Square Enix is making a new strategy RPG, but it's not Final Fantasy Tactics or Ogre Battle

How many tactics RPGs is too many tactics RPGs? I'm not sure there actually is such a number, but after years of letting the Final Fantasy Tactics series lie fallow, Square Enix seems to have rediscovered that people really like these sorts of games. It just released one named Triangle Strategy for the Nintendo Switch and debuted another during a PlayStation State of Play event on Wednesday: The DioField Chronicle, out later this year. A trailer on Square Enix's official YouTube channel confirms it's coming to Steam.

Unlike the "HD-2D" style of Triangle Strategy, The DioField Chronicle is a fully 3D strategy game with a fantasy aesthetic that feels very Tactics Ogre at first, which is generally a more grounded series than Final Fantasy. But no, it's its own thing, and the combat system looks quite different from the usual square grid of turn-based tactics games. The DioField Chronicle doesn't have a grid and looks like it uses real-time-with-pause for giving orders to your troops.

From the trailer above we learn a bit about the basic setup, which is classic tactical RPG stuff: three kingdoms going to war, some hand-wringing over whether fighting is the right  path. It's surprising to see 3D cutscenes and character models in a genre that's largely been 2D for so long, but I guess The DioField Chronicle is Square Enix's answer to the rising popularity of Nintendo's Fire Emblem series. 

There's no date for The DioField Chronicle yet, but Square Enix says it's coming in 2022. And I'd bet that Square Enix has even more tactics RPG announcements in store for this year. The Nvidia GeForce Now leak from last September listed multiple Square Enix games, including Chrono Cross Remaster (now confirmed), "New strategy game" (hello, DioField) as well as a Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster and Tactics Ogre Remaster. If there is indeed such a thing as too many tactics RPGs, Square Enix is apparently betting that four ain't it. 

Wes Fenlon
Senior Editor

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).

Read more
Tactics Ogre Reborn
Holy heck, there are a lot of strategy RPGs on PC now
Lady smiling with the sun in her face
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's director was 'starving for new turn-based RPGs,' and figured if he wanted them, there would be others out there who'd want to play his game
Metaphor: ReFantazio character art
Metaphor: ReFantazio battle director says turn-based RPGs can still be just as popular as action RPGs: 'I personally believe turn-based games have a long future ahead of them'
A battle with undead in Avowed.
These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth PC
It seems like Square's finally consistently taking the PC ports of Final Fantasy seriously
Yuji Horii, creator of Dragon Quest, smiles next to some characters from the series.
Dragon Quest 12 is still coming, says Yuji Horii, but they're determined to make a game 'worthy of the posthumous work' of the late Akira Toriyama and composer Koichi Sugiyama
Latest in Strategy
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
Civilization 7 Great Britain - Modern Civ art (via YouTube)
As Civilization 7 struggles to keep up with Civ 5 player counts, a new patch is coming tomorrow with still more UI changes and gameplay tweaks
Battle Brothers
Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.
Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
Age of Empires 2
Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
Endless Legend 2 Kin faction reveal
It's turtle time: Endless Legend 2's first faction is the fortification-loving Kin of Sheredyn
Latest in News
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway