Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

[Nathaniel3W]

My feeling is that if the enemies are so weak that they can't kill a party member unless you make an outright mistake, the fight isn't going to be terribly exciting. I prefer it when the tension of a battle comes from whether I'm able to beat the enemy at all, as opposed to whether I'm able to make it through without anyone dying, since if the latter can be done, the former tends to be a foregone conclusion. I certainly like that in the PSP version, the enemy too gets things like Deathblows which mean that the enemy has the damage potential to wipe out characters in a single turn. Battles like that are just a lot more dynamic. This is why I liked the first two or so chapters of FFTactics more than the rest, too; the further you get, the more classes you get and the wackier combinations you have, until you have Agrias dual wielding knight swords in full plate armour and counter-attacking every turn so she basically clears out the entire map all by herself. In comparison, in the early game the fights were a lot more exciting since you weren't fielding demigods.

The PSP remake is by no means perfect, and I suppose one could say that the SNES version gets better as you progress while the PSP version eventually gets worse. Even so, I enjoyed fights in the PSP version a lot more, so it's a lot easier for me to overlook the balance problems (archers are broken, so I rarely fielded more than one) and various poorly designed subsystems the game has.

I can respect that. We should all expect some level of challenge from our tactics games. Personally though, I don't play for the challenge. I play in order to get the XP to build those "wackier combinations." In FFT, I felt a certain level of pride fielding a bunch of characters in holy-absorbing chameleon robes, then using my Calculator to drop a CT 5 holy nuke on the whole battlefield, damaging all the enemies for 999 and healing my own guys by the same amount. The challenge is gone by that point, but that's my reward for grooming that squad.

I guess a high-challenge postgame would be nice though. Something where the enemies are so powerful the only way you can defeat them is with extremely efficient builds.

 

[Cromwell]

I started again with the One Vision mod. Everything is better. It suddenly feels like every Unit I have is useful, every unit does damage or is otherwise helping. Obviously I cant speak to how the Game will progress and if its still good but with the mod I suddenly have options and dont feel like everything except a few little things is useless and I am outmatched everytime.

 

[Perkel]

OV is great.

 

[Thorakitai]

Replaying the OG version of Tactics Ogre on the Playstation and I'm playing the Neutral Route since I've already done too much of Law and Chaos.

Neutral is rather weird. It starts strong by having you fight the Dark Knights so early and try to save Cerya (I'm glad I have a Witch with the Stun spell.) then the next battles has you fighting zombies and undead out of nowhere.

The battles are hard but I love the simplicity of the original when compared to the rather tedious and grindy remake on the psp.

 

[Terra]

I recall the original being fairly grindy as well, many a time I set both sides to AI control in the training mode and went away and did something else for an hour, just to ensure my team was sufficiently/equally levelled for an upcoming encounter. They removed that from the PSP release iirc, can't remember what the system was in the psp release other than it was annoying in a different way.

 

[Matador]

Grinding. And while you're grinding, be sure to grind efficiently:

I will try the One Vision mod to see the changes but if with that and in the original grinding is the way forward I will stop because I dont like grinding just to get through the main missions.

Definitely try One vision. I think it improves the game and reduce the grind a bit.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I recall the original being fairly grindy as well, many a time I set both sides to AI control in the training mode and went away and did something else for an hour, just to ensure my team was sufficiently/equally levelled for an upcoming encounter. They removed that from the PSP release iirc, can't remember what the system was in the psp release other than it was annoying in a different way.

If you play the PSP version emulated, you can turn on your own characters' AI, then turn up the speed. An hour-long battle will take just a couple of minutes. And be sure to take the potion-using ability off all your characters, or else they'll drink you into poverty.