These are the upcoming Turn-Based Games I’ll be watching closely between now and the end of the year.
With the releases of Slay the Spire II (Early Access) and Mewgenics already this year, it has never been a better time to love turn-based games; however, the best is yet to come!
The rest of the year is littered with highly anticipated titles. The big-budget and highly anticipated Star Wars: Zero Company looks to marry the iconic IP with the thoughtful tactics of modern XCOM. If that isn’t to your taste, fear not! A plethora of intriguing titles are also forthcoming across the spectrum of the turn-based genre. Let’s take a look at my most anticipated for the rest of the year.
Star Wars: Zero Company
- Release Date: 8/27/26
- Developer: Bit Reactor
- Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series & PC
Zero Company is easily my most anticipated game of the year by far. It has been on my radar since its reveal early last year. Boasting several Firaxis veterans (of modern XCOM fame) Bit Reactor is looking to come out swinging with this first release. Star Wars meets XCOM is a dream come true for many of us in the (outer) space.
Developed by Bit Reactor, formed in 2021 by ex-Firaxis devs who are responsible for some of my favorite tactics and strategy games (Modern XCOM & Civilization). The talent behind some of my favorite games matched with an IP with deep lore and distinct aesthetics results in my theoretical dream game! Execution and expectation are a dangerous dichotomy, so I am trying (unsuccessfully) to temper my expectations.
If Zero Company wasn’t a dream project from devs I want to succeed, nay, flourish, I’d be skipping this entry along with the rest of Electronic Arts’ catalog.
Despite the specter of EA haunting Bit Reactor and thus, Zero Company, there is simply too much here for me to love. Tactical, turn-based combat against overwhelming odds? Seconds please! Throw in the acting talents of the hilarious Vic Michaelis (of Dropout fame) and the best parts of Star Wars storytelling in my view: a small and focused narrative, and you have a recipe for excitement! My blaster is primed for Zero Company.
Warhounds
- Release Date: 8/11/26
- Developer: Everplay DMCC
- Platform: PC
The first game by Dubai-based Everplay DMCC wears its inspiration on its sleeve with nods to modern XCOM in its initial Steam trailer. The short video features a shot of soldiers sitting across from one another in the back of some sort of military craft. Definitely not a Skyranger at all!
Despite Warhounds being the independent studio’s first outing, expectations are high as they report over 100k wishlists for the game promising true ballistics and lethal tactics. This illustrates both the hunger for more tactical turn-based games as well as the ever-present thirst for more XCOM. We turn-based lovers will take anything we can!
The visuals from the trailer and stills released betray little beyond a fairly ‘military video game’ aesthetic that has plenty of room to surprise.
Hopefully the purportedly lethal tactics and strategic base-building layers make up for the somewhat bland visual identity. Lovers of the genre have a pretty high threshold of forgiveness as long as the simulation allows for meaningful connections with the soldiers. Here’s hoping Warhounds has the bite we’re all hoping for!
Shroom and Gloom
- Release Date: Q3 2026
- Developer: Team Lazerbeam
- Platform: PC
Ever since Shroom and Gloom’s trailer debuted last year during New E3/Summer Games Fest, I’ve been champing at the bit to get my hands on it! The fresh visuals blend with unique card mechanics, pushing this game near the top of my most anticipated games.
The visual style mixes hand-drawn art that is the right amount of spooky and gross with a dash of ickiness that pulls it all together. This, combined with purposefully dim colored lighting, made this game grab my attention immediately.
The first-person perspective is not necessarily my favorite; however, the card-based combat deckbuilding is my cup of tea that I’ll happily drink piping hot! The grotesquely cute characters of Shroom & Gloom are vaguely reminiscent of Slay the Spire, while still maintaining a distinct visual identity.
Team Lazerbeam’s spin on the deckbuilding roguelike genre includes cards to be gained and used outside of combat, such as a key to open chests and doors, a shovel to dig up surprises, or a tool to smash locks. These mechanics could be the secret sauce this game needs to break into the crowded space.
Combolands
- Release Date: 8/24/26
- Developer: Crux Games
- Platform: PC
Speaking of unique spins on the genre: enter Combolands. Created by self-described ‘tiny team’ Crux Games, Combolands is the first (as far as I know) roguelike city builder!
A team of only two people had a great idea and is seeing it through here. Players will start a run on a procedurally generated island where they will control how a small village grows into a large, thriving metropolis. Rendered in a colorful, retro pixel art style, Combolands hopefully hides a depth of strategy behind the simple, colorful layers.
The player will level up with various guilds that will unlock new buildings, which will unlock more options that will unlock more!
It seems the game is built to attract both city-builder sickos and newbies alike. Combolands features a roguelike system that likely won’t suck away hours of your life at a time fighting inevitable traffic jams (looking at you Cities: Skylines). Distilling city-building into a focused and higher-stakes experience may be the secret sauce we are all craving without the multi-hour time investment into a single city.
Sometimes, two great tastes taste great together. Chocolate and vanilla! Jelly and peanut butter! Roguelike and citybuilder?! Maybe! Will two seemingly dissimilar design ethos combine to make something truly special? We’ll find out soon enough!
Ledgerbound
- Release Date: 8/11/26
- Developer: OmniMegaSuperCorp
- Platform: PC
Ledgerbound caught my attention when I heard about the premise: you lead a group of heroes with the all-important task of protecting the most precious commodity of all: Bureaucracy! As anyone who’s stood in line at the DMV knows, we must protect the paperwork at all costs, lest we be bound by it!
Ledgerbound is clearly aiming for a blend of visual novel humor with a dash of gravitas with characters played by voice acting superstars (including Matt Mercer). Humor is hard, making games is really hard, making a funny game that also includes deep layers of tactical combat and romance options is improbable but not impossible!
I am sincerely hopeful that OmniMegaSuperCorp (excellent studio name) threads the needle with this, their first entry into the gaming space. If nothing else, I should be able to fulfill my lifelong desire to deny a fraudster their insurance claim. You have that dream too, right?
Ascenders: Beyond the Peak
- Release Date: Q3 2026
- Developer: Ludogram
- Platform: Playstation 5, Xbox Series & PC
Great games start with a great idea: what if climbing a mountain was a team turn-based tactical experience? A unique angle, and I’m hopeful the developers at Ludogram can pull it off.
The mix of Lovecraftian influence paired with the harrowing nature of climbing otherworldly peaks seems too difficult to resist. However, my excitement is tempered by the somewhat disappointing demo.
The turn-based nature of the game makes every decision meaningful; this means that every click of the mouse or press of the button needs to have intention. You cannot have that intention if the decision you are making in the game is not clear. Too many times, I found myself accidentally sidling up to another climber instead of ascending, or using a special ability whose ramifications I didn’t fully understand.
I’ve played more than my share of turn-based games, and I found myself not sure what exactly my characters were trying to achieve in the limited demo. That could be a result of an undiagnosed ADHD addled mind or rushing through the tutorial. In either case, my excitement was tempered as a hot piton dropped in the snow.
Hopefully Ascenders doesn’t lose the mountain for the boulders… Poorly crafted idioms aside, I’m still optimistic that this unique idea gets a moment in the sun. Just like climbing a mountain, the view can only get better as you go.
Wild Tactics
- Release Date: 10/8/26
- Developer: The Wild Gentlemen
- Platform: PC
You may recognize The Wild Gentlemen from their noir detective caper Chicken Police: Into the Hive! From 2024. If you haven’t played or witnessed it, go ahead and take a look. Thank me later.
On to the game at hand: Wild Tactics. Anthropomorphic animals fighting and seemingly engaging in organized crime is a criminally underutilized art style that Wild Tactics seems to be leaning on heavily, and I’m here for it! From a team of ne’re do wells made up of a hawk with a sniper rifle (and an excellent trenchcoat), a ram with a billy club (pretty sure they knew what they were doing there and others- something-something- the city’s underworld.
Similar to Ascenders, the demo for Wild Tactics left me worried about its namesake. The game will be undoubtedly Wild, but the tactics are a bit clunky at the time of writing. The colorful characters move a bit too robotically on the game’s tile-based map, betraying the beautiful visuals seen in the cutscenes and promotional materials.
Also, the tactics felt a bit off. Hitting the enemy with my Tommy gun with a 55% chance should be a thrill. Instead, the payoff of the enemy flinching slightly as a damage number briefly appearing above them left me feeling empty. Tactical games don’t need a deluge of visual flourish necessarily but a game with such evocative cutscene aesthetics creates a graphical expectation the gameplay of Wild Tactics fails to achieve, in the demo anyway.
Despite the early gameplay evoking memories of the very forgettable Lamplighter’s League from 2023, Wild Tactics has still piqued my interest. Hopefully the developers get a good laugh at reading this when the game comes out with all the gameplay kinks having been ironed out. If not, at least we’ll always have the well-produced Wild Tactics trailer to enjoy.
Jupiter Moons: Mecha
- Release Date: 2026
- Developer: RockAndBushes
- Platform: PC
“But Dru!?” I hear you saying through your screen, “Where is the mechanically dense deckbuilding mech game on this list of your most anticipated turn-based games?!” To that I say… look behind you because it’s Jupiter Moons: Mecha!
Build your own mech down to assigning parts to your limbs and torso with all the delicious statistical variation a nerd could dream of! Maybe not that much, but hopefully JM: Mecha comes close. You will choose your mech, customize your loadout, and upgrade replacement parts to fight through roguelike campaigns on (I assume) one of Jupiter’s Moons.
The game being RockAndBushes’ first outing, as well as JM: Mecha lacking a solid release date, has me a bit worried we may not see this game soon enough.
The systems in play include armor, HP, Action Points, card economy, and countless more, which cannot be an easy lift for the team. Hopefully Jupiter Moons: Mecha becomes the mech fighting game of my dreams… If not, we can always load up the incredible Battletech from 2018.
Arcane Eats
- Release Date: 2026
- Developer: Wonderbelly Games
- Platform: PC
Every time I think the roguelike deckbuilding genre cannot sustain one more entry, a game with a fresh take on the idea drifts by. And just like the sushi on the waiter’s tray as they deliver it to another table at my favorite restaurant, I can’t keep my eyes off it.
Arcane Eats dares to ask: Are you hungry for another deckbuilding roguelike? Yes. Yes, I am.
Choose a chef at the beginning of each run to cook up and feed hungry hordes of mystical critters. These range from hungry dwarves on their lunch break to a fairy with stark white hair that looks suspiciously similar to a certain celebrity foodie. Three customers sit in front of you while your chef combines ingredients to grow their cookbook, choosing which dishes will sate your customers’ unending appetites
The somewhat low-fidelity art of Arcane Eats characters is seemingly the result of a focus on the main course: the food. While the art does not quite reach Delicious in Dungeon or Ghibli levels of perceived deliciousness, it does have a distinct flavor of its own.
I really do hope Arcane Eats delivers on its promising premise, or at least has takeout. It’s never been a better time to be a Turnbasedlover!
