In Tactics Ogre, the player takes the lead role; a Knight of the holy Lodis Empire. The Lodis Empire rules much of the free world, but like most great empires they had to gain their rule by force. The small island of Ovis has been converted to the religion of Lodisism (the national religion of the Lodis Empire) by the Lodis Empire about 15 years ago. There have been sightings of a small uprising and this is what our lone hero has been sent to investigate.

Like with many of the Quest titles of past, the story begins with our hero questioning his own faith and loyalty to the Lodis order. After being separated from his troop our hero quickly learns that there is more to be found on this small island then just a small rebellion denouncing the Lodis Empire. After a number of events he soon discovers that this island might hold the key for ultimate power for the Lodis Empire or its enemies. Also he learns that the people he trusted with all his heart might not be his true friends indeed. Without delving into the story to deep for fear that I might go and spoil many of the surprisingly pleasant plots twist. I will simply sum it up as a journey about trust, betrayal, and faith of epic proportions. (Even the topic of God comes into play, as he/she does with most Quest games.)

The story is rich and interesting with just enough plot twists and turns to keep you on your toes, but not too many to make you scratch your head in confusion. (I guess they learned their lesson from Final Fantasy Tactics.) With all that being said the true heart and soul of Tactics Ogre is found within its gameplay; most of which takes place on different quasi 3-D maps.

Before battle you get to outfit your party with various weapons, armor, and spells; which can be bought from towns, or looted from the poor fallen enemies encountered along the way. Tactics allows you to place up to eight characters (including the main character, who is involved in almost all of the battles) in a designated area on the map. Once your characters are placed where you want them, the battle begins and you are notified of your objectives. These can range from the simple (as well as the most common) “Kill the Leader” to protecting a certain character that you will meet along your journey.

Your characters can gain powers and abilities from experience points they earn during battle; each successful action performed during combat gives your characters experience. Depending on the level of the player and the level of the opponent, this determines the amount of experience received. For example a fresh off the turnip truck rookie, could gain 100 experience (by the way the magic number for leveling up happens to be 100) just for striking a higher level opponent, while a grizzled veteran would gain only 7 experience. After your characters level up they may change classes, this allows your characters to gain new abilities or to focus on one aspect of combat. Tactics Ogre offers quite a few different character classes, which you can change almost at will if you meet the class requirements.

Your roster of characters will not only be limited to humans. You will also get to fight with mermaids, hawk-men, and dragons to name a few. These other races cannot change in regard to character class; however they gain powerful and interesting abilities as they level up though out the game. How you outfit your party, plays just as an important role as what classes you chose for your party. Weapons can range from the mundane, but classic, long sword to the far more exotic (but far less useful) sugarcane.

I could continue to rant and rave about the merits of Tactics Ogre, but I figure it’s a game you should buy and play to truly understand what a wonderful, polished product Quest brought to the GBA. Besides fantastic gameplay, and a deep involving story that sucks the player into their GBA. No really, I just got out on my GBA and boy are my joints stiff *rim shot*. This is thanks in part to the great looking graphics. The characters animations are done superbly and the maps interact with the game very nicely. Although it does take some time to get use to the fact that it’s not truly 3-D. The one small blemish is that the game's sound and music is really nothing to write home about. Even so, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is, without a doubt, one of the finest games for the GBA to date. A must-have for anyone who owns a GBA system. As a matter of fact, if you don’t own one and you are a fan of RPG tactical simulations, you need to buy a GBA to play this. It is definitely worth every penny.