Summary

• Turn-based combat allows players to focus on strategy, not reflexes.
• Cadence of Hyrule and Transistor offer unique spins on turn-based gameplay.
• Games like Divinity: Original Sin 2 offer freedom and creativity in battles.

Turn-based combat has been around since the early days of RPG and strategy games. This style of gameplay allow𝓀s players to focus on carefully assessing a situation and choosing what actions they'll take, allowing players to rely less on split-second reaction times as they would with physical challenges.

In this list, we will take a look at some of the best games with turn-based combat that you should try out if you're looking for some of the greatest hits in role-🔯playing and strategy games.

Updated December 8th, 2024 by Hilton Webster: Games ebb and flow, genres rise and fall, but turn-based games have never quite left the cultural zeitgeist. Being given that control, having to take the time to plan your attacks, it feels so empowering. We've given this list a tidying to make it more enjoyable, and added a few new games to test your tactical prowess.

18 ♐ Cadence Of Hyrule♕

aNintendo is rare to let other developers touch their games, and allowing an indie developer to make such a drastic departure from their typical style i✤s almost unthinkable. And yet that is exactly what Cadence of Hyrule is. And while not strictly turn-based, it elicits a similar feeling.

In Cadence ༒of Hyrule, like the ꦗCrypt of the Necrodancer that serves as its foundations, you must move in time with the beat to perform actions, and are punished if you fail. It's fast-paced, yet still requires you think fast between each beat. It will keep you on your toes at all times.

17 🌄 💙 Transistor

Supergiant Games have have bit an almost unprecedented popularity with Ha🍬des, it had been making incredible games before that too, and Transistor is one of them. Set in a dystopian future with a singer wit༒hout a voice, you just need to live in a world that actively denies your existence.

It's combat system is a fascinating blend of real-time and turn-based. While you can play fully in real-time, you can also freeze the game at any time and plan out a series of actions, moving faster than enemies can react to unleash a chain reaction of attacks that combo into each other. ♛It's a very unique system you should experience for yourself.

16 ✃ Unicorn Overlord

Unicorn Overl🃏ord pulls heavily from the Gambit system of Final Fantasy 12, though it's actual combat system couldn't be more different. What makes it so unique is that on🐠ce a battle actually begins, control is taken away from you entirely. You have to rely on the plan you put together beforehand.

As you explore the world of Unicorn Overlord, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:gathering new units and reclaiming your home, you'll have to build tactics for your team.ꦯ These tactics play out in combat, reacting to the enemies they battle. Your job is to set up tactics that can counter any situation, and hope they don't get slaughtered.

15 🎃 Phantom Doctrine

This white-knuc🐬kle spy thriller drops players into the height of the Cold War. Starting as an agent of either the CIA or the KGB, you'll unravel a worldwide conspiracy that threatens to upend the global order. The game adds a stealth elem♐ent to grid-based tactical gameplay as your agents use disguises, lockpicks, and silencers to get in and out of secure areas. When things go sour, you'll need to use your wits and your weapons to hold off until your team can be extracted... or cut your losses and strand your agents, risking their capture or worse.

Inspired by real events and (hopefully) fictional top-secret projects, Phantom Doctrine allows players to capture enemy agents on certain turns, interrogating them for intel before making them disappear. Alternately, you can send them home with a trigger phrase and strike your enemies from within. If you want high-stakes espionage with plenty of emergent narrative and tough calls, Phantom Doctrine is .

14 Dragon Quest 11: Echoes Of An Elusive Age - Definitive Edit💙ion ♓

As with other entries in the series, you don't need to play any of the previous games toꦑ jump right in with Dragon Quest 11. Here, you play as the Luminary, fated to save the world along with a strong and irreverent cast of fellow travelers. The battle system in Dragon Quest 11 is finely tuned, allowing easy entry for newcomers and seasoned RPG players alike.

The eleventh main entr𝓡y is a completely standalone experience that features new characters, a beautifully detailed world, and an immersive story that will keep you on your toes the entire journey. But perhaps most beloved of all is its fine-tuning of a decades-long series, bringing more bells and whistles to every battle without sacrificing its role as an icon among turn-based combat games.

13 XCOM 2

If you ever wanted a strategy RPG in which you control an organization dedicated to protecting the earth from an alien invasion, yet your trained soldiers miss the aliens' heads at point-blank range, then XCOM 2 is the game for you.

All jokes aside, this is a fantastic sci-fi tactical game where you must think strategically both in and outside of combat. Each character gets their own individual turns, during which they can mo♔ve, use skills, or attack. XCOM 2 builds on the original and gets you thinking more strategically since you have to make sure the right moves are executꦦed with each of your soldiers during combat and without getting them picked off one by one.

12 Darkest Dungeon ꧙

While it's one of the best turn-based combat games out there,168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Darkest Dungeon is not for the faint of heart. This is a game that will grind up your heroes and spit them back out with physical and emotional scars, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:permanent death always hangiꦚng o✨ver you. The player hires deeply-flawed adven💟turers to explore the ruins surrounding their vast estat𒊎e. These ruins are filled with nihilistic cultists, slavering undead, and cosmic horrors from beyond time and space.

The turn-based combat itself introduces a strategic positioning element; each hero and enemy fights in a single-file line, and most attacks can only be used from the correct position. Enemies can only be targeted if they're standing in the right spot, and dead foes leave corpses that need t☂o be cleared away in order to make room to maneuver. The result is a deep and deadly game of strategy where every choice matters and every turn could be a hero's last.

11 🌄 Final Fantasy 10

If you haven't played a Final Fantasy game, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 10 is a good entry point into the series. The game is centered around Tidus, a star blitzball player from Zanarkand, and Yuna, a summoner on a pilgrimage to defeat the ominous and myꦰsterious Sin, which brings pain and suffering to the people of Spira.

As a party of up to three, you'll enter random-encounter battles, fighting small and large foes in classic turn-based combat. With a gripping story, and an interesting sequel for th🌱ose wishing to extend their journey, the world of Final Fantasy 10 is a great place to start for newcomers.

10 Into t♊he Brꦏeach

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Into the Breach is a turn-based combat strategyꦛ game by the developers behind FTL: Faster Than Light. In this game, you are responsible for protecting civilian structures that support power grids. You protect said structures against aliens called the Vek by commanding mechs equipped with weapons.

While protecting the buildings is typically the main objective, there are often bonus objectives as well. Successfully achieving these bonuses often means thinking several turns ahead. It is an intense game, as the difficulty stays relatively high throughout the game, testing your strategic thinking constantly. We recommend Into the Breach if you're looking fo🍷r more chess and less checke🅠rs in terms of difficulty.

9 𝓡 Fire Emblem: Three Houses 🍬

In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fire Emblem: Three Houses, impending war is imminent,ꦏ regardless of the path you choose. As a professor at the Officer's Academy, you will oversee one of the eponymous three houses: Blue Lions, Black Eagles, or Golden Deer. Throughout the game, and depending on the path chosen, you'll lead your students in turn-based combat 🅷in various scenarios across the deeply troubled land of Fódlan.

Despite being called 'Three Houses', there a෴re eve🅠n more routes than that to explore, and a hefty DLC that adds even more to the base game. Regardless of what wya you play through the game, you're sure to have plenty of content and variety to keep you satisfied for a long time.