Tactics Ogre Reborn producer Hiroaki Kato didn’t consider the HD-2D style for the remake, despite its use in this year’s Triangle Strategy and Live A Live.
Speaking to IGN, Kato admitted he likes the style but the 2D pixel art of the original has been retained instead.
“No, we didn’t think about making it HD-2D,” he said. “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 realised 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.”
He added: “I really do like it. I think it’s a really interesting and kind of new graphical interface to display things with. So yes, I think it’s really cool.”
2022 has certainly been a year for tactical RPGs, between this, Triangle Strategy, The DioField Chronicle, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, Hard West 2 and more.
But Kato believes the release of Tactics Ogre Reborn in the same year as Triangle Strategy is “a great 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,” he said.
“Triangle Strategy had good feedback as well, it seemed to be a success. So for us to see that, we are able to release our game and go, ‘Well, okay, here’s another tactics game. Here’s actually one of the original tactics games’. Triangle Strategy let people know that this series exists and has existed for so long, and it helped bring new users to the whole genre.
One major modernisation of this remake, though, is the inclusion of full voice acting, something Kato had always wanted to do.
“When we made the last game, we said, ‘If we make another one of these games, we want to make sure it’s fully voiced’. So yes, it was definitely tough, it was definitely challenging. There’s lots of characters, so recording all that was a lot of effort. But we think it’s really important, because it’s a story told with these pixel dolls. We want to do our best to make it sound real, to convince players that they’re really witnessing this kind of human story, this human drama…so we put tons of effort into realising that,” he said.
As a result, while the story hasn’t been altered, some of the script has been rewritten to ensure it sounds better when spoken rather than read.
Tactics Ogre Reborn is set for release on 11th November across PlayStation consoles, Switch, and PC.
However, fans aren’t too happy with some of the visual changes made so far and the game’s price.
www.eurogamer.net
