There's a lot that does shine about Tactics Ogre, and a lot I do enjoy about it. It tells the tale of a man as he is trapped in a bloody war, with difficult choices to make and ultimately no truly right answers. In this respect, it is probably one of the best games to depict war and put the question to the player - do the ends justify the means?
It's not perfect - I do have some hangups regarding the plot. The antagonists are cartoonish villains, and one party member in particular (at least in the route I played) makes bafflingly stupid decisions as the game tries to guilt the player over it. It's a bit silly, but it's something easily overlooked in the grand scheme of the plot. The english voice acting for the most part is great. The main character, Denam, has an excellent performance from Max Mittelman who carries the game on his back, and many of the side characters were well done too. I felt the music to leave a little bit to be desired, but I did have a couple of standouts that I enjoyed a lot.
What really brings down my score here is the gameplay experience. Tactics Ogre is a slog. I normally love tactical games, but in this one there is just too much downtime and too many ultimately meaningless battles that feel like filler. There are some decent maps, but most are pretty lackluster and can be steamrolled, with the only real tactical decision I often needed to make was - do I need a dragoon here or not? There are definitely some great fights that do invoke just the right amount of challenge - the final dungeon in particular is fantastic. But the midgame is a bore with not a lot of payoff and retreading constantly over maps you've already beaten. The final chapter somehow both escalates the plot while also ensuring you have a mountain of trivial things to do if you are so inclined. I totally understand why people love this, but it's a bit too grindy for my taste and the fast-forward button is an absolute joke. If it was even twice as fast, maybe I wouldn't care so much.
For a tactical game, I feel I should also mention how strange it is there is no complete glossary of things like buffs/debuffs in-game. A handful are listed in the tips menu, but for most you can only get a description from a character who is actively affected by it. A lot of information is tucked away in those menus, so its strange we didn't get that but we did get a robust explanation of the calendar, which is mostly inconsequential.
Tactics Ogre is very impressive when you consider it came out for the SNES in 1995, and there is no doubt that it is among the best games on that platform. But I feel like it has not lived up to the expectations that its fanbase has left for me, which is a shame because I was really hoping it would. Maybe I'll go back and check out the stuff I missed sometime, but I think 69 hours was enough.
It's not perfect - I do have some hangups regarding the plot. The antagonists are cartoonish villains, and one party member in particular (at least in the route I played) makes bafflingly stupid decisions as the game tries to guilt the player over it. It's a bit silly, but it's something easily overlooked in the grand scheme of the plot. The english voice acting for the most part is great. The main character, Denam, has an excellent performance from Max Mittelman who carries the game on his back, and many of the side characters were well done too. I felt the music to leave a little bit to be desired, but I did have a couple of standouts that I enjoyed a lot.
What really brings down my score here is the gameplay experience. Tactics Ogre is a slog. I normally love tactical games, but in this one there is just too much downtime and too many ultimately meaningless battles that feel like filler. There are some decent maps, but most are pretty lackluster and can be steamrolled, with the only real tactical decision I often needed to make was - do I need a dragoon here or not? There are definitely some great fights that do invoke just the right amount of challenge - the final dungeon in particular is fantastic. But the midgame is a bore with not a lot of payoff and retreading constantly over maps you've already beaten. The final chapter somehow both escalates the plot while also ensuring you have a mountain of trivial things to do if you are so inclined. I totally understand why people love this, but it's a bit too grindy for my taste and the fast-forward button is an absolute joke. If it was even twice as fast, maybe I wouldn't care so much.
For a tactical game, I feel I should also mention how strange it is there is no complete glossary of things like buffs/debuffs in-game. A handful are listed in the tips menu, but for most you can only get a description from a character who is actively affected by it. A lot of information is tucked away in those menus, so its strange we didn't get that but we did get a robust explanation of the calendar, which is mostly inconsequential.
Tactics Ogre is very impressive when you consider it came out for the SNES in 1995, and there is no doubt that it is among the best games on that platform. But I feel like it has not lived up to the expectations that its fanbase has left for me, which is a shame because I was really hoping it would. Maybe I'll go back and check out the stuff I missed sometime, but I think 69 hours was enough.
2 Comments
I can respect stopping at 60+ hours, this game can be played once or forever if you want to complete the post game (I don't envy the people grinding the Palace of the Dead)
Abdiel
1 year ago