"Ok, after this battle I'll.......Huh?? MY BATTERIES JUST DIED!!!!!!!!"

Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, is the fourth installment of the popular 'Ogre Battle' saga. And if you are a fan of the series, (or even if you're not) you're in for a real treat with this game. The RPG/Strategy game will steal 40 or more hours of your life, but trust me, they will be 40 hours well spent. If you have played some of the other Ogre Battle games, you will pretty much know what is going on, although you don't have to have played the other games to completely enjoy this excellent game.

Now on to the review.....

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics in the game are nothing short of spectacular. They are stuck somewhere between the Super nintendo and the Playstation, (Leaning more toward the super nintendo though) but some people seem to talk low about the graphics because they are of SNES quality. But, hey, what do you expect from a handheld system? Battlefields are designed well, and are quite impressive at that, characters all look really neat, and the different job classes are easily distinguishable between each other. Spells are neat, but sometimes have a slight slowdown. Weapons and items all look different and have different effects, and specials are simply magnificent.

Story: 8/10
Unfortunately, if you have played the other Ogre Battle games, don't expect much difference in the story here. I'm not exactly sure how the story goes, because I only skimmed most of the dialogue, but it basically has you going through the game looking for a spear to fight a fallen angel and.......well, that's probably enough about that..... But, it is pretty similar to the other Ogre Battle games......but by no means should that stop you from buying it.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay is actually quite advanced in some areas, but, kind of simple in others. The battle 'system' plays out similar to the game of 'chess,' that is, your characters are all arranged on a board, and can move a certain amount of 'squares' per turn. And you take a turn, you opponent takes a turn, you take a turn.......well, you get the idea......If you're lost, the gameplay is identical to that of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, and Final Fantasy Tactics (TO: LUCT is for the SNES and PS and FFT is for the PS.) If you haven't played either of these you will just have to somehow play this one for yourself to experience the unique gameplay.

One of the bad sides, is that battles can get repetitive because every time you want to return to a previous town to stock up on items, you have to cross a couple battlefields to get there, usually resulting in a 25 minute random battle that you were trying to avoid....however, like in other RPG's ONE of the most important things is to level up your characters, so that their strength equals the enemy. A small problem also is that in some of the battles the enemy AI is very low, but in some battles you will literally feel like you're fighting for your life........

.......But probably one of the coolest and most innovative idea for the game has to be the 'emblem' system. Confused? Let me explain. Basically, by performing certain actions in battle, you will be rewarded (or in some cases punished) with an emblem. Some emblems are very easy to obtain, like the 'Lancer' emblem, which simply requires you to attack two foes with a spear. Other emblems are much harder to obtain, such as the 'mark of the elite' emblem, which requires you to defeat all enemies in one battle using only one or two party members! These emblems give certain characters stat boosts, or do things like open up obscure job classes. There are 32 emblems in all, making it difficult to quickly obtain them all.

Replay Value: 8/10
This is quite surprising (unless you are familiar with the 'alignment' system, as in the other ogre battle games) but for an RPG, Tactics ogre has quite a lot of replay in it. If you are wondering what the alignment system is, and haven't played the other Ogre Battle games, sit down and listen. As you start Tactics Ogre, you will notice a little 'L', 'N', 'C', on the characters status screen, L= Lawful, N= Neutral, and C= Chaotic. The choices you make throughout the game will continually affect your alignment. You may not have even realized you changed it. Alignment will affect several things in the game, like what characters join you, what job classes you can get, and even what ending you will view (there are 4 endings in all) so, you have to play through the game at least a couple times to see all of the endings.....

I mentioned the emblems before, but some emblems require that you beat the game a couple times before you receive them. Also, some items, weapons, and characters, can only be found on certain paths, so you must go through all of them if you want to see everything.

There are also a few 'extra' modes in the game. These are Quest, Vs., and Trade. While 'trade' isn't a gameplay mode, it does allow you to swap items and characters to another person with a GBA and a copy of TO. Vs. mode is similar. You can link two GBAs together and battle a friend with your built up characters. And a few emblems and items can only be gotten in this way. Quest mode allows you to explore secret areas if you find certain 'books' in the regular game. These, too, will reveal items that can only be gotten in this way.

Overall: 9/10
If you like strategy games, and can stand sitting still for an hour or two, this game is a definite buy. It is by far, the best GBA game I have ever played, and one of the best games for any system! As I said before, the actual game will take you about 40 hours to beat, but it will easily take two or three times that to find everything. An excellent RPG, that holds up well in this day and age of video games, and is well worth the $40 you will spend on it........not to mention the $40 you'll spend on those batteries.......

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/01/02, Updated 06/01/02