Tactical role-playing game
Tactical role-playing game, also known as strategy role-playing game or , is a video game genre that combines core elements of role-playing video games with those of tactical strategy video games. The formats of tactical RPGs are much like traditional tabletop role-playing games and strategy games in appearance, pacing, and rule structure. Likewise, early tabletop role-playing games are descended from skirmish wargames such as Chainmail, which were primarily concerned with combat.
Game design
This subgenre of role-playing video games principally refers to games which incorporate elements from strategy video games as an alternative to traditional role-playing game systems. Like standard RPGs, the player typically controls a finite party and battles a similar number of enemies. Like other RPGs, death is usually temporary, but this genre incorporates strategic gameplay such as tactical movement on an isometric grid. Unlike traditional RPGs which are traditionally single-player, some tactical RPGs feature multiplayer play, such as Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions.A distinct difference between tactical RPGs and traditional RPGs is the lack of exploration; for instance, Final Fantasy Tactics does away with the third-person exploration of towns and dungeons that is typical in a Final Fantasy game. Instead of exploration, there is an emphasis on battle strategy. Players are able to build and train characters to use in battle, utilizing different classes, including warriors and magic users, depending on the game. Characters normally gain experience points from battle and grow stronger, and are awarded secondary experience points which can be used to advance in specific character classes. Battles have specific winning conditions, such as defeating all enemies or surviving a certain number of turns, that the player must accomplish before the next map will become available. In between battles, players can access their characters to equip them, change classes, train them, depending on the game.
History
A number of early role-playing video games used a tactical form of combat, such as Tunnels of Doom and Ultima III: Exodus, as well as The Dragon and Princess and Bokosuka Wars, which introduced party-based, tiled combat to America and Japan, respectively. Further, tactical RPGs are descendants of tabletop role-playing games and wargames, such as Dungeons & Dragons and Chainmail, which were mainly tactical in their original form. Nevertheless, much of the development of tactical RPGs has diverged on each side of the Pacific, and the term "tactical RPG" is sometimes reserved only for those titles that were created in Japan.8-bit origins in Japan (1982–1990)
One of the earliest Japanese RPGs, Koei's The Dragon and Princess, was released on NEC's PC-8001 home computer platform in 1982. This game can also be considered a precursor to the tactical RPG genre. It used a combat system where, following a random encounter, the game transitioned to a separate, graphical, overhead battle screen, and tactical turn-based combat ensued. That same year, Tunnels of Doom used a similar combat system, as did Ultima III: Exodus released in 1983.During the 8-bit era, Bokosuka Wars, a computer game developed by Koji Sumii for the Sharp X1 in 1983 and ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System by ASCII in 1985, was responsible for laying the foundations for the tactical RPG genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan, with its blend of role-playing and strategy game elements. The game revolves around a king who must recruit soldiers and lead his army against overwhelming enemy forces, while each unit gains experience and levels up along the way. It is also considered to be an early prototype real-time strategy game.
Another notable early example of the genre was Kure Software Koubou's 1988 PC-8801 strategy RPG, Silver Ghost, which was cited by Camelot Software Planning's Hiroyuki Takahashi as inspiration for the Shining series of tactical RPGs. According to Takahashi, Silver Ghost was a simulation action type of game where the players had to direct, oversee and command multiple characters. Unlike later tactical RPGs, however, Silver Ghost was not turn-based, but instead used real-time strategy and action role-playing game elements. It also featured a point-and-click interface, to control the characters using a cursor. A similar game released by Kure Software Koubo that same year was First Queen, a unique hybrid between a real-time strategy, action RPG, and strategy RPG. Like an RPG, the player can explore the world, purchase items, and level up, and like a strategy video game, it focuses on recruiting soldiers and fighting against large armies rather than small parties. The game's "Gochyakyara" system let the player control one character at a time while the others are controlled by computer AI that follow the leader, and where battles are large-scale with characters sometimes filling an entire screen. Master of Monsters, developed by SystemSoft and released in 1989 for the MSX2, added fantasy characters and magic attacks to the gameplay of the wartime combat Daisenryaku series, which had instead opted for tanks, planes, and other vehicles of real-world modern combat. Master of Monsters also added experience bars for the character units, a concept which would be adapted and popularized by later console-based series like Fire Emblem. Unlike many other early titles in the genre, Master of Monsters made its way to the west via a port to the Sega Genesis in 1991, albeit only in North America.
However, the genre did not become prolific until Nintendo published the game that set the template for tactical wargame RPGs, Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi. Developed by Intelligent Systems and released exclusively in Japan for the Nintendo Famicom in 1990, Fire Emblem would become an archetype for the whole genre, establishing gameplay elements that are still used in tactical RPGs today, though many of these elements were influenced by earlier RPGs and strategy games. Combining the basic concepts from games like Dragon Quest and simple turn-based strategy elements that the development team gained experience with in their 1988 release Famicom Wars, Intelligent Systems created a hit, which spawned many sequels and imitators. It introduced unique features such as how the characters were not interchangeable pawns but each of them were unique, in terms of both class and stats, and how a character who runs out of hit points would usually remain dead forever. The latter mechanic was used to introduce a non-linear storyline to the genre, where different multiple endings are possible depending on which characters are alive or dead, a concept still used in recent games such as Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, and Final Promise Story. It was not until the release of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade for the Game Boy Advance, many years later, that the series was introduced to Western gamers, who until then were more familiar with localized precursors like Nobunaga's Ambition, as well as later tactical RPGs partially influenced by Fire Emblem, including the Shining and Ogre series and Final Fantasy Tactics, and Nippon Ichi games like Disgaea.
Eastern console history (1991–present)
16-bit consoles
During the 16-bit generation, among the first imitators was Langrisser by NCS/Masaya, first released for the Mega Drive / Genesis in 1991. It was translated for North American release and retitled Warsong. The Langrisser series differed from Fire Emblem in that it used a general-soldier structure instead of controlling main characters. Langrisser, too, spawned many sequels, none of which were brought to North America. Langrisser set itself apart from other tactical RPGs in its time with larger-scale battles, where the player could control over thirty units at one time and fight against scores of enemies. Since Der Langrisser in 1994, the series offered non-linear branching paths and multiple endings. The player's choices and actions affected which of four different paths they followed, either aligning themselves with one of three different factions or fighting against all of them. Each of the four paths leads to a different ending and there are over 75 possible scenarios. Langrisser III introduced a relationship system similar to dating sims. Depending on the player's choices and actions, the feelings of the female allies will change towards the player character, who will end up with the female ally he is closest with.Master of Monsters was a unique title by SystemSoft. Where Langrisser and Fire Emblem used a square-based grid, Master of Monsters used a hexagonal grid. Players could choose one of four different Lords to defend their Towers and areas on the grid by building an army of creatures to destroy the opposing armies. This game had a sequel for the PlayStation called Master of Monsters: Disciples of Gaia, which had limited success and was criticized for its slow gameplay. Both Warsong and Master of Monsters were cited as the inspirations behind the 2005 turn-based strategy computer RPG, The Battle for Wesnoth.
The first game in the long-running Super Robot Wars series is another early example of the genre, initially released for the Game Boy in 1991.
Another influential early tactical RPG was Sega's Shining Force for the Sega Genesis, which was released in 1992. Shining Force used even more console RPG elements than earlier games, allowing the player to walk around towns and talk to people and buy weapons. It spawned sequels, Shining Force II for Sega Genesis and Shining Force CD for Sega CD, besides the Shining Force Gaiden 1, 2 and 3 for Sega Game Gear and Shining Force III for Sega Saturn. The game's creator, Camelot Software Planning's Hiroyuki Takahashi, cited Kure Software Koubou's 1988 tactical RPG, Silver Ghost, as his inspiration. One game released solely in Japan for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Bahamut Lagoon, began Square's famous line of tactical RPGs.
Four games from the Ogre Battle series have been released in North America. The first was Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen was released for the SNES in 1993 and was more of a real-time strategy RPG in which the player forms character parties that are moved around a map in real-time. When two parties meet, the combat plays out with minimal user interaction. The game is notable for introducing a moral alignment system that not only affects the gameplay but where tactical and strategic decisions influence the outcome of a non-linear branching storyline, which is affected by factors such as the moral alignments of the troops used to liberate a city, whether to keep certain liberated cities guarded, making popular or unpopular decisions, concentrating power among just a few units, making deals with thieves, and a general sense of justice. These factors lead to one of 13 possible endings, alongside other factors such as how many and which units are used, how battles are fought, the army's reputation, player character's alignment and charisma, and secrets discovered.
The sequel, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, was originally a 1995 SNES game that was not released outside Japan. It was later ported to the PlayStation, along with Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. Both of the PlayStation re-releases were marketed in North America by Atlus, as was Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber for the Nintendo 64. Tactics Ogre's gameplay is more similar to the genre of tactical RPGs that Final Fantasy Tactics belongs to, complete with battles taking place on isometric grids. It was also the first to bear the name "Tactics" in the title, a term gamers would come to associate with the genre. Not only are characters moved individually on a grid, but the view is isometric, and the order of combat is calculated for each character individually. The game also expanded the non-linear alignment system of its predecessor, with three types of alignments for each unit: Lawful, Neutral, and Chaos, neither of which are portrayed as necessarily good or bad. The game gives players the freedom to choose their own destiny, with difficult moral decisions, such as whether to follow a Lawful path by upholding the oath of loyalty and slaughter civilian non-player characters on the leader's command, or follow the chaotic path by following a personal sense of justice and rebelling, or instead follow a more neutral path. Such factors affect the game's ending, which is also affected by decisions such as whether to obtain the most powerful class, which can only be acquired by making a tragic sacrifice. Another feature was "Warren's Report", a type of database on the land, people, encounters and races of Valeria. Although this game defined the genre in many ways, it was not widely recognized by American gamers because it was released to American audiences several years later. Final Fantasy Tactics shared some staff members with Tactics Ogre and shares many of its gameplay elements. A prequel to the original Tactics Ogre, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, was later released for the Game Boy Advance. A remake of Let Us Cling Together was later released for the PSP in 2011.
In 1996, the tactical role-playing game Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War also featured a non-linear branching storyline, but instead of using an alignment system, it used a relationship system resembling dating sims that gave players the ability to affect the relationship points between different units/characters. This in turn affected both the gameplay and storyline, with the different possible relationships in the first generation of the game's plot leading to different units/characters appearing during the second generation, ultimately leading to different possible outcomes to the storyline.