A good tactical RPG has so much to offer – engaging storylines, deep characters, and of course compelling combat gameplay. It’s a genre that has inspired thousands of players and creators, some of whom go on to make their own games which in turn inspire others. Developers across the world are working hard right now to bring their dreams to life, and that means players can look forward to a full suite of TRPGs in 2022. Who knows – one of these titles could be the next classic!
In this list I have collected some of the most inspired Indie Turn-Based Tactics RPGs actually in development, some of them already covered in previous articles and interviews, and some of them made their debut on TBL. All the games are set to be released during 2022 except for one game that goes off the radar for some time now.
20 Top Upcoming Turn-Based Tactics RPGs set to be released during 2022
Zoria: Age of Shattering
Zoria: Age of Shattering blends turn-based tactical battles with deep exploration and base-building. Tiny Trinket Games has developed an expansive fantasy world for players to dig into, and there is an incentive to try each adventure multiple times. Different party members will unlock alternate routes and outcomes with their presence, so swapping members out can change the game in unexpected ways.
When battle is joined, the game switches to turn-based combat seamlessly. However, the world still turns as fights drag on; wandering enemies continue their rounds, and if they chance upon the battlefield they will join the fray. Covering entrances and exits, as well as scouting the area before engaging foes, will therefore provide new challenges not usually seen in Tactics RPGs.
Zoria: Age of Shattering will release in 2022, and a demo is currently available on its Steam page.
Wishlist Zoria: Age of Shattering on Steam
Wishlist Zoria: Age of Shattering on GOG
The White Raven
We recently interviewed the developers at Gatherround Games about their upcoming title The White Raven. While the game is still in the early stages of development, everything we’ve seen so far looks great. With hand-drawn characters, a gripping story, deep combat, and a plethora of relationship and romance options, The White Raven promises to be the full package.
The game is a long way off, but the best things are worth waiting for. Until it becomes available to Wishlist, players can support The White Raven by signing up for the email list at the official website or by contributing to the Kickstarter campaign when it launches later this year.
Sea Wolf: Tactics
This indie RPG from Brandt Software challenges players to defend a Viking settlement from an invading empire. Focusing on small-scale skirmishes, the combat sees bands of warriors striking quickly and decisively rather than engaging the full might of the enemy. Sea Wolf: Tactics also includes a strategic layer, allowing players to customize their units, engage with nearby villages, and plan their overall campaign to drive out the invaders.
Players looking for an extra challenge can accept Burdens from the gods. These extra challenges are more than simple handicaps – some of them change the rules of battle entirely. With less than a month to go before the game’s release on 1 March, it won’t be long before you can step up to the challenge and earn your place in Valhalla.
Wishlist Sea Wolf: Tactics on Steam
Shardpunk: Verminfall
Shardpunk: Verminfall is what might happen if Vermintide became a turn-based tactical game – apart from the one it was already based on, anyway. In this pixelated survival game, players must carefully manage their resources and stay on the move through a city infested with mutated, humanoid rats. Everything from rusty knives to fusion-powered lightning guns is used to combat the chittering menace, and players will have to make tough calls if they want to make it through.
Central to the game’s resource mechanic is the management of fusion cores, rare and valuable power sources. They can be used as weapons capable of destroying multiple enemies at once, but they also unlock doors to safe rooms where the team can heal. Releasing in 2022, Shardpunk: Verminfall looks to be the kind of game that will provide ample challenge, encouraging players to try again for just one more run.
Wishlist Shardpunk: Verminfall on Steam
The Way of Wrath
This upcoming title takes early warfare and makes it personal. With only ten days before an army arrives intent on annihilating your tribe, you have been granted the title of Warchief – and with it, absolute authority and the responsibility for everyone’s survival. Between sending warriors out to scout and raid, you’ll have to manage the gathering of supplies, the construction of defenses, and the resolution of disputes.
Every NPC in The Way of Wrath is unique, and their personalities will impact their decisions both on and off the battlefield. Your character’s origin and actions will have a direct impact on how your tribe perceives you, as well as how they fare in the final battle. The game is set to launch later this year.
Wishlist The Way of Wrath on Steam
Ignited Steel: Mech Tactics
The debut title from Yokaicade is a promising grid-based mecha combat game with a throwback anime look. Ignited Steel pits players against PharOS, a rogue AI that has taken control of military hardware across the galaxy. Force to deploy outdated mechs that can’t be overridden by their enemy, humanity calls for volunteer pilots from every corner of known space to combat the threat.
Like any proper mecha game, Ignited Steel allows players to customize each unit by swapping out parts, and each pilot is unique. The game’s roguelike nature means that new options will be unlocked with each playthrough, along with new stories and secrets to discover. Ignited Steel is expected to launch in Q1 of 2022.
Wishlist Ignited Steel: Mech Tactics on Steam
The Iron Oath
Curious Panda Games’ The Iron Oath puts players in charge of a medieval mercenary company in a gritty fantasy world. Unlike similar games such as Battle Brothers, The Iron Oath takes place over the course of decades and even centuries. Your roster will age, retire, and die (assuming they live long enough) and some of your contracts will be extremely long-term. Sure, you can defend a pass against invaders once, but can you do it consistently for fifty years?
The Iron Oath includes high-powered magic with flaming fists, power auras, and lightning bolts aplenty. The dramatic attack animations are some of the slickest we’ve seen, and the pixel art brings us back to the glory days of arcade beat-’em-ups. The release date hasn’t yet been finalized, but we’re definitely excited to see how this one turns out.
Wishlist The Iron Oath on Steam
Wishlist The Iron Oath on Humble
Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy
Absolute Tactics is a gorgeous-looking SRPG and the first title from developer Curious Fate. The game follows protagonist Huxley, who sets out with his dog Max to recruit heroes and fight off an invasion. Each new recruit can be heavily customized between 21 classes, and there is even an option for characters to multiclass.
The game also boasts several difficulty levels and post-game challenges like hardcore and horde modes. Absolute Tactics also promises to shake things up with enormous bosses and the occasional mass battle, expanding each side’s roster from a handful to dozens of units at a time for truly epic stakes. While there is not yet a release date listed, a demo is currently available for download.
Wishlist Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy on Steam
Wishlist Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy on GOG
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint
Inspired by tabletop RPGs like Shadowrun and Cyberpunk, the latter of which shares a universe with last year’s Cyberpunk 2077, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint introduces stealth and hacking to tactical heist gameplay. It’s a follow-up to the developers’ mobile title Cyber Knights RPG Elite, taking place 14 years after the events of that game. Chock-full of character upgrades and dynamic storylines fully in keeping with the classic subgenre, this is one you won’t want to miss.
Cyber Knights‘ characters all have personal backstories, each of which weaves into the larger narrative as their past catches up with them. If you liked the spy-action gameplay of Phantom Doctrine but wish it had more subdermal armor plating and wrist-blades, this 2022 release is the game for you.
Wishlist Cyber Knights: Flashpoint on Steam
Untamed Tactics
In fiction, an unreliable narrator is a device where the person telling the story isn’t giving the whole truth. Whether they are actively trying to deceive the viewer or they just don’t know the actual story, unreliable narrators make a great setup for surprises and twists. Untamed Tactics, the upcoming title from Grumpy Owl Games, looks poised to take that trope into the realm of tactical RPGs.
As a retired general tells old war stories to his grandchildren, the scars of his career come to the surface. As they relive Greycoat’s memories one by one, players will be able to piece together the truth hidden in his fireside tales. The game is bright and colorful, with anthropomorphized animals wielding blades in vicious combat (Greycoat himself is a rabbit). Grumpy Owl plans to release Untamed Tactics in Q1 of 2022.
Wishlist Untamed Tactics on Steam
Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner
The first title from Black March Studios looks like a sure thing for fans of classics like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre. Crimson Tactics takes place in a high fantasy world rife with war and betrayal. Like many games hoping to claim the pedigree of Final Fantasy Tactics, it boasts a robust class system and appealing anime visuals.
Unlike many tactical games, Crimson Tactics allows characters to be given mounts, including everything from horses to dragons. This adds another layer of strategy to the game and should lead to some thrilling in-game moments. The planned release for this Indie Tactics RPG is in March of 2022.
Wishlist Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner on Steam
Nilspace
Nilspace brings SRPG combat to the most dangerous battleground of all – high school. Through visual novel storytelling, players will explore the school, interact with other students, and do battle in alternate realities. The grid-based battles can be disabled if you prefer to just enjoy the story, but with over 70 playable classes it feels like that would be missing out.
Nilspace tracks the protagonist’s Free Time on a given day, similarly to the exploration mechanic used in the 3DS title Stella Glow. You can only take so many actions in a day, so you’ll have to make smart choices with your time. Class will begin sometime in 2022.
Silence Is A Lie
This story-driven tactics RPG takes place in the dark fantasy world inside the protagonist’s mind. As young Kim struggles to recover from a family tragedy, the vibrant battlefields within her provide a path forward. With 20 job classes available and many recruitable characters, the journey won’t be one Kim has to take alone.
Despite not reaching their Kickstarter goal, the developer for Silence Is A Lie continues to work on the game. Whether this setback will delay the game’s estimated Summer 2022 release remains to be seen.
Telepath Tactics Liberated
The full remake of 2015’s Telepath Tactics is fast approaching, with 14 March right around the corner. This SRPG takes Fire Emblem-style gameplay and introduces environmental hazards, destructible scenery, and push mechanics. It’s the kind of game where the environment is just as much a weapon – and a danger – as your soldiers.
In addition to the main game, Telepath Tactics Liberated will include a campaign editing mode, allowing players to create their own stories including cutscenes, dialogues, and of course battles. Whether you’re a fan of the original or curious to try the remake, it’s definitely worth checking out.
Wishlist Telepath Tactics Liberated on Steam
Shadow of the Road
The Boshin War was a year-and-a-half conflict in 19th century Japan that ended centuries of rule by the Shogun and restored power to the Emperor. The newly-empowered Meiji Emperor would push aggressively to modernize the country, making Japan an industrialized nation by the outbreak of World War I. Shadow of the Road places players in the middle of the Boshin War, throwing in magic and giant steampunk contraptions for good measure.
Players will be able to choose their side in the conflict, as well as determine how their characters choose to fight. Shogunate loyalists will likely prefer to use swords and magic as the samurai have for centuries, while supporters of the Emperor might choose to specialize in firearms or steam power. It’s an exciting take on a civil war that already gets a lot of attention in media.
No release date for the tactics RPG Shadow of the Road has yet been announced.
Wishlist Shadow of the Road on Steam
Grim Tranquility
After rendering Earth unfit for life due to centuries of exploitation and negligence, humanity is forced to seek a new home on far-off planets. Grim Tranquility tells the story of human settlers on alien worlds, and the game’s roguelite style means there will be a different planet with different stories in each playthrough.
Between battles against hostile alien lifeforms, the player will be faced with important decisions. Political battlefields will be just as important as physical ones. With a talented voice cast lined up, Grim Tranquility is sure to provide some moving, heart-pounding moments when it releases later this year.
Wishlist Grim Tranquility on Steam
Zodiac Legion
Zodiac Legion looks like an unexpected combination of XCOM and Diablo. Players take command of the Zodiac Order, a defunct knightly brotherhood, with the intention of restoring it to its former glory. Recruiting champions and sending them into the world’s dangerous dungeons leads to hex-based battles filled with destructible environments and powerful spells.
The game boasts visually appealing, well-animated pixel art from an isometric viewpoint. Each Zodiac Knight feels unique, but in the likely event that they are killed there’s always the option to bring them back (mostly) through research into necromancy. There is a demo available right now, with the game entering Early Access in June 2022.
Wishlist Zodiac Legion on Steam
Knights of Frontier Valley
Indie developer Adamant Studios is working to create an endlessly-replayable RPG in Knights of Frontier Valley. Each playthrough sees the player take control of an aspiring adventurer, trying a different class or faction each time. With a day/night cycle and dynamic characters, the world changes around you and reacts to your deeds.
Knights of Frontier Valley is a tactics RPG survival game, so players will need to be careful to stay alive – death is permanent, requiring a restart. If you can successfully retire after 20 years of adventuring, another run will result in a wildly different story. The game is expected to enter Early Access in late 2022.
Wishlist Knights of Frontier Valley on Steam
Urban Strife
Urban Strife is a post-apocalyptic SRPG in zombie-infested streets. Players will need to train and outfit their militia group, ally with or eliminate other groups in the area, and of course kill zombies by the truckload. Between missions, they’ll be tasked with upgrading their base of operations for both defense and self-sufficiency, ensuring that the survivors are safe, healthy, and – maybe – comfortable.
One selling point of Urban Strife that stands out is its realistic bullet physics and hit locations. That’s not the kind of thing that’s usually seen in a turn-based game, and could make for some unique gameplay if done well. We’ll be able to find out how this intriguing system turns out later this year when the game is released.
Wishlist Urban Strife on Steam
Stones Keeper
Stones Keeper is a mix of strategy management and tactical combat system. The player takes control of the Order of the Griffin and their flying Fortress and goes around completing quests, finding resources, battling in grid turn-based combat, and upgrading the castle for improvements and advantages.
Stones Keeper by SK Team is actually in development and set to be released on March 2022 but interested players could try the free available demo of this very promising tactics RPG on Steam.
Wishlist Stones Keeper on Steam
Now it’s your turn to let us know what you think about these 20 Indie Tactics RPGs set to be released sometime in 2022 in the comments below and let us know if we missed something that should be here, also, don’t forget to take a look at the video version of this article on the YT Channel.
