Tactics Ogre Reborn Review

Tactics RPGs are really interesting because they often are really compelling in terms of gameplay, and feature political intrigue as part of their story structure.

OK fine, that’s just me thinking about Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, Jeanne D’Arc and now, Tactics Ogre.

Tactics Ogre is pretty good? I’m not breaking any new ground here, I know. The story has a nice progression, and I’ve like Denam as a protagonist for my playthrough. The branching story paths are neat and I’m sort of interested to see how the other ones play out.

The route I’m on goes into how alienating sticking to your personal ideology can be. People who were your friends become begrudging enemies, people leave you for turning out a chance at returning to a peaceful life, and all you have now is a reputation of someone who just fights and kills for an idealistic cause.

Gameplay wise, the game is actually pretty hard, compared to other tactics RPGs I’ve played. The game has a level cap that only raises with completion of certain levels, so there’s no overleveling to make a fight easier, nor can you mix and match abilities from different classes, like a Final Fantasy tactics. You also are not one-shotting things like a Fire Emblem. Status effects can play a big role in combat, especially with dealing with the opponent’s large numbers, so you can tip the action economy back towards even.

I have been smacked down repeatedly by just trying to brute force some fights. Once I actually started using spells like Sleep to temporarily remove people from the fight, or Charm or Poison or any of these statuses, it’s made staying alive way easier.

It’s been a slow going game though. Because you’re never ahead in levels, and often are behind, you need to be locked in every fight because a story fight can come wreck your shit. Maybe there’s a way to get better gear than what I have, but I’ve been upgrading everything available at the shop to +1, so not sure.

The game beat me though. Very end of chapter 3 of the 4? in the game, and I can’t clear the fight. Been bashing my head into a wall for a couple days and it’s just getting annoying. So onto something new.