by Amr (@siegarettes)

• Ogre Tale
• Developer: 5pb, Mages Inc
• Publisher: Degica
• PC

Following the excellent Guardian Heroes successor Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds, I was pretty excited to check out Ogre Tale. But while the presentation still remains at the same excellent standard as Phantom Breaker, with highly detailed backgrounds, spritework and voice acting, every other aspect has taken a hit. Combat has been simplified severely, skill trees stripped out, and a repetitive structure creates an overwhelming feeling that developer Mages was desperately trying to get the most out of a limited amount of artwork. 

Where Phantom Breaker had several strengths of attacks and a roster of special attacks that unlocked as you leveled up, Ogre Tale simplifies it into three attacks, a simple combo, a long range attack, and later, an ultimate, severely limiting your options to approach each situation. Not that you’ll really need it. Ogre Tale is almost afraid to put you into tough situations, or to send large crowds of enemies up against you. You’ll basically run over every enemy you face, until you reach the massive difficulty spikes of the bosses, which don’t so much ask you to master the mechanics but go back and grind even more. 

The grind is ultimately what destroyed all my good will towards Ogre Tale. Within the opening hour it already has you repeating sections you’ve already visited, fighting enemies you’ve seen before, in the same combinations you did during the last mission. It doesn’t even have the decency to remix them, having you visit the exact same locations, with the same formation of rooms each time. The problem’s exaggerated by a choppy flow of action, forcing you to automatically dash to the center of each room upon entering, presumably to cover up the spawning of off screen enemies, then find out what side of the room they’re actually on and hope they don’t shoot you before you find them. 

It’s constant, small issues like this that had me feeling like I was playing a game fashioned out of half the pieces. The story tries to keep it light and provide humorous justifications for the repetition, but the self aware shtick gets tired fast, and its parade of tired tropes only draw more attention to its problems. 

Past Ogre Tale’s charming exterior is a tiresome, half baked mess. I wanted to like it. I was desperate to find something to enjoy about it. But pushing on only made me aware of how much promise it leaves on the table.