We are rapidly closing in on the Switch release of Tactics Ogre: Reborn on November 11th and Square Enix has today provided us with a whole lot more information on what upgrades they have made to the series’ latest arrival.
The full details are available to read online (thanks, Gematsu), outlining the game’s newest additions, user interface improvements and specific pieces of information on the game’s different characters and classes. Most importantly (by our money) Square Enix’s update shows how the game will work to improve your team customisation and battle precision through a number of new features.
On top of revamping skill rules and changes to item equipment, Tactics Ogre: Reborn will introduce new items called Charms, which look set to let you personalise your lineup to ensure that every one of your units is precisely to your liking.
Charms are new items introduced to give you more control over the development of your units’ stats. You can use charms on the party formation screen to improve and alter your units. Charms can be found during battle, and after battle as a reward.
Charm Effects:
– Raise a unit’s level by 1
– Grant experience points
– Permanently increase stats such as STR (strength) or AGI (agility)
– Change a unit’s element to another element (e.g., from air to holy)
This level of customisation is carried through into the pre-game set-up, with a new battle party screen letting you scout out the battlefield before playing as well as granting you the ability to save up to five different parties for quick selection.
While these changes should work to make the battles a little more user friendly, Square has also announced that they have worked to improve the enemy AI to better read your moves and place a higher focus on the game’s approach to tactics – it does make up a good third of the title, after all.
The enemy considers the terrain, recognizing features such as narrow roads and wide, open plains, as well as the player’s movement, using this information to decide where the battlefront is and choose the best point to engage the player. In addition, how the enemy responds to the buff cards that appear at random creates an ever-changing battle that never feels repetitive.
For more information on the above features and many, many more besides, be sure to read Square Enix’s full update over on Gematsu
We can’t help but feel that a written update of this size is something of an information dump, potentially suggesting that Tactics Ogre: Reborn will be a little too complicated for its own good. With a little over a month until its release, however – like all good tacticians – we’re just going to have to wait and see.
What do you make of these new features? Choose to move, attack, use item or flee in the comments below!
