Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis

A good game that has a lot of flaws, particularly in the janky menus and poor translation/writing. Still, a fun play and an essential entry in the tactics canon.

Six years after the advent of Let Us Cling Together, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis basically updated that brand of moral catastrophe in a similar manner to Ogre Battle 64. A few changes and additions streamline the format without much of a real highlight, the best of which is probably its achievement-oriented 'Emblem' system. Yet again mirroring its Ogre Battle counterpart, small issues still arise, such as its restrictive economy, party-based turn orders, awkward control schemes, or the absence of impactful choices, altogether slightly paring down the experience. Conscious efforts towards character-focused subject matter with fewer political overtones actually led to a weaker plot and cast, that mostly succumbs to conventional JRPG storytelling while discarding the apocalyptic tone of their sermons. The resulting game still bears the intense SRPG flavor the series pioneered; what's missing is a clear identity.

+/- It plays just like the Final Fantasy Tactics games, from the class system to the story presentation to the map to enemy units leveling with you. This is the sort of YMMV thing, but as a huge fan of the original Final Fantasy Tactics I enjoyed it.

+ Most classes are well balanced and virtually all of them are viable (and of the less viable ones, minus the Soldier, they can be optimised in such a way to take advantage of their niche uses), although I personally didn't play around with many of the demi-humans (which largely seem vaguely less viable). The physical classes and the mage classes are all unique enough to largely differentiate themselves, although there is obvious overlap. This allows for almost absolute freedom in playstyle. That the game isn't particularly challenging encourages that freedom.

- As a beginner, unraveling the ways class progression and the emblem system works is obtuse. It took quite a bit of dicking around and reading online before I grasped a full understanding of the class system.

+/- Emblems being used as a sort of in-game "achievement system" for passive character buffs and, especially, to unlock classes is a very cool idea. I'm not, conversely, a big fan of stat requirements being necessary to unlock classes. While it is logically sound, practically speaking, it's less intuitive and fun for me personally. I definitely prefer Final Fantasy Tactics' method of unlocking classes.

- Aside from the final boss, which is absurdly difficult in contrast to the rest of the game (although this is not a criticism; I really enjoyed the final battle), the game is disappointingly easy. You can approach most battles with the same units and same strategies you've been using across most other battles, and win without much difficulty. The only real challenge is in making sure none of your units die, because if they die and aren't revived by the end of battle; they're gone for good, and even that isn't particularly difficult. (Note: story development remembers which characters up to that point are and aren't alive, which is an interesting touch and very important to the nature of this game.) The only other exception is the siege at Formido where the player is required to split their troops, and that's only because I only had about one battle's worth (8 units) of adequately leveled and geared troops.

This is in large part due to the stupid, sincerely stupid AI, but the difficulty drop spurred by the stupid AI could've been curbed had the units been better equipped. Most enemy units simply aren't as threatening (in terms of equipped spells, largely, but also in weapons and armor) as the player's units can be should the player be taking advantage of the variety of weapons, armor, and spells available to him.

+/- Despite criticisms of the game's difficulty, the nature of this grid-based, tactics gameplay keeps it from becoming genuinely boring. There's always far more engagement than in traditionally easy "mash X to win" RPGs.

- Gameplay is slooooooow. I emulated this and found myself abusing the fast-forward feature, I think, during every single one of the enemy's turns, and often between my own characters actions too. Games are largely much faster paced nowadays, so it's... difficult to adjust to the slow movement speeds and animations of games like this.

+/- The nature of the overworld map is one of my few complaints with these Tactics games (the Final Fantasy Tactics series and these Tactics Ogre games too, seemingly), because there's no room for even the illusion of exploration and traveling the world, and it's one of the only design elements I feel is truly dated. While I like being able to press "select" to get a brief description of each of the game's locations, I never really feel like I'm traveling across vast regions of Ovis; the game is just telling me I am. That we literally only see environments in conversations and in battle is a large contributor to the problem. With that said, the environments are diverse and dynamic, and while the way the various environments impact gameplay is largely inconsequential, it goes a long ways towards fleshing out Ovis as a diverse and dynamic locale.

+ The narrative is the sort of intricate, moving political character drama with the sort of scale I loved about Final Fantasy Tactics (although I overwhelmingly prefer Tactics' story and characters) and hoped to get out of Final Fantasy XII. While the presentation occasionally feels hollow, especially how important characters die (by my hand) in battle and only have maybe one or two lines of monologue, one might make the argument this makes for a more realistic presentation than the overblown anime-style present in most JRPGs. And, of course, the narrative is slightly held back by the game's own platform: that is to say, it's difficult to tell an incredibly moving, engrossing story in a video game using character boxes with a few flourishes of dated, retrospectively LIDL visual effects.

Those are minor criticisms, because the story takes full advantage of its platform, and the tone much more strikingly resembles Final Fantasy Tactics than it does the more juvenile Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. While Yasumi Matsuno didn't direct this game (a disappointment I uncovered after I'd already started it; otherwise, I probably would've begun with Let Us Cling Together as my entry into the Ogre Battle franchise), the game is completely in tone with Matsuno's style of political tragedy.

+ I played route A, and I'm not sure how different narratively route B is aside from the ending; with that said, I watched the other endings through YouTube and they're all very well done.

Ending A I found particularly powerful in its tragic, vaguely open-ended conclusion. Alphonse waking up, presumably in Eleanor's old beach home, muttering Eleanor's name to himself was painful in a way I can sincerely relate to. I'm a huge sucker for this sort of romantic tragedy; it's agonizing, yet so resonatingly beautiful.

The way the A+ ending appears to connect to its sequel, Let Us Cling Together, is satisfying in a way that adds a brand new layer of depth to this game -- and I suspect I'll appreciate it even more once I've played LUCT. That the tribulations Alphonse underwent on Lodis shaped him into the character I suspect he becomes is one thing, but that his loss of Eleanor -- judging by the outcome of ending B -- is what really triggers this is truly saddening. And I love it

+ Having two story routes and multiple endings is integral to the nature of this game and really makes me wonder what Final Fantasy XII would've been like had Yasumi Matsuno been able to finish it, knowing he initially sought that approach with it.

As a whole, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis consistently kept me engaged both in gameplay and plot, despite its flaws. Something about the mission-based style of game progression is incredibly addictive and kept me sinking far more hours into this game on a day-to-day level (I think I beat it over... a week, a week and a half, maybe? ) than I have any RPG in a long time.

The narrative isn't as dramatic, intricate, or powerful as Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (the definitive version of FFT, after all), but very good on its own and I anticipate seeing in what ways it fleshes out the Ogre Battle lore, especially its connections to Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.

Character progression is less engaging than how I recall Final Fantasy Tactics (or even Tactics Advance), and there are definitely fewer classes which leads to fewer abilities and consequently, there is no "mix and match" aspect... but this is a criticism by comparison, because it's still super engaging as it is.

If there's a single complaint about this game, and I guess about the Tactics games in general really, it's that it's not very dynamic. You go to a mission, you battle, you observe a cutscene or event of some sort, you re-gear your characters with any new loot or upgrades you could afford in the shop, repeat. But perhaps it is because the loop is so basic it is so addictive.

P.S. Spot the weak title name:
- March of the Black Queen
- Let Us Cling Together (or: Wheel of Fate)
- Person of Lordly Caliber
- The Knight of Lodis