~di0xygen

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Tactic ogre + Useless crap

Sat Dec 31, 2005, 2:07 PM

^{Di0xygen journal}

^{Well hello there mates, and welcome to one of my very very very rare journal, im really not the kind of person to actually keep a weekly journal, but i guess i'm gonna try to actually make more of these things for all of you my fans I mean friends not fans right?}

^{Useless crap about me}

^{For all of those who dont know yet, my name is Jorel and im a pixelartist, that like to go from time to time onto digital painting. about that i have one that i hope that im gonna finish one of these days, but procrastination owns me Im unemployed, and I reallly really have to find a job, since i feel a bit opportunist to live with my parents, not have to pay a dime and sit on my ass all day long at my computer, excluding the occasonial supper that i prepare, the often dishes and the daily food shooping. But still, i really want to have some money to rig up my computer a bit, i need at least 1024 rams more, i would need a heat sink for my videocard, a new videocard, a new processor would be fun too, but well thats a lot of money that I dont have yet. So if you have a very good way to make money other than selling drugs or prostitution well share But well i may have chances to work for best buy, wich means im gonna have tons of eletronical peices and other crap with a nice rebate that would be pretty fun really. To give you the full story, my ex-boss liked me a lot, and he knows the best buy director of the shop near my house personally, wich means he actually talk to him about me and the best buy director told him that he had my name and that as soon as i would make my job demand, he would contact me so this little situation makes me happy, but that really doesn't mean i'm gonna have the job, but i really hope so.

Also im planning to go back to school in september. I know i know its far, but i have to do my inscription before march, so ima gonna do that soon as possible. I'm headin for arts, to the go to university make a year in a computer domain, and then do my game graphical designer in a specialised school. So im very exited and very scared at the same time. I stopped school 3-4 years ago, so going back is very weird and i'm trouble about the issue of having forgot all what i've learnt before, but i guess im gonna have to work twice harder, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem, since im my head im going to school to study, not party

Also there is the dreaming in contest pixelart contest, that was a lot of fun to organise, and now its even better to look at those entries and answer all the questions. on a side note, if you have questions, simply send a note to me or any other of the 4 judges, and you will mostly get an answer very quickly, but my best bet is =camelhijackation or me since we are come and check stuff daily. but im a little concerned quality level of the current peice, expect some, the general skill level is from bad to moderate, im yet to see some reallly breath taking peices. So all of you elites pixelartist from pixeljoint and pixelpolis, and even all of the pixelation old schoolers, get your ass working and show us some kickass peices with that said lets move on to something else.}

^{Game review}

^{Thats right, i'll try to share you my gaming experiences with all of you, dont expect really new game reviews since i dont really play new games, expect some very interresting ones. But I dont feel like doing reviews of something that gamespot did with a lot of proffesionalism so im gonna stick to my personal underdog favorites.}

^{Tactic Ogre}

^{Tactic ogre by atlus is the sequel to Ogrebattle from quest, wich is a big classic that everyone with a taste for medieval innovative war theme rpgs that loves getting really involved in a game should try, but ill keep that review of an other time.

So I finished tactic ogre yesterday, after around 60-70 hours of play in a full week, it was the first time I finished it even tho it was far from the first time i started it. I tried to finish that game around 3 times, and its only the 4th that i manged to. Why you ask, because the game is very very hard and needs a lot of hours. The game is pretty much like the popular final fantasy tactics by squaresoft.

The game is graphically very enjoyable, the 2d isometric scenery are very well made, and realistic. The sprites are not the best i've seen, and the overly cute anime style of them was annoying me at first, but i got used very fast also the unit portrait saved it since they are breathtaking and very realistic, best i've seen. Also the included a weather engine that do not only look very good, but affect the way your unit fights. For instance during a big storm, the air element magics will be much more powerful and fire element will be less powerful. Also to show how massivly tactical and complicated every fights in this game is, every ground tiles change the element strength, for instance, standing on a grass tile will give +1 to earth element, while standing on concrete will gives -1 those values could be wrong, but the point is that you have to check where you steps, depend on your unit element.

There is a lot of small graphical details that show how much work was put into the game, for example when a unit is standing at a lower height than you, the attack animation will change to actually attack down, same for when its attack up. As a pixelartist, I have say there has to be a whole massive lots of sprite sets in that game, since every weapons actually make a different attack animation.

the game jus like FFT is class based, wich mean your unit starts as soldier(male), amazon(female) and as their level grows you can change class into more powerful classes like knight, magician, warlocks, terror knights. But the fun of those class changes is that exept for weight and defense value and magic capabilities, changing class wont affect you until the next level. for instance, a soldier has a str rate of 6, while a knight have a str rate of 7 wich means if a soldier is lv 3 with 52 str and change class into a knight he will still have 52 but at lv 4 he will have 59 instead of 58. So it other words its very fun to class change between training sessions, to grow the stats in the way you like.

The training sessions are simple but very time consuming, since you barely get exp from unit from you level(2-3 while hitting, 13-15 when killing) and you always need 100 exp to level up. so the concept is to use a character to kill around 7-8 of your guys of the same level in training, to get him level up then all the others now kill him one after the other, since you get 10 xp for hitting someone 1 level more than you and 80 for killing him. This is a down of this game, unless you have a lot of time on your hands, you will get bored of training for 2-3 hours to get 3-4 levels and will most likely drop the game altogheter cause if you dont train you gonna get raped.

The sound quality is high, and the music is very good the style is much like ogrebattle and thats good . I often stopped playing and jus listened to the music and started daydreaming. The music style range from very sad and calm, to very epic.

Now the fun part, the reason why this game is a must buy. The story is one of the greatest thing i've seen in a game. You play a random dude that lives with his sister and his best friend in griate. Your country has been invaded by the gargastan, and you make a liberation army to retake it, and at the same time you sworn to kill lans tartare of lodis that destroyed your village for reasons that you discover later. The story is full the greatest war dialogues ever, long cutscenes of a leader with his generals talking about war strategie and other war-like discussions. Its hard to describe how much you feel in the medieval era in a time of war between 2 nations. Everything is well described and you really understand whats happening withouth having to burn your brain thinking too much, and thats great. Over that the story is full of cliffhanger, and twists that will fill you with adrenaline.

In resume, The game is a worth buy if you like tactical war rpgs, or simply feel like trying something new that will suck your life out for around 50-70 hours. A good thing is that if you you and most likely will be asking for more, you can play ogre battle or tactic ogre: knight of lodis on gba wich is a side story to tactic ogre.

I give this game a big 9/10}

^{the last words}

hmm, last word

10 Comments

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~chocolate-neko Dec 31, 2005, 1:22:09 PM

Good luck on getting that job.

Going back to school, eh? That will certainly be an adventure, I hope you'll like it though! Where are you going to be applying?

Happy New Year, superman's dad! (:

~di0xygen Dec 31, 2005, 2:08:14 PM

art ^^

but only in goal to go to university

`halfliquid Dec 31, 2005, 2:50:30 PM

T.O. -- which system are you playing it on? GBA?

And, yay for going back to school.

Heh -- and I always like to think that people are 'saving the best for last' in terms of contests .. and they usually do.

~di0xygen Dec 31, 2005, 4:12:21 PM

Tactic ogre is for snes, but got ported and translated for playstation, you are talking about knights of lodis wich is a side story to tactic ogre. you have to play t.o to understand