YMMV / Tactics Ogre

• Awesome Music: This is a soundtrack by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata. Even the SNES/PSX version, although the PSX version has slightly improved audio. PSP and especially Reborn took it even further, being performed by an actual orchestra, and took the time to add unique liner notes for every track with commentary by their orchestrator in-game. It helps that the PSP version also goes the extra mile by bringing back tracks from the first game.
• Broken Base:
  • The remake's CHARIOT system, which allows you to rewind the battle up to fifty turns. Enemy parried your arrow? Rewind and try from another angle, or if that doesn't work just shoot another enemy. Enemy just wrecked your troops with an area attack? Rewind and try to kill him before he has the TP for it. Recruitable NPC got killed? Rewind and take out the enemy who did it. Naturally this leads to two schools of thought; is it a well-implemented Anti-Frustration Feature? Or is it just plain cheating?
  • The Finishing moves. Some thought they helped make things better than just Attack! Attack! Attack! in the PSP version - but others felt that they cheapened the game. They were also virtually impossible to ignore since enemies would also have them and would use them against you. Reborn made the finishing moves much easier to unlock, but most enemies were significantly buffed meaning some of them would eat as many as four finishing blows.
  • The Rogue class being made into an enemy-only class in Reborn. On one hand, this resolves the issue with the notoriously broken backstab. However, others aren't particularly happy that such a drastic change was made, making the dagger a Scrappy Weapon in the process.
  • Changing the Lobber from a weapon set to a skill. On one hand, it utterly saved the Beast Tamer class and gave some classes like the Fusilier some added utility. On the other, the fact that Lobber is a skill tied to class rather than weapons that could be equipped by even clerics meant that they lost a lot of damage potential.
  • The rising level cap in Reborn. There are those who dislike it because it means you cannot simply outlevel any given map that you are stuck on to continue which some find frustrating. However, there are many who like it for that very reason, as it forces you to come up with strategies to beat difficult levels instead of simply overleveling so you can steam roller them.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Once you unlock the chariot system, you can easily return with some super overpowered endgame equipment and make That One Boss melt.
  • Being able to push someone off a cliff with a shield or a critical hit - especially if there's nothing behind them - is immensely satisfying. Unless they do it to you.
  • For some people, letting Caitua commit suicide. Or if she's in the battle at Barnicia, literally doing it yourself.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Pretty much all you ever need are Ninjas and Archers, with a Cleric or two for healing and exorcising. Early in the game you'll need Wizards for Golems and Dragoons for Dragons and Beasts...but eventually Ninjas and Archers will be strong enough to take those out too.
    • This no longer applies that much in Reborn; Bows now care more about equipment stats than character stats (and thus will do only Scratch Damage against anyone wearing armor), while Ninja weapons now scale worse against the target's innate stats than any other weapon.
  • In Reborn, you will most definitely wanna go after the MP-regen cards even for your martial classes, so they can use their powerful finishing moves.
• Complete Monster:
  • Hierophant Leundar Balbatos/Cardinal Rayunder Barbatos, the regent controlling Galgastan by proxy, started a war to try and take over the rest of the lands. He ordered the slaughter of the Walister forces and had their leader, Duke Ronwey, imprisoned. He has numerous concentration camps set up across the lands and has his henchmen slaughter nearby villages. He also murdered Nybbas's son, Debordes, and allows Nybbas to continue his experiments in necromancy, permitting him to turn dead enemies and allies alike into zombie slaves.
  • Death Master Nybeth Obidlord/Nybbas Obderhode, Barbatos's chief necromancer, specializes in turning the dead of both the enemies and allies into zombie slaves. When his son Debordes was killed by Barbatos, Nybbas didn't care, and even had his son turned into a zombie. When the process left Debordes as a hulking brute with no intelligence, Nybbas felt no remorse.
    • The PSP remake makes him even more monstrous by introducing a particular "split": he has a different family in the Chaos route. Which gradually get slain by Denam over the course of the game (one of them is the very necromancer you brought down in Krysaro back in Chapter 1) and kept the youngest daughter alive just so that he could show her the zombified versions of her family before ordering them to kill her.
• Demonic Spiders: Any Undead enemy. They're fairly common and can deal out damage as much as any other unit. However, they're immune to most Darkness spells (which is probably the most popular element for players) and if not Exorcised within three turns of their death, pop back up at full health. Maps with nothing but Undead foes can simply wind up being borderline unwinnable to an unsuspecting party through sheer attrition. Good thing the PSP version merged Cleric and Exorcists under the same class and made healing magic harmful to zombies.
• Ending Fatigue: The game suffers this once you enter the Very Definitely Final Dungeon. It's a "Siege Map", which you have done plenty of. Unfortunately, while most "Siege" maps are at most three stages, this one is eighteen. There are shortcuts, yes, but even if you take the quickest route you've got five battles - most of which are against only a few enemies that seem to only serve to waste your time. You're also still not done - as you got three more after that before the Final Boss is fought.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Canopus is one of the most known characters of the franchise, helped by his carefree, snarky and outgoing personality, and the fact that he's a massive Game-Breaker. His manners and interactions with Denam and friends in the original helped him garner quite the fanbase.
  • Dame Ravness. About half the fanart of this game is of her, and many new players choose to go with the Law route simply because Vyce kills her if you choose the Chaos route.
    • Parodied in this fanart◊ with a piece of What the Hell, Player?.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Canopus, straight up. He has very good stats, decent weapon flexibility with his native class Vartan (Axes, Crossbows in general, and single-handed bows) and great mobility augmented by his ability to fly. When switched into Archer (see below for more), he will likely be the strongest party member in your army. He loses some mobility with Archer compared to his native Vartan class, but due to having flight, he is not affected particularly hard, and can rain hell down from on high on basically any map. In other classes accessible to Vartan such as Beast Master, he is "merely" very good. And to top it all off, he joins your party on literally the very first "true" battle!
    • The original version is no joke either, thanks to Canopus' ability to fly and learn Windshot at Lv.10 and Tornado at Lv.20, all while being one of the most agile characters of the game with a high movement stat.
  • Archers in the original game. Due to avoiding No "Arc" in "Archery" and going past its attack range, it's fairly easy to hit (or possibly one-shot later on) squishies. Direct-fire weapons and magic have to obey their ranges strictly. The Reborn remake nerfed their damage, especially against armored units though they're still very useful against mages.
  • The Ninja/Kunoichi class. Fastest human class (meaning they rarely miss and frequently parry attacks), most mobile, highest evasion (and can wear decent armor on top of that), gets an ability that makes them nigh invulnerable for a turn, gets their own mana-less series of spells that do three times the listed damage, and can dual wield doing full damage with both weapons — usually enough to instant-kill a cloth wearer, which their agility allows them to get to almost unimpeded. There's a reason the PSP remake added abilities to the various tanky type classes to stop people from mowing past them.
  • The Lord Class (in the remake at least) can only learn a few skills... because he can use almost every other skill from the other classes. One popular combo is Phalanx + Dual Wield Daggers. Daggers due to a odd formula, do a lot more damage and is the fastest weapon. Phalanx weakens attacks on you by 90%, meaning you could wreck the enemy while only suffering single digits of damage.
  • In the PSP version, the Lobber weapon as well as its associated shots were beyond broken. Sure, they can only reduce HP to One, but against bulkier enemies, this was a great way to weaken them for someone else to either take out or attempt to recruit. They could also be equipped by Clerics - which ironically could make them into your best nukers. Shots were so powerful that they were actually nerfed for Reborn, but are still quite powerful.
  • Summons in the original. They would work by summoning a spirit that would fire bolts onto random targets in the area. Not reliable for taking out groups of enemies (that's what Dragon Magic and true Area of Effect magic is for), but say you target it just right so that there is only one enemy in range. Seeing as the summon attacks random enemies, not spaces, guess where they all go? Oh yeah.
  • Almost everything gained in Hell Gate/Palace of the Dead in the SFC/PSX version qualifies, ESPECIALLY Dragon Magic, which can give you hit-all unlimited range nukes - yet Retissue stands out among even Dragon Magic for game-breaking utility. It allows you to convert undead back into basic characters - at level 1, but with most of their stats intact. Even if the undead used was level 50. This can be cycled with training/Necro/Retissue to produce an impossibly strong character.
  • Offensive Draconic Magic in the original may be the most broken. It gives all the effects of an Apocrypha, hitting all enemies, without the drawback of hitting your allies as well. And the best part is that Catiua as a Princess can use that magic normally limited to Warlocks.
  • Hobyrim in the SFC/PSX version. As a Swordmaster he has an extremely high Dexterity that makes him able to cast status debuff spells with extremely high accuracy, give him a spell like Petrify and he can disable the enemy team with ease. He can also be a candidate to learn 'Fudo' in Palace of the Dead which is Dexterity based. In the PSP version, due to changes of mechanics of the Swordmaster class, they cannot wield the Petrify spell, severely nerfing Hobyrim's capabilities. Thankfully, in Reborn, the Swordmaster class is improved, so Hobrym could perform better than in the PSP version, but he still can't petrify people en masse.
• Growing the Beard: For Yasumi Matsuno as a writer (an opinion he personally expressed): March of the Black Queen had a more straightforward moral conflict and simpler characterisation, with little of the Grey-and-Gray Morality and Realpolitik that Matsuno would first tap into with LUCT, and only develop further going forward.
• He's Just Hiding: Warren Omon. He can be saved on CODA 2, however.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Due to how her sprite is drawn, Cistina has been the butt end of many fat jokes, when she's just wearing a rather long and fluffy dress. That is, unless you're listening to the other half of the fandom.
• Low-Tier Letdown: The Swordmaster in the PSP version is ranked pretty low due to the fact that they have no weapon variety, their special attacks require catalysts (which can be costly) and their unique skill is preemptive counterattacks which don't help against magic or ranged attacks. Reborn helped them somewhat by no longer requiring catalysts so they can use their war dances for buffs more often.
• Memetic Badass: Arycelle is considered one of the most broken Archers in video game history, and furthered with her old name, Aloser. If a loser can kill you that quickly, then God help you.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Denizens of the abyss, from ink of blackest night, I summon you"^Explanation What the necromancers say when they summon undead.
  • "Wow, they only say it once?" ^Explanation In Final Fantasy XIV, a boss called Ultima the High Seraph uses this quote verbatim... except she spams it and the voice line repeatedly clips over itself.
  • The True Final Boss is Square-Enix and the OST.
• Narm:
  • It's probably a good thing the localization retranslated some of the names, especially Lanselot Tartaros because "Tartare" is a kind of meat dish.
  • In Reborn, the boss of Heim's courtyard, Latimer, has a very high-pitched voice that makes him sound like an adult trying to sound like a teenager.
• Narm Charm: The whole original translation is regarded as this, with lines delivered in a much modern way while still keeping in line with the setting. It gets to the point some people deride the remake because of the retranslation.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Because of the timeframe the PSX version was released in English (when internet was beginning to become a bit more widespread, before all the information was as easily accessible as it is now, especially the ROM of the SNES version), some people thought it was a clone of Final Fantasy Tactics, when the latter was actually Creator-Driven Successor to Tactics Ogre, made by the same development team. Square was so impressed with Tactics Ogre that they asked Quest to make them a Final Fantasy themed variant.
  • Some players of Final Fantasy XIV were unfamiliar with the fact that Nybeth and Palace of the Dead were actually from this game and were included in Final Fantasy XIV due to several developers being fans of the game. Owing to Final Fantasy XIV having a Tactics Ogre themed costume contest to promote the game, some even thought their inclusion in this game was a crossover.
  • Because of its heavy political themes, morally complex narrative, and dealing with a succession crisis it could easily be mistaken for drawing influence from Game of Thrones. This could not be further from the truth as not only did the PSP remake come out a year before even the first episode of Game of Thrones aired, the original Super Famicom version came out nearly a year before the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire was ever published! Translator Alexander O. Smith was inspired by the book's prose, however, making it come back full circle.
    • Amusingly, this commercial for the Super Famicom version showed structures appearing from the ground, which is similar to the opening credits Game of Thrones was known for.
  • Reborn ended up bringing back a small number of systems from the original releases that were replaced in the PSP version.
    • Spellcasters return to having a more limited spell loadout, although they can equip 4 spells instead of 3.
    • Training battles were brought back, after being replaced by random encounters.
    • Units now have to equip consumable items again to be able to use them in battle, instead of having access to the full inventory and needing a series of skills equipped to use stronger ones. The main change from the original releases is that everyone has their own "item pouch" equipment slots. Characters in the SFM/PSX version had four equipment slots period, meaning you'd have to choose between bringing weapons/armor or being a consumable item mule.
    • Elemental affinities for units and the elemental strength/weakness cycle return.
    • To make up for the removal of Lobber as a weapon class, certain items have an expanded range to them. Most notably the Dynast King's mead, which allows one to inflict the "Breached" status, lowering a target's defense.
• Player Punch: Letting a unit die generates a random dying line. Some of them blame you for your poor leadership.
• Polished Port: The PC version of Tactics Ogre: Reborn adds in very natural and intuitive keyboard and mouse controls, typically a rarity for PC ports of Japanese RPGs. It's fully possible to play the entire game one-handed just using the mouse.
• Quicksand Box: The PSP version has so many options and features that it's hard to pin down what the heck you're supposed to do to improve your characters at first. Both the original and remake also open up a lot of Sidequests after the first quarter of Chapter 4.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Due to the complete leveling and class system overhaul in Reborn, classes that were considered bad were once again not only viable, but even powerful. Hybrid classes like Valkyries went from Master of None to extremely flexible Jack of All Trades or powerful Magic Knight, Beast Tamers are now great support units with their ability to buff monsters and using their Lobber skill to use items from a distance, magical classes no longer need to whittle down resistance through continually casting spells, and Swordsmasters once again became offensive powerhouses with some useful buffs as they no longer need reagents to use their war dances. The only one that didn't get much was the Archer class, but only because they were a ridiculously strong Game-Breaker despite being a class required so early.
• The Scrappy: A fairly common player consensus is that, before she joins your army as a playable unit, Catiua is definitely this. She's seen as a Clingy Jealous Girl for her own brother, often trying to dissuade him from taking part in the Heim War and berating him for every move he takes. This however comes to a head on Chapter 3 no matter which route you take, as she leaves Denam's party claiming that he abandoned her to fight other people's war, with her later actions not helping her case. It's not particularly rare to see players talking about letting her commit suicide in Chapter 4 not because of getting access to Denam's Lord class, but because they just can't stand her constant whining, and consider getting the bad ending for not letting Catiua live is worth their catharsis.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The leveling system in the PSP version in some regards. On one hand, it makes sure that all of your party members can be viable on the battlefield in classes you actively use, since it is classes that level up, not characters. On the downside, every new class you get starts at level 1. This is feasible, if annoying, on a new game run. However, it becomes insanely frustrating on NG+ when your level is 20+. So, if you save a Law run for NG+, expect to spend hours grinding Vyce and Ozma up to usable levels if you want to use their powerful unique classes, not to mention leveling either Denam's Lord class or any of Catiua's three classes. Tellingly, Tactics Ogre: Reborn scraps this system in favor of per-character leveling.
  • The PSP version also changes how "Healing Rain" works, now "Quench". Healing Rain was quite a useful spell to have, essentially giving your offensive casters an Area of Effect heal. Quench only heals a little bit of HP but is mostly used to remove poison.
  • The Chaos Frame/Loyalty stat can be a real pain with certain characters. Each character has their native country as part of their statistics and will like/dislike you for how you treat said country. Namely, killing opponents from said country is a good way to lower their affinity for you. This becomes extremely problematic with Galgastani recruits like Diego, as Galgastan is your primary enemy for a large portion of the game, so you have to constantly watch Diego's affinity for you to make sure it doesn't drop low enough for him to want to leave. It's even worse if you want to recruit Cressida - who requires a high Chaos Frame with the Galgastani. You also have to watch out for this with Ozma and Hobyrim, though to a lesser degree as you rarely fight Lodissian troops outside the last chapter. Further aggravating this is the fact that random enemies in optional battles (ie, the battles you use for grinding too) might even be from these countries - meaning Rendall and Ozma might have their affinity for you tank for no apparent reason because you would expect for random enemies outside of story battles to not count.
    • The Chaos Frame system is an even bigger kick in the crotch due to the fact that (aside from Cressida) the only thing it actually affects is which bad ending you get when Denam is crowned king of Valeria; with a low chaos frame he is assassinated on his coronation day and with a high chaos frame, Lodis returns with a proper army to conquer Valeria with Valeria having little hope of winning. If Catiua survives to the end, your chaos frame doesn't matter.
  • The crafting system has a failure rate, and you can't attempt to create items in batches meaning you have to make them one by one, even for base ingredients. It's questionable why there needs to be a failure rate when players can just reset the game and try again. Much like the aforementioned class leveling system, Reborn removes both of these problems, allowing crafting in batches and getting rid of the failure chance.
  • During training, if you let the AI control either side, they may use consumable items they're equipped with. This also counts for consuming the item outside of training.
  • The good ending showcases a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue for some characters. However, the game will only show one and there's a priority list. To get to the lower priority endings, you have to not recruit or boot out the higher priority ones (for instance: If you're in the Law route and want to see Xapan ending, then you better boot/not recruit Occione, because her combined ending with Jeunan takes priority over Xapan. Just to be sure, you may have to boot out Hobyrim or get him killed off). The newer additions starting from the PSP version (Ravness, Azelstan, Cressida and Ozma) take an even higher priority than everyone else. Because of this, this is considered by many as one of the more irksome (but not wholly damaging) aspects of the ending. Thankfully, in Reborn, multiple epilogues are shown, so you can see even the lowest priority ending (Donnalto) along with the rest in one go.
  • Reborn smooths out some of the rough parts of the PSP port, but in turn also introduces some new annoying things to balance it out:
    • You can only equip four spells at once - while this significantly cut down on the clutter that happened in the PSP version with multiple levels of spells, this also means players essentially have to use magic leaves since these higher-level spells cost more MP to cast. Especially if Meditation does not trigger.
    • Status buff cards are a considered a nice addition. What is not liked is that boss units can begin with a complete set of buffs, granting them powerful advantages (on top of their already inflated stats compared to normal enemies) that transform them into juggernauts.
    • Many abilities added in the PSP version were turned into passives that can randomly proc at the beginning of your turn. Most of the time this works out, but it makes the Berserk ability (Berserker's "iconic" ability) rather frustrating to use, as the ability makes it so that your next melee attack will hit every enemy in an arc from your left to your right, allies included. It can be pretty frustrating if your berserker is in a group of enemies and allies because it can randomly make it so you can't attack without hurting your allies as well. And going lone wolf can be problematic too, as Berserkers aren't the most defensive class in the game.
    • Another random proc passive with mixed reception is the Meditate skill. This skill is crucial for casters as it's how they gain more than 10 MP per turn. However, if RNG is not favoring you, you can go turns (or even an entire battle if you are truly unfortunate) without getting a single meditate, hobbling units that rely on MP to function. This might not be such a big deal except for the fact that stores no longer sell Magic Leaf items. The only Magic Leafs you can get are the ones you find from drops, and they are rather uncommon. This is especially frustrating as enemy casters are still loaded with them, meaning they can fill up their MP rather fast while the player has to hope they'll get the procs they need.
    • The level caps were met with mixed reception. Some feel that it makes an already challenging game even more difficult as you cannot simply out-level a mission that is giving you trouble. However, others appreciate the challenge and the fact that you have to have a gameplan.
    • Spellcasters don't use any of their weapon stats with their spells if they don't have a separate thing equipped in each hand; in other words, two-handed wizard staves are currently just for looks. Even if this one was fixed, spellcasters still wouldn't actually use their weapons' Intelligence or Mind bonuses while spellcasting; every spell damage formula in Reborn ignores these for the aggressor.
    • While the elemental damage reduction provided by armor mostly makes sense, their standard damage reduction values are split between the three physical damage types (crushing, slashing, and piercing), and these take the weapon type of the defender. For example, if a character wields a hammer, then they use their armor's crushing resistance against all three types of physical damage.
• Scrappy Weapon: Daggers, since most characters who could wield them could also use swords or something else in the SNES/PSX version. The PSP version allowed more characters to use them but also added finishers which included some useful debuffs and utterly game-breaking damage when dual-wielded. While the finishers remain in Reborn, the main class that benefited from using them (Rogue) was made enemy-only.
• Self-Imposed Challenge:
  • Not losing any party members in the SFC/PSX version, which is quite a task as once their HP hits zero they're lost without the timely intervention of a high-level spell or a rare and expensive consumable.
  • Keeping characters alive isn't quite as hard to do in the PSP version, since it's both much easier to avoid party members being killed and a lot less effort to get them back on their feet. Instead, you can go for the Bragging Rights Awards "Never use Chariot" and "Never suffer a casualty" —for not having any characters knocked out in the first place. In Reborn, you may encounter some maps with "Win without Chariot system" and "Win without incapacitated units" bonus missions. While optional, it also yields good bonuses.
• So Bad, It Was Better:
  • The changed names used for the PSP translation were not well received. The very protagonist, Denam/Denim, as his name (and Vyce/Vice's) originally was inspired by jeans pants.
  • Arycelle/Aloser, due to how amusing the original translated name was. Even if it was supposed to be named after a demon from Ars Goetia, it's still grin-inducing to hear someone whose name felt like her parents doesn't love her that she's named like 'a loser' turns out to be one hell of a mighty Game-Breaker that shoots people to death with impunity.
• That One Attack: Faeries and Gremlins can use Virtuous Dance, which costs 50 TP and inflicts Bewitched in an Area of Effect with high probability. Bewitched is like Charmed, except that it's much harder to get rid of, and comes with a permanent drop in Loyalty. Since your units always start every battle clustered and the enemies don't, and the enemies don't need to care about Loyalty, the AI finds this skill much more useful than you will.
• That One Boss: Reborn added a new system where cards appear on the battlefield and picking them up grant your units status buffs. However, the same is also valid for enemies. More alarming, Reborn stealthily made a lot of bosses significantly harder by making them start the battle with a complete set of buff cards. This leads to disastrous results, as an already powerful enemy unit gets immensely more deadly that way, with quite a few notable examples:
  • Vyce at the end of Chapter 2’s Chaotic route can be rough on any version of the game, but without the ability to grind Denam (unless you’re rewinding from the ending) you’ll be under-levelled no matter what you do; while his Heart Crusher can’t be used consecutively, a combination of his low RT (which could let him move twice even if you conserve yours) and MP recovery means that out-healing is almost impossible. Your best bet is to equip enough strong heals, take advantage of any buff drops that can help, and equip a finished move that can drop his health low enough to end the battle before he kills you.
  • Nybeth in Chapter 3 of the Neutral route is notable for starting with the aforementioned set of buff cards, but also because he is stationed way above your team, making him hard to reach. As usual, he can just call for more undead if you kill them. However, what makes him extremely dangerous is him knowing the Meteor Strike III spell. Thanks to his buffs and items, he will get enough MP to spam his spell on your units, removing more than half an unit's total HP in one hit, and with an Area of Effect of 3, if your troops are packed, you will suffer damage that you simply can't endure or heal back in time. This can be quite the wake-up call for most players, who will need to rush him before he obliterates them.
  • Leonar about halfway through Act 3 on Chaos, specifically if you duel him one on one. He begins with a full set of buff cards. Half of them are MP regen cards which basically allows him to use a finisher every turn and two damage cards to make sure said finishers will do about half Denam's health. About the only way to sanely beat him is to have a set up that allows you to kite him around the room, since he has no options aside from point blank melee, but the room itself doesn't quite facilitate kiting very well.
  • Ozma at the end of Chapter 3, in both Neutral and Chaos. Similar to Nybeth, she has access to Avalanche II and has no issue spamming it on you. Unlike Nybeth, she is not isolated, as she is surrounded by templars, and she is much more durable than him, making killing her quite an ordeal. In the Chaotic route, you have to fight Oz and Ozma both, and they have a complete set of stat buff cards. If one doesn't cripple your whole army in one spell, the other is guaranteed to OHKO anyone else afterwards… These aside there’s Lawful, where you’re fighting her at Rhime instead: while she’s not backed by the Templars she still hits pretty hard, and you’re also keeping Hobyrim (here a Guest who dies if he’s downed) alive if you want to recruit her in Chapter 4, which also necessitates downing her health to critical without knocking it to zero; all these added up, and you are in for a bad time no matter the circumstance in fighting her.
• That One Level:
  • In general, any Protection Mission. NPCs have zero survival instincts, preferring to throw themselves headfirst into the enemy horde, never mind that many of them tend to be relatively squishy. And most of these levels start with your party set a good distance away from said NPCs, making it a race against time to catch up to them before they get themself killed. It is even potentially possible if the AI and RNG hate you enough that the NPC dies before you even physically have the chance to reach them. And the worst part is that if an NPC dies, they are either lost forever or you just fail the mission. Needless to say, these missions tend to be the most frustrating, with one of the only tried and true methods is giving Canopus an item lobber (you will have to change his class though, since the lobber only existed in the remake, and Canopus' class Vartan can't even equip lobbers. Hope you have enough Vartan cards to change him back!), take off most of his gear, and get him there as fast as possible and start tossing healing herbs at the NPC. Some noteworthy stages include:
    • The first mission in Rhime if you want to save Cistina, simply because you're for the most part less equipped and doesn't have access to many of the tools to boost your movement and if she dies, it's game over or you just lose access to her forever. At least in Reborn she’s somewhat able to take some hits and hit back hard, but without some quick assistance she’ll still perish.
    • The Neutral route version of the mission at Boed Fortress, in which you must save Cerya. The structure of the fortress makes it hellish for you to climb unless you're using a flying unit (like Canopus or a lot of hawkmen), and you will be stuck in lines waiting to climb. Cerya herself showcases the suicidal tendencies of the AI, attempting to beat up the Templar Knights surrounding her when she's completely defenseless. In the original, she starts out with the status Charm, and you better hope the RNG is merciful and that she stays charmed for quite some time, because if she's suddenly cured of it, then she gets herself ganged up to death on purpose (because everyone will automatically counterattack for full damage). In the PSP version and Reborn, she's instead leadened, making it hard for her to make a jump to the lower levels. On the bright side, the original has the Earth spell "Jump" to make traversing the fortress easier for your army (especially spellcasters). On the darker side, that spell has been removed since the PSP version. And even worse; if the Templar Knights aren't trying to gang up on Cerya, then they will instead rain down arrows and powerful spells on your army for free since they stand on the high ground. That's not even getting into Oz himself; he's powerful enough to either one-shot Cerya or anyone standing near him, be it using his axe or his spells.
    • The first mission in Port Omish for recruiting Azelstan. The enemies will default at Level 20 (while the boss is at Level 21, when you're most likely at Level 15-17 when you start the chapter, putting you at severe level disadvantage unless you grind and lower your Chaos Frame as a result), has two Stone Wall enemies with Rampart Aura to block your advance right in front of you while two Archers with Crossbows rain death to your backline with impunity (and goes for AOE Finisher when they have a chance), and Azelstan is right in the middle of the enemy line near the boss. Better hope Canopus can reach him while reading a Heal II Grimoire before those enemies can incapacitate Canopus by merely being goddamn strong! Made a bit easier in Reborn as Azelstan will start the battle with a full set of card buffs, allowing him to hold his own more easily.
    • The mission to recruit Cressida is a giant exercise in frustration. When the battle starts, Cressida is downed, and you have 3 turns to revive her. Doable, but annoying. However, if Cressida dies again after being revived, she permanently dies instead of being downed again. And she is surrounded by units who will happily gang up on her to murder her, including her father Nybeth who can theoretically one shot her if not dealt with quickly. And on top of this, the game lies to you about the mission objective. Initially, it states that the victory condition is to defeat Nybeth, which would give a quick window to victory. However, upon defeating him, the objective then becomes to defeat everyone on the field (who are all undead, adding to the frustration). And that's not even getting into how even if you manage to win the battle and save Cressida, that's still no guarantee you'll be able to recruit her as your Galgastani Chaos Frame rating, a semi-invisible stat that is relevant in one other spot in the game, needs to be high enough.
  • In the PSP version, Mt. Weobry on the Law route is difficult, but there's a trick to it: Don't attack the dragons and they won't attack your forces. However, the Neutral version, this isn't the case and players need to contend with two groups of enemies, both of which are filled with Stone Walls, constantly spawning reinforcements (that can spawn in behind players and get a free turn to boot, meaning at any moment, any unit can be attacked), and Undead units that eventually revive at full HP.
• That One Sidequest:
  • The Apocrypha questline can be rather tedious, particularly in the PSP and Reborn versions of the game that expand it to account for the added elements. In the quest, you first must go to 4 or 6 fortresses (depending on the version) and fight battles there, battles which are rather annoying given they are on heavily inclined areas, and you start at the bottom. For the PSP/Reborn, you almost must do certain sidequests to unlock the two new fortresses, adding extra battles that must be done. After you've done the battle at all 4/6 fortresses, you finally unlock the dungeons WITHIN the fortresses, each of which is 5 floors long. Altogether, the entire sidequest is 24/36 battles long not including the sidequests needed in the newer versions of the game. Fortunately, the rewards are rather nice, including very powerful classes and spells for the Phoraena sisters (though you'll only get the full benefit on Chaos or Neutral as Law only recruits 2 of the 4 sisters).
  • Any maps that has both "Win without incapacitated units" and "Win without using Chariot System" bonus missions in Reborn. Doing the mission normally is fine. However, these pop up on the toughest climactic battles in Chapter 4: against Lanselot Tartaros and later Brantyn. Both will have enemy levels beyond your level limit. Lanselot can at least be cheesed out because you can take advantage of the lower ground that the enemies can't willy-nilly jump over and prevent the templar knights to flood your place while you unload your magic there and mind your distance with Lanselot. Against Brantyn, you have no such option as the map is straightforward open without places to hide and you have to contend with a wall of Terror Knights, Draconic Magic-wielding Witches, and Brantyn who is decked with Buff Cards, heavy armors (so you can't just pelt him with arrows), and Wisplight, a Light summon spell that will most likely kill any one of your unit in one cast, which will instantly fail your requirement and force you to restart.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Several changes made to the gameplay in Reborn have been controversial among certain fans of the older versions, mainly the PSP version. These include the removal of Random Encounters and the introduction of story-based level caps that prevent over-leveling, as well as changes to the class-switching system that make the process more linear and curb Sequence Breaking. While this does have the effect of creating a more streamlined and focused experience, it ended up alienating fans who enjoyed toying with the game mechanics and breaking the system in all kinds of ways in the PSP version.
  • Even updates to Reborn have caused some controversy. For example, the 1.05 patch made the Dark Knight weapons you get from the very last Coda slightly different from the ones the boss characters actually use, reducing their stats to their levels in the main story and removing player access to their unique Finishing Moves. They're still unique trophies for beating ostensibly the game's final challenge, but Steam players have complained that they've been nerfed into the ground. All that said, however, it was quickly revealed that the "nerf" was a data setting error that accidentally replaced the player-obtainable versions of the Dark Knight weapons with the boss versions and the dev team is working on fixing it, doing so with the 1.06 patch.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In the remake, Thunder and Ice are different elements from Wind and Water, and there are also Thunder and Ice shrines for the Shaman quest. However, the Phoraena sisters stayed in the default four, there are no extra Phoraena sisters for Thunder and Ice to expand this; Olivya and Cerya instead suddenly took over Thunder and Ice Shrines (and it was Cerya who opens Ice instead of Olivya).
• Vindicated by History: Tactics Ogre was very much a niche game when it first released. With subsequent releases for the Playstation Portable and eventually its Reborn remake, it very much found its place in the public eye.

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