Tactics Ogre: Reborn‘s producer revealed that the developers played the original game, before any work on the remake began.
In an interview with RPG Site, producer Hiroaki Kato discussed the development of Tactics Ogre: Reborn, and the future of the series. Kato discussed how much reverence he had for the original 1995 SNES title when debugging it, and acting as a project manager for the 2010 PSP version.
He also wanted to incorporate the feedback from that version into another revisiting of Tactics Ogre — especially with everything he learned from Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age.
Director Takashi Katano was then asked by RPG Site “With Tactics Ogre being such a well-regarded genre classic, how did you approach developing a new version with so many adjustments? What was the prevailing philosophy in the development?”
“Tactics Ogre: Reborn uses the PSP version, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, as its base,” Katano explained. “We reviewed the feedback from players, and at the start of the project, all the developers involved played the PSP game and shared their thoughts on things that could be improved.”
“We also had discussions with Yasumi Matsuno, who designed the original game, about what kind of improvements we could make,” he added.
“There were some decisions that were unanimous, for example, using the unit-leveling system from the original SNES instead of the class-leveling system used in Let Us Cling Together,” Katano revealed, “and ulimately [sic], we pinned down our approach after a number of discussions on how best to make Reborn into a title that people would enjoy.”
The interview continued, with Lead Game Designer Naoyuki Takahashi discussing the new random buff and debuff cards to encourage on-the-fly strategizing, his favorite character classes, Kato’s favorite parts of Tactics Ogre: Reborn’s story, and implementing composer and developer quotes in the game’s music player.
Kato stated Tactics Ogre: Reborn had received a “positive response from players who have really gotten into the game, as well as from the press,” though admits the game’s depth of content meant many hadn’t been able to fully dive into it at the time of the interview (conducted not long after launch).
When asked if it had met Square Enix’ sales expectations and player reception, Kato only addressed the later. While admitting any game can result in moments after launch where one ponders “could I have done this part better?”, Kato notes there were frequent discussions with Tactics Ogre’s original director, game designer, and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno, along with the rest of the development team.
Kato also felt that as players delve more into the game, more critical feedback on what could have been done better will follow.
Finally, Kato was asked “Do you think there is any possibility for Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis, Ogre Battle, or other Ogre series games to get ports or remasters in the future?”
“I love Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen,” Kato prefaced, “so I would love to be able to play an updated version of that.” Even so, he quickly followed up “on a personal note, I’ve worked on quite a few remasters or remakes lately, such as Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age and Tactics Ogre: Reborn, so I think I’d like to work on an all-new title next.”
This prompted RPG Site to ask if Kato would be interested in a new entry in the series, should the opportunity arise, and if he had any ideas for it. “First and foremost, I want to get to a point where a decent-sized player base has spent a good amount of time with Tactics Ogre: Reborn,” Kato emphasized once again.
“I’d like to see it become a staple of the tactical RPG genre with a longstanding fan following (there’s a huge amount of end-game content, so I think this is the type of game that you can pour as much time into as you want!),” Kato hoped. “Once we’ve reached that point, then we’ll see what the response has been like and take it from there.”
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is available to purchase for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The standard edition retails at $49.99 while a digital premium edition retails at $59.99 for PlayStation and Steam.