Tactics Ogre

"Quite possibly the best Strategy RPG of all time."

Gameplay: 10/10
I have no idea where to begin. The gameplay is deep. The game is balanced. Yes, Balance. I cannot stress that word enough. Many strategy RPGs are not truly ''Strategy'' RPGs, because the imbalances of the game throws the edge in your favor. Thus, you're just exploiting a large advantage the game allows you to hold. FFT for instance. Enemies never have mastered classes, while your characters usually have at least 2 jobs mastered. In addition, the special classes in FFT remove challenge. It isn't fair that you can walk out a Holy Knight, Engineer, and Holy Swordsman every battle. LuCT's special classes are fewer in number and less significant. If you charge Canopus into a group of enemies, he'll probably die, very fast. There are no ultra-cheesey abilities like Blade Grasp which tip the balance in your favor. Most special techniques actually deal damage to your character, so there comes a price to any special ''advantage'' you may hold.

Another typical imbalance is items and equipment. For most of LuCT, you get the same equipment your opponent does, it's not until the very end of chapter 3 where you start raking in the quality items. Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, on the other hand, gives you a very large equipment edge, and very early to boot.

There are over 120 classes in the game. That's an amazing number, even if many of them are doubles with an extra ability thrown in for Hellgate and challenge purposes. For the most part, they are all balanced. The differences between Knights and Terror Knights are subtle, but significant nonetheless.

FFT has a section of the game called Deep Dungeon, which was a 10 floor dungeon, with rare items as your reward for venturing down there. The original Deep Dungeon was Hellgate, found in LuCT. Hellgate is a 100 floor dungeon with the same general background. So think Deep Dungeon x10. Like anything that long, it can get repetitive at times, but it's worth it to do at least once. Fortunately for you, it's completely optional whether you go or not, and certainly isn't necessary to beat the game. That goes for the rest of the numerous sidequests in the game.

Story: 10/10
As an episode in the Ogre Battle Saga, it would be hard not to give this a 10. As the 2nd installment in the Ogre Battle Series (but the 7th episode, mind you), you'll meet various characters that appeared in the last game, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. Throughout the game, there are references all over the place to various things in the OB universe, you just need look for them. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Lans Tartare is one of the most brilliantly designed villians I've ever seen. Denim is the most developed main character in the OB series, and the fact that you can make choices which alter his development is even better. Kachua and Vice make excellent supporting characters, and they don't disappear from the story like the supporting cast does in most RPGs.

Graphics: 8/10
Remember, LuCT was originally a 1995 SNES game, so it's graded by it's era. It doesn't have the brilliant graphics of Crono Trigger, or FF6, but it holds it's own.

Sound: 7/10
The music isn't bad. Most of it is pretty good, actually. It just doesn't stand out.

Replay: 10/10
Three story paths. Eight endings. Over 50 playable classes you can use in your army. 'Nuff said.

Overall: 10/10
When I first got this game, it was because it was the sequel to Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. I never dreamed I was getting a game that surpassed Final Fantasy Tactics in so many areas, nor did I know at the time how connected they were (I had played FFT first). It is a travesty that 90% of all people that have played FFT have never even heard of this game, but now that the OB series is owned by Square (and rightfully back in Yasumi Matsuno's hands) this is a problem that should never happen again. Who knows, maybe MotBQ and LuCT will get re-released again in a sort of FF Anthology/Chronicles/Origins type of deal. I'm straying off-topic...

Knowing what I do now, I give this score without hesitation.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/04/03, Updated 02/04/03