Tactics Ogre Review

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

~the Starcraft of Tactical/Strategy RPGs?

Japanese PSX release box art; shown are the protagonist Denim and his sister Kachua

Platform: Super Famicom (Japanese SNES), PSX (port), SAT (port)
Genre: TRPG
Developer: Quest
Publisher: Artdink (JP PSX), River Hill Software (JP SAT), Atlus (US PSX)
Japanese Release Date: 10/06/95 (SNES), 12/13/96 (SAT), 09/25/97 (PSX), second release collection 12/02/99 (PSX)
US Release Date: ??/??/98 (PSX)

Other games by same core designers: Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (SNES, as Quest), Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX, as Square), Vagrant Story (PSX, as Square), Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA, as Square Enix), Final Fantasy XII (PS2, as Square Enix, sharing less developers); note: not Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (N64) or Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis (GBA)

Developer Credits (only the highest-up roles, from GameFAQs page, credit Y0u, odino, HarkenSlash, PaperLink, chantel1127, and Apples190) + Show Spoiler +

Character Designer Akihiko Yoshida
Art Director Hiroshi Minagawa
CG Designer Kazutaka Matsuda
CG Designer Ryouichi Nakamura
Main System Programmer Tatsuya Azeyagi
Battle Mode Programmer Nobuo Morioka
Game Designer Yasumi Matsuno
Additional Programming Katsuyuki Ito
Music Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto [in addition to games listed above, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (BoF5) among others]
Music Composer Masaharu Iwata [also worked on the games listed above]

What is this game?

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is acclaimed director Yasumi Matsuno's greatest masterpiece, the game all other TRPGs must be inevitably compared to and the godfather of the isometric-view TRPG. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together--from here on, referred to as "TO" or "TO:LUCT" and not to be confused with the GBA game--ranked number seven (#7) on the 2006 Famitsu readers' poll of Top 100 Games of All Time, the second-highest game that isn't a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. The core gameplay, while not without a couple smallish balance issues, is much more balanced than similar titles, and it focuses more on pure, clean TRPG battling rather than developing overpowered special abilities. Yet due to a delayed and small release in the West, it remains criminally overshadowed by its blood brother, Final Fantasy Tactics, which for reference holds a respectable yet much lower spot of number eighty-four in Famitsu's poll. TO was the second game released in the Ogre Battle Saga, which spans several games in different continents of the same world within the same decade of time, yet it is episode seven in the chronology. (OB: tMotBQ is episode five, OB64: PoLC is episode six, and TO: tKoL is a gaiden--a side story--to TO:LUCT.) Battles are a time-based character-by-character affair, taking place in discrete maps, which may be fortress gates, forests, snowfields, temples, and the like, shown in an isometric 3/4 perspective view:

Mildain, an "exile" of Zenobia owns a soldier in the first tutorial battle of the Japanese version

TO, like FFT, explores a deeply political plot, filled with a bloody power struggle between rival factions, corrupt leaders, ethnic cleansing, backstabbing, foreign interests, and a troubled young man who happens to have both a sister and a best friend. However, unlike FFT, it doesn't fall into a quagmire of black and white good/evil crap focusing on Zodiac stones and demons from the underworld taking over people's souls--TO keeps its focus on the interactions of the people of a troubled Valeria, a large island in the Ogre Battle world away from the larger powers of Zenobia, Palatina, and Lodis. After years of fighting, King Dolgare finally united the island under his mostly benevolent reign, only to leave no successor to the throne upon his death. In the ensuing power struggle, new names rose to prominence as the old order broke into pieces, fracturing the island into regions dominated by the three regional ethnic groups. However, two superpowers in Lodis and Zenobia also have their personal interests in the island's affairs, and their involvement sparks the beginning of the story. It begins when Denim Powell, our protagonist and a member of the minority Walstanians oppressed by the Gargastans, receives the aid of five exiled Zenobians in freeing the captured Duke Ronway, the leader of the Walstanians. Fortunately, TO has a pretty good interface as well as two features progressive for the time: back-scrolling of text (in case you missed a line) and an in-game encyclopedia to help you track the major players of the scene that also lets you view previously-seen scenes.

Opening cutscene and first events that don't really explain much yet

The game, which takes place only a few years after the events of episode five, features a few familiar faces. More relevantly, TO also keeps with the series by proving three different endings (with different character subendings within the three), as well as branching story paths. A decision at the end of Chapter 1 leads you to either the Chapter 2 Law or Chapter 2 Chaos path, and a decision at the end of Chapter 2 leads you to either the Chapter 3 Chaos or Chapter 3 Neutral paths. After Chapter 3, all paths merge back into a common concluding Chapter 4--however, the available characters will be different depending on the path you take, and there are other smaller differences.

Basics of the battle system

Forget everything else the game does well or decently--the battles are where TO shines the brightest. They're considerably more difficult than in FFT, for example, yet they're not so difficult to be wholly frustrating. In battle each character acts and moves separately on the map whenever it is his or her turn to act. This is determined by the game's time: characters go based on their speed and not in a "player phase" or "enemy phase", which works well in this game, where your characters' deaths are permanent and battles are unforgiving. A character can do an action--a direct attack with equipped direct weapon like a sword (or punch with fist for minimal damage or use a shield to knock back an enemy), an indirect attack with an equipped bow (or throw a rock for minimal damage), a special attack (available only to monsters and a few special characters), or magic (of healing, attack, or support type; magic isn't available to most character classes, and most spellcasters are limited to a specific subset of magic)--move around, both, or neither (just wait). If a character just waits, that person's turn will come up faster than if they do something else; if a character just moves or acts and does not move, their turn comes up faster than if they do both. At this point, it'd be best to examine some actual game footage:

Tutorial battle number 1 in which the very powerful and CPU-controlled Zenobians (they leave after the tutorial is over) explain some features of the battle system; normally, you have direct control over all of your team's characters--except maybe one or two in the early chapters; you can turn off the extra messages you see here; also, our friends Canopus, Lans Hamilton, and Warren are back, although only Canopus joins your army for real

Note first that the guest characters on your team for that fight in the video are in much higher levels than the enemies--Denim's (who's renamed to something else in the video) mostly there for the ride. You can see this in the experience reports, as characters gain much more experience fighting enemies in higher levels and much lower from characters in lower levels. 100 experience always gets a character to the next level, whereupon the experience resets to 0. Killing an enemy in 1 higher level than you nets you 76-80 experience points towards the 100, so level discrepancies while playing the real game can be alleviated quickly. As you can see in the video, characters are limited by their movement range and obstacles. And any time a character is attacked directly, the target will counterattack the attacker if it is possible--as such, you can expect to take a lot of damage. Before you attack, you can see the projected damage and hit rate numbers on the screen, two useful things in deciding if you really want to follow through with your intended action. Also, like in many other games, the objective of a map is often to defeat the leader: if this happens, you win right then.

Characters and classes

In TO most of your army for most of the game is comprised of generic soldier types, and the rest are special plot characters. Each unit is in a certain character class, such as Soldier, Knight, Wizard, Exorcist, Berserker, Dragoon, etc. These can be changed at will between battles if the character meets the requirements. Generally there's a stat requirement plus an alignment disposition: for example, to be a Knight a male human must be Lawful or Neutral, with 45+ Strength, 44+ Vitality, and 46+ Dexterity. And there are twelve character classes for males, eight for human females, just like that. Different classes give different stat growths, slightly different native attack resistances (apart from the basic stats), and movement types. There's no learning of skills in TO, but the differences in stat growths is still very significant. Stats are the only thing that you carry from class to class--a Knight that switches to a Ninja is still going to be slow and powerful with a Knight's stats, although subsequent levels will give him more Agility than if he had stayed a Knight. And for the record, Ninjas can attack twice and move 6 panels instead of an ordinary character's 5, but they're extremely fragile and weaker than all other physical classes, so they're not broken in this game.

However, some characters cannot change class. Whereas some of the special plot characters are nothing more than generics with a name, unique portrait, and slightly raised stats compared to their counterparts of the same class, other plot characters are in unique classes and cannot be switched from them. Some bosses are unique classes as well. And there are many monster and demi-human classes that cannot switch: a Medusa is always going to be a Medusa. There are around 100 different character classes in the game, although some of them are just palette swaps with different stats compared to others and many others are special characters on both your side and the enemy's (like one class for each of them).

Guess what? It's the character creation quiz that determines your starting stats! (again)

Other curiosities of battle (warning: rambling ensues)

Terrain
Each character in the game has an innate element: wind, earth, water, or fire. Each tile that doesn't have an object on it, be it high grass, normal grass, soil, road, castle, ice, water, etc. can be stood on, and each, similar to most TRPGs (except here we're talking on a micro scale), gives different attack and defense modifiers. For example, soil is a good terrain to stand on, giving +30 attack and +25 defense modifiers. And since it's an earthy terrain type, earth element characters get +2/+2 on it, while wind element characters get -2/-2 on it. On the other hand, volcanic ash provides very tricky footing, giving +10 attack and +20 defense modifiers, (+3/+3 for fire and -3/-3 for water types). These numbers are quite significant: it's not a straight +30 to your attack but rather something entirely different in the game's mechanics. As such, terrain types are very important to consider in a fight, adding strategic depth to the game.

Height and arrows
There are two projectile types in the game: arcing and non-arcing. The former is the bow attack type, and the latter is the crossbow attack type. Although a bow may advertise that it can attack for 5 panels away, you can actually select any panel on the entire map to target. It'll just only hit whatever is in range. If an enemy is 5 panels away but 3 panels higher than you, there's no way you're hitting that enemy even though it's in your target range, as your arrow will arc down before it gets to the target. You might even hit your own character who's in the way of the arrow by accident. However, with a crossbow the arcing doesn't begin until 6 or so panels, so you should be able to hit that target (the disadvantage of no arcing is that if there's an object in the way, the bolt will hit the object instead of arcing above the obstacle; also, you can hit any of your guys who are in the way as well). But if a character with a bow is standing at the top of a nearby hill, 15 panels above the surroundings, she might be able to hit a target 11 panels from the target even though her bow is only supposed to hit 5 panels away. Because of this, high ground advantage plays a major role in the game. In fact, many of the stages in the game have you attacking an enemy force that includes archers on top of a fortress wall, in perfect position to rain down arrows from afar, probably outranging your spellcasters.

Your army is way down off the screen, and the rest of the enemies have yet to arrive; as this is early in the game you won't be seeing the rain of arrows yet

Direction
The direction a character faces in is also an important factor of battle. If a character is attacked from behind, the attack has a 50% more chance of hitting than if it came from the front. Likewise, an attack from the side has a 25% more chance of hitting than if it came from the front. So what might seem like a good idea would be to keep a tight wall formation to engage the enemy head-on so you can't be attacked from behind or the sides.

Magic
However, a lot of the magic in the game, including most of the offensive magic, can be targeted as much as 7 panels away, and with an area of effect of up to 13 squares (one center and all panels 1-2 away from the center). Thus, keeping such a tight formation can get you wrecked by enemy Wizards who can abuse how clumped your guys are. Then again, you might have a Cleric with Heal+ who would be able to heal with an area of effect range. As mentioned by Warren in the gameplay video, characters start with 0 MP at the beginning of battle and gradually gain more as time wears on at a rate fast enough to cast but one basic spell a turn. Characters can equip 0, 1, 2, or 3 spells depending on their class.

Levels
In general, the enemy forces will be of the same level as the highest level of any unit in your army, no matter what your levels are, up to a certain point, although the enemy leaders are at fixed levels, generally 1 or 2 higher than you. So if Denim is at level 11 (say he killed last stage's leader, who was at level 11, and so broke from the pack) and the rest of your guys are at level 10, the enemy units are going to be at level 11. This provides a great opportunity for your level 10 guys to get kills on the level 11 enemies and thus keep up in levels.

Equipment
As noted in the tutorial, equipment has both weight and attack/defense/whatever. Extra weight slows down your character, which means their hit rate and evade decreases and their turn comes up slightly slower, on the order of 5% slower for one piece of heavy armor as compared to nothing. Thus, in TO equipment choices aren't all about getting the strongest gear. You need to decide what you prioritize the most, be it direct attack power, indirect attack power, defense, magic defense, speed, consumable items (like heal items), etc. Should you equip both a dagger and a short bow (one-handed) on an archer, or is it better to go with a stronger and heavier two-handed bow? Should you weigh down your slower characters with heavy equipment to create a tank character or try to balance them by giving them light gear? How many strong direct attackers do you need? How many healers? All of these questions are related, and are good ones, as the game is pretty balanced. And as new character classes open up and you recruit new special characters, you'll find your army composition remaining dynamic.

Denim, the protagonist here named "Taalo", has no magic, as he's in the basic Soldier class--equipped magic would appear in that nice white space in the lower-right; also, note that he does have four equipment slots like everybody else in the game

Miscellany and Summary

TO has a fair share of secret or optional stages, some of which may be only opened up by reading about them in that encyclopedia thing. One long sidequest is Hell Gate, a 100-floor dungeon where you fight, uh, 100 battles or decide to leave. However, although you do get some powerful spells, equipment, and techniques in there, you don't gain any experience there, or else you'd come out way overleveled. Also, some of the special characters can only be recruited in sidequests.

There's a training mode in the game that most people hate and whine about having to do. Training is just a mock fight you set up for your characters that works like a normal battle except nobody dies permanently. Nevertheless, you do get experience for actions as normal and for "kills" as normal. So you control your own guys to beat on each other until you get to the desired level and then end the training whenever you want. However, if you manage your normal battles fine, you don't need training at all. Yes, it's a little tedious to do if you want to do it, but it's not necessary--the last few times I played through the game I didn't use it at all. In any case, it doesn't even take that long usually: say half your army is level 15 and the other half is level 14. In that situation, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes literally (3-4 minutes) to get everyone to level 15.

Tactics Ogre really does require more strategical and on-the-fly tactical decisions to play than other games in the genre, providing deep, challenging, engaging TRPG battles like few others do. It provides you options where another game might provide you Orlandu. It's in the number of party builds and options available, as well as the paradoxically pure, simplistic gameplay (that operates on complex rules) that it can be rightly called the Starcraft of TRPGs. It's a game that has proven distasteful to some yet revered by others. It may not have the plot of Vagrant Story or the character development of Final Fantasy Tactics, to name other games by the developers, but TO:LUCT in its core is a genre-defining, excellent gaming experience.

This concludes this week's review. I felt a bit tired and out of the mood, so I hope it didn't show in my writing. Pictures and other media are hard to come by for this game, so sorry about the low quality and little relatedness of some pictures. Maybe I should be searching for the Japanese name in Google, but I didn't bother trying. Happy gaming, and please stop by and add comments.

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