Heya! Happy new Zelda and impending Street Fighter launch! Lots of gaming to do.

Today, we're covering Fire Emblem: Engage on the Nintendo Switch, released January 2023. Engage is the newest tile-based tactics game from Intelligent Systems following 2022's Fire Emblem: Three Hopes.

Fire Emblem: Engage is a tactics, all-star game where the worlds of the series crossover in this pocket world. The protagonists of each game is worshipped as great heroes and sources of power. You play as the Divine Dragon, a great deity awoken from a long slumber to fight the revived Fell Dragon, akin to the early game's 'defeat the Shadow Dragon' story.

So let's get into Engaging our Emblem Ring transformation.

Heya! Trying a new post format for this entry! With event prep for GDC having me real busy, I haven't had time for deep dives into a tactics game. But I did have time to try a couple Steam Next Fest demos!

As someone who played tons of PSP demos, I've missed the ability to have a low investment try at a game. Tactics demos are especially interesting challenge as a design prompt. Tactics games can be long! Or they develop mechanics in a gradual way over hours, which is difficult to capture in a demo.

But lots of developers made the effort, and I wanted to give them a shoutout! So let's do a Turbo Turn of Steam Next Fest tactics/strategy demos. I had to hone in on this blog's focus cause I played too many! Oops.

Happy New Year! Since the holidays gave me more time to get through tactics backlog, this post is coming sooner than expected. Hooray!

We're covering Tactics Ogre: Reborn from Square Enix for the Nintendo Switch, PS4/5 and Steam! The original Tactics Ogre was released on the SNES by Quest Corporation in 1995 with a PSP remake in 2010. Reborn is technically a remaster of the 2010 remake with quality of life polish and some graphical updates.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn at heart is an SNES Tactics game with all the quirks of design choices of that era. An early foundation of the Final Fantasy Tactics Job System and art direction is present, adjusted by remaster polish. All the difficulty of games of that era is well and present too!

So let's get on to it! Let Us Cling Together.

Been a bit since last post! This time we're talking about Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes developed by Intelligent Systems and Omega Force. Three Hopes is the second 'Warriors' game that adapts the series standard turn-based strategy to real-time combat. While the previous Warriors game on WiiU (rip) was more of a crossover game between popular (mostly 3DS) Fire Emblem games, Three Hopes is more of a sequel to Three Houses. Sorta!

A major goal of today's post is to solidify how I handle this first general impression post on a game just so that I can take notes better and not sit on posts between games too long. Basically, first impression posts will go as thus:

• Short Overview
• Tactics Layer - Talking about minute to minute decisions
• Strategy Layer - Talking about larger resource management & story structure
• Other Cool Systems - Larger meta systems may have like Triangle Strategy's conviction system

For some games it's pretty simple to break these up: A map in Fire Emblem can be the tactics layer talk while item management & support system cover strategy. For some games it may be looser but its meant as a guide more than strict rules.

This is not to say a game may only get one post! I'll still do deeper dives on particular of a game's story or game systems but I need to put a limit on myself for these general game writings to not go too long.

Onwards to Fire Emblem meets Dynasty Warriors​!

Hey! It's been a while! I fell into a deep hole of fighting games (spectating CEO in person, playing Guilty Gear & Persona 4 Ultimax). Also have been playing Fire Emblem Three Houses so expect a post on that eventually!

For today we're focusing on Into the Breach, a 2018 game by Subset Games (creators of FTL). It received a major (free!) update in July adding new content to vary gameplay and found a home on mobile through Netflix games very recently. So a perfect time to cover it!

Into the Breach is a time-loop, mech, roguelite, tactics game about executing a constant loop of protecting civilians with fierce & ginormous mechs from large insect monsters. The combination of all maps being 8x8 tiles, lasting 5 turns, and given full information of enemy intent & abilities creates a game about careful risk management.

If you like puzzle solving, you'll definitely love this. So dear friends, once more, unto the tactics talk.

Last time we talked about combat​ so let's hone in on the narrative systems & themes of Devil Survivor Overclocked!

Devil Survivor is a game centering on crisis management. To that end, it centers on how individuals and major organizations (like the military) react in response to disaster. The major flow of story involves how to spend each 30 minute block from 08:00 - 18:00 each day.

Can you save everybody at risk of dying? If you can, whose plan to end the lockdown do you believe in and spend time trying to make work? You have to make hard decisions in investing your time.

Be warned, this post will have general spoilers for up to the 7th Day & ending setups! Hee ho-nwards!

Devil Survivor Overclocked is a real fascinating game to revisit in 2022. Friends and I are revisiting it together and I've been really enjoying dissecting the game's attempt to adapt Shin Megami Tensei to tactics and its narrative around.. a government enforced lockdown. This is my 3rd attempt since 2011 to beat the game and maybe this time will be the one!

Today we're gonna talk about the gameplay systems of Devil Survivor Overclocked! As a tactics genre entry, there's a very unique attempt to adapt Shin Megami Tensei systems to tile-based tactics. The depth for each of the 4 units you can deploy creates such a wide range of unit complexity that intertwines with classic Demon Fusion that SMT ​is known for.

Onwards past the read more!

Last time we talked about Triangle Strategy's combat, so let's talk about how it handles narrative!

Triangle Strategy is not a subtle about its themes and interviews with producers Tomoya Asano and Yasuaki Arai reveal a real desire to convey a complicated story as simply as possible. The three kingdoms map to a philosophy of how one should be a leader. On paper, the kingdoms play in par medieval fantasy tropes between a northern snowy territory, wide-field knight kingdom, and a hot desert kingdom.

Where Triangle Strategy elevates itself is in the choices it gives players. Constant small choices in every dialogue and exploration scene builds up to major choices at the Scales of Conviction with pretty wide narrative branching. Each decision helps a player sculpt their Serenoa and how he will respond to structural power. It's really bold!

So let's do a deep dive! (Read More away!)

Triangle Strategy, a tactics game developed by Artdink and Square Enix, is the rare game where I immediately wanted to replay to see what content I had missed. It was such a smooth tactics RPG and I was so excited in talking with others about what different story choices we made. 

Combat scenarios are presented like puzzles more than a level curve to beat. Through use of a curated experience curve the maps keep a constant forward pace where you're never stuck on a map too long but can't trivialize a map.

Triangle Strategy is, honestly, the main inspiration for this blog. It's a game I feel synergizes the spirit of high momentum fail-forward tabletop games, tactics game design loop, and branching storytelling experiments of the recent years.

So I'm gonna do a series of posts on the game! Today we're gonna cover an overview and lengthy dive into combat.

My big plans for this blog can be summed up as follows

• Talk about tactics games I've recently played or played long ago that struck me with cool design choices
• Talk about certain design patterns and design challenges that come up in the tactics genre
• Explore the 'canon' of tactics games and see how they hold up (Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, etc.)
• Discuss tabletop games and notable systems I find really impactful as a collaborative experience
• Possibly discuss the process of creating my own grid-based tactics tabletop RPG
• Shout out indie tactics and tabletop games that I really think deserve more attention

So I hope you'll join me on this tactics adventure! Onward past the Read More!