your missions, as they will bond with other squad members and thereby increase everyone's effectiveness.