My favourite remakes tend to be a little disrespectful towards the games they’re remaking, engaging in mildly subversive dialogue with the old creative choices, rather than just trying to ‘improve’ them in accordance with the expectations of the day. As such, my pick of Tactics Ogre: Reborn’s new features is a rebellious flourish – the buff card system, a cousin of the returning Tarot cards from the original 1995 launch on SNES.
It works like this: power-up cards for critical chance, physical or magic stats and the odds of triggering each unit’s passive abilities spawn semi-randomly across each isometric map, as you take turns to move your troops. Each of your units can gather up to four cards, keeping the effects till the battle is over (Tarot cards, dropped infrequently by dying enemies, confer permanent boosts). It’s tempting to ignore these buffs when they materialise off the beaten path, appearing on squares that don’t fit into your strategy, but they can be decisive in letting you temporarily override level gaps or class disadvantages.
Take ninjas. They’ve got some sexy kit – blowpipes with which to mute or petrify troublesome Wizards, the ability to strike twice with a weapon in each hand – but they also struggle to make a dent on tougher Warriors and Knights. So why not have your Ninja tour the perimeter while said Warriors and Knights duke it out, harvesting attack buffs before pouncing on the enemy rearguard. Better yet, try it with a beefier flying unit such as a Gryphon: they can swoop right over the frontline to chase down cards before your enemies bag them.
Source – eurogamer.net
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