One of the granddaddies of turn-based Tactics genre, a remaster for the PSP remake of the old 95 title. Tactics Ogre: Reborn came out recently at a pretty interesting release window, just before Marvel's Midnight Sun has. A game I wished to play as well, but couldn't find the time to somehow.
I don't believe all Tactics games are the same, most games these days became so streamlined to be easily accessible even if providing noteworthy challenges. The challenge in pure Tactics titles, on the other hand, involves knowing the stats of your enemies, using your units right, and taking advantages in the battlefield.
I am super into Tactics games, playing a number of these by now, and have seen the genre has evolved to the point of providing varied experiences. From the likes of Mutant Year Zero, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Into The Breach, XCOM2, etc. Even if their identities are largely distinctive from the older games before them. So, can this old dog still have what it takes to be relevant today?
Just starting the game, "pick a card" they ask, and these tarot cards dictate the kind of fighter the character will be. Picking from 3 options, several times picks out the stats for the player. I couldn't figure out exactly what I was getting, there is a strategy guide out there, but I missed that one out before finishing up.
This is a pretty difficult game to learn so much about, because you have to read up constantly on tutorials and do the math on enemy stats till it's figured out. All of it a rewarding process as well. There are no difficulty modes either, it is hard, long as you don't play it right. Meaning mistakes happening because you did few things wrong.
Thankfully, for the first 3 hours of handholding, I wasn't completely driven off. I was slowly learning about my enemies and what units I should be selecting. I can scout the battlefield each fight, learning everything about the enemy units there before engaging. But the fun comes from what they can do, there's no easy way to know if my unit will survive the tactics employed or not, so I had to make do with everything I know.
Trying to use the best strengths of my units in the field, making sure my range units aren't easily caught surrounded by enemies before they get destroyed. There's another factor that changes the game, and that is terrain. It's hard to pick up bonus cards because of that, it's also hard to reach the enemies as well.
Enemy A.I. might be brilliant in ways of taking the units down, but can be exploitive thanks to rough terrain too. But it's not easy when they always seem like they have the upper hand. It's not the kind of tactics game where there are omission for game design purposes, enemy range of travel and combat is shown. But that kind of overseeing requires too much work as well.
After getting through the initials hours, the good stuff finally starts unlocking. I could finally use Berserkers or Beast Tamers. Latter helping to deal stronger damage to monsters. Levelling units to unlock finishing moves, and was able to have recruited units from oppositions, provided the check worked on my favor. God forbid, they die, because there's permadeath; if in 3 turns, they are not revived.
I can buy new units in the shop as much as I can buy new weapons, but this means spending special items to buff them up as well as doing practice battles to gain XP. Time-consuming really. Which is why it was important for me to make my battles count each time. The game isn't that difficult either, because if things go pretty bad, I could rewind turns using the Chariot Tarot to undo. Up to a few turns, of course.
The game doesn't provide much visual information either if you're really winning or not, it's all in the stats. How much damage you give, and heal your units from, sustaining them long as possible while picking up Buff Cards too to change the dynamic of the battlefield. As well as understanding the terrain.
It is dense when it comes to the gameplay, add the story as well, and it's a whole other package. The very conflicts that take place between kingdoms, and nations themselves, speak about so many things. They make allegories to real world events like the Yugoslav Wars, Rwanda genocide and Nagorno-Karabak conflicts.
There's a lot of character drama, personalities of all kinds of clashing with different ideas and politics. Stuck in their never-ending war, because of the suffering caused by those who profit from them. If only this was a Final Fantasy game, but it isn't as it was also proof of the storytelling caliper of the mid 90s video games without being tied to a major franchise.
I played till the 4th chapter of the story, and from there came this betrayal based on the decision I made. There are multiple routes, so by picking one in particular, someone decided to double-cross me already. Reading up on these routes, different hero units can be hired to join the crusade, even.
Man, don't even get me started on the character dialogues. They really stand out so much, rare gems like these are very hard to find. They even pull lore expositions well enough to make them tolerable. There's a lot of that going on too.
If you're familiar with Tactics Ogre, then you should know that they changed a lot in this release. Equipments restricted to classes, new skills and finishing moves, charms to beef up your units, there's the Buff Cards, and so on. All can be seen here. In its core, it is a Tactics Ogre game, but these changes bring radical shifts to the experience for veterans too. Not everyone will like it, though.
I can't tell since this is the first time playing it, maybe some beloved fans of the games could convince me otherwise, till then, I'll continue to play this. This is one of those games where you can play on the go (if with Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch), works more since it was build for handhelds from the start.
They don't make games like these anymore, it's easy to just adjust enemy A.I. and game challenges by increasing their stats too from difficulty options. It's also hard to make something challenging at a rudimentary level, this game makes the simple stuff so nuanced and with depth. Easy to fool any people that plays turn-based tactics games.
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