I'm just using Reborn as the basis for my Tactics Ogre review since it's definitely going to be/already is the definitive version.

Anyway, welcome to the deepest game of all time. There just isn't a game with more attention to detail than this one and the thing is, all those details matter. See Tactics Ogre is a game about fluidity, it's game that adapts to you as you adapt to it.

It puts you into situations not math problems.

One map chicken men are flying at you so you steal their purple dragon, you then take that purple dragon and use it in the next map to stunlock a random soldier before convincing that soldier to join you. Little custom, individualized moments of gameplay. True individualism in game mechanics.

Story-wise the game reacts to everything, everything you do is tracked. If a main character dies, the game continues, and every scene that would be with them is different. While all this is going you have genuinely the most detailed and thought out fantasy setting in maybe anything. It's the type of game to have it's own Wikipedia that it constantly updates over the course of the game. Tonally, the game is perfect. It avoids the sort overly sappy writing of SRPGs and also manages to have a lot of charm by not being incredibly grimdark.

It's something that no words could ever really do justice because it's ultimately a video game. You have to play it to really "get" it.

I remember this game back in 2014. That was the time Sonic was hitting another low point in his life. I remember this game was recommended a lot to get that Sonic fill after the awfulness that was Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal. I played it on Wii U and never really bothered to beat it. I decided to try again on Switch since I remember buying it for $5. Was surprised with this one ngl.

It's a 2D sidescroller similar to the Sonic games from that 16 bit era. It even started out as a Sonic fan game. You go through many levels and fight many bosses. The levels here can be pretty fun but damn a lot of them are looooong. It took me 22 minutes to beat one level, I'm not sure if I'm just bad. You get to play as three different characters and thankfully they are all fun in their own way and even have slightly different playthroughs.

The game has a lot of emphasis on story but I won't lie with you guys, the story is so bad I can't even watch every cutscene. You can skip them or even do a mode that doesn't have the cutscenes so at least it's not all bad but I really hope the sequel improves this.

The game also has a lot of bosses and it really seems the devs liked Treasure's 16 bit catalogue because they remind me of those games they worked on. It's kind of hit and miss. Some bosses are fun and it's satisfying when you finally learn the pattern and win but there are times it's not the most fun thing in the world.

I wish you also didn't have such small amount of i-frames, sometimes you just get combo'd into a multihit move and it's just hard to watch because it makes you feel like crap. While the physics aren't the best in the world and I do wish the game was a bit faster outside of automation set pieces, the game can be pretty fun. I think the characters having fun abilities really helps with this. Like you can ride a motorcycle with Carol, it's amazing!

Graphically it looks pretty nice like wow that's some nice pixel art you got there. I like the character designs of the three heroines. The music though is just there for me, it's not bad but I wouldn't listen to it outside of the game but maybe that'll change someday.
There's a lot of content and achievements to unlock if you want to 100% it but I was satisfied completing it with the three characters. It's an enjoyable game but I hope when the sequel comes out on Switch they improve some of the issues I had. I could see this being a great game if some stuff was ironed out. Even with it's issues, give it a try if you see it for cheap it's worth at least trying.