Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PSP)
Jan. 15th, 2016 04:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroFor decades, the land of Valeria saw constant war and unrest. Despite a respite under the rule of Dynast-King Dorgalua, following his death Abuna Brantyn of the royal court, Heirophant Balbatos of the Galgastani, and Duke Ronwey of the Walister all attempted to seize power. Caught is in the middle of this is a Walister youth named Denam Pavel, whose hometown was destroyed by the Dark Knights of Lodis, under Brantyn's orders. From his humble beginnings, he may be the one to bring peace to Valeria.
This is an enhanced remake of a game originally released for the Super Famicom, which I played years ago. The interface is much smoother and easier to deal with than the original. Things move faster, and you can take back movements as long as you haven't acted yet, which is very helpful given wonky ranged aiming mechanics. MP starts at zero in every battle and slowly fills. XP is rewarded after battle, not for individual actions. (I'm reminded of FF Tactics A2 in both cases, actually.) All units of the same class share a level--Individual units don't get XP, classes do; individuals only get skill points. The class level is very important, because everything (weapons, armor, skills, spells) is level-locked. Enemies level with you, but only up to a certain point for story battles.
The fact that classes--not characters--need to be individually leveled is an interesting setup, and the shared XP makes it workable: Basically, when you bring in a new class, you need to have that character hide in the back and survive a few battles until the class is up to snuff. And then if you want to field more archers for a single battle, for instance, you can just swap everyone into that class and they're automatically at the highest level you've reached.
The battles are not particularly easy, and in fact rely heavily on both careful tactical choices and some luck. They do offer some help, though: In an interesting gameplay choice, the game tracks the past 50 turns and lets you use the "Chariot Tarot" to go back in time and replay segments of the battle. Your characters can be revived (you get the 3-turn window that FFT popularized), but non-undead enemies instantly turn into either bags of loot or stat-boosting Tarot cards. (Basically, once you kill something it's gone, but you can revive your team.)
The first chapter loads you down with AI-controlled guest units, though unlike the original, they tend to move quickly, so while you're still watching the AI play the game, at least you don't have to sit around while it "thinks" about its moves.
From my review of the original: "They do have some clever bits that later games don't (you can equip characters with both melee and ranged weapons, for instance), but these really serve to cover up problematic movement ranges and a lack of other useful tactical options. The magic choices are woefully sparse, and you don't get any monster units."
They addressed the sparse magic choices in spades: There are a dozen different types of magic, each with a selection of spells that only some classes can use. And most of this magic types have different ranges, and will or won't pass through various obstacles or only affect specific targets...and very little of that is documented. My ability to aim a goddamn Word of Pain spell so that it didn't ram a wall did not improve as I played.
You don't automatically get space for both melee and ranged weapons anymore: You can equip two one-handed weapons, but not and axe and a bow, for instance. Also, there are helms, gloves and boots available, but you can only equip one of those three things on any given character. Of course, the usefulness of ranged weapons is mixed, because they all have trouble firing up, and you spend a lot of the story battles climbing up things. (Even if you don't equip a weapon, you always have "punch" and "throw stone" available.)
The monster units--including ones with multiple classes like hawkmen, lizardmen, golems and dragons--can't be recruited in town. You can only get them by coming into battle with fewer than the max number of characters for that map, getting them to critical health, and successfully using a recruit skill on them. This is both overcomplicated and not particularly necessary.
This game, like FF Tactics, will drown you in backstory and exposition if you let it. There's a whole massive world and a zillion actors involved, most of it "grounded" in less-supernatural politics.
Our story opens on Denam, his sister Catiua and his best friend Vyse. Denam is our Ramza, pushed and pulled by the forces of history and trying to do what's right. Catiua is eventually revealed to secretly be the rightful princess and takes the throne (though this isn't necessarily a good thing); and Vyse goes rogue, swaps sides a bunch of times, and ends up getting killed after killing the Duke he formerly served. Then again, 75% of the cast ends up dead, and the rest (optionally) join your party.
You need to make some terrible choices in the efforts to free your homeland: The first chapter ends on a decision by your leader to murder one of your own villages in a false-flag operation. Whether you accept or reject the decision determines which version of Chapter 2 you play. Whether you're willing to rejoin him later determines which of three versions of chapter 3 you play. (At the end of the game, you're given access to the "World Tarot" and can go back and replay events from most points in the game with your endgame stats and equipment.
The fourth chapter, of which there is only one version, is an oddity in that the plot suddenly takes on much more fantasy--the various factions in the war are basically reduced to you and the Dark Knights of Lodis, and they're looking for a magical artifact. That serves to tie the game into the greater series, as the legendary demon "ogres" are what they're digging for.
It also looks like the ending changes depending on which special characters you managed to recruit and what decisions you make at certain points.
Overall: There's a tremendous amount of game here, with a great many tactical options (...possibly too many that are too similar), alternate plotlines, and sidequests. I didn't love the system enough to seriously go into depth on all of the extras, but was impressed nonetheless. This is recommended if you like trpgs, Final Fantasy Tactics in particular, but want it to be more tactical and less breakable.
This is an enhanced remake of a game originally released for the Super Famicom, which I played years ago. The interface is much smoother and easier to deal with than the original. Things move faster, and you can take back movements as long as you haven't acted yet, which is very helpful given wonky ranged aiming mechanics. MP starts at zero in every battle and slowly fills. XP is rewarded after battle, not for individual actions. (I'm reminded of FF Tactics A2 in both cases, actually.) All units of the same class share a level--Individual units don't get XP, classes do; individuals only get skill points. The class level is very important, because everything (weapons, armor, skills, spells) is level-locked. Enemies level with you, but only up to a certain point for story battles.
The fact that classes--not characters--need to be individually leveled is an interesting setup, and the shared XP makes it workable: Basically, when you bring in a new class, you need to have that character hide in the back and survive a few battles until the class is up to snuff. And then if you want to field more archers for a single battle, for instance, you can just swap everyone into that class and they're automatically at the highest level you've reached.
The battles are not particularly easy, and in fact rely heavily on both careful tactical choices and some luck. They do offer some help, though: In an interesting gameplay choice, the game tracks the past 50 turns and lets you use the "Chariot Tarot" to go back in time and replay segments of the battle. Your characters can be revived (you get the 3-turn window that FFT popularized), but non-undead enemies instantly turn into either bags of loot or stat-boosting Tarot cards. (Basically, once you kill something it's gone, but you can revive your team.)
The first chapter loads you down with AI-controlled guest units, though unlike the original, they tend to move quickly, so while you're still watching the AI play the game, at least you don't have to sit around while it "thinks" about its moves.
From my review of the original: "They do have some clever bits that later games don't (you can equip characters with both melee and ranged weapons, for instance), but these really serve to cover up problematic movement ranges and a lack of other useful tactical options. The magic choices are woefully sparse, and you don't get any monster units."
They addressed the sparse magic choices in spades: There are a dozen different types of magic, each with a selection of spells that only some classes can use. And most of this magic types have different ranges, and will or won't pass through various obstacles or only affect specific targets...and very little of that is documented. My ability to aim a goddamn Word of Pain spell so that it didn't ram a wall did not improve as I played.
You don't automatically get space for both melee and ranged weapons anymore: You can equip two one-handed weapons, but not and axe and a bow, for instance. Also, there are helms, gloves and boots available, but you can only equip one of those three things on any given character. Of course, the usefulness of ranged weapons is mixed, because they all have trouble firing up, and you spend a lot of the story battles climbing up things. (Even if you don't equip a weapon, you always have "punch" and "throw stone" available.)
The monster units--including ones with multiple classes like hawkmen, lizardmen, golems and dragons--can't be recruited in town. You can only get them by coming into battle with fewer than the max number of characters for that map, getting them to critical health, and successfully using a recruit skill on them. This is both overcomplicated and not particularly necessary.
This game, like FF Tactics, will drown you in backstory and exposition if you let it. There's a whole massive world and a zillion actors involved, most of it "grounded" in less-supernatural politics.
Our story opens on Denam, his sister Catiua and his best friend Vyse. Denam is our Ramza, pushed and pulled by the forces of history and trying to do what's right. Catiua is eventually revealed to secretly be the rightful princess and takes the throne (though this isn't necessarily a good thing); and Vyse goes rogue, swaps sides a bunch of times, and ends up getting killed after killing the Duke he formerly served. Then again, 75% of the cast ends up dead, and the rest (optionally) join your party.
You need to make some terrible choices in the efforts to free your homeland: The first chapter ends on a decision by your leader to murder one of your own villages in a false-flag operation. Whether you accept or reject the decision determines which version of Chapter 2 you play. Whether you're willing to rejoin him later determines which of three versions of chapter 3 you play. (At the end of the game, you're given access to the "World Tarot" and can go back and replay events from most points in the game with your endgame stats and equipment.
The fourth chapter, of which there is only one version, is an oddity in that the plot suddenly takes on much more fantasy--the various factions in the war are basically reduced to you and the Dark Knights of Lodis, and they're looking for a magical artifact. That serves to tie the game into the greater series, as the legendary demon "ogres" are what they're digging for.
It also looks like the ending changes depending on which special characters you managed to recruit and what decisions you make at certain points.
Overall: There's a tremendous amount of game here, with a great many tactical options (...possibly too many that are too similar), alternate plotlines, and sidequests. I didn't love the system enough to seriously go into depth on all of the extras, but was impressed nonetheless. This is recommended if you like trpgs, Final Fantasy Tactics in particular, but want it to be more tactical and less breakable.
