Tactics Ogre: Reborn Reviews
One of the grandfathers of tactical role-playing returns with an ambitious new remaster, that includes a surprising number of improvements and only a few missteps.
Tactics Ogre Reborn is a superb revamp of an all-time strategy game masterpiece--though this revival is not without some small issues.
Tactics Ogre Reborn is, on its own merits, one of the great SRPG in history, which we can now enjoy in the best way thanks to its playable and graphic novelties. However, we miss a greater boldness on the part of Square Enix with this revision of the 2010 remake. If you already played years ago, there are no great incentives to repeat.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a treasure of both classic tactical RPG design and modern sensibilities. I really like the quality-of-life features that make it so much easier to play and stay on the path of the story without much padding. I can also appreciate that this game also contains some tough-as-nails challenges that take an incredible amount of dedication to overcome. In between all that, it’s also just a great story and I really appreciate the Chariot Tarot system allowing you to see the paths untaken at any point you desire. If you want a great tactical RPG, this is not only the forerunner to many favorites, it’s also well-polished for a new generation.
Despite its quirks, this is the best version of Tactics Ogre. Gone are frustrating class-based levels and the overabundance of secrecy. Replacing them are new frustrations that are less experience-breaking. Reborn makes the grandaddy of strategy RPGs the most accessible it's ever been, and it’s not one to miss. According to Steam, I have already played 62 hours, and I already know that number will triple at a minimum by the time I’m done with it.
There's validity to Tactics Ogre being a classic, and Tactics Ogre: Reborn showcases that. Tactics Ogre: Reborn offers the kind of simplified presentation combined with fantastic writing and voice work to create a cohesive package all around. Despite showing its age in places, the game offers more than enough to convince even the most anti-tactics gamer out there to give it a try.
The strategy RPG genre owes a lot to the Tactics Ogre franchise, which is filled with lesser titles trying to recreate even a fraction of its winning formula. The experience that lies at the heart of Tactics Ogre: Reborn has stood the test of time admirably and, thanks to the swathe of intelligent tweaks and quality-of-life improvements introduced, will likely remain at the head of the pack for years to come.
For the most part, Tactic Ogre: Reborn is a good game. Heck, it's a great game. But my run took me headfirst into what feels like the cheapest and most unfair change of mechanics that I can remember in my entire personal gaming history. The entire playing experience was spoiled as a result. With the review finished, I am now deleting this game from my hard drive and never returning. I feel betrayed by a terrible design choice and look at the dozens of hours to get to this point as a waste of my time.
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is one of the greatest TRPGs of all time and this modernized version offered with Tactics Ogre Reborn gives western players the opportunity to discover or rediscover it in optimal conditions, with a subtly improved gameplay system, superb orchestral music or the choice of full dubbing, in Japanese or English
Review in French | Read full review
Tactics Ogre: Reborn has some great updates over its predecessor, but some changes work to the game's detriment, and concepts like the level cap would have been better served as the basis for a higher difficulty mode. Tactics Ogre: Reborn can be a punishing and sometimes unfair experience, but those who rise to the challenge will find a lot of content to explore, an engaging story to experience, and a fantastic battle system to master.
Tactics Ogre Reborn is a thoughtfully updated port of a 2010 remake of a 1995 game. Contemporary tweaks let the strategy-RPG's story and gameplay shine.
While Reborn is largely an excellent re-release of Tactics Ogre (again), many of its gameplay alterations give it new flaws that will have me making caveats in recommending it (again).
Tactics Ogre Reborn is the best overall way to enjoy this classic game.
Tactics Ogre is back, and time hasn't dulled its razor-sharp edge. Square Enix's turn-based strategy RPG is still a dense, meaty, and thoroughly engaging game.
Nothing about Tactics Ogre: Reborn is simple, but therein lies the charm.
I certainly understand the purpose of the Union Level, but it's an inelegant solution to a problem that other RPGs have themselves faced. Still, the aesthetics remain true to the original versions of the game, and the audio experience is simply marvelous. It's built much more for veterans of the genre and players with patience and persistence, but Tactics Ogre, in the right hands, can absolutely soar.
If you are fans of old-school gameplay, tactical combat and lengthy dialogues, you will enjoy Tactics Ogre like other players 25 years ago. But this time with some improvements, on various platforms and for price around 50 EUR.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a remaster of a remake. It’s a game that persists through the wheel of time as it is ported from generation to generation, breathing life into the Ogre Battle series.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn makes some changes to a classic, which meet with mixed success. Qualify of life changes like rewind and simplified class changes are very welcome, but the newly balanced battle system slows down battles that already felt on the slow side. Don’t be mistaken, though, the core game here is still one of the better strategy RPGs of its era, and it holds up in 2022. If you’re a fan of the genre and haven’t gotten the chance to check it out in the past, there’s no need to wait. Pick up Tactics Ogre: Reborn and get ready to lose fifty hours of your life.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a very good remaster of an absolute classic. So many lines in-game are raw and palpable and feel like utter poetry, leaving me perplexed at how they could be written by another human. Re-recorded tracks add to the grim but boisterous realities of the universe's war. Plenty of granular investment and min-maxing is on offer to create a timeless and incredibly realised tactical combat experience. However, I can't help but sometimes want more from its vague storytelling and opportunities for more quality-of-life improvements. Concessions absolutely could've been made for more difficulty and saving options, doing away with the feeling of hitting roadblocks. Still, this is a genre experience that's as true as they come. Tactics Ogre has once more cemented itself as one of the tactics giants, and a bloody momentous one at that.