Dream Tactics is a turn-based strategy RPG inspired by the great GBA SRPGs of old with deckbuilding elements and retro visuals. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Dream Tactics Review Overview
What is Dream Tactics?
Dream Tactics is a turn-based strategy RPG inspired by the great strategy RPGs released in the Game Boy Advance (GBA) era. It combines the classic strategy turn-based grid combat with deckbuilding, allowing you to create unique decks for your characters. Additionally, the game also features different maps for you to explore for loot like equippable gear and accessories.
Dream Tactics features:
⚫︎ Classic strategy turn-based grid combat with card battler elements
⚫︎ Deckbuilding features that allow you to create unique decks per character
⚫︎ Create unique playstyles by sharing cards from one character to another
⚫︎ Retro GBA-inspired visuals and spritework
⚫︎ Simple exploration mechanics to look for gear upgrades, cards, and more
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Dream Tactics's gameplay and story.
 Dream Tactics |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Switch |
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Dream Tactics Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Retro Inspired Visuals Customizable Character Builds Simple to Understand With Room for Complexity |
Enemies are One-Dimensional Retro Action Economy |
Dream Tactics Overall - 84/100
Dream Tactics is a wonderful retro-inspired strategy RPG with a great combination of turn-based combat and card battling mechanics. While there are little things that I would’ve wanted changed with the action economy and enemy variety, these are warranted due to the game taking a page from the older SRPG games. It’s a great game for SRPG fans and I would recommend this game in a heartbeat for those looking for a great SRPG to mess around in.
Dream Tactics Story - 7/10
The plot and premise of the game don’t go too crazy. It’s a simple tale of a heroine (Neru) working her way to defeat a godly entity that’s out to destroy the world. The only difference is that the heroine was unmotivated to train for a whole year. I’ve seen my share of disinterested protagonists in gaming, but Neru doesn’t really do anything different other than she’s currently in a predicament where she’s forced to pick up her own slack. The dialogue in the game is hit or miss, some will enjoy the humor the game brings, as personally, I thought it was decent but nothing too stellar.
Dream Tactics Gameplay - 10/10
Simplicity is often overlooked in a lot of games. In this case, the game embraced the simple joys of turn-based combat and mixed it up with the use of card battling and deckbuilding mechanics. The gameplay loop is to travel to a zone, look for loot and breakable barrels, fight enemies to earn XP, and find the elusive Dream Fragments of that zone which are usually guarded by the zone’s boss. It’s simple, straightforward, and honestly, awesome.
Dream Tactics Visuals - 9/10
The spritework quite literally reminded me of the great Fire Emblem games in the GBA (any Blazing Blade fans here?). While it’s obvious that both the combat and visuals were inspired by the same series, the anime girl aesthetic as well as the adorable pillows as enemies are definitely a great change of pace from your average war-torn themes of SRPGs.
Dream Tactics Audio - 7/10
True to its retro inspiration, the game is not voice acted. The sound effects and music did the heavy lifting for the audio, and I would say the latter is actually pretty good. It’s decent, but nothing too strong to take note of, but I do appreciate that there’s different battle music for each zone.
Dream Tactics Value for Money - 9/10
At $17.99, the game has great gameplay, cute visuals, and five zones to explore. I would say it’s absolutely worth buying the game if you’re a fan of the SRPG genre or looking for an easy game to get your feet wet in the genre.
Dream Tactics Review: A Fresh, Dream-like SRPG That You Should Be Playing
I’ve played my fair share of SRPGs, both old and new, and Dream Tactics is already an instant classic. Straight out of a page of the GBA-era Fire Emblem games, combined with modern card battlers, the gameplay is absolutely refreshing for those who are SRPG fans. It embraces the old mechanics and meshes them with the new genres that have been taking over the gaming sphere.
To start off, the game’s visuals look stunning. It really is like the Game Boy era came back and made one last game. I know Dream Tactics came out in 2024, but the rose-tinted nostalgia goggles had to be equipped for this one. The character designs are great and follows the anime girl aesthetic that really pops. Even most of the Dream World inhabitants, like the Pillows are adorable. The backgrounds are all colorful and distinct from each zone that you’ll be visiting. Safe to say, the visuals impressed me a lot. It was a blast from the past despite being the first of its name.
Like I said earlier, I’ve played a bunch of SRPGs in my time. Ranging from the Fire Emblem series, the Final Fantasy Tactics series, and some of the modern ones like Triangle Strategy. I’m glad and surprised to say that this game can hang with them solely for the customization that the game offers. The story, while not exactly the main aspect that carries the game, is quite funny simply because the main character’s laziness is the reason why they’re in that predicament in the first place. The dialogue also adds much needed life and color to the story as the game doesn’t have voice acting.
I sound like a broken record saying that the game is straight out of the GBA-era of Fire Emblem games, but it’s definitely what it is. The combat looks exactly like FE, but plays differently with how you act and attack. Each character draws five cards from their deck to play with and a limited amount of MP to use per turn. These cards may have different effects, like being able to draw more cards, giving you buffs, or simply doing more damage. The card combos in the game can get quite crazy and could end encounters quickly.
Speaking of the card combos, this is where the game asks you to get creative as you could pass cards from one character to another, granting them the ability to use the same skills as the other character you got the card from. You could cash in all your chips and go for a combo with all of your characters applying the debuffs that help your team to nuke the opposition, or keep it basic as the base deck is more than enough to get you through the game.
Another great addition is the game’s equipment system. The amount of gear and accessories you get to equip is mostly tied to your level, which means that levelling up steadily strengthens your team. Both stats and available equipment load increase per level up, so character progression is very linear, just more of have more items to equip and bigger stats. The available items in the game shine a spotlight on the builds you’re going for as the items aren’t just stat sticks or stat enhancements. Some items have different effects that even affect your cards or give you buffs that change the way you play.
The game’s story progression is also another topic to discuss as the game’s tutorial area opens up the hub area called the "Nexus" which has access to 4 different zones that you could explore and get the Dream Fragments from. You could also get in and get out as you wish, similarly to, coincidentally, like Demon’s Souls.
All in all, the game is amazing. It’s definitely worthy of your attention and worth the price of $17.99. It’s not everyday where you could get completely customizable characters without a restriction on classes or equipment, and not one where all of its aspects are great as well.
Pros of Dream Tactics
| Things Dream Tactics Got Right |
|---|
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Retro Inspired Visuals Customizable Character Builds Simple to Understand With Room for Complexity |
Retro Inspired Visuals
The game looks straight out of the GBA-era of games, from the cover art, the in-game visuals, and even the spritework. It honestly looks amazing, and it’s all enhanced by the different backgrounds and set pieces they made for the game as well. The characters all look distinct, the backgrounds are colorful and visually appealing, and the pillows are darn adorable.
Customizable Character Builds
The game has unique decks for each character that you have. The game actually encourages you to switch it up and have some of your characters mix and match cards across their respective decks. This way, you can play the way you want and enhance certain characters with buffs that would benefit them more than the other character. For example, Luna has cards that grant the user a "Carrot" buff that adds 5% to their luck stat that stacks up to five times. You could give cards that give this buff to another character to make use of their higher luck stat so you could farm crits faster than Luna does.
Additionally, the equipment system and the equipment themselves offer you a ton of customization as equipment aren't just stat sticks that increase your attributes but also have tons of effects ranging from granting you buffs in battle and even altering cards that you play with that character. An example of this is an item that changes one of Neru's cards to hit three times with the successful condition instead of just two times. With the fluid character customization, you could actually play this on any of the characters that you have.
Simple to Understand With Room for Complexity
The game is very easy to understand, and could even be said that it’s a little too easy on Normal difficulty. However, all the mechanics shine in the higher difficulty levels, especially in Hardcore, where a character dying is permanent. It’ll only take a few battles and tutorials for you to get the combat, and maybe a few more hours to make use of the deckbuilding system, but the main point is that it’s simple to understand but has a high skill ceiling. Older SRPGs tend to have complicated class systems, harsh RNG, and exploits that you have to use to succeed in the higher difficulties, but I would say that this game balances this quite well.
Cons of Dream Tactics
| Things That Dream Tactics Can Improve |
|---|
|
Enemies are One-Dimensional Retro Action Economy |
Enemies are One-Dimensional
In my playthrough, the enemy variety is kind of limited to pillows with the same few classes. Most of the enemies are one-dimensional, and similar to the older SRPGs, they are very easy to manipulate to get where you want them to go. Yes, the game is definitely not easy on Hardcore mode, but the limited enemy variety is definitely not one of the challenges that you’ll run into early on.
Retro Action Economy
The biggest gripe I had with older games is wasting a turn by using an action only for my move to be wasted as you have to "Move" first before you take an "Action." It’s not exactly a dealbreaker, as you will get used to it like I did, but after getting used to other SRPGs, it was annoying to deal with.
Is Dream Tactics Worth It?
Yes. For SRPG Fans and Newcomers Alike.
For the smaller price of $17.99, the game is honestly amazing. It both reminds me of the good old days through the retro visuals and classic gameplay and of the amazing gameplay we have now through the combination of the card battler and deckbuilding mechanics that the game has. It’s an absolute steal for that price, and I would recommend this to anyone who are either fans of the genre or who want to try a game in the SRPG that won’t break the bank.
| Digital Storefront | |||||
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| Steam |
Switch |
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| $17.99 | |||||
Dream Tactics FAQ
Does Dream Tactics have voice acting?
No. The game does not have voice acting.
What are the System Requirements needed to run Dream Tactics?
The System Requirements are as follows:
| Specifications | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 7 | Windows 10 |
| Processor | Intel Core i3 processor | Intel Core i5 processor |
| Memory | 2GB RAM | |
| Graphics | OpenGL 3.1+ Support | |
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Dream Tactics Product Information
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| Title | DREAM TACTICS |
|---|---|
| Release Date | April 15, 2024 |
| Developer | Spectra Entertainment Inc. |
| Publisher | Freedom Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC(Steam), Nintendo Switch |
| Genre | Turn-Based, RPG, Strategy |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | E 10+ |
| Official Website | Dream Tactics Website |
