In 1995, a competitor to Square (now Square Enix) called Quest Corporation developed a game called Tactics Ogre. Tactics Ogre would come to North America in 1997, and after the Japanese release of Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics would be developed and would release in North America in 1998. Without Tactics Ogre, we wouldn’t have many of the strategy RPGs we know today, including heavy hitters like Triangle Strategy. Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a remastered version of the 2010 remake of Tactics Ogre for the PlayStation Portable.

In Tactics Ogre: Reborn you play as Denam Powell, who leads a group of warriors in a resistance force against forces that seek to oppress their people. As the game progresses, you can make choices that alter the course of Denam and his allies’ journey drastically. This even changes the endings you can get and even the characters you can recruit.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn (as with the original) showcases the DNA of a lot of Tactical RPGs we know and love today. Things like character classes, spells, terrain, elevation advantages, etc. all make their appearance in combat. Tactics Ogre: Reborn even allows you to recruit monsters and enemy combatants to your team, offering even more options in battle.

The branching choices give a fair bit of replay value, but the true strength of Tactics Ogre: Reborn lies in its sprawling plot and its combat. There is a large amount of world-building available between battles, as your “Warren Report” menu allows you to read about characters you encounter, as well as world events.

There is a lot of complexity in the combat. One example of this is the card system that allows you to pick up stat buffs in battles by positioning your characters over cards that appear. Another form is the use of the Chariot Tarot mechanic, which allows you to revert time up to 50 turns back to undo mistakes or change your strategy.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn gives you plenty of room to explore these mechanics and is by no means an easy experience. One thing I do have to applaud them for though is the full English (or Japanese if you prefer) voice acting, which makes an experience like this much easier for people who have issues with reading large amounts of text. I wish they’d taken it a step further and added a dyslexic-friendly font, but full voice-acting for a game like this is still a big step.

Even for a revamped release like Tactics Ogre: Reborn there are a few warts, so to speak. For one, the controls are slightly odd, considering you use the joysticks for camerawork, but the D-Pad is absolutely required for navigating menus. I could understand not using the D-Pad for camera work in combat, but even outside of it you can’t use the joysticks to navigate shops. It is a weird quirk that took some getting used to and still sometimes causes some confusion if I step away from the game for too long.

The difficulty spikes are par for the course in a game of Tactics Ogre’s age. There are plenty of opportunities to grind and level your characters, but sometimes the sharp shift in difficulty is jarring. Granted, if you’re used to old-school JRPGS you know more than most that making sure you are prepared is everything.

Another issue lies in the “guest” characters, who tend to be storyline characters that show up in battles controlled by the AI. If you can keep them alive in battle, often they’ll join your party permanently. However, the developers did not make the AI any better than it was in the original PSP release of this version, and you may have to reset a few times just because the AI did something stupid. Oh, did I mention there’s permadeath if you aren’t careful?

If a character falls in battle, you have a certain number of turns to revive them or they die permanently. This can get complicated if your party member falls in a weird place and can cause a few resets if you aren’t careful. It also doesn’t help that the camera is set on a diagonal, and you can only use that view or a top-down view, which makes the elevation hard to see.

The diagonal view can sometimes cause the terrain to block off your line of sight for certain things, so you end up having to use both camera views, which can get annoying. The elevation is important though, as attacks can hit terrain higher than your character if it blocks the line of sight, making your attack useless. The same goes for friendly fire, as you can hit an ally instead of an enemy if they’re standing in the way.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a game that definitely shows the development principles of the time period. However, there is a lot to love here. There is a reason that the game is a classic, and you can feel its influence spread out over every game that was released in the genre since 1995. Despite that, even with a fully remastered version, it still lacks some quality-of-life features that a lot of us take for granted. Purists will love that, but new players or casual players may be turned off by the more classic approach.

I personally love Tactics Ogre: Reborn, and I’ll be working my way through the entire game to see how the experience ends. If you love a more grounded, classic Square RPG story with political turmoil and fantasy elements, then Tactics Ogre: Reborn is definitely for you. It may not be for everyone, but I think anyone with an interest in the turn-based tactical genre should pick this one up and give it a try. It is a piece of history that has been polished up and shined for people to enjoy all over again, warts and all.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Tactics Ogre: Reborn was provided by Square Enix for this review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Tactics Ogre: Reborn

$49.99 USD

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Full Voice Acting
• Complex Strategy Gameplay
• Lots of Replay Value
• Fantastic Story and Worldbuilding
• Lots of Customization

Cons

• Camerawork is a Little Frustrating
• Guest Character AI is Terrible
• Era-Typical Difficulty Spikes