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Tactics Ogre: Reborn - Review @ GamingBolt

by Hiddenx, 2022-11-21 15:43:15

GamingBolt reviewed Tactics Ogre: Reborn:

Tactics Ogre: Reborn Review – From the Ashes

The granddaddy of tactics RPGs returns, and once again, it demands attention.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn Review – From the Ashes

There are very few games that you can legitimately hold up as titles that single-handedly created entire genres or subgenres, but one that has perhaps been a little unfairly overlooked over the years is Tactics Ogre. Essentially the progenitor of what has become known as the traditional turn-based isometric strategy RPG, since its SNES launch in 1995, the game never really got the kind of mainstream recognition that many others that followed in its footsteps did. The fact that its 2010 remake was a PSP exclusively didn’t exactly help matters either.

But at long last, after years of demands from a relatively small but decidedly vocal fanbase, the series is finally back. Square Enix has released Tactics Ogre: Reborn, another remastered launch for the 1995 original- and it’s fair to say that series fans will find it worth the wait, while newcomers, too, will find more than enough to fall in love with. Whether you’re looking for a captivating story with genuinely engrossing choice-and-consequence mechanics or a mechanically dense strategy RPG that gives you oodles of control over every aspect of your party, you’re likely to find it here.

[...]

While Tactics Ogre: Reborn does a mostly excellent job of updating and refining the original title’s gameplay and mechanics, one area where it feels like a disappointing step back is the visuals. To put it bluntly, it feels like the visual style and personality of Tactics Ogre have been largely sucked out of this version, with character models that look too smooth and rounded and environments that are full of assets that seem to have been ripped out of a mobile game. It’s particularly disappointing to see because something like an HD-2D aesthetic would have been a particularly good fit for this game.

But though its visual update is a disappointing one, it’s not nearly enough to overcome the fact that Tactics Ogre: Reborn is still an excellently retooled and refreshed version of what is, in no vague terms, a legendary RPG. For fans of strategy RPGs, Tactics Ogre is almost required reading, but for years, circumstances have made it so that it hasn’t exactly been easily accessible to the masses. Now, Square Enix has brought a new and improved version of the game that, in spite of its visual woes, shines a bright and flattering light on it. If you have any interest in this genre, to not give Tactics Ogre: Reborn would be a big mistake.

Score: 8/10

Information about

Tactics Ogre: Reborn

SP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Fantasy
Genre: Tactical RPG
Platform: PC
Release: Released


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