RPGs have come a long way since the days of choosing Fight, Magic, Item, or Run. From intricate systems to immersive open worlds, modern RPGs do everything they can to push boundaries while still appealing to fans. One of the earliest innovations was the introduction of a tactical map to battles, making positioning just as important as stats and builds.
Even in a simplified digital form, commanding troops on a battlefield is hard. One mistake or an unforseen act of fate can ruin your carefully-laid strategy, forcing you to improvise. These tactical RPGs are some of the most punishing challenges available.
9The Banner Saga
Mistakes Add Up
The Banner Sagais best known for its beautiful visuals and animation, and its series-spanning epic of a Viking clan’s struggle for survival. We tend to forget that the game is alsopretty darn hard… until we start a new campaign and are rudely reminded.
The biggest challenge is that your warriorslose attack power as they take damage; don’t expect any glorious last stands or heroic sacrifices in The Banner Saga. If a battle’s momentum starts favoring the enemy, you’ll find yourself in trouble quickly.
The Banner Saga Trilogy
The Banner Saga Trilogy is a tactical RPG series by Stoic Studio, all captured together in one release.
8Tactics Ogre
Classically Difficult
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Togetherwas a predecessor toFinal Fantasy Tactics. Like its more-famous cousin, Tactics Ogre tells a gripping and tragic war story through isometric grid-based battles with class-based progression. It’s also more challenging, which is saying something.
The battles in Tactics Ogre can be just as grueling as those in Final Fantasy Tactics, but its slower overall progression makes it harder to adapt for a particular fight. Therecent remake,Tactics Ogre Reborn, is a little more user-friendly, but not much.
7Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
Old-School Fire Emblem, But Somehow Harder
ClassicFire Emblemis infamously merciless. Every single character is vulnerable to permadeath, and in most cases an unlucky missed shot or a one-in-a-hundred crit from an enemy is all it takes to send them to an early grave. Not only does this kill off a character you might have grown attached to, it also permanently reduces the strength of your army for the rest of the game.
Thracia 776adds another layer of difficulty byadding a fatigue system. If a character takes too many actions in a single battle, they need to rest and can’t participate in the next one. If you’re not careful, you can run into a situation where you just don’t have enough battle-ready soldiers to actually stand a chance of winning
6Hard West 2
Your Strategy Is A House Of Cards
Hard West 2is a fun supernatural wild-west tale, but its combat means you’ll need to be patient and lucky to see it through to its conclusion. Shootouts against undead revenants and gunslinging desperadoes are fun, but you need to take big risks that don’t always pay off if you want to even the odds.
Killing an enemy fully refills a character’s AP, effectively letting them take an extra turn right away. Of course, if your setup goes awry, or you miss, you’llleave a teammate out in the openas easy pickings when the enemy fights back.
5Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
“Survivor” Probably Doesn’t Mean You
Shin Megami Tenseiis known for being a challenging, hardcore JRPG experience.It’s not for the faint of heart at the best of times, so adding a tactical layer onto the series' standard eighty-hour campaigns and ruthless boss fights only serves to up the challenge.
Like the main SMT games, you’ll have to spend a good amount of time grinding,training demons and fusing themto extract the powers you need. Don’t hold anything back - the game sure won’t.
4Ultima: Quest Of The Avatar
The Real Virtue Is Perseverance
The fourth game in theUltimaseries was released in 1985, and boasted a truly open world. The tactical combat is rudimentary but challenging, especially if you start in one of the game’s more dangerous regions.
That’s the thing about old-school open worlds; sure, you could go anywhere you want, but if you stumbled into a place you werewoefully unprepared for(usually without any warning), that was on you. If you managed to finish Quest Of The Avatar back in the day, I for one salute you.
3XCOM Series
99.9% and 100% Are Not The Same Thing
XCOMis theDark Soulsof strategy games, known first and foremost for its brutal difficulty. Commanding a team of elite soldiers, you’ll fight off an alien invasion one skirmish at a time. Even your best troops are a bad turn away from death, and when they die they’re gone for good.
There are no guarantees in XCOM. A unit can have an almost-certain chance of avoiding a lethal attack, butthere’s always a possibility they’ll get zapped.Sooner or later, the law of averages will catch up to you, and when it does, someone’s going to fall in battle.
2Jeanne d’Arc
You Might Need A Miracle
Based very loosely on the story of the legendary French heroine,Jeanne d’Archas a lot of cool systems that make it unique among tactical RPGs. The downside, of course, is that you’ll have to learn those systems from scratch and figure it out as you go.
In particular, learning to keep your units in a formation to take advantage of powers like Unified Guard takes a lot of getting used to. While this PSP title is a rewarding experience once you get the hang of it, its learning curve has certainly caused its share of players to move on in favor of something a bit easier.
1Battle Brothers
Every Encounter Could Be Your Last
In most games, once you’ve leveled up enough you’ll find you’ve outgrown some of the hardest parts.Battle Brothersis not one of those games. Even a routine encounter can leave your soldiers dead or permanently injured, making all the experience they’ve gained to that point useless. Even if your troops do manage to survive relatively unscathed, growth is slow and gear is expensive.
In a dark fantasy world filled with scheming nobles, ravening undead and bloodthirsty orcs, there’s no shortage of danger. Battle Brothers is a game where you’re never truly safe.
