Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis

"Surprisingly deep..."

Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is a strategy-RPG in the Tactics Ogre series. It is quite different than March of the Black Queen (the only other Ogre game I've played) in that you literally control every members action.

Story: 9/10

I really enjoyed the story that the game presented. It is set some time before Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together and features a young knight of Lodis named Alphonse. Alphonse is sent to Ovis, an island nation, to investigate an occurrence by the White Fang Troops with his friend Rictor, but is soon caught up in an epic tale of betrayal, ideals, and vengeance.

Personally, I feel you have to really put some time in the game until the story starts getting really good. I was surprised by it, actually, I didn't expect the story to get so deep. Multiple times throughout the game, you have to choose which "path" you will follow. The outcome of the story is directly effected by your choices, leading to multiple story paths. It truly is a great tale, but I won't spoil it here. I haven't seen such a good story in a SRPG since Final Fantasy Tactics. If you like a good story with your game, this is definitely a title for you.

Gameplay: 8/10

The gameplay is what you would expect if you play strategy titles. It is very similar to other titles like Fire Emblem and the Final Fantasy tactics games. Basically, all of your battles will be on square-like maps, in which your characters can freely move about and position themselves to attack their enemies. You are given alot of freedom with planning your attacks, as you can take any action back provided you haven't attacked or cast magic. When you attack an enemy, if you don't attack their backside there is a chance that they'll counter-attack. You can also use items in battle, as well as defend and cast different types of magic (which all go into detail further on).

Similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, and earlier Ogre titles, each character has a different job class that they fight as. You can even hire or recruit monsters to fight for you, although they cannot switch jobs. Most of your recruited humans can, though, with each job having different skills and spell types they can use. New jobs open up to you as you progress throughout the game. Each job has pre-requisites that must be met, such as needing certain stats or emblems to unlock. Emblems are awards that you obtain for your actions in battle, which can do anything from altering your stats to opening new jobs.

Weapons and magic that you can use are also dependent on your current job. Magic is divided into 6 elements: fire, thunder, ice, wind, virtue (healing), and bane. There are support spells, attack spells, and healing spells, along with a couple of unique situations spells (resurrection, for instance).

Graphics: 7/10

The graphics are well done in the game, though not perfect. Getting each character to fit in a square for a battle required some graphical sacrifice, no doubt, as I wish the "bigger" characters (dragons, giants) were given more detail and made bigger. Most jobs and characters look good, though. The backgrounds are great and often detailed well! At times, during battle, it will be raining or snowing, but in never distracts you (unless the water level rises from the rain!). One great part that I enjoyed, graphically, is in the menu, when you go to look at a characters stats, there is a portrait of them in their current job. These portraits are masterfully drawn, I enjoyed them alot. Other than that, everything was pretty much average.

Music and Sound effects: 6/10

The music is good, and kind-of catchy. Why give it a 6 than, you ask? Well, that's because there just isn't any variety here. You pretty much listen to the same track in every battle. Than there is the track when an important plot point is developing, and the track for when Alphonse is having one of his emotional moments. That's about it.

The sound effects, though, have a bit more variety, though they are what you would expect. You'll hear alot of bows snapping, swords clashing, and magic being cast as you fight your way through the game. You should also get used to the enemies death screams too.

Re-playability and Multi-player: 8/10

There is quite a bit of re-playability here, as there are several different paths in the game. There is also a special, hidden path that has certain requirements to activate. Expect alot of playtime if you want to see everything.

You can also fight a friends team in multi-player. Doing this, you can obtain several emblems that you could only obtain by fighting with a friend. Pretty much required if you want to go after every emblem or max out your stats.

Overall: 8/10

Overall, an above-average strategy game with a great story. I highly recommend it. I hope you pick it up, if just to enjoy the story. Have fun and keep playing! Later...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/07