Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a remake of a remake, so to speak. The game – coming to modern consoles and PC – is a lush reworking of 2010’s infamous RPG, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. With this new release, Square Enix has taken the bones of the classic game and reanimated them; snatching them from the brink of obscurity and death and making them twitch and shudder in just the right way to make them seem like something altogether new.
The main difference you’re going to enjoy if you’re a returning fan of Tactics Ogre is the way Square Enix has removed barriers to play. In Reborn, there are fewer gates that bar you from playing in certain ways – yes, mages, wizards, rune fencers and similar classes can only use magic, but skills and equipment are more global. This means that gear you loot on the battlefield (and pick up in shops) can be given to your units more readily, and your fights slightly more balanced from the off.
New skills have been added, too. These generally make the game feel more modern, and more in line with tactics games you’d play today. Want to position yourself either side of an enemy and squeeze them, pressuring them into defeat or surrender? Go ahead; a new Pincer Attack skill on your melee units will make that seem like a more viable tactic, and you’ll be corralled into moving units together so they can more readily dish out death.