‘Tactics Ogre: Reborn’ is True to the Original With Much Needed Improvements
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is another entry to the slew of classic remakes we’ve been seeing lately. It’s a great time to be a retro gamer.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is continuing the ongoing trend of remaking classic RPGs for modern consoles. We’ve seen Live-A-Live, Suikoden I & II, and now Tactics Ogre.
Tactics Ogre is a grid-based tactical strategy RPG, with a job system layered on top. It was originally released for the Super Famicom in 1995. It’s been given multiple ports and fan remakes over the years, but this will be the definitive edition from here on out. The massive number of improvements and options make the other versions playable only for nostalgia reasons. Or Monetary ones.
More Ways to Play
Tactics Ogre: Reborn takes the deep and compelling story from the first and maintains that throughout. Player choices alter the story and the ultimate fate of The Valerian Isles. However, the gameplay is changed in many ways, but only in ways that offer more options and more ways to play.
Perhaps the largest change is the class leveling system. The previous system leveled each class as a whole, while in Tactics Ogre: Reborn, units are leveled individually. There’s a nigh endless combination of classes and units, with different equipment load-outs, skills, and magic. So, you’ll never play the same way twice and each battle can be tackled with a multitude of different strategies.
Flexibility of Play
The addition of Tarot cards gives the player the flexibility to revisit previous battles and turns to make sure they are getting it right. In a game where each decision can ripple through the rest of the game, every decision is important. So, with the World Tarot, players can travel back within the story to a previous battle to see how different choices may have played out. Then, the Chariot Tarot lets players rewind a certain number of moves within a battle, so you won’t have to replay an entire battle to correct a single misstep.
Additionally, multiple general improvements have been made. Faster battles, auto-save features, and complete rebuilding on the controls and UI give this admittedly pretty daunting game a much lower barrier of entry.
