Tactics Ogre

"Tactics fans, this is a must see."

As far as Tactical RPG's go, Tactics Ogre is undoubtedly a game to be remembered. What more could you want from a tactical RPG? Tactics Ogre offers a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) quest complete with storyline twists and challenging battles along the way. Add that to a group of conflicted characters, some really nice music, and fitting 2d graphics and you have yourself the ingredients to hour upon hour of solid gameplay. This game is a gem.

Tactics Ogre, like Final Fantasy Tactics it's PSX counterpart, starts out relatively slow and has a steep learning curve. I highly recommend any person who hasn't experienced a tactical RPG before to take a look at the tutorial which helps in understanding the battle and character system. But after you overcome the learning curve, things start to speed up quickly, and I guarantee that you'll find yourself engulfed in the storyline and the battles.

The star of Tactics Ogre is a young rebel named Denim Powell who, along with his sister Kachua and his best friend Vice plan to lead a revolt against their oppressive anarchy and also avenge the destruction of their town by the Dark Knights so long ago. The story revolves around Denim and his quest against the Dark Knights, but instead of the linear trend present in most RPG's nowadays, the player gets to choose which path Denim takes throughout his adventures. The player will need to make crucial decisions at certain points in the game which will not only determine the advancement of the storyline, but also the development of Denim's character, the battles that he will face in the future, and the certain NPC party member's he receives. Not only that, the choices that the player needs to make also determines Denim's “alignment” which include loyal, neutral, and chaotic which all determines what classes Denim will be able to obtain in the future. These crucial choices will also determine the ending of the game of which there are 6, and for the player that just needs to see everything that means for a long quest that's worth well over 150 hours of gameplay.

Of course, no tactical RPG could survive on it's own without enticing battles, and Tactics Ogre does more than provide. There is a job/class system in Tactics Ogre, but each different class only determines what stats increase with each level and what types of spells and weapons can be used Tactics Ogre lacks the ability system that was present in Final Fantasy Tactics (yeah, I know that Tactics Ogre came out before FFT, you don't need to remind me) but makes up for the lack of modification with the huge challenge that each battle provides. Though each character have limited abilities when compared to FFT, the amount of difficulty that is in most battles is immense, almost overwhelming sometimes. I guarantee even the best expert tactician will have a hard time with Tactics Ogre, and often times, I found myself restarting certain tough battles over a half dozen times. This game is not for the impatient or the brash, you will need to carefully plan out your battle and execute with caution. Since the battle fields in Tactics Ogre are rather large and the player can select up to 10 characters per battle, a common thing in Tactics Ogre are long, drawn out battles because of the immense amount of space and characters on the field of play. Of course, if you have time, that probably isn't a problem, but for those of us who need to work, go to the bathroom, go to school, the game offers an in battle saving system where you can save the exact moment of battle where you left off. It's convenient but uncertain because you never know if you're going to really win or not. What I enjoyed the most about battles is the occasional unique item that can be obtained off the body of an enemy. It was nice to find useful spoils after the long battle and it really give me a sense of accomplishment..

Since Tactics Ogre had already been out for the SNES and has only recently been re-released for the PSX, the 2d graphics might seem a bit dated to the industries standards. I, for one, don't think that the graphics in Tactics Ogre are that bad at all. The nicely drawn 2d environments and characters do it's job in providing the proper mood and atmosphere for a game, and sometimes even look good. The portraits of each character in the game is a bit more mature than the cartoon-like portraits of FFT, but they work. But of course, because of the completely 2d environment, there is no camera control in Tactics Ogre, which is sometimes a nuisance but can be safely ignored.

As for music, Tactics Ogre provides a nice soundtrack of mood-setting tunes that go along well with the carnage of battle. There's your typical “undead” song, a dreary and low key track that plays when a battle with the undead is underway, and also a fast beat tune for high stake battles which are crucial to the storyline. I would say that the music accomplishes what all music in each game is present for: setting a good mood.

And of course, Tactics Ogre will be compared to Final Fantasy Tactics for many a time to come. Each is very similar and very different in their own respects, so deciding which is better is tough, so I recommend that everybody's who's tried Final Fantasy Tactics out try out Tactics Ogre as well. An excellent game like this deserves at least a glance….

Overall Scores:
(out of 10)

Graphics: 7
Gameplay: 10
Storyline: 10
Sound/Music: 9
Replay: 7
Amount of time to play: 50+ hours for one ending, 150+ for all

Diffuculty: Very Hard


Buy or Rent: I recommend you rent first and give it a good 3 hours to see if it's for you before you buy.

Overall: 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/00, Updated 04/17/00