Tactics Ogre Reborn Art
Image: Square Enix

One of the most exciting games amidst Square Enix's huge slate of releases over the next six months is Tactics Ogre: Reborn, an enhanced version of the PSP version of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, the classic Super Famicom strategy RPG. And given Square Enix's recent retro visual style in HD-2D, many were disappointed this rerelease wasn't coming with the new visual style.

But in an interview with IGN at the Tokyo Game Show, Reborn's producer Hiroaki Kato revealed that HD-2D was never considered for the rerelease — even if 3D visuals were indeed on the table.

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Kato, who was also the project manager on the PSP release of the game, states that he thinks HD-2D is "really cool" and that "...it's a really interesting and kind of new graphical interface to display things with", but the team never thought about using it for Tactics Ogre: Reborn:

"No, we didn't think about making it HD-2D. We kind of played with the idea of making it 3D, but what we were really thinking about was, “What are the major parts about this game that are really appealing to everybody?” And in the 2D original, it was really well-done pixel art, so we realized that we couldn't have a Tactics Ogre game without this really high-quality, awesome-looking 2D pixel art. So to bring that sort of resolution and that sort of fidelity to new hardware and new technology was a lot of effort. But yeah, I think we did it."

Upon its official reveal, screenshots revealed Tactics Ogre: Reborn's smoothed-out pixel and "high-definition backgrounds", which many were critical of at the time of the game's announcement. Especially in a year where Square Enix has rereleased another Super Famicom game, remade in HD-2D — Live A Live. Of course, both of these games are produced by different teams (and Tactics Ogre has seen a Western release before), but the Ogre Battle series has also been relatively dormant for the past decade, so some feel short-changed.

Tactics Ogre Reborn
Image: Square Enix

In the same interview, Kato reveals that the success of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age helped get Tactics Ogre: Reborn off the ground: "...we were able to use that know-how. We were able to bring it into the making of this new game, and kind of create a new play style for our games."

Kato also acknowledges the release of Triangle Strategy earlier in the year and says that both this and Tactics Ogre: Reborn releasing in the same year is a "good thing":

"For a long time, there were no new tactics RPGs, so now suddenly, we have both Tactics Ogre and we have Triangle Strategy, and what this has done is allow both core users of this kind of genre to get their feet wet with it again, and for new users as well to learn what a tactics game is about."

The DioField Chronicle, another strategy RPG with a few twists, was also released last week. So it really does feel like the SRPG has made a big comeback in 2022. And we're happy about it!

Tactics Ogre: Reborn is out on 11th November on the Switch. You can check out the full interview with IGN in the link below.

Would you have liked to have seen the game in HD-2D? Or are you happy with the new visual style? Let us know!

[source ign.com]