Tactical roleplaying game

Tactical role-playing games (abbreviated as TRPG) are a genre of video game which incorporates elements of traditional role-playing video games with that of tactical games, emphasizing tactics rather than high-level strategy. In Japan, these games are known as "Simulation RPGs" (シミュレーションRPG, abbreviated as SRPG).

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 (RPG) systems. Like standard RPGs, the player typically controls a finite party and battles a similar number of enemies. And like other RPGs, death is usually temporary. But this genre incorporates strategic gameplay such as tactical movement on an isometric grid. And, unlike other video game genres, tactical RPGs tend not to feature multiplayer play.

A distinct difference between tactical RPGs and traditional RPGs is the lack of exploration. For instance, Final Fantasy Tactics does away with the typical third-person exploration of towns and dungeons that is typical in a Final Fantasy game. In Final Fantasy Tactics, 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.

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