The big one, the upper echelon Saturn game is finally here, Tactics Ogre translated for Saturn!
Team Medzua has previously worked on Saturn fan translations such as Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Linkle Liver Story, and even the other Quest Corporation title, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen.
Today, February 27, 2023, Tactics Ogre has been finally added to the list of English playable games on SEGA Saturn!
Originally released on October 6, 1995 for the Super Famicom, then later December 13, 1996 and September 25, 1997 on the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation respectively in Japan. Sadly, none of these titles ever made it to the West, until finally being released in English on February 15, 2011 for the Sony PSP, which said translation was actually used for the Saturn fan translation. Tactics Ogre, while still set in the same universe as Quest Corporation’s previous game Ogre Battle (Which funny enough did get a western release on the Super Nintendo and PlayStation 1), completely diverges gameplay wise from it’s predecessor, taking on a tactical style gameplay approach similar to that of Fire Emblem or Disgaea. While the original had it’s fans, the majority of fans tend to prefer the turn based gameplay of Tactics Ogre over the RTS style gameplay of the original, which makes the fact this never got localized until many years later even more tragic.
This fan translation is not only an English translation, but also includes several quality of life changes made to the game itself by Team Medzua. Many of these changes are listed on Romhacking.net:
- Support for 1-byte character encoding.
- Support for DTE/MTE.
- Increased the internal resolution of the game to 352×224 (original 320×224).
- Support 4MB Extended RAM Cartridge to reduce data loading time.
- Support Hard Mode (enemy level increased by 20%.).
- Increased the character’s remaining HP limit (up to 60%) for highlighting on the battlefield when using the “L+Z” button combination.
- Displaying the leader plate on the main character panel (like in PS1 port of the game).
- Unlocking a hidden option that allows you to saving the previous team formation. You can load the profile with “X” button while placing units on the chessboard.
- Unlocked a hidden option to view current reputation in Warren’s Report mode.
- The ability to saving in battle without exiting the game (only for Hard Mode).
- Temporary saves are no longer deleted after loading (only for Hard Mode).
While the Sega Saturn version came out first, it has several differences not included even in the PS1 version released a couple years later, such as no freezing during the battle, increased size of the battlefield, and reduced loading times within the game.
You can download the game translation here.
The patch steps are fairly straightforward, so it should be easy to get up and running with this gem that was locked in Japan for so long on home consoles. Big thanks to Paul Met, and everyone on Team Medzua for making this title a reality for Western Saturn fans! Original Article
