Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

Right out of the gate the new Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together for PSP has something going for it that a lot of competitors don’t – its name. The Tactics Ogre name is well-known amongst strategy RPG gamers and is equaled in popularity only by its cousin Final Fantasy Tactics. Both have almost identical gameplay, which is one reason Square (pre Square Enix) bought the game’s developer Quest. Thankfully Square Enix didn’t just kill off the franchise once they absorbed the developer. The Ogre series has been around for a while with Let Us Cling Together originally releasing for the SNES (Super Famicom) back in 1995 with ports hitting the Saturn and Playstation the next couple years. The edition we’ve just got on the PSP isn’t a straight port though. With some new art and gameplay tweaks and enhancements, Tactics Ogre: LUCT does a good job of feeling familiar and new at the same time.

The art and graphics have been updated, but not overhauled. Contrary to the visuals, the skill and leveling systems have been completely reworked and improved. The improvements to these systems give the game an overall better flow and speed. The original required a lot of micro-managing and training from the player which really took away from the experience. All that extra work meant things kind of fell into a snail’s pace. Turn-based strategy games aren’t exactly supposed to be lighting quick affairs, but no one wants to fall sleep leveling up their weakest party members. Things are more balanced now, which basically means LUCT is more fun this time around.

Don’t get confused by the new graphics and smoother, more balanced gameplay however. Let Us Cling Together is still a brutal strategy game that will rip you apart. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but the game still holds the chess comparison of being “easy to learn, but impossible to master”. It’s not as if the odds are just stacked against the player unfairly. In fact it’s a testament to the game’s AI. The AI is just genuinely ruthless and out to beat you.

New to the game is Chariot Tarot, a feature where you can go back up to 50 entire turns whenever you want. This obviously comes in handy if you’ve spent the last few turns (or 50) making a complete mess of things. This feature results in the game potentially being very easy. Since most of the people who pick this up are looking for a challenge, we don’t see it getting used too often. I did have to resort to it from time to time and likely some will when changing a strategy after being a couple moves in. It’s all up to you in regards to how hard the game will be.

Let Us Cling Together still has a story that will put most modern and home console games to shame. The choices that lay in front of gamers are great. Peter Molyneux should play through a couple times and borrow a couple story-lines. The new PSP version is a nice evolution in the game, more than a port actually. If you liked the original on the Playstation or have been looking for a good strategy game on the PSP, you’re in luck with Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. This improved re-release is worth checking out for any strategy fan.