The R-Type series is best known for white-knuckle side-scrolling shooters, but two of its most beloved offshoots traded reflexes for cold tactical planning — and most Western players never got to touch the second one. That changes on June 18, 2026, when R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos brings both strategy spin-offs to modern hardware with NIS America handling the Western release.
Developed by Granzella, the studio formed by ex-Irem staff who originally created these games, Cosmos bundles R-Type Tactics (first released on PSP back in 2007) and its follow-up R-Type Tactics II, the latter of which never officially left Japan. For a lot of strategy fans, this collection is the first legitimate chance to play the sequel in English at all.
Turn-based warfare in the R-Type universe
If you came in expecting a shmup, recalibrate. Cosmos is a sci-fi tactics game built around grid-based, turn-based command. You deploy fleets of iconic R-Type craft — Force pods, Bydo-derived horrors and all — across dozens of maps, weighing positioning, fuel and the series' signature wave-cannon firepower against an enemy that punishes sloppy formations.
The collection isn't a straight port. Granzella has rebuilt the visuals, and both games come with multiple campaigns and branching missions. One of the long-running hooks returns too: you can fight the parasitic Bydo Empire as humanity, or flip the table and command the Bydo themselves, which gives the two titles a surprising amount of replay value for a strategy revival.
A wide platform spread
NIS America is casting a broad net for the launch. R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos arrives June 18 on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. That cross-generation reach means it is one of the rare Switch 2 day-one strategy releases, and it lands on every current console at once.
A long road back
Granzella has billed Cosmos as the ultimate turn-based sci-fi strategy collection, and for once the marketing line is doing real work: this is the definitive way to experience two cult games that have been stranded on a dead handheld for the better part of two decades. If you have a soft spot for methodical, slightly cruel strategy — or you simply never forgave the universe for keeping Tactics II in Japan — June 18 is circled on the calendar.
