NIS America had a playable demo build of R-Type Tactics I & II Cosmos running on a PS5 at PAX West 2025
There were a number of titles that NIS America was showcasing at PAX West 2025, and the one that caught my eye was R-Type Tactics I & II Cosmos. The lineage of this title comes from a pair of PSP titles that launched in 2007 and 2009; only the first one received a western release via Atlus in North America and via Rising Star Games in Europe. Turn-based strategy fans in North America may be more familiar with its localized title, R-Type Command.
R-Type Tactics I & II Cosmos is a remake of both R-Type Tactics entries built on Unreal Engine 5, and it will be the first official English release for R-Type Tactics II: Operation Bitter Chocolate. Both titles on the PSP were originally developed by Irem, but this new remake is by Granzella. This is because Irem largely exited the video game market following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami; as a result, R-Type Tactics series producer Kazuma Kujo left to form Granzella, along with other Irem staff members. Kujo also directed R-Type Tactics II and even named Granzella after the Granzella Revolutionary Army in that game.
I played R-Type Command back in the day, and it had me hooked. While I only played a bit of the original R-Type Tactics II, I was very surprised to see a playable build of R-Type Tactics I & II Cosmos here at PAX West 2025.
Both stages in this build were both from R-Type Tactics II; they were Mission 1 and Mission 14 on the EAAF Human Campaign. Since stages naturally take a long time to beat in these games, I put about half an hour into finishing most of Mission 14. I was warned beforehand that it was the tougher of the two missions on offer and well, I won’t say no to a challenge. Unfortunately, the B-roll footage and screenshots I was provided with only reflect Mission 1.
If you’ve played the original games on PSP, this remake completely overhauls the visuals without losing its identity. All on-field units are modeled in 3D and they are much more detailed. The Force unit, for instance, is no longer a simple gradient-colored orb with pronged attachments bolted onto it. Instead, the orange orb emits light and is surrounded by a metal ring that acts as a central base where its legs attach to, and those individual models are much, much more detailed compared to the original look of the Force unit on the PSP.
The same addictive gameplay loop is retained. Deploy a squad of different types of units and ships and navigate the stage meticulously through hexagonal grid movement. Transparent hexagons are spread to further parts of the screen that act as a fog of war; move slowly and carefully as enemy units are uncovered gradually. Units either depict their health pool through a standard HP bar or numerical Unit counts depending on the type of unit it is; offensive fighters will usually have the latter display, since having more of them will increase their offensive capability too. Units consume Fuel when moving around too, so it’s often a good idea to deploy a few dedicated support ships that can repair and/or resupply others.
Perhaps the greatest advantage of the remake is the sheer increase in screen real estate. The UI elements are given more space to breathe, and don’t block the field as much as they originally did. Each part of the HUD still retains the cool green motif from the original release. This aspect becomes much more prevalent when attacking other targets, since that display would often cause a lot of screen traffic on the PSP.
Attacks still play out a full 3D video of the attackers firing upon their targets, and the counterattack response. If the assault was enough to take down a unit, you’ll see those reflected in real-time through this exchange. Of course, these can be skipped as well. These interactions in R-Type Tactics I & II Cosmos carry all the bells and whistles you’d expect in a modern game, with lighting and particle effects making these smaller space battles a bit more thrilling.
As far as I know, this still aims to be a faithful re-release in terms of content and features based on what I played. It still allows for unconventional strategies, such as deploying decoys to either disguise or ignite them. I noticed that the character art has been revamped; the design for McKellen, for instance, still carries his same uniform out but he does look fairly younger than his original design on the PSP.
I didn’t get the chance to see if R-Type Tactics I & II Cosmos kept the Logbook adventure sections that had the occasional selectable decisions. These were one of the primary ways it told the game’s narrative, and I hope they’ve kept them in this upcoming re-release. When the game was shown off in October 2022, there was a screenshot that showcased it.
As for the game’s performance on its PAX West 2025 demo build, I believe it was at 60fps on the PS5 I was playing it on. If there were any performance issues, I couldn’t really tell from the brief time I went hands-on with it. Plus, it’s still very much an in-development build of the game and not indicative of its final release.
Hopefully, the long journey to R-Type Tactics I & II Cosmos’s release isn’t too far off. They recently announced that the release date will be unveiled in late September. The info sheet I received from NIS America says early 2026, and that it will be released on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC. It will support dual-audio between English and Japanese, and the text languages supported are English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese (Simplified & Traditional).
