The Best Strategy RPGs With Multiple Endings

Key Takeaways

• Strategy RPGs offer deep stories with various endings based on player decisions.
• Games like
  Fire Emblem
  and
  Divinity: Original Sin 2
  showcase the influence of player choices on multiple unique endings.
• Storytelling and narrative freedom are crucial elements in strategic RPGs to immerse players in world-building.

Few genres are as broad or all-encompassing as the strategy RPG. Whether players want a deep story with romanceable companions or a highly tactical experience that puts them in the shoes of a commander or captain, they will be spoiled for choice when it comes to these roleplaying games. This genre typically has wide maps for battle, tactical commands to hand out in combat, and gameplay where positioning can be the difference between life and death.

Like all genres of RPG, from 90s isometric classics to fast-paced modern action RPGs, there needs to be attention paid to the story. While any game that has an in-depth narrative should allow player freedom to in some way dictate the story’s path, RPGs in particular should be letting players immerse themselves in the world by showing that their actions have consequences, be they minor or huge. These strategy RPGs in particular have stories with various endings based on player decisions.

8 Triangle Strategy

Serenoa’s Convictions Determine The Story

Standing out as one of the best JRPGs found on the Switch or PC, Triangle Strategy innovates on just about every aspect of the JRPG and SRPG formula. Players who loved the Octopath games for their graphics but didn’t like the disconnected stories will find all they need in this awe-inspiring game.

Beyond the stunning HD-2D graphics, there is a story here like no other, filled with subtlety and subtext as war spreads across a continent, concluding based upon not only Serenoa’s convictions but how well he’s done to convince his companions of these convictions.

7 Fire Emblem: Three Houses

A Brutal Tale Of War

The Fire Emblem series has consistently set a high bar with each entry, but Three Houses put the gameplay on display in a gloriously varied narrative that can take many directions based on the choices of the player. Beyond this, these choices lead to a variety of unique endings for the protagonist.

Byleth gets an ending based not only on what realm they choose to fight for as war slowly plunges the setting into chaos, but also based on who they’ve developed a strong enough bond with to call a paramour.

6 Dragon Age: Origins

An Immensely Rewarding Strategic RPG

With The Veilguard causing a huge stir among Dragon Age fans some ten years after Inquisition’s release, more people than ever are seeing what might just be BioWare’s magnum opus, Dragon Age: Origins, for the first time.

Few games can claim to have the character work or narrative freedom that this game does. There are a variety of ways to subvert or fulfill the destiny of the Grey Warden protagonist, leading to a host of interesting and modular endings that have repercussions all the way through to Inquisition.

5 Baldur’s Gate 3

A Monolithic RPG With Few Equals

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of those incredibly rare titles that had a startling amount of hype leading up to its full release—and still managed to meet expectations. Flawlessly. This sprawling high fantasy RPG has a host of companions for the protagonist to work with, and each has a unique ending to their own personal tale based on the player’s choices.

Beyond this, how players deal with the machinations of the mind flayers can lead to one of several endings for the story overall, each one immensely satisfying and tying together the player’s actions from the opening act onward.

4 Battle Brothers

Emergent Storytelling That Can Go In Many Directions

Battle Brothers is an addictive, engaging title that has a level of tactics, strategy, and freedom that few other games can compete with, especially since this title stands among some of the largest AAA games ever produced on this list.

The player’s only goal is to earn wealth and renown as a mercenary company. Take good jobs, lead the men well, get paid. It’s simple but effective. However, this is easier said than done, and death often waits around the corner for this motley band of brothers. Battle Brothers features unique endings for those who complete the end-game crises which are determined by the fate of their company.

3 Tactics Ogre

A Square Enix Masterpiece With Many Endings

With an incredible alignment system and a huge political story that can go in many directions, Tactics Ogre set the standard for strategic JRPGs, and it’s a bar that has held strong for years now. Players can expect a level of tactical depth in this game that will keep them thinking for hours.

Beyond the great gameplay, which is functionally a deep game of 4D fantasy chess, the story’s endings are manifold and based upon both major and minor decisions that the protagonist makes during the Resistance War they fight in.

2 Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2

A Grid-Based Spin On A Classic JRPG Series

The Shin Megami Tensei series is known in particular for its intense difficulty and innovative alignment system that dictates the path of the story. The Devil Survivor spin-off series is an exemplar of where both of these traits are concerned but deviates from the well-walked path of its predecessors by moving to strategic grid-based combat.

This game still boasts a massive number of endings, each based not only upon where the player falls regarding their law and chaos alignment, but also based on several key decisions they must make regardless of this alignment during the end game.

1 Divinity: Original Sin 2

Another Masterwork RPG From Larian Studios

Before Larian Studios released the monolithic Baldur’s Gate 3, there was another game franchise that showcased their exceptional ability to craft well-made strategic RPGs with an emphasis on narrative, choice, and consequence.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 has a myriad of endings, not only dictated by the player’s chosen character, but also by the conclusions of all the personal companion quests that are available in this title. Players will see these quests mirrored in how Baldur’s Gate 3 explores its own companions, although the Divinity series’ particular brand of high fantasy is a style all its own.