Tactics Ogre: Reborn Reviews
With improved presentation and various quality of life changes, Tactics Ogre Reborn is a worthy remaster in all areas except for one. However, that one ends up being one of the most important as with poor balancing of difficulty with union levels and an overly inflated HP pool, it became an absolute chore to play early on in the experience and never quite recovered.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a seminal and still-enjoyable SRPG that manages to respectfully hold its own against the many descendants it now exists alongside. Though some elements of its design feel a little archaic, its deeply political and branching narrative, orchestrated soundtrack, and solidly built strategic combat all come together to make for a worthwhile experience. Visually, this version is disappointing, and we wouldn't say Reborn is one to rush out and buy immediately, but if you're a sucker for strategy and want to experience an influential classic with some mod cons thrown in, we'd suggest you keep this on your watchlist.
For all its murky mechanics and slow pace, Tactics Ogre: Reborn still blends satisfying combat with a top-tier story in a way that few games can match. If you’re a fan of the tactical RPG genre and want a serious challenge, there’s simply no reason not to play this game. But newcomers may want to start with something more approachable, or at least keep waiting for that Final Fantasy Tactics remake we’re all hoping for.
One of the best SRPG tales ever told did not get the gameplay updates it deserved.
It feels like a product of its time, with newer games doing the same things, but better. Especially Triangle Strategy, a game I now recognize takes a lot of cues from this title. It’s still a good game, and worth playing for people curious about the history of the genre. Beyond that however, I just don’t see the hype.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a fantastic way to experience the classic, with a number of quality-of-life upgrades that make the game respect your time and commitment to it. Its visuals may be a hit or miss, especially to the HD-2D-loving crowd, but the voiced performances really bring the game to life. Hardcore fans of the series may not appreciate some of the changes made, but the game still keeps the same depth and strategic approach as before, offering a meaty package that can take over 50 hours to play through.
Matsuno-san’s 1995 classic tactical RPG has been trimmed up and repolished for the modern era, and remains an essential part of any TRPG fan’s collection.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Tactics Ogre: Reborn and look forward to many more hours with the game.
An exhaustive reworking of a foundational dark fantasy epic, with some quietly radical new ideas.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is one of the most impressive remakes of some time. Square Enix has had an incredible year of releases in 2022 and that streak continues with the launch of Reborn.
There’s genius and sincerity at work here. Get deep enough into Tactics Ogre and the entreaty of its subtitle, Let Us Cling Together, starts to sound a lot less goofy and a lot more urgent and sad. How deep you will get into the game depends on your appetite for micromanagement and your patience with gameplay systems that, 27 years later, are starting to creak, despite all the judicious tinkering that’s been done to them. Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a welcome, polished, and thoughtful update to a game that defined a genre — a genre that has now left it behind.
Not much of a glow-up from Tactics Ogre's PSP remake in 2010, but this is still an engrossing turn-based tactics RPG that will keep you battling for hours and hours and hours and hours...