I guess Square Enix didn’t get the memo aboutThe Wheel of Fortunebeing an infernal American television show — Pat Sajak and Vanna White are obviously zombies. Or vampires. Or zombie vampires — but someone from their El Segundo offices should really speak up before they localize too much of the newTactics Ogregame.
Well,newis a bit misleading:Tactics Ogre: The Wheel of Fortuneis, according to the most recentWeekly Famitsu, a “rebuilding” of the 1995 Super Famicom release. (Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Togethereventually made its way stateside on the PlayStation.) The PlayStation Portable remake is being spearheaded by the originalOgre Tacticsteam, a pretty celebrated list of Square Enix veterans: Hiroshi Minagawa, director; Yasumi Matsuno, game designer; Akihiko Yoshida and Tsubasa Masao, character artists; Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata, composers.
Square Enixdevotéswill recognize those names from games likeFinal Fantasy Tactics(!) andVagrant Story(!!).
In his interview withFamitsu, Matsuno emphasizes that the game is being re-designed from the ground up (including new side stories!) while trying to retain the flavor of the 16-bit original. You’ll be able to change the viewing angle, add up to 30 unites (up from the original 20), and use new skills and tactics, but the turn-based battle, with its focus on terrain advantage, remains unchanged.
Japanese blogGame Jouhouquotes Matsuno on the team’s approach toWheel of Fortune: “If you developed and playedTactics Ogrein this day and age, it would be like this.” From the same interview,FF-Reunionsays that Matsuno would be “proud” if fans compared the new game to the original.
