This Fire Emblem-inspired open-world tactical RPG fulfills a dream I never knew I had: directing my own “sandbox shonen” cinematic anime mech battles

If you tell me you’ve got a Fire Emblem-inspired tactical RPG with open-world exploration, chances are that I’m already going to be interested. But Nitro Gen Omega is all that and also a shonen anime simulator that lets you direct your own mech battles. Folks, I cannot add this game to my wishlist fast enough.

Set in a “spaghetti anime” world, Nitro Gen Omega is a turn-based tactical RPG with cinematic mech battles. You give your units orders on a screen that resembles a timeline-based video editor, and as the battles resolve, you’ll see them play out as anime cutscenes. How engaging this all is in practice remains to be seen, but the examples in the trailer below look absolutely gorgeous.

In a press release, developer DESTINYBit says the game draws “inspiration from titles like Fire Emblem for team management and Battle Brothers for open-world exploration.” Tactical RPG fans probably don’t need an introduction to Fire Emblem, but the comparison to 2017 cult hit Battle Brothers is particularly interesting, as it offers a full sandbox open world where you control a band of mercenaries through increasingly dire circumstances under the threat of permadeath, and it looks like we’re in for something similar here.

You can play Nitro Gen Omega solo, but the devs also plan to let you “join a persistent online world featuring permadeath, where every character is procedurally generated.” I’m a single-player fan at heart, but I’ve got to say the notion of taking this concept to an MMO-style persistent world sounds pretty compelling, too.

Nitro Gen Omega is set to launch on Steam sometime in 2025.