Welcome back, Gaming Graduates! In our last session, Poké-Emblem showed us how a fan’s wild “what if?”—what if Pokémon Red/Blue played like Fire Emblem?—became a full-fledged tactical RPG reality. That ROM-hack crossover turned Kanto into a grid-based battlefield, proving that tactical RPG combat can thrive in the most unexpected worlds. Today, we’re zooming out to explore other games that fuse classic turn-based, grid-based strategy mechanics with novel IPs, genres, and systems. These projects—from fan-made hacks to indie darlings to commercial titles—aren’t just gimmicks. They push the tactical RPG genre into new creative territory, blending design philosophies and gameplay mechanics in ways that make us rethink what a “tactics game” can be.
Whether it’s Nintendo’s icons trading jump-stomps for cover and overwatch, or indie developers mixing mechs with time travel, each example below showcases tactical RPG combat unleashed in innovative forms. Let’s dive into this tactical multiverse and see how these games wage war on grids in wonderfully unexpected or experimental ways.
Pokémon Conquest: Monster Collecting Meets Feudal Strategy
Before Poké-Emblem came onto the scene, Nintendo itself had already toyed with tactical Pokémon. Pokémon Conquest (2012) is an official crossover that blends Pokémon with the historical strategy series Nobunaga’s Ambition. The result? A turn-based tactics game where Pikachu and company battle for control of a feudal region.
Each battle plays out on grid-based maps with up to six Pokémon per side. Instead of experience points, your warriors form “Links” with their Pokémon, strengthening them over time. You can link with multiple Pokémon, but only one can reach the max level of 100% bond. Evolutions, movement ranges, terrain gimmicks, and type matchups all fold into this strategy-first reimagining of Pokémon.
Outside of combat, you manage territory: capturing castles, recruiting warlords, and expanding your kingdom month-by-month. It’s an elegant combination of grand strategy and monster collecting. Pokémon Conquest remains one of the boldest examples of tactical fusion in mainstream gaming, and a perfect precursor to Poké-Emblem’s own remix ambitions.
Mario + Rabbids: Mushroom Kingdom Meets XCOM Mayhem
The Mario + Rabbids series redefined expectations. What looked like a strange, even laughable, crossover between Mario and Ubisoft’s Rabbids turned out to be one of the most accessible and satisfying tactics games in years.
Combining the cover mechanics and squad tactics of XCOM with the whimsy of the Mushroom Kingdom, players assemble three-character teams and bounce around vibrant grid maps. Mario and friends can team jump, dash, and combo their way through enemy squads. Later entries, like Sparks of Hope, expanded on this formula with freeform movement, elemental upgrades via Sparks, and even real-time environmental interactivity.
The genre conventions are respected, but never calcified. Movement is kinetic. Combat is fast. And the mechanics are just deep enough to keep veterans invested while bringing newcomers into the fold. Mario + Rabbids proves that even the most family-friendly franchises can thrive in the crucible of turn-based strategy—with enough flair and polish to win over skeptics.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns: Superheroes and Deck-Building Tactics
Developed by the minds behind XCOM, Marvel’s Midnight Suns combines superhero team battles with deck-building combat. Instead of giving every hero a list of static abilities, the game builds tension through card draws. You draw a hand of abilities at the start of each turn, then must choose the best combo given limited plays.
Cards include attacks, buffs, and powerful Heroic abilities. Many incorporate mechanics like Knockback, letting you shove enemies into hazards or teammates for bonus effects. Add to this the ability to interact with the environment—hurling furniture, dropping lights, blasting enemies into explosive barrels—and you get tactical layers that go well beyond the grid.
Midnight Suns also incorporates social simulation elements. Between battles, you build friendships with iconic Marvel heroes, unlocking bonuses and narrative moments. By pairing dynamic card-based combat with RPG progression and character interaction, the game manages to break genre norms while still respecting tactical roots.
Persona 5 Tactica: Phantom Thieves Infiltrate the Strategy Grid
Persona 5 Tactica reimagines the turn-based JRPG combat of Persona 5 as a tactical grid battler. While the franchise is known for exploiting weaknesses to chain turns, Tactica replaces this mechanic with battlefield manipulation. Elements like Wind or Psychic now control enemy position rather than granting extra actions, aligning better with tactical pacing.
Cover becomes central. Characters crouch behind walls to reduce damage and set up advantageous attacks. The highlight mechanic is the Triple Threat system: position three characters around an enemy and you can unleash an All-Out Attack for massive damage. The game plays more like a puzzle box than a power fantasy.
Outside of battle, you manage Personas via a simplified Velvet Room. Sub-Personas allow you to customize skills, while fusion remains a tool for refining your roster. Tactica trims the social sim elements and dives deep into tactics-first design, offering a surprisingly crunchy experience beneath its chibi aesthetics.
Chroma Squad: Power Rangers Management and Tactical Poses
A love letter to Super Sentai and Power Rangers, Chroma Squad casts players as stunt actors who leave their TV studio to form their own indie tokusatsu show. The twist? Every battle is actually a TV scene—and your audience ratings depend on how stylishly you fight.
Combat follows a turn-based format with some clever additions. The “Teamwork” mechanic lets characters pose to boost allies’ moves or extend their reach. Chain enough teammates together and you can unleash a full-party finisher with custom names and effects. You’re rewarded not just for winning, but for fighting theatrically.
Between fights, you run your studio—casting actors, crafting costumes, upgrading mechs, and managing your budget. The result is a fusion of tactical combat and light management sim that’s as much about how you fight as it is why. Chroma Squad is one of the best examples of tactical design used for meta-narrative play.
Into the Breach: Kaiju Chess and Timeline Hopping
Into the Breach is a minimalist tactics game from the creators of FTL, focused on bite-sized encounters that demand perfection. Each mission lasts only a few turns. Every enemy telegraphs its next action, giving you full visibility to plan. There are no dice rolls. No misses. Just clean, deterministic design.
The twist? You can’t stop every threat. You must choose which building to let fall, which mech to sacrifice, which attack to redirect. The battlefield becomes a chessboard of tough trade-offs. Pushing enemies, blocking spawns, and using environmental hazards becomes key.
Death isn’t the end—just a shift in timelines. If you lose, one pilot is sent back to the beginning to try again. This time-loop structure supports roguelike progression, encouraging experimentation. In its lean, no-luck design, Into the Breach proves that tactics games don’t need XP bars or hit percentages to offer high-stakes decision-making.
Banner Saga: Viking Saga Meets Turn-Based Strategy
The Banner Saga trilogy melds tactical combat with Oregon Trail-style travel across a dying Norse world. Its minimalist turn system alternates player and enemy moves one-for-one, regardless of how many units each side has. This means defeating enemies too quickly might give their surviving units more turns—a fascinating inversion of typical TRPG incentives.
Health and attack power are linked: the more damage you take, the less you deal. This leads to a unique rhythm where “softening” enemies becomes more important than outright killing them. Positioning, tempo, and durability trump raw numbers.
Outside combat, you’re managing a caravan of refugees. Choices you make—who to help, when to fight, what route to take—affect who survives. Characters can die in story events or from poor resource planning. It’s a strategy game where your tactical victories are measured not just in enemies defeated, but in people saved.
Disgaea: Pushing Tactical Systems to Absurd Heights
Disgaea is what happens when a tactical RPG dials every number to eleven. Level cap? 9999. Damage numbers? In the billions. It’s absurd on purpose, embracing grind and chaos as playstyles.
You can reincarnate characters to rebuild their stats. You can throw allies across the map to reach enemies faster. You can chain Geo Panel effects to trigger map-wide explosions that wipe out everything. It’s a playground of min-maxing and system abuse.
There’s also the infamous Item World—randomly generated dungeons inside weapons. The more floors you clear, the stronger the item becomes. This endgame content can stretch for hundreds of hours, offering deep complexity for players who love numbers, combos, and system tinkering. It’s not for everyone, but for some, it’s the most open-ended TRPG ever made.
Super Robot Wars & Project X Zone: Crossover Madness
If you like crossovers, Super Robot Wars is the genre’s mecha-fueled cathedral. These Japan-only tactics games pull in characters from dozens of anime—Gundam, Evangelion, Mazinger Z—and pit them against one another in sprawling strategy campaigns. Each unit’s special attacks are animated with loving detail, and narrative justifications for the crossover are hilariously elaborate.
Project X Zone takes a similar approach for video games. It blends characters from Capcom, Namco, and Sega (think Ryu, Jill Valentine, and characters from Xenosaga) into a turn-based game with real-time combo mechanics. It’s not as deep tactically, but it’s a celebration of fanservice and mechanical experimentation.
Both series show how tactics games can serve as the ultimate genre blender, creating fireworks through sheer scale and homage.
Conclusion: Tactical Creativity Knows No Bounds
From indie innovations to AAA experiments, from crossover chaos to stripped-down puzzles, these games prove that tactical RPGs are more versatile than ever. The grid-based combat format is not a constraint—it’s a canvas. Want to blend Sentai parody with stat crunching? Go for it. Want to make Pokémon about conquering kingdoms? Why not.
What matters is intentionality and execution. The best of these games go beyond novelty. They adapt mechanics to theme, explore new rhythms of play, and invite players to think differently. Whether you’re blasting enemies with elemental cards or flinging penguins into lava, tactics games can surprise, delight, and challenge in countless forms.
So here’s to the grid, and to every developer bold enough to redraw it.