izigame.me

While I have not played any of the previous ogre games before. I have spent countless hours in FFT games. This is a great modernization of the whole Tactical RPG idea in general.
Pros
- Story and world is great, really got into it, and there's multiple paths to go. The characters are well designed. Its very low fantasy in theme, and paired with a political war story where the main cast rise to the top from nothing. Personally a fan of the dark themes and character interactions over time as war progressed. Gameplay choices heavily affect the story in all directions, which is probably the secret sauce that gets the player invested.
- Combat flow is quick, easy, and intuitive, combat itself is fairly straightforward to understand. Most battles have a "Scout" feature that you can use to plan out our strategy. Your army is the tools you have available, and you must decide what tools to use for any given situation. There are many variables to consider, especially in the late game, such as enemy unit element, terrain layout, enemy army composition, enemy types, and positioning.
- You can recruit up to 100 characters in your army and unit customization is both vast and extremely important. Half of this game is building your army to be diverse, and play on strengths and weaknesses. I've spent a great amount of time building my ideal army and it feels rewarding to see it reap rewards on the battlefield.
- MASSIVE amount of things to do and a TONNE of replayability. While the main scenario is four chapters, there is 3 paths the player can take. The paths diverge at chapter one, so there is actually pretty much 3 different versions of the main scenario to play. There is also 4 "Mini Chapters" that serve as the post game, known as CODA. Starting from chapter 4 and into CODA, the game will unlock "Mega Dungeons" that the player can progress though. I've been liking that I can just pick up this game and progress a few floors through the biggest mega dungeon with 100~ floors.
- Great QOL features that remedied some of the pain points that occurred in older Tactical RPG games, such as the Chariot Tarot, line of sight indicator and AI Controls for your own army. The game still has permanent death, but at least you can use the Chariot Tarot or revive them before 3 turns to keep them. The TRPG purist in me would usually not like these features, but you don't have to use them if you don't want to, and in fact there are achievements for not using them. The world chariot is also very well designed. Allowing you to replay the story in whatever way you want, and recruit whoever you want.
Cons
- Certain mechanics of the game are a bit annoying, such as the random cards that spawn on the field. They would be fine if they were less powerful I think. Just getting one of these cards on the right (or wrong) character can completely change things up can turn the battles into either pure EZ mode stomps, or a frustrating mess.
- Apparently in this version only, you are level gated to the story. You will be level capped in increments until passing certain points of the story. It really hasn't been too much of an issue difficulty wise, but I would personally prefer if such limitations like these were not mandatory in single player games. Once the level cap increases, the enemies you fight will be near this level cap immediately. Making it necessary to grind training battles every time it happens, which does feel like a bit of a chore. At least I can put my characters on AI controls for it.
- Equipment Progression through the story is a bit limiting. I like to be able to go out and grind to be overpowered if I wanted to, preferably before the post game. Until the post game you are stuck with the same a choice few equipment pieces that do nothing interesting and weapons that might have an on hit effect if your lucky. This really isn't a huge complaint, the equipment system vastly expands in the post-game at which point it becomes more dynamic.
Thats about it. TLDR: If your waiting for FFT remake, this is the next best modern TRPG you can play to wait. Be prepared to spend hundreds of hours on it if your in it for anything more than the story.