Let's shift gears for a moment and take a look at a game that until recently had been languishing in my backlog for several years. That game is Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis, the lone Game Boy Advance game on my list still left to complete. I'd originally decided to tackle the game so many years ago for two reasons: one, I'm a huge strategy RPG fan; and two, I'm a tremendous fan of Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly caliber, one of the best games on the N64 and one of the few RPG representatives on the console. Of course, despite the two games being entries into the same series, their gameplay is very different.
Knight of Lodis is a strategy RPG more in the tradition of Final Fantasy Tactics--but it is perhaps more accurate to say it follows the tradition of its direct predecessor, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together from the Super Famicom. This game of course predated Final Fantasy Tactics and was perhaps unfairly unrecognized (at least in the West) for its influence on Japanese SRPGs. I haven't played LUCT extensively so I feel unqualified to comment, but it seems impossible to deny just how heavily it influenced Final Fantasy Tactics. Due to my inexperience, I can only really compare it to other SRPGs I've played. I do plan to play through Let Us Cling Together, but it'll definitely be the PSP version.
Knight of Lodis is an SRPG featuring a class system and many unique story characters as well as playable monsters, demihumans, and undead creatures. Like many games in the genre, positioning and terrain are both very important to succeed in combat. In fact, its almost impossible to successfully attack opponents from the front. It's an even worse idea in melee since all attacks made from the front will be met with automatic counterattacks. It's entirely possible to whiff an attack and then get countered for fatal damage. For this reason, units with high mobility are very useful on the battlefield, increasing the value of flying units like hawkmen and angel knights.
Because accuracy is such an issue, I found myself prioritizing magic attacks that hit without fail and melee units that could easily get behind opponents. Early on, I made a lot of use of the ninja class with its ability to walk on water and travel long distances. Wizards and sirens, with their ability to cast elemental magic with 100% success rates, were also a staple of my early strategy. Later on, I equipped a couple of my characters (including the protagonist as a swordmaster) with items that allowed them to teleport around the battlefield, ignoring terrain.
Knight of Lodis is not a game that features stunning class variety (at least not in comparison to Final Fantasy Tactics) but it does make your choices important. Unlocking new classes requires a certain set of minimum stats and frequently a specific Emblem. Emblems are obtained through performing special actions in combat. Most Emblems benefit characters by imparting statistical bonuses, but others only serve to unlock new classes. The Lancer Emblem is obtained by striking two foes in a line with a spear, for instance, and is required to unlock the Valkyrie class, with its balanced stat growths and propensity for spears and magic. Each class in Knight of Lodis has its own stat growths. Planning out the chain of classes a certain character will use as they level up will determine how quickly you unlock more powerful classes. Some of the game's most powerful classes can only be unlocked by dying in combat!
Still, each of the game's classes essentially boils down to a bundle of stats combined with possibly one or two special abilities. Many non-wizard classes can also equip magic, of which there is a decent variety, ranging from low-accuracy projectiles, accurate area-of-effect spells, and devastating multi-hit summons. Many of the game's unique characters can equip these summons and to be honest they made up the bulk of my army by the end of the game.
Overall, I really enjoyed Knight of Lodis despite longing for a little more complexity and variety of choices. The plot, which is largely political until rumblings of an ancient sacred spear come into play, is also well done but admittedly not something I became very invested in. The soundtrack is also very good and echoes themes from Ogre Battle 64. I'm not at all surprised that Hitoshi Sakimoto (of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story) fame had a hand in it. It's definitely one of the best games in the Game Boy Advance library. It makes me want to revisit some games I never got around to--which primarily consists of Golden Sun 2, honestly.
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