Strategy games tend to already have a lot on the line with their high-pressure scenarios and stressful mechanics, but what happens when you up the ante and add perma death as a central rule? You end up getting some of the most advanced tactics and strategy games where every single decision you make has immense weight to it.
Perma death can be a frustrating element as there’s often a temptation to restart a match (or even an entire save profile) to keep your most precious characters. But if you stick with your decisions and still manage to persevere to the very end, perma death strategy games can provide one of the most fulfilling sensations to be found in modern gaming.
Designed as a revamped improvement on the 2010 original, Tactics Ogre is reborn in a 2022 update that brings the classic turn-based combat system into a new generation. Tactics Ogre is heavily inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics from its story, art style, and gameplay, making it a great perma death strategy game for Square Enix fans.
The 2022 update makes several improvements, including a cleaner UI, faster combat pace, and an auto-save function. Like any great RPG strategy game, your outcomes will have a major impact on the story, so be extra careful when sending troops into harsh conditions.
As far as turn-based strategy games go, Jagged Alliance 3 is easily one of the most action-packed titles in the genre. The isometric gameplay and territorial tactics make it seem familiar to strategy fans, but make no mistake - there are tons of weaponry, explosives, and destructible environments in this world full of mercs and perks.
Jagged Alliance 3 also leans into the apocalyptic vibe found in Mad Max or Fallout. You’ll be scrounging for loot and resources all the time in a desperate attempt to tip the scales against your opponents. It helps add a level of tension and immersion that’s often not found in turn-based strategy games.
Widely considered to be the best game in the franchise, Fire Emblem Awakening is consideredone of the greatest 3DS games of all timeand makes it worth owning the portable platform. It’s also one of the series entries with some of the most iconic characters of the franchise.
It’s not all JRPG story-telling, though. Fire Emblem Awakening is a fantastic blend of everything the franchise used in the past, including old characters that can be accessed via DLC. If you’ve never played a Fire Emblem before, this is a great one to start with.
Known for its uncompromising difficulty and very diverse enemy designs, XCOM 2 proved that a great sequel can be even more complex than its original without feeling obtuse. XCOM 2 takes everything that made the first game fantastic but adds and adds until there’s so much more new content you won’t know what to do with it all.
Even deciding what skill tree ability to use takes a lot of planning and strategy, as it will all go away with one bad move thanks to the perma death system. With even more challenges to face, XCOM 2 is a great way to put your strategy game skills to the test in one ofPC’s best strategy games.
Wildermyth sets itself apart from other strategy games thanks to its unique story and art style. It’s definitely a labor of love, but it has much of the classic tactical RPG combat that fans of this genre are looking for.
The way Wildermyth handles perma death is quite unique, as fallen heroes are memorialized and can be brought back in a future playthrough or using their death to buff another character. The way death impacts both the story and your own strategic choices in-game makes Wildermyth an especially unique strategy game.
Even if you’ve never played the original, Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a great way to experience this series for the first time, especially for fans of anime-inspired art direction. In Valkyria Chronicles 4, the patented BLiTZ system returns with its split-screen of a command mode and an action mode. This has always helped give the Valkyria Chronicles games a unique feel to their strategy missions.
Not only that, but the fourth entry in the series introduces a new character class and a Last Stand mechanic. This gives your characters one final attempt at survival with unique abilities before succumbing to perma death.
Rougelike games are proof that they can be combined with any pre-existing genre, and FTL is exhibit A of this fact. You take command of a starship of your choice inhabited by humans and aliens, each with its own unique characteristics that involve combat and engineering.
What makes FTL so special is how addictive and broad the game can feel despite being relatively small and simple. Managing your energy to power on either weapons or shields feels incredibly immersive, as if being inside an episode of Star Trek. Even though the game is brutally difficult and death comes quickly, so does the urge to load up another game.
The hardest game on this list is also the one that will have you piling up corpses the fastest. Even if you’ve never played it, you might already know a lot about the absolutely brutal world of Darkest Dungeons, a Lovecraft-inspired game where most of your heroes will succumb to perma death.
Unlike other strategy games, most of your planning and tactics occur off the battlefield. You’ll be spending a lot of time and money curing heroes of their ailments, upgrading weaponry and skills, investing in institutions, and reequipping items based on the task at hand. Though there is a lot of bad luck stacked against you, it’s possible to overcomethe final challengeof this unforgiving RPG.
