Tactics Ogre: Fat Bottomed Girls

I have not seen any of you mention Griffons. They move 5, fly and have an amazing ranged attack. My standard strategy was to turtle up behind the white nights w/ my archers. Send out the Griffons to fly on top of something, pelt the oncomming guys with rocks/ lure them down then crash into the enemy with my formation.

Two griffons can frequently one turn ko a boss on a beat the boss level, no reaso to even have my other guys. There are so many levels where you are forced to battle uphill. Flying units are essential.

Anyone tackled the tower of the dead?

For me I played like 150 hours, grinded for reputation to get the named necromancer (there is a reputation system!) then stopped right before tackling the tower.

I also played out every branch in the world system, but I didn't do the post act 4 content.

I mean, I think there is probably another 50 hours of content for me if/when I go back. This is THEE hidden gem on the psp.

Infernarl wrote:

I mean, I think there is probably another 50 hours of content for me if/when I go back. This is THEE hidden gem on the psp.

Indeed. My favorite game on the PSP and one of my favorite games ever. I didn't go crazy with Griffons. I can totally see their usefulness. Especially because they can fly up and take out ranged attackers on levels where the terrain is advantageous to the enemy. Instead I ended up with more than a couple Vartans that I leveled up and then my heavies were Octopi. That's the beauty of this game, though. Eventually your party falls together in random ways you wouldn't have anticipated. Based on my experience with FFTA I totally wanted a dual-wielding Ninja. Instead I ended up focusing on other classes.

This is a game I'll play again someday. All the way through. Another 100+ hours.

Necro'ing the thread (it's been over a year now).

I am a new LUCT player, and I tend to suck at SRPGs. Probably the only I've ever beaten was Joanne D'Arc.

Any hints for a newb? I did read this topic, and I did find the FAQs at gamefaqs, it's just that they are too detailed, while I have a few 'total beginner' questions:

1. Is it worth switching the classes often or early? I switched 2 characters (including the protagonist) to Knight and Berserker as soon as I could buy the tickets. I thought 'let's start leveling those classes ASAP'. Was that a dumb move? I read in this thread that it's better to focus on a limited set of classes.

2. Skills. Which are the must-haves? My characters seem to do little damage (in general, I need 4-5 hits to KO an enemy). I did buy the 'better' weapons (like gladius instead of short sword for example).

3. Due to the level scaling, does any grinding at all make sense?

1. It's only better to focus for time's sake. There's a bunch of side content or grinding you can do, so don't worry about levels too much.

2. I usually just went with ones that specialized my hero's class. Worst case, it's easy to look up what skills are 'better'. Ninjas double hit = *squee*.

3. Not really. There's a short time in the first few hours where it maybe too difficult for you, and side events aren't available. Just keep traveling back and forth and you'll hit random encounters.

Have fun!

I guess Matsuno has a new game coming?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

Infernarl wrote:

I guess Matsuno has a new game coming?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

And there's a Vita stretch goal. This is the Kickstarter where, if I had an insane amount of money, I'd seriously entertain the $10,000 mark. Mostly to hang out with Matsuno and tell him that I love his work.

Dropping a note here just in case. May post full thoughts later of how I feel so far, or will save for later. I'm pretty much with Ahrez in that I like this game, but it will not knock FFTactics off its throne for me.

ccesarano wrote:

Dropping a note here just in case. May post full thoughts later of how I feel so far, or will save for later. I'm pretty much with Ahrez in that I like this game, but it will not knock FFTactics off its throne for me.

I wish I could compare the two. Unfortunately I find the slowdown during spells and attack in FFT on the PSP to be unbearable. If that game played faster there's a better chance I'd complete it.

DSGamer wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

Dropping a note here just in case. May post full thoughts later of how I feel so far, or will save for later. I'm pretty much with Ahrez in that I like this game, but it will not knock FFTactics off its throne for me.

I wish I could compare the two. Unfortunately I find the slowdown during spells and attack in FFT on the PSP to be unbearable. If that game played faster there's a better chance I'd complete it.

It makes me wish you had an iOS device - they completely removed all of the slowdowns from that version.

Honestly, the slowdown sounds like the big reason I'd probably keep playing the original PSX version. While the translation of that one was terrible, enough time reading the documentation on characters and events in the menu followed by the rumors in bars were often enough to clear misconceptions up. "Oh, Ophelia and Ovelia are just the interns f*cking up the translation", basically. While some of the dialog is God awful ("Life is short. Bury! Steady sword!" (which is named Stasis Sword elsewhere)), the story itself still manages to work really well. Everything going on between Ramza, Delita, the Church and all the other factions come in loud and clear and are just much, much more interesting than Pavel On the Run.

Seriously, Chapter III starts no different than Chapter II and that kind of annoyed me.

Well you must like it a lot if it is in line of succession for the thrown.

athros wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

Dropping a note here just in case. May post full thoughts later of how I feel so far, or will save for later. I'm pretty much with Ahrez in that I like this game, but it will not knock FFTactics off its throne for me.

I wish I could compare the two. Unfortunately I find the slowdown during spells and attack in FFT on the PSP to be unbearable. If that game played faster there's a better chance I'd complete it.

It makes me wish you had an iOS device - they completely removed all of the slowdowns from that version.

I had the iOS version when I had an iPhone. I found it to be a hassle to control, though. It would be nice if Square released the definitive version of this twice-remade game on a Sony system.

athros wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

Dropping a note here just in case. May post full thoughts later of how I feel so far, or will save for later. I'm pretty much with Ahrez in that I like this game, but it will not knock FFTactics off its throne for me.

I wish I could compare the two. Unfortunately I find the slowdown during spells and attack in FFT on the PSP to be unbearable. If that game played faster there's a better chance I'd complete it.

It makes me wish you had an iOS device - they completely removed all of the slowdowns from that version.

I championed that version, but I had no support. WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED YOU!?!

Seriously though, it was a fantastic version as a long as you weren't playing it on an old iOS device. It found it workable on the phone and very easy to control on an iPad.

Infernarl wrote:

Well you must like it a lot if it is in line of succession for the thrown.

I wouldn't call it in succession seeing as FFTactics is one of my top games created, perhaps even the favorite. However, I can certainly see why a lot of folks like it as much or more than FFT seeing as there's a lot of minor changes that are certainly user friendly.

Oddly enough, some of those changes actually feel a bit TOO user friendly to me. The ability to jump back 50 moves is nice, but it also removes any true finality to your decisions. I'll also say how amused I am that the Random Number Generator seems to frequently be on my side, as enemies will miss with a 74% chance of success and I'll land a hit with only a 35% chance. Contrast this with FFT, where anything below 90% was a calculated risk in a worthless turn. If you had a 56% chance to strike and the blow landed, you felt like leaping and shouting in joy.

I know it is weird, especially for someone that's not into punishingly difficult games, but it removes any tension from Tactics Ogre for me, even though it is more user friendly and therefore combat isn't so frustrating.

ccesarano wrote:
Infernarl wrote:

Well you must like it a lot if it is in line of succession for the thrown.

I wouldn't call it in succession seeing as FFTactics is one of my top games created, perhaps even the favorite. However, I can certainly see why a lot of folks like it as much or more than FFT seeing as there's a lot of minor changes that are certainly user friendly.

Oddly enough, some of those changes actually feel a bit TOO user friendly to me. The ability to jump back 50 moves is nice, but it also removes any true finality to your decisions. I'll also say how amused I am that the Random Number Generator seems to frequently be on my side, as enemies will miss with a 74% chance of success and I'll land a hit with only a 35% chance. Contrast this with FFT, where anything below 90% was a calculated risk in a worthless turn. If you had a 56% chance to strike and the blow landed, you felt like leaping and shouting in joy.

I know it is weird, especially for someone that's not into punishingly difficult games, but it removes any tension from Tactics Ogre for me, even though it is more user friendly and therefore combat isn't so frustrating.

I played 150 hours without using that feature (Chariot), but I was glad it was there for those that it would make the difference for.

So for those interested, I've done as promised to Garrion and started to write about Tactics Ogre over on my blog. I'm on Chapter Four, and from what I can gather nearing the game's conclusion, but I imagine I'll be using the Wheel feature to jump back and make some different decisions and see how the game can change. I'll probably write more about it as I do so, though I'm not completely certain I'll be able to squeeze out an article I'm satisfied would fit the front page.

Until then, I basically just addressed some of the game's features and why I think, despite the similarities, small differences between Tactics Ogre and FFT make it unfair to compare the two in a "better/worse" dichotomy.

ccesarano wrote:

Until then, I basically just addressed some of the game's features and why I think, despite the similarities, small differences between Tactics Ogre and FFT make it unfair to compare the two in a "better/worse" dichotomy.

I very much agree with this perspective. I may find Tactics Ogre more fun, but that's totally subjective. They're definitely different beasts and not really suitable for any kind of arbitrary "this one is better" judgement.

Funny aside, I took to heart some comments that I should give FFT a real shot. I'm 10 hours in right now and enjoying it quite a lot. I wish it had some of the things Tactics Ogre did that you mention in your blog post (the turn list being always visible), but otherwise I am enjoying FFT finally. I've gotten over the lag on animations and just accepted it and I'm enjoying the game so far.

Getting new classes is the best in this game, levelling them from scratch is the worst.

Also DSGamer if you have access to an iPad, that version of FFT is actually pretty great in my opinion. They redid all the sprites, there's no slowdown, and for some reason (?) there's an icloud slot that shares with the iPhone. The controls still take some getting used to, but it's definitely not as cramped and hit-or-miss as the phone version.

Yeah, I don't have an iPad or any iOS device at the moment. I'm all Android currently. Plus I'm quite a ways in now.

So originally I wasn't going to do any grinding, but I started to realize that Arycelle was my best archer. Once I realized that it became clear that major characters with unique portraits are going to end up having better stats than my regular characters, not to mention they get dialogue in battles at times.

Once I got the three sisters in my party together I decided "screw it, I'ma grindin'". Ended up heading to Phodondora Forest or whatnot and I think almost completed it. Everyone went from around level 17 or 18 to 21, and I managed to get the sisters somewhat caught up in regards to skills. I think that's the real issue is that you get skill points very slowly.

Turned out to be a good decision, because I'm pretty much slaughtering my opponents now and they make for some excellent contributors to the fight. It's odd, the last time I played FFTactics to completion, a long long time ago, I ended up ignoring most named characters because I had my party and I stuck to them. I look forward to giving it another whirl that takes greater advantage of characters like Mustadio, Agrias, and naturally T.G. Cid.

Necroing this thread because of an interesting tidbit I read today. I was trying to figure out which handheld to take on vacation (Vita or 3DS) and was looking up silly stuff like "should I replay Tactics Ogre" and stumbled on a bit about how Matsuno was inspired by the war in Yugoslavia when he envisioned Tactics Ogre. I found a good article that talks a bit about this.

http://www.1up.com/features/tactics-ogre-retrospective

In hindsight I think this is still my favorite SRPG ever. I may take my Vita or PSP on vacation simply to replay this.

Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians is hotly anticipated by me.