Tactics Ogre – Let Us Cling Together (USA)

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together^[c] is a 1995 tactical role-playing game developed and published by Quest Corporation for the Super Famicom. It was later ported to the Sega Saturn (1996) and the PlayStation (1997), the latter released in North America in 1998 by Atlus USA. The second entry in the Ogre Battle series, the story takes place in the war-torn kingdom of Valeria, where protagonist Denim Powell works in a local resistance force against occupying powers, ending up caught in the ethnic conflicts driving the war. Battles are turn-based, taking place on grid-based maps from an overhead perspective with a focus on positioning and using character class abilities.

Gameplay – Tactics Ogre – Let Us Cling Together (USA)

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is a tactical role-playing game in which players take on the role of Denim Powell (renamable by the player), a soldier caught in the middle of a war in the nation of Valeria.^[3][4] The player moves between nodes on a worldmap, triggering story events followed by either a single battle or sequences of battles.^[5][6] Beginning the game, the player is asked to input the lead character’s name, birthday, and answer a series of questions determining their alignment and statistics.

Reception – Tactics Ogre – Let Us Cling Together (USA)

The Super Famicom release has sold over 500,000 copies in Japan.^[63] The Saturn version had sold over 70,000 units by February 1997, making it one of the console’s best sellers at the time.^[64] During its release month, Western PlayStation release ranked ninth in EB Games PlayStation sales charts.^[65] Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a Gold Award as part of its review.^[54] Review aggregate website GameRankings gave the PlayStation release a score of just over 81%, based on six reviews.^[52]

Development[edit]

Original art director Hiroshi Minagawa and co-composer Hitoshi Sakimoto.

The production of Tactics Ogre began at series developer and publisher Quest Corporation following the unexpected commercial success of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen upon its 1993 release.^[13] The concept for Tactics Ogre was in place by 1992, though Matsuno’s team had begun work on an untitled 3D action title which was abandoned when Quest Corporation requested a sequel to Ogre Battle.^[12] Matsuno created a multi-page detailed proposal for the game, with it taking a few months to get the project started at Quest.^[14][15] During this period, frustration with Quest’s corporate structure had convinced Matsuno to eventually leave, but he decided to complete Tactics Ogre.^[16] Matsuno acted as the game’s director, designer and writer.^[12]

Scenario[edit]

While Ogre Battle is a broad tale focused on a high fantasy battle between good and evil, Matsuno disliked the result.