Unsung Heroes
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
So in a change of pace, I am now going to do a section called Unsung Heroes. In this blog post I will talk about games that maybe slipped under the radar of most but are sincerely worth a gamers time, won't be for everyone but I thought I'd get some attention out there and talk a little bit about the game in general.
This week I am reviewing Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together. An SRPG from square enix and alongside FF Tactics Advanced 2: Grimoire of the rift, its my favourite strategy game. TO: LUCT was released on the psp back in 2011, I managed to get my hands on the limited edition of the game at the time and initially I found it gruellingly difficult and to my shame I put it away for several years. Skip forward to 2013 at uni on a lazy summer day nice breeze blowing through the room I decided to really invest my time into Tactics ogre and get past the difficulty. I am glad I did and here's why.
The premise
The setting of Tactics Ogre is set in the middle of several war torn countries all of them vying for the power left behind by the Dynast King Dorgalua Oberyth. The game features some very Shakespearian language with many characters sounding like they just jumped out of Game of Thrones and that is what makes it so enthralling.
Based in Valeria the game focuses on a bunch of teenagers who have recently had their homes raided by the Dark Knights, their leader Lanselot Tartaros takes Denam Pavel's father hostage. Denam along with his sister Catiua and best friend Vyce plot revenge against the dark knights. There plan comes to ahead when the supposed "dark knights" arrive in their home town, springing their carefully laid plan Denam and his friends attack only to learn that the people they attacked where in fact Xenobian White Knights led by Lanselot Hamilton so you can see the confusion there. Two guys with the same name.
Anyway the story goes on to Denam learning about a resistance force that his people, the Walister, are fighting against invading forces from all around. Denam is led on a quest of realisation, unification and liberation.
Tactics at its finest
True to its name Tactics ogre focuses heavily on tactics, there is a big emphasis on troop placement and terrain where standing on the right tile can give bonuses to ranged attack strength and psychical attack strength. Tactics ogre is also a good representation of what a tactics game should look like with so many different ways to take down the enemy it really forces you to think about your decisions and plan ahead for what could be a horrible move. But even when a move goes badly and you don't get the result you were after there is a feature called the chariot tarot which allows you to go back and try the move again perhaps taking a different route to a different outcome. All of these features plus the myriad status effects that can both help and hinder make for a great tactical experience.
Diverse Classes, Diverse races. A chilling tale.
There are many different classes in TO LUCT from the most generic of warrior and archer to the more technical and experienced terror knight and samurai. There are many classes to chose from and each one has its boons and benefits….although that might not be immediately apparent. See the thing is in Tactics ogre when you change your characters class they revert to Level 1 making all the effort you put in on one class useless so what would be the point right? The point is that if for instance you have a dragoon at level 21 and a warrior at level 7 and you want to change the warrior to a dragoon then when he does his level will be matched to the dragoons. So basically the class level is shared. There is a benefit to that but starting an entirely new class from the begging is difficult and Tactics ogre is unforgiving in its assault upon new players…..it doesn't play nice folks.
Which classes are the best then? Which one should you always have with you? Archers. Archers are undoubtedly the best class in the game, having at least three archers during the begging of the game can change the tide of battle dramatically. Of course classes are all down to personal preference and how good of a tactical head you have on your shoulders.
An interesting part of Tactics ogre is the chaos frame and loyalty system. Chaos frame indicates your current ethical stance and what path the story will go in there are three routes: Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic and each one varies in length and the number of characters you can attain. Loyalty is to do with your individual units and wether or not they support your decisions, make the wrong one's and they can decide to abandon your cause they are also affected by how many times they die in battle. I never had a problem with loyal or un loyal units so this wasn't much of a problem but I gather that on different routes some people will just abandon you willy nilly. However there are characters that will stick it out with you through thick and thin, never questioning the path you tread. Its interesting to see how tactics plays a part in nearly all of the game's elements.
"There is blood on my hands, how long till it rests on my heart?"
Tactics ogre right from its story to gameplay and soundtrack is a beautiful game. It takes all of the inspirations of past games both from its own series and from Final Fantasy Tactics as well. The way each word is crafted and how the characters interact, it really draws you in makes you think that your a part of their conflict. The game is difficult but once you overcome that and start making the decisions that count what you will find is an incredibly immersive RPG experience the like of which is not easily mimicked. I will give a little bit of a spoiler as the game ends on a certain group leaving Valaria behind opening the doors for the next in the ogre battle series. With so many different options to explore and so many different things that make the game good Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together is a classic that has been wrongfully overlooked, maybe not entirely but still I wanted to write this article so that others will know of an amazing RPG sitting right under their noses.
Trivia
The director of the ogre battle series, Yasumi Matsuno, was a fan of the english rock group Queen. He subsequently went on to make the first game in the series naming it after two of Queens songs the title of the first game was Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. In a similar vain Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together is named after the song Let us cling together/ Teo Torriatte by Queen. The song Let us cling together has two choruses sung in Japanese.
Anyway the story goes on to Denam learning about a resistance force that his people, the Walister, are fighting against invading forces from all around. Denam is led on a quest of realisation, unification and liberation.
Tactics at its finest
True to its name Tactics ogre focuses heavily on tactics, there is a big emphasis on troop placement and terrain where standing on the right tile can give bonuses to ranged attack strength and psychical attack strength. Tactics ogre is also a good representation of what a tactics game should look like with so many different ways to take down the enemy it really forces you to think about your decisions and plan ahead for what could be a horrible move. But even when a move goes badly and you don't get the result you were after there is a feature called the chariot tarot which allows you to go back and try the move again perhaps taking a different route to a different outcome. All of these features plus the myriad status effects that can both help and hinder make for a great tactical experience.
Diverse Classes, Diverse races. A chilling tale.
There are many different classes in TO LUCT from the most generic of warrior and archer to the more technical and experienced terror knight and samurai. There are many classes to chose from and each one has its boons and benefits….although that might not be immediately apparent. See the thing is in Tactics ogre when you change your characters class they revert to Level 1 making all the effort you put in on one class useless so what would be the point right? The point is that if for instance you have a dragoon at level 21 and a warrior at level 7 and you want to change the warrior to a dragoon then when he does his level will be matched to the dragoons. So basically the class level is shared. There is a benefit to that but starting an entirely new class from the begging is difficult and Tactics ogre is unforgiving in its assault upon new players…..it doesn't play nice folks.
Which classes are the best then? Which one should you always have with you? Archers. Archers are undoubtedly the best class in the game, having at least three archers during the begging of the game can change the tide of battle dramatically. Of course classes are all down to personal preference and how good of a tactical head you have on your shoulders.
An interesting part of Tactics ogre is the chaos frame and loyalty system. Chaos frame indicates your current ethical stance and what path the story will go in there are three routes: Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic and each one varies in length and the number of characters you can attain. Loyalty is to do with your individual units and wether or not they support your decisions, make the wrong one's and they can decide to abandon your cause they are also affected by how many times they die in battle. I never had a problem with loyal or un loyal units so this wasn't much of a problem but I gather that on different routes some people will just abandon you willy nilly. However there are characters that will stick it out with you through thick and thin, never questioning the path you tread. Its interesting to see how tactics plays a part in nearly all of the game's elements.
"There is blood on my hands, how long till it rests on my heart?"
Tactics ogre right from its story to gameplay and soundtrack is a beautiful game. It takes all of the inspirations of past games both from its own series and from Final Fantasy Tactics as well. The way each word is crafted and how the characters interact, it really draws you in makes you think that your a part of their conflict. The game is difficult but once you overcome that and start making the decisions that count what you will find is an incredibly immersive RPG experience the like of which is not easily mimicked. I will give a little bit of a spoiler as the game ends on a certain group leaving Valaria behind opening the doors for the next in the ogre battle series. With so many different options to explore and so many different things that make the game good Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together is a classic that has been wrongfully overlooked, maybe not entirely but still I wanted to write this article so that others will know of an amazing RPG sitting right under their noses.
Trivia
The director of the ogre battle series, Yasumi Matsuno, was a fan of the english rock group Queen. He subsequently went on to make the first game in the series naming it after two of Queens songs the title of the first game was Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. In a similar vain Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together is named after the song Let us cling together/ Teo Torriatte by Queen. The song Let us cling together has two choruses sung in Japanese.
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