Tactics Ogre Reborn Producer Explains Why the Latest Remake Isn’t Using HD-2D Graphics - IGN - IGN

But the oldest and most important of them is Tactics Ogre – the strategy game that led directly to Final Fantasy Tactics along with a host of imitators.

During Tokyo Game Show, Kato sat down with IGN for a wide-ranging discussion in which he talked about his time with the series and the return of tactics games.

Hiroaki Kato: So the thing that kind of led to our whole project getting started was in 2011 when we did the PSP version of Tactics Ogre, we saw basically the customer reaction.

And we saw it was pretty good, and we always wanted to make another Tactics Ogre.

Hiroaki Kato: 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.

Hiroaki Kato: 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.

Hiroaki Kato: I think it's generally a great thing that they came out in the same year.

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.

Hiroaki Kato: I've been involved in the Tactics Ogre series since the SNES.

Hiroaki Kato: The original was a really well-made game, and I think [Matsuno] was somebody who really contributed to making the game as great as it was.

Hiroaki Kato: Yeah, Matsuno is involved in pretty much every aspect of the game.

IGN: Tactics Ogre has had several updates now and a lot of the original team is still working on it.

Hopefully all this effort that we put in will allow young users – people who haven't played the game before – to experience the joy of Tactics Ogre for themselves.

The first is because when you're managing by unit, you can really freely customize the unit and make them your own and really get connected with them that way, and I think that’s a really fun mechanic to have.

Hiroaki Kato: I think probably the major goal that we had for the changes in the battle design system was to support the story.

So for Tactics Ogre, this story is a really, really important part of the game.

Hiroaki Kato: It's something that we always had 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.

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 realizing that.

Hiroaki Kato: So yes, that is part of it, but a more important part is that we figured this was enough.

For a long time people didn't make tactics games.