Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis

"Where are the Tactics?"

Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is the last installment in the Ogre Saga, developed by Quest. This is a completely new episode, not a port. It should be noted that many key developers and designers of the Super Famicom Tactics Ogre are not behind this version. However, the gameplay and design of both games are comparable.

The Graphics...
Those are certainly not the best you'll see on a powerful console like the GBA. The animation is average SNES quality, the battle fields tend to use less colors than the last batch of SNES games released, there are MANY slow-downs, the magic effects are fairly simple,... The only good point is the nice design of the characters portrait.
Note: The first part of Tactics Ogre contains most of the best background graphics you'll see in the game. You should keep that in mind if you rent it to see how it looks.

The Sound...
Some digitized voices like ''encounter'' etc... Not more than in the SNES Ogre Battle game. The sound effects are insignificant. The music is, technically speaking, not as good as the one found in the SNES game, it sounds kinda ''metallic''. The composition quality is somewhat heterogeneous: some tracks are well done and atmospheric, others are like an insult to all true music lovers. The two composers were not really inspired with that game.
A note for all experts of the Ogre Battle music: You won't find the excellent track ''Island Atlas'' (the world theme in SNES TO and OB64). This is not a good news, since the track you'll hear the most in the game leaves much to be desired.

The Story...
Your average Ogre Battle story lines. In my opinion: one more astonishingly simple and unoriginal story, ridiculously made complex to sound like a ''deep war tale''.

The Gameplay...
A good gameplay means a good game. Unfortunately, Knight of Lodis fails to deliver a decent gameplay, even a single molecule of pure strategy is nowhere to be found. Some ''features'' of this game:
-Non-existent AI. Unbelievable, when you consider it's a 2001 ''strategy'' game.
-Extremely slow to level up: You gain almost no experience point when you fight most of the enemies found in the (easy) random encounters.
-A simple technique lets you crush an enemy in one or two rounds. When you discover this, the game loses all strategy value. This point only is sufficient to kill the game.
-Many classes/monster types/special abilities are completely useless if you want to build the most efficient groups only. A simple example: A kind of Dragon can put enemies to sleep, another one can paralyze them. It's easier to recover from a sleep attack and, if you get hit, you awake immediately. You get the point, why should we use the first kind of Dragon?
-Did I say the AI was appalling?
-The melee combat requires all your intelligence and attention: Attack from behind, heal if necessary, repeat. Of course, it's preferable to fight from an high position.
-The game tells you how many chances you have to hit your target, and the approximate amount of damage. So, it's always possible to change your attack to get the best one. In other words: No surprise, and no challenge.
-Last, TO is undoubtedly too slow and repetitive, like when you see five times the same magic animation simply because the spell affects five squares (It can take a while, with the slow-downs...).

The Challenge...
One particular technique is enough to complete the whole game, so... Since you can save anytime, the temptation to cheat is considerable. And even if you resist, the game will remain incredibly slow, boring and repetitive. Also, it's possible to use the save option so you can force any non-boss character to join you. The final Boss is lamentable and reflects the game's originality...

The Replay Value...
Like in other OB games, you must replay the whole game two or three times to see all the endings and to meet three or four hidden characters (if you ask them to join you, you'll notice that, usually, they're weaker than your common characters!). So, the percentage of new contents when you replay the whole game (15-20 hours) is about 2%.
Also, the game has three extra modes. The first one is the ''Quest Mode''. You can fight an enemy unit within a limited number of rounds , so you get experience points and items. This is probably one of the worst ''extra mode'' I have ever played in a video game. Primo there are only like four or five different enemy units available; only the leader must be defeated, and your units have to be smaller than usual . And then, those ''quests'' become useless when your characters reach the enemy unit's experience level.
The two other modes are for two players only (and require two cartridges). One can be used to trade characters and/or items (I'm not sure). The other is the very ''original'' but addictive units confrontation.

Buy or Rent? If you love any other Tactics Ogre, I think you already made a decision. If you liked Final Fantasy Tactics, expect a lesser game. If you're interested, but you've never played this kind of game before, I strongly recommend you to wait for the Final Fantasy Tactics GBA port. I didn't like FFT, but its gameplay is far more accomplished, and the graphics and music should be superior.
If you're looking for a real strategy game, avoid at all cost.
If in doubt, rent it. Obviously.

Overall Score: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/15/02, Updated 04/20/02