Tactics Ogre

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is a tactical role-playing game in which players take on the role of Denim Powell (renamable by the player), a soldier caught in the middle of a war in the nation of Valeria. The player moves between nodes on a worldmap, triggering story events followed by either a single battle or sequences of battles. Beginning the game, the player is asked to input the lead character's name, birthday, and answer a series of questions determining their alignment and statistics. Each movement on the world map equates to a single in-game day, which alters weather conditions.

Prior to battles, the player can equip their preferred units with chosen weapons, armor, items and accessories. Also included is a training mode, where the player controls both sides of a battle and can raise unit strength. This mode allows for two-person multiplayer in the Super Famicom release.

Tactics Ogre takes place in Valeria, an archipelago united as a single kingdom under King Dolgare and worshipping a pantheon of six elemental gods, together with the Light Goddess Ishtar and the Chaos God Asmodeus. After Dolgare's apparent death with no direct heirs, the three primary ethnic groups of Valeria end up in a brief civil war, dividing into dedicated territories of varying sizes. The factions are Bacrum-Valeria, backed by the foreign nation of Lodis and ruled by its regent, Bishop Branta Mown; the Galgastan Kingdom led by Cardinal Barbatos; and the Walsta People led by Duke Ronway. After Galgastan gains the upper hand and declares itself ruler of Valeria, the neighbouring Walista are subjected to persecution and restricted to a small island.

The story opens with a small Walsta resistance group−Denim Powell, his sister Kachua, and his childhood friend Vice Bozek−attack a group of roaming Zenobian mercenaries, falsely believing their leader Lans Hamilton is the Black Knight Lans Tartare, a Lodis soldier who imprisoned Denim and Kachua's father Plancy in their childhood. The sympathetic Hamilton joins the group, bringing the old sage Warren, and Kachua vainly attempts to dissuade Denim from fighting. Denim's loyalty to the resistance is tested when Ronway orders the massacre of a town that refuses to join them, framing Galgastan for the crime. Whether Denim agrees or refuses the order, Vice disagrees and opposes him.

The production of Tactics Ogre began at series developer and publisher Quest Corporation following the unexpected commercial success of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen upon its 1993 release. The concept for Tactics Ogre was in place by 1992, though Matsuno's team had begun work on an untitled 3D action title which was abandoned when Quest Corporation requested a sequel to Ogre Battle. Matsuno created a multi-page detailed proposal for the game, with it taking a few months to get the project started at Quest. During this period, frustration with Quest's corporate structure had convinced Matsuno to eventually leave, but he decided to complete Tactics Ogre.

Matsuno acted as the game's director, designer and writer. Production, including later delays, lasted two and a half years, involving a team of 15 to 16 people.

The Super Famicom release has sold over 500,000 copies in Japan. The Saturn version had sold over 70,000 units by February 1997, making it one of the console's best sellers at the time. During its release month, Western PlayStation release ranked ninth in EB Games PlayStation sales charts. Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a Gold Award as part of its review. Review aggregate website GameRankings gave the PlayStation release a score of just over 81%, based on six reviews.

Famitsu praised the implementation of the narrative into the gameplay. Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the narrative as easy to follow compared to Final Fantasy Tactics and noted its multiple endings, while a retrospective review from Nintendo Life's Gonçalo Lopes praised the story as "anything but [cliche]". Bryan Boulette of RPGamer gave extensive praise to the narrative, citing it as one of the best stories within the medium. Jeremy Tan of RPGFan was also fairly positive about the narrative due to its tone and variation, and magazine PlayStation Extreme lauded it as better than that of Tactics.

Matsuno left Quest in 1995 once Tactics Ogre was completed, eventually joining Square (later Square Enix). Together with a number of Tactics Ogre staff members who followed him, he developed Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) for the PlayStation. Final Fantasy Tactics proved a success, and Matsuno went on to create multiple titles set within its fictional universe of Ivalice including Vagrant Story (2000) and Final Fantasy XII (2007). The latter would be his final project for Square Enix, as he departed the company in 2005 citing ill health, though he would return in later years to collaborate with Square Enix on a freelance basis. Banri Oda, a lead scenario writer for Final Fantasy XIV, cited Tactics Ogre as a direct influence on his storytelling for the expansion Shadowbringers.

While he left Quest after completing Tactics Ogre, Matsuno had been planning a third Ogre Battle title which would blend gameplay elements from the first Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre into a mainstream experience. Quest continued production of the Ogre Battle series until 2003, when they were absorbed by Square following the completion and release of Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, a spin-off prequel to Tactics Ogre, going on to develop titles in the Final Fantasy Tactics subseries. Minagawa would reassemble most of the original staff, including Matsuno, for a PlayStation Portable remake of Tactics Ogre, released in 2010 in Japan and 2011 in the West. Released under its original title in the West and with the subtitle Wheel of Fortune in Japan, it received an expanded narrative, redesigned gameplay, artistic changes, graphical upgrades, and a new localization.