Tactics Ogre: Reborn (2022)

I am an idiot because this is my first Tactics Ogre game. I should not have missed this series in the past and should have played this already. So I'm grateful for this re-release but also unfortunately that means I can't compare it to previous releases.

I love the visuals and art style. The game play is really satisfying. I really enjoyed taking my time and planning my moves. The story and characters are good with plenty of twists and drama. Loved the setting, world and lore. Sound track is great. Plenty of content here too.

There are a few issues though. There is a level cap which I'm guessing is to stop you getting over powered but it's too restrictive. I wanted to try everything this game had to offer but some of the side stuff just felt like a dull grind. There is an uneven difficulty incline. Sometimes you breeze through a bunch of battles and then there's an occasional difficulty spike.

Tactics Ogre is getting pretty old now but still leaves the majority of modern games in it's dust. If you have enjoyed games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem then this should be on your games to play next list. So glad I finally played it. Tactics Ogre: Reborn is pretty damn great.

8.8/10

3/5

Played on Switch. Runs and looks great, and is perfect for portable play.

Have previously played about 50% of the game on PSP but got distracted with other games. This time I played through the whole story on the Chaotic route. I think the overarching story is quite good, but the pacing of the game is all over the place. At the end in particular it really slows to a crawl and you have to do some long dungeons to advance the story. The gameplay felt less compelling at these points too, as I felt the progression of my characters had more or less ended and I was just going through the motions. As much as I would like to see what I think would be the more interesting Lawful route, I can't bring myself to play through a whole bunch more of battles to do it. The battles themselves are not as interesting (to me) as Triangle Stragy either - they lack the environmental variety and interaction that made that game deliciously challenging.

Still a fantastic tactics game with great writing and a compelling story.

I'm having a good time, despite the haunting FFTactics déjà vu.

The sense of limitless progress is being stolen by the party level cap system. While I'm sure it will make story battles continuously dynamic, the way I'm going to obsessively max out the levels at each story gate, will leave no room for the playful, system breaking grind I enjoyed from FFTactics.

There's a chance I could tire myself out.

I am brimming with excitement.

Having missed out on Tactics Ogre in the past, this is a perfect moment for my gaming inclination.

While I am frothing at the mouth at its potential to scratch the ever-loved, Final Fantasy Tactics itch. Two worries have caught my attention.

• Slight genre fatigue. I've played hundreds of hours elsewhere and I can feel the been-there-done-that ghost. Still, I want to love it.
• The blobby sprites. They have less appeal than desired and I'm slightly uncomfortable as I miss the look of FFT.