Bokosuka Wars

Bokosuka Wars (ボコスカウォーズ?) is a 1983 role-playing strategy video game developed by Kōji Sumii (住井浩司) and released by ASCII for the Sharp X1 computer, followed by ports to the MSX, FM-7, NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-9801 and Nintendo Famicom platforms. It revolves around a leader who must lead an army consisting of a phalanx of troops across a battlefield against overwhelming enemy forces while freeing and recruiting soldiers along the way, with each unit able to gain experience and level up through battle. The player must make sure that the leader stays alive, until the army reaches the enemy castle to defeat the leader of the opposing forces.

The game was responsible for laying the foundations for the tactical role-playing game genre, or the "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan, with its blend of role-playing and strategy game elements. The game has also been described as an early example of an action role-playing game, an early prototype real-time strategy game, and a unique reverse tower defense game. In its time, the game was a major success in Japan.

Source: Wikipedia, "Bokosuka Wars", available under the CC-BY-SA License.