My favorite remakes tend to be a little disrespectful to the games they’re remaking, engaging in mildly subversive conversations with old creative choices rather than just trying to “improve” them as expected at the time. As such, the new feature of my choice for Tactical Ogre: Rebirth is a rebellious boom-buff card system, a cousin of the Returning Tarot card introduced in 1995 on the SNES.
Here’s how it works: as you move your troops in turns, semi-randomly on each isometric map power-ups are generated for key chance, physical or magical stats, and the chance to trigger each unit’s passive ability Card. You can collect up to four cards per unit, keeping the effect until the end of the battle (tarot cards, rarely dropped by dying enemies, grants permanent boosts). When these buffs come off the beaten track, it’s easy to ignore them, appearing on squares that don’t fit your strategy, but they can decisively allow you to temporarily overcome a level gap or class disadvantage.
Take the ninja. They’ve got some sexy kits — blowpipes to mute or petrify troublesome wizards, the ability to strike twice with weapons in each hand — but they’re also hard-pressed to make an impact on stronger warriors and knights. So why not have your ninja patrol the perimeter while warriors and knights battle it out, reaping the attack buffs before they pounce on the enemy’s rear guard. Better yet, try using more powerful flying units like Griffins: they can swoosh to the front to chase cards before your enemies pack them up.
The appeal of the buff card system is that it not only expands, but defiantly opposes the old tactical RPG rhythm of hitting from the side or rear, pairing combatants by level or element, and monitoring character turn order to predict and block AI. Boost cards not only give you smaller, pop-up goals to blend into your action, but they also motivate you to take risks of discord. You can dash the vulnerable priest into the moshpit to steal the buff from the opposing swordsman, or have your berserker pick up an auto-ability card instead of killing the exposed archer – with any luck, the frequency of the rampage later on Would be higher to deserve more arrows in the face.
Separation mechanics like this are the cherry on top of the new and improved RPG system’s chunky dessert, rendered in higher definition with new orchestral audio and voiceovers. The concept of RPG chess has certainly had some odd twists, but Tactics Ogre is still one of the best in years, and Reborn – a fusion of ideas from the 1995 game and its full-scale PSP adaptation – has left a unique mark on things .
Aside from the quirky buff card system, it’s defined by less fuss and more flexibility, or at least a different style of flexibility than PSP games. Instead of upgrading entire classes, you upgrade individual units, which makes even normal characters less of a cannon fodder – though you can treat them freely, hiring new faces around town as you drive around the parchment world.
Active and passive abilities are automatically unlocked as your troops level up, rather than purchased individually through skill points, and become more powerful simply by using them. Class parameters are less restrictive on gear – fighters have instant access to a variety of swords – plus new charms that allow you to change unit elemental affinities, grant extra XP and boost their stats between encounters. This is handy when you’re ignoring party members all the time, as there’s no experience points outside of combat.
It’s a relatively free RPG, but there are some limitations that might annoy fans of PSP games. Each character is limited to four individual spells and four active or passive abilities, rather than equipping air magic to access all associated spells. This tighter focus echoes the new option to preview battle maps – the idea is to re-specialize characters in a more granular way based on your scouting – but I suspect the associated extra time in the menu will prove divisive, both it’s the same. There is also a party level cap associated with the development of the plot, and any XP above the cap is converted into a talisman. While these feel a bit contrived, they also prevent you from honing your strengths in training battles, which can be triggered manually; random battles have been eliminated entirely.
Older games were notorious for their spikes in difficulty, and even with this more controlled level progression, I had some scary moments. At one point, I had to belatedly respect my protagonist as a knight to survive a duel with an enemy who acted twice per turn. I also have extra charisma. If you want to be obnoxious, you could argue that these occasional car-crash reversals fit the story — a fiery political epic inspired by real-life acts of war, betrayal, and genocide.
This is the story of three young revolutionaries, Denam, Vyce, and Catiua, as they struggle to preserve their ideals in a world of stubborn paranoia and betrayal of nobles whose blood relatives always seem to be on opposite sides. The story is memorable partly because of its malicious insistence that there is no justice in wartime, and partly because of gorgeous English localizations such as “The ground is your grave, milky Wallist. !” Such killer lines. Reborn’s English-language voice actors do a great job of making it all sound less ridiculous, although I prefer Japanese actors only because of the occasional interesting difference between audio and script: Catiua’s English localization, for example, could be more confident.
It was a bloody ordeal from start to finish, but on the level of the combat itself, it wasn’t an exercise in crushing despair on a par with old-school XCOM. Once knocked down, units can be resurrected as long as you use a Blessing Stone or win a battle within three turns, unless certain story characters die instantly (if you skip dying monologues) or teleport away. It’s not a loss, but lets you see resurrected units as a creepy bonus win condition. There’s also the throwback tank system from the PSP game, which lets you roll back a few turns in certain battles to avoid disaster.
This replay-friendliness applies to the entire campaign: key decision branching episodes, but you can go back to those decisive lines of dialogue when you’re done to reach other endings without having to start over. Throwing in the optional multi-stage dungeons — usually the safest way to recruit dragons and the like that might otherwise be slaughtered by AI-controlled story characters — isn’t a game you’ll clean up before Christmas.
Reborn has room for adjustment. I especially appreciate being able to toggle the floating health bar, see element relationships while aiming at units, and set combat animations to fast-forward. The user interface has been redesigned generously and convincingly, although it may still dazzle you. For one, there are new spell icons to help you keep track of them. On the other hand, I’m starting to dislike popping up menus on selected characters on crowded maps instead of pressing tabs on the left side of the screen.
I’m also not sure about the groomed AI. Enemies will focus heavily on weaker classes or under-leveled characters while healing and empowering their friends, but instead, combat has a familiar, wrong rhythm with strong leaders hanging in the back from the start, allowing you to put Their minions were smashed to pieces. It feels like the challenge comes more from the terrain and initial unit distribution than the antics of the AI. However, that’s not really a criticism – as with chess puzzles, it’s satisfying to see designers shape the odds by imposing stronger or weaker layouts for certain classes. For example, a sewer map with stepping stones that force your berserkers into an orderly queue, or a field of deep pits from which your priest can’t escape.
Like ninjas looking for buff cards on the periphery of the map, it took me a long time to properly enjoy tactical ogres. I’ve spent more time on the many games it inspired, including quirky titles like Tenderfoot Tactics and the unrivaled Disgaea series, which lets you stack units like plates and wage war in your own device.
After solving the above problems, you might think that I would find this game boring. In practice, I found it to be an incredibly rich and surprising piece of work, even ignoring Reborn’s many tweaks and additions: you can see hints of Disgaea’s chaotic style, for example, in the moderation necessary to keep enemies alive in crazy ways so that you can recruit or tame them. The more I dig – there’s a lot to say here – the more I understand the long shadow cast by the tactical ogre. Even if you don’t play this version, it’s a game you should definitely play.
