It’s been about a month since Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together hit the store shelves, or at least some of the store shelves. It seems that the game didn’t get as wide of a release as other higher profile PSP games, and this is unfortunate. If you missed the release, or if you passed it over for one reason or another, you may just want to take some time to check it out.
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is a Japanese Strategy Role-Playing game or “tactics” game where the player leads a small band of combatants into numerous turned based battles on isometric play fields whilst unraveling a story of epic proportions. At first glance Let Us Cling Together seems to be your typical tactics game, but upon closer inspection reveals several innovations and features that are welcomed additions to the tried and true tactics formula.
The additions in gameplay are a bit of a surprise considering that Let Us Cling Together is actually a remake of sixteen year old Super Famicom game, proving I suppose, that you can teach an old game new tricks. Not that the original needed too many new tricks. It’s just that some games don’t take to the update process as well as others. This game however, seems to have made the transition just fine. Before delving into game play and mechanics, lets take a look at the things that most gamers will take note of first, the presentation.
The graphics in Let Us Cling Together are pretty standard fare for this type of game. The character sprites are small and not particularly detailed, and the isometric battle fields though nicely drawn and quite detailed are more utilitarian than they are pretty. The world map and menus are quite nice, but again they do little more than get the job done. The one place the visuals do shine however are the incredibly beautiful character portraits. The portraits are wonderfully detailed and have a decidedly western look which belie their Japanese origin and give an almost Hildebrandt meets Lodoss War fantasy feel.
Character portraits aren’t the only thing that bring to the game a high-fantasy feel. The music and sounds are also very effective. Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto’s original Super Famicom soundtrack in it’s newly re-arranged form sounds amazing, and adds an epic feel to battles and story scenes alike. The sound effects are also solid and don’t have that tinny sound that you get with some sampled PSP sounds.
One of the most important parts of any strategy RPG is the story. After all there has got to be some reason everyone is trying to kill everyone else, right? This is where Let Us Cling Together really shines. The narrative of the Walister youths and their ragtag band of freedom fighters is as poignant today as it was sixteen years ago, perhaps more so. From the outset the dialog is masterful. It’s easy to see that Square Enix spared no expense with it’s localization team. Seriously, Let Us Cling Together has one of the most interesting, compelling, and well written narratives of any game I have ever played. Kudos to both the original team of writers and the localization specialists who brought everything to life so vividly with their amazing prose.
The wonderful writing alone makes this game must-have purchase for RPG and Tactics fans, but lets not stop there. In updating Let Us Cling Together, Square Enix added some features that every SRPG developer should take note of. First and foremost are the Chariot Tarot and The Wheel of Fortune/World of Tarot. The Chariot Tarot is a system that allows the player to go back up to 50 moves in the current battle. Make a terrible combat decision that you’re regretting at the end of the fight? Why not go back and see how things could have played out if you made different choice. In a game where the difficultly is quite steep and character deaths are permanent, this option can be a life saver, literally. The Wheel of Fortune is another cool feature that lets you look back at previous events and battles to see how the story has unfolded. Later in the game The Wheel of Fortune becomes The World of Tarot, which much like the Chariot Tarot allows you to turn back the clock, and replay key events in the story so you don’t have to begin a whole new game just to say what if.
There are a few more helpful additions to gameplay. The ability to flatten out the isometric perspective into a 2D grid is extremely useful when attempting judge distances and plan character movements. Also, before finalizing any kind of action in the game you can see a Predicted Outcome, which shows how that particular action will likely turn out. These are both welcome and useful tools in waging tactical battles.
Of course no game is ever completely without its faults, and Let Us Cling Together’s biggest fault lies in it’s goofy NPC AI. Often your NPC allies will rush head on into combat without any reservations what so ever, and even the hardiest of them will quickly fall when they’re being flanked on all sides with little support nearby. The difficultly of the game might also be a source of frustration to some, fortunately the Chariot Tarot feature can alleviate both concerns in many cases.
All in all Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is a great game for tactics veterans and newcomers alike. The presentation is solid and clean, the story is finely written and engrossing, and the gameplay is a brilliant mix of traditional and new concepts. Don’t pass this one up.
