In what seems to have become a convention of the subgenre, Tactics Ogre contains a plot that is incredibly complex.
You don’t need to have ever played another game in the Ogre Battle series in order to grab this one and jump right in. It’s not part of the major Ogre Battle plotline, and as such, stands independently of the earlier games. Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is a gaiden, or side-story. If the two upcoming games are half as good as the newest installment in the Tactics Ogre series, gamers are in for a real treat.
That doesn’t make it any less enthralling though-and considering that we have this game, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Fire Emblem looming on the horizon, the future is looking quite bright for strategy RPG fans. Of course, to be fair, Tactics Ogre GBA is a little less intricate than both Final Fantasy Tactics and the original Tactics Ogre game (which began life as a Super Famicom title then was later ported to the PSX for a domestic release). How fitting is it, then, that Square has announced plans to port Final Fantasy Tactics to the Game Boy Advance-where it can go head-to-head with Atlus’ latest installment in their popular Ogre Battle series, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis? Pretty darn fitting, if you ask me. Now, this isn’t meant to slag Final Fantasy Tactics (a fine game in its own right and another of my favorites), but just to point out why I’ve always felt that Tactics Ogre was the true king of console strategy RPGs, at least in the realm of the PSX-Sega’s Shining Force series is certainly no slouch in the strat RPG department, either. Tactics Ogre had bigger parties, could be unmercifully difficult (you couldn’t revive fallen characters until well into the game-meaning a lost character was truly lost forever), and was incredibly deep in the gameplay department. While many gamers will no doubt herald Final Fantasy Tactics as the pinnacle of strategy RPG gaming, it’s always been my belief that Tactics Ogre was actually a better game.