games

You're already based so you don't need anything else to turn based

But if you haven't played it yet, get yourself Into The Breach, it's by far my favorite turn-based game of all time and it's not even close

I really liked Symphony of War: The Nephelim Saga. The story is mid as hell but the gameplay scratched an itch that I didn't know I had (this was before Unicorn Overlord). It's Fire Emblem but your units are squads that have fun class dynamics that are cool without being so complex it needs player scripting. A few of their character designs are kinda , but not uncommonly so.

The devs literally edited my save file after a big patch broke my save and sent it back to me, so I'm partial to them.

If you want something modern but traditional, Dragon Quest 11.

Does Baldur's Gate 3 count as a turn based RPG?

The Pathfinder games ($3.99, $11.99) and Shadowrun: Dragonfall ($3.74) are on sale for cheap.

Hard West is only $2 and it's pretty good, X-COM style but with named characters and more story focused and a kinda quirky luck system where shots automatically miss if you have enough but it lowers your luck, getting hit gives you luck back, and you can also spend luck on abilities, so if you're behind cover and just get grazed it can work to your advantage. There's also a sequel ($8.99) that I haven't played.

X-COM 2 ($3.99) and Darkest Dungeon ($3.74) are cheap, but if you're interested in those you've probably already played them. Into the Breach ($7.49) is also good.

Wildermyth ($17.49) is an interesting little indie game. You start out with three characters who are random people who rose to the occasion to become adventures, and encounter random events that can develop them in different ways. The stories are pretty well-written, but they are self-contained, which allows them to be incorporated into your own random characters' stories, but they don't like tie together into a larger story. It's kind of a unique approach and works... ok. The combat system works well, easy to understand, but with more choices available as you level up.

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark ($4.49) is heavily inspired by FF Tactics but the story is forgettable and you're playing as a fantasy cop, on the plus side the gameplay is less janky and the classes are better balanced compared to FFT, imo.

Super Lesbian Animal RPG ($9.74) I haven't played but I vaguely remember hearing something good about somewhere and am thinking of picking it up.

I got four recommendations, all great and only one of them on sale lol

1. MARDEK: Late 2000's flash game classic RPG, updated semi recently. A solid nostalgia trip for those who played it back in the day and overall a great RPG with a deeper than average story and a fantastic engine that makes me wish it was open source

2. OMORI : Psychological "horror" that's more tragic than scary. One of those games best headed into blind so I will say little but it's the most "objectively" good on the list, in general consensus

3. GRIFTLANDS: Not really what comes to mind with turn based RPGs but it's a great little deckbuilder rougelite that I've spent an ungodly amount of hours on for what amount of content is in it, complete with some rich characters and decent story and worldbuilding for what it's worth

4. EPIC BATTLE FANTASY 5: Silly, tongue in cheek, juvenile humor next to one of the most in depth turn based battle games I've ever seen. It's silly veneer and charming graphics hide some real deep turn based combat gameplay, and it's the only game on this list that's actually on sale right now

It isn't on sale, but Fear & Hunger is only 8 dollars and I can provide a torrent (albeit only for the linux native version). I have never felt so disturbed, weak, and scared from a game as I have from Fear & Hunger. It's very rough around the edges and take each trigger warning with extreme heed, but is a wonderful game about failure and body horror. I love the way it explores erotophobia in a way that isn't titillating, but rather makes you want to shower in the dark for a week after playing it. It is a turn based RPG with amputation-based combat, no leveling system and a lot of struggling. The charecter designs and monsters are all top notch, I personally love how Le'garde and Ragnavaldr are drawn, Sylvian and Marriage both capture the cosmic horror vibes pretty well, and the Harvestmen and Uterus are great monster concepts.

Oh, and beware of the Crow Peckers.

SKALD: Against the Black Priory just got a big update and it's on sale for less than 12 bucks. It's a Commodore 64-styled RPG modeled after the old Ultima games and it's fantastic. Lots of Lovecraftian elements as well, if you're into that.

Is BattleTech on sale? I enjoy that one a lot

XCOM and XCOM 2 are both pretty great turn-based tactics games with gradual progression, same for Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus. Seconding the rec for Shadowrun Dragonfall, it's solid. Returns isn't as good, and I own but haven't played Hong Kong so can't recommend it.

Haven't played it myself, but one of my friends quite liked Marvel Midnight Suns, and he's not even a marvel fan.

Just realized most of these aren't actually RPGs, but hey if Steam says they are then who am I to disagree?

I'm really into vaguely- or extremely-Earthbound-like games. Since Omori was already mentioned (and it's the best of that subgenre along with grandpa OFF and Undertale), I'll mention the Endless Empty, which is a giant CW for suicide and drug abuse, and also admittedly kind of buggy. Also I don't see it currently on sale despite it mechanically being very much a conventional RPG, so I guess that defeats the point of the comment, but it might go on sale on a later day! On a related note, Nepenthe (which is like if Undertale was written by Toby Fox's dad), is also not on sale.

Let's see . . . there's LISA and its offshoots, with basically every content warning short of snuff being applicable to those, and also it's full price right now . . . West of Loathing is cool and I assume the sequel is too, and those are actually on sale. Suits: Absolute Power is pretty good and also on sale. In Stars and Time is on sale and I really recommend playing the demo first because a) it is a better game and b) it doesn't have the same impact if you know what you learn in the full game. Neither Hylics 1 or 2 are currently on sale, which is unfortunate, because those are up there.

Moonring is free but also more of a CRPG I guess and also not Earthbound-like (which, to be clear, all the previous games are). Virgo and the Zodiac isn't substantially Earthbound-like but it's a good rpg on sale. "Get in the Car, Loser!" could only be more of a Hexbear sim if it was a) actually Bolshevik or b) framed around a trainride instead of a roadtrip, but as-is you're still a gang of transbians/cisbians fighting industrial demons and doing dumb quips, and it's also not on sale yet (I got it when it was free).

Uh, Franzen and Grimm's Hollow are both pretty good and they are free last I checked.

I don't know, I think this mostly wasn't very helpful, I just like RPGs.

I haven't played Cesspool but it seems neat and it's at a large discount

I didn't bought anything in steam sales in ages, since they changed Poland regional pricing to same as Germany and UK (countries with 5 times more median wages). I love (/s) how the games with -50% sale still cost the same as new games before pricing change and sales are usually 10-35% now. But i guess that was deserved prize for successfully reducing most of piracy in Poland.

but looking there, some worth playing:

• Symphony of War, strategy not RPG, but damn good one in the old style, price is decent
• King Arthur: Knight's tale, also more strategy than RPG and also very good, price is ok-ish but i wouldn't buy
• Pathfinder WoR, was in Humble month ago or so, so the price isn't very appetizin, but i guess worth it if you missed
• Dragon Quest IX - would be great game but PC port have traditionally borked controls, like really frigging borked
• X-Com 2 -95% lol still best game in genre after 8 years
• Atom RPG - poor brother of Fallout, but if you want to shoot AK-47 and exorcise evil spirits with the name of CPSU, the price is good
• Encased - rather B-class but good rpg and for good price. Was free on Epic some time ago tho

Tactical Breach Wizards!

I greatly recommend Sea of Stars, it is on the shorter side and have some issues with the ending and some character arcs, but I still found it extremely endearing and made me very comfy during most most of it and made me felt as if I was playing some strange reflection of Chrono Trigger.

Extra recommended if you also enjoyed The Messenger, as it has direct connections.

seconding XCOM 2, its incredibly fun and the amount of community mods it has lets you play dress up with your soldiers, but you have to get the War of the Chosen DLC because it makes it way better

I pirated Black Book and it's nice

Songs of Conquest has been something I've been eye-ing but idk. Maybe someone here who has played it can get back to me.

If you liked the old Fallout CRPGs or the Wasteland sequels, I'd recommend Encased. It's on sale right now and provides a surprising range of ways solve the game's various problems.

Silent Storm (and its expansion Sentinels, they're sold together as Silent Storm Gold Edition), an XCOM-style game set in WW2 (with some sci-fi elements, like dieselpunk mechs that show up later on), featuring awesome environmental destruction mechanics. It's got a lot of jank, but it's still really cool.

This is the post that finally got me to quit lurking and make an account, cuz boy, do I have some good turn-based slop to offer everyone that I have not seen listed here yet and the sale is still going on:

Sale

-"Our Adventurer Guild" ($11.99, -20%): The most well-executed fantasy XCOM-like that I've played thus far, both in the combat layer and the hub layer. Plot and side characters are corny, character artwork wouldn't look out of place in Flash-era AdventureQuest, but if you don't mind that, party compositions have a lot of viable variety, character classes have a variety of mechanics and depth, and one can make some pretty wacky builds. Lots of aspects of difficulty can be customized according to a slider, and if that's not enough, you can configure a custom .ini to adjust some of the other hub layer mechanics. Developer is very active in responding to suggestions and feedback, which is why the difficulty sliders were implemented. Has a demo people can download and try out.

-"Stolen Realm" ($9.99, -50%): A low-poly version of the Divinity: Original Sin series, with its emphasis on interactivity between elements. Single-player but can be played online or couch co-op, comes with a structered “Story” mode or a quick “Roguelike” mode that’s all advancing from one combat round to the next. Players and enemies ragdoll into the ether when defeated, and with no restrictions on equipment or skill choice, players can come up with ridiculous gimmick builds. For the most part performs great, but when you get into the late to end-game and are stacking and unleashing multiple effects on the field, performance can become a little intense.

-“Horizon’s Gate” ($9.99, -50%): Pixel-art RPG with an emphasis on naval exploration, though majority of combat is done in dungeons on land. Gameplay loop heavily incentivizes exploration of the world and looking through item descriptions, with the caveat that you’re essentially compelled to engage in naval trading to gain income to manage your food supplies, but a dedicated mod community on Steam Workshop alleviates that and provides plenty of dungeons. Has a lot of different, mechanically-varied fantasy races that do not seem to be derived from traditional RPG properties, with humans taking a backseat both mechanics-wise and lore-wise. Combat system is also focused on interactivity with elements in the vein of D:OS. You can also buy this game and other Rad Codex RPGs on itch.io, though they are not currently on sale. All the Rad Codex games are good quality, but each entry has different narrative framing and gameplay emphasis, but the same combat core. Big fan of this one and “Alvora Tactics”, which is a straight party-based dungeon crawler where you explore the corpse of a Big Snake. The sequel, “Kingsvein” is also currently on sale for $14.99, -25%.

-“Wasteland 3” ($7.99, -80% for base game. $13.32, -79% for base + DLCs): Post-apocalytic RPG from a studio founded by one of the founders of Interplay, which created OG Baldurs Gate and Fallout. CEO appears as a mob boss, and you can shoot him. Help out a robot commune, fuck up a Reaganite cult, support a workers’ uprising in a steel mill. Much to see in the frozen hell of Colorado and many kinds of guns to shoot with.

-“Jagged Alliance 3” ($22.49, -50%): In which you send mercenaries out to a Francophone Global South nation to questionably make the chaotic situation there better and more likely make it worse. You do have the option to help out a communist national liberation movement in the north which is dope.

The ability to customize contemporary firearms is standout, and mods on the Steam Workshop that add more guns further increase this capability. Different types of guns have different abilities they work best with, making a pistol build quite useful compared to IRL.

-“Monsters’ Den: Godfall” ($4.49, -70%): The most recent iteration of a party-based dungeon crawler that started out as a Flash game. Good for spending a few hours at a time, not the biggest fan of Diablo-like loot systems in general. Whole collection is available on Steam and can be gotten for like, less than $10 if feeling nostalgic.

-“Sonny Legacy Collection” ($8.99, -10%): Not part of the Steam Turn-Based Festival sale, but special mention due to one of the Flash-era turn-based RPG greats being available on Steam. Does not, contrary to the description, seem to be a modernization of the game, just a straight port of Sonny 1 and 2 from the Flash-era version, with all the same bugs and exploits.

-“Crown Wars: The Black Prince” ($27.99, -30%): Overall mid, medieval XCOM-like set during the Hundred Years’ War. Am a fan of the concept, particularly the flashy finishers and playing around with low-fantasy classes, and combat is fun. Game seems to be poorly optimized, with a number of anecdotal player reviews alleging high GPU temp spikes, English voice acting does not appear to have much if any direction, and developers do not seem to respond to or check feedback, whether through forms, Discord, or Steam. Sail the high seas for it if you want to try it out, wasn’t able to find a fully updated version at the time I played, but it should prob be easier to do so now that it looks like the developers are done with updates to the game. -“Himeko Sutori” ($4.74, -75%): An army-based game in the style of Ogre Battle, for all you Ogre Battle-heads out there. Haven’t played this yet, since I’m more interested in the sequel project, “Septaroad Voyager”, which is a party-based RPG based on the Gambit system in Final Fantasy XII (also resurfaced somewhat in Pillars of Eternity II), so don’t really have too much to say. The developer’s defining characteristic as comes across in interviews is that he worked at the CIA before being disillusioned, leaving the agency, and turning to game dev instead, which like, lmao.

-“Caravaneer 2” ($4.79, -20%): Flash-era post-apocalytic game with a heavy emphasis on trading and resource management, lots of inspiration from OG Fallout, kinda a grade above the other Flash games of the time. Developer seems to be a Ukrainian anarchist or anarchist-sympathetic, given that Noam Chomsky and Nestor Makhno are hireable characters (he also recently released a free game that is explicitly pro-Ukraine, so oof, lol).

-“Knights of the Chalice 2” ($38.24, -15%): Kinda torn on whether to recommend this. For one, the developer is a certified libertarian crank, as his website has a section called “Libertarianism” which leads to his book he wrote on taxation, and the table of contents for his book is full anti-communist sections. Also reflected in the absurdly high pricing for a game that was Kickstarter-funded, and the paltry discounts he offers (this is probably the lowest price I’ve seen it). Some questionable choices in the game as well! Tutorial has one female party member that joins up whose dialogue is just… infantile and kinda gross. Tutorial and main campaign is stacked with unfair fight after unfair fight, ambushes at every corner, reinforcements appearing out of nowhere. Kudos to the dev in this one instance, enemies will pull out every mechanic at their disposal to kill you. Even when adjusting all the difficulty options to easiest, this game is very much an endurance test. Lots of homebrew DND classes added in, but difficulty of game can vary dramatically depending on which classes are picked. Sail the seas for this one.

Not on sale

-“Creator of Another World/異世界の創造者” ($18.99): Roguelike party-based RPG in which the isekai concept makes the leap from print media back to video game form, truly innovative. Labels itself casual in difficulty, so its a comfortable power fantasy to settle into, but also has classic JRPG gameplay elements like post-game dungeons and plot and extremely long dungeons. Has a demo to try out.

-“Together in Battle” ($19.99): Has its origin in the Flash-era “Telepath RPG” series, and worldbuilding continues to make use of that setting. An arena battler still in early access where you manage a team of gladiators, but seems to have a level of competent writing so far in comparison to other indie games on this list in terms of plot writing and character interaction. I think it has the potential to be another successful XCOM-like when it hits full release in terms of hub-level management, but even in early access I very much enjoy the gameplay loop.

Special shoutouts to “Divinity: Original Sin 2”, the predecessor to Baldur’s Gate 3 that had a combat and skill system that inspired quite a few of the other games listed above, and “Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire”, which barely counts by dint of including a turn-based mode, we love a game where you can choose to rep an anti-colonial struggle and oust two different factions of colonizers. Also I vastly preferred Pillars of Eternity to its contemporaries in Pathfinder, it just does not require an encyclopedic-level knowledge of the Pathfinder class system to get started, and I prefer RPG systems that stray further away from tabletop mechanics.