A Green Mushroom

In working through my backlog I'm running into a bunch of games that I own, have had for awhile, have never played, and then end up not liking. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is one of those games. It seems like it was probably a good tactics game in it's day but it's biggest problem is that it's so similar to Final Fantasy Tactics that you're better off just playing Final Fantasy Tactics.  I don't know why you would ever choose this game over FFT instead. I guess if you're a huge fan of the Ogre Battle series this might hold some sway.  But, for the rest of us, there are better tactics games out there.

I tried Valkryia Chronicles in my massive Steam backlog playthrough earlier this year.  It was one of the few games I liked that I played in my backlog, so I made a mental note to come back to it.  Now that I have gotten back around to it I'm having a lot of fun.  It's scratching the Strategy RPG itch that I've had lately.  Valkyria Chronicles has been satisfying in a way that the Final Fantasy Tactics games just haven't quite been. If you didn't know, Valkyria Chronicles is a ported game from PS3 to PC.  It just released on Steam in the past year.  I picked it up during one of the big Steam sales.  Although I played it on PC I used a controller the whole time, and I would highly recommend it.  The game plays great with a controller. Valkyria Chronicles does some Standard tactical combat stuff but it also does some really cool tactical stuff too.  When you move a character you jump behind them into a third person shooter view and...

Heavenstrike appears to be what happens when you take Square Enix's talent at making tactics games and neuter it with Free to Play mechanics.  Ugh. I tried it because I'll try most things that Square Enix releases.  They always have my attention since they're the company that makes Final Fantasy... and if you haven't noticed by now, I love Final Fantasy . Heavenstrike is a turn based lane pushing strategy game.  You summon units using mana and the units push up each lane trying to get to the enemy commander to do damage.  The first one to take out the opposing commander wins. The basics aren't bad, but the game has all the free to play trappings that I try to avoid.  Energy is used each time you enter a battle and if you run out of energy you can either wait a while or pay real money to buy more.  You can also pay real money to have a chance to recruit new super units.  This is not the way I want games to make their money. It's the worst...