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Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis
mystic_knight
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I went to visit some friends out of town this week, and while we were at a local independent game store, I spyed a copy of this game in their used GBA case for $20. One of my friends was awesome enough to spot me the money I needed, and, after looking at it for a few minutes to make sure it wasn't a pirated copy, I walked out a happy camper. It's just the cart and the label is messed up a bit, but whatever.
Anyway, TO thread go!
Generic Wikipedia Quotage! (Possible Spoilers edited out)
So let's talk Tactics Ogre. This is my first TO game and I don't have the manual, so any tips would be appreciated.
Anyway, TO thread go!
Generic Wikipedia Quotage! (Possible Spoilers edited out)
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is a tactical strategy game developed by Quest. It was originally released by Nintendo in Japan in 2001 on the Game Boy Advance, then later released by Atlus in North America in 2002.
Like Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis features party-based tactical combat on an isometric playing field. The player has limited control outside of battle, being provided only extremely limited movement on a world map, a rudimentary shop function, an options menu, and an option to participate in a training session in which the player pits its own forces against each other in order to gain experience. Characters can be hired or acquired in combat, and there are interchangeable classes and a wide array of weapons, equipment and magic spells.
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis follows the adventures of Alphonse Loeher. The Game Boy Advance game is set before the events of chapter five - Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen and chapter six - Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber. Chapter seven - Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is set after all of the above games.
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis offers a strategic field-and-class based combat system. Although the player starts with a meager army of only six units (with the classes of those units being determined by questions the player answers in the beginning of the game), the army can later blossom to as many as thirty-two.
Each character is unique, being determined by several things: material statistics, of which there are only three, strength, intelligence, and agility; alignment, ranging from chaotic to lawful; and element, based on the four original elements. Characters can also earn emblems, certificates given after performing a specific feat or reaching a certain checkpoint. Almost always, these traits are used to determine which classes are available for that specific character.
The game's playable units are divided into several categories; humans, demi-humans, dragons, the undead, and non-humans. The human class is the only category with interchangeable jobs, with each class being marked by a required, or multiple required statistics, and often an emblem. Some classes can only be unlocked by a certain sex, while other classes are reserved only for certain special characters.
Demi-humans, non-humans, and the undead cannot change classes. Although all categories of units in the game can be persuaded in battle, the undead alone cannot be bought. Instead, undead units are created by using a certain spell on deceased units. Dragons can change classes, but there is no choice involved, rather, a dragon instantly upgrades into a certain new class after reaching several checkpoints in statistics, with the class being determined by the dragon's alignment.
After customization of the player's party, the group of units (of which the max limit on any story-based level is eight, with quest-based levels having a restriction of five) engage in combat.
Battle takes place on a large, panel-based playing field. The area is composed of terrain types and various height levels, making movement a critical factor. There are several movement types, ranging from simple walking to airborne flight. A character's movement type is determined by the class of that unit, as well as various special equipment which can change movement type. Terrain levels range from basic dirt and grass, to water (in varying depths and types), to untraversable terrain, such as lava or blank space.
In actual combat, there are also many variations. Simple melee combat can be performed, either barehanded or with single-ranged weapons, to adjacent panels. This means the attacking unit must be directly next to the target, making mobility a critical ability. Some weapons offer different attack ranges, such as the two-paneled pierce attack of spear and lance weaponry, to the two-paneled selective attack range of the whip.
Ranged attacks require the use of either a bow weapon, or a special ability. With such emphasis on movement, ranged attacks are a certain advantage, as units can be far away from opponents, offering possible immunity to attack. Abilities require the use of either S.P. or M.P., which both regenerate at a rate of ten per player phase, and vary in impact sizes (panels).
When all units belonging to a specific force are exhausted, having performed their restrictive one action per phase (which includes both movement and ability usage, from attacks to items), the game changes to the opposing player's phase, and back and forth until certain victory conditions have been met by one player, such as destroying all opposing units.
So let's talk Tactics Ogre. This is my first TO game and I don't have the manual, so any tips would be appreciated.
mystic_knight on
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It's an awesome T-RPG, but it's going to be downright brutal at some points, this ain't your kiddie Final Fantasy Tactics.
EDIT- One thing I can suggest is to field a diverse army, have a solid amount of melee units, missle units, and spellcasters. Always have one dedicated healer, and have some other units have basic healing abilities too.
I booted up my copy of the game to have a look at my party, and my saves are gone! My cart must have given up the ghost. I've kind of always suspected it to be a pirate copy...
I really hope we get another Tactics Ogre. I love the units and atmosphere. I know the DS is slated to get at least three TO-alikes in the upcoming year or so with FFTA2, Luminous Arc, and something else I don't remember because I don't have last month's Nintendo Power in front of me. But this type of game is hard to get right, and this version of TO certainly did get it right (aside from the glacial pace of the battles).
Have one character attack the character on the other side of the enemy, your attack will do full damage to the enemy and a fraction to your other character. Your second character, in turn, counter attacks and hits the enemy for full damage and your own character for a fraction. Do this enough and you'll kill the enemy in short order. Just follow with a healing spell and you're golden.
Later on, you can do things more easily with Summon Spells and Snapdragon Swords.
For the Snapdragons, just snap Giants and give them to your Swordmaster.
On the opposite extreme, you can snap Fairies and make your charater almost completely untouchable.
anyway it was totally not what i was expecting, and actually sort of saved the experience for me. it was otherwise sort of just okay, from what i can remember.
I was really sad when i turned my awesome ninja into a lich, and he ended up getting countered by the super ninjas in the last fight. He was nearly untouchable for the latter half of the game, and then he has to be humiliated by these silly clones! bah.
I believe it's possible for all of them. I couldn't do it without ninja though. You can get an equippable ring that lets you teleport whenever you move also (lets you ignore all terrain like a ninja but also lets you ignore obstacles) which you can put on Alphonse to make quick work of that map's leader.
Also note that the number of turns required for a specific prize are based on a range rather than a specific number, which is then modifed based on how many turns you set as the target number. I believe as long as you can win in three turns or less you will be eligable for that map's top item when it gives you your bonuses.
I like all the things this game gives you the oppurtunity to challenge yourself with, like fielding Octopi or getting Gorgans into your party and actually using them extensively. There's a great amount of specialized stuff available.
I've played through it twice.. it takes up a lot of your time. When you start getting to a point where it's just damn difficult, make sure to go to Training Mode (I believe it's called) and put all of your characters as CPU controlled. If you have an SP or DS, just plug it into the wall charger and walk away with your players playing against themselves. The end result is stronger characters without any work at all.. they're leveling up the entire time you're off doing something productive, or playing some other video game ;-)
A tidbit of advice I wish I had known my first playthrough - the leader of the other team is always 2 levels higher than Alphonse, I believe, so if you choose to do the Training Mode, make sure not to be training Alphonse unless he just needs it for some reason.
Don't hesitate to go look at tacticsogre.com, there's tons of great information there. It exclusively covers this game and I wish I'd had the info from that website when I obtained my first (and only) Snapdragon.
I remember the first time I used the Snapdragon, I did it on someone I bought at a shop that was level 1. Weird.. but it still did TONS of damage.
And in a third direction, you can snap Angel knights for swords that boost all your nearby allies and have good strength and agility bonuses.
I never found the game hard outside of possible the last fight, but it takes a LONG time to kill a lot of stuff before you get summon spells. I'm not entirely fond of the way the game hides treasure on a map and I won't think less of anyone for consulting a guide or FAQ for that stuff.
As for tips, girls make better mages than guys since they can unlock an upgrade to the wizard class, only males can become swordmasters, only females valkyrie, and all of the above classes rock.
Archers on the other hand kind of suck (though an npc archer you can get is decent). Bows themselves are good, it's just the archer class that sucks. I gave a bow to a hawkman and used that as an archer instead.
You often have to beat an enemy within inches of its life to be able to persuade it to join your side after which it is under AI ally control and may easily do something stupid so watch out for that.
Finally, you need to leave the non-generic troops besides Alphonse and the gal on the cover as their default classes in order to see them in dialogue and cut scenes. You can switch them out temporarily if you really want to, but you need them back as knight/archer/whatever to see the scenes (which means don't go making any of them into liches cause that's a bit more permanent of a class change).
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
It gets quicker and quicker as it goes along. It's my one and only gripe about the game.
I got my hands on a bootleg years ago and now it's dead. Luckily, I was able to beat it before its demise.
While battles do take a long ass time, at least the generic classes don't have transgender issues.
Man, there are some awesome classes in this game now that I remember. The shaman in particular.
Order it. There is no region lockout on the DS/GBA
Liches were at least somewhat consistent with how you got them in Ogre Battle. But yeah, there's some pretty vague requirements all around for classes.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
I just finished beating this after a long break of not finishing it and it was very satisfying. I was caught off guard though because there are some missions towards the end that require you to split into two groups and do 2 or more battles with the split-up troops (so you have to organize wisely). I was someone who was purely training 8 chars and 8 only for every single battle so when I hit the "Take some guys to this one and choose the others to go here" I was all "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck." I managed to beat those missions with 4 on each side, but it was epicly hard.
Oh, and even though I read the same requirements for getting a Dragoon class from several guides, I could never fucking get one. I was missing something even though I had the emblem and the stats. I always wanted one =(
There was an alignment requirement as well IIRC, barring lawful types from the class.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
But for being a handheld strategy RPG, it is fantastic.
Im so glad I got this for only $20 at a Gamers last year. Box, manual, everything.
However this is the TO thread so I shall continue such discussion. I popped in the game the other day and found that I had a second game saved where I am on the Haena Heights battle on Path B, where you fight the ridiculously tough Duke Knights and some dragoons. The only way to beat it is basically give them a long slugfest. Unfortunately the army i have saved needs quite a few training sessions which im not in the mood for, so I believe im going to start up a new file again.
*sigh* Backlog.