The PSP remake of Tactics Ogre Square Enix is working on right now is subtitled “The Wheel of Fortune” in Japanese — and the publisher explained why this week in assorted Japanese print mags. As it turns out, Yasumi Matsuno and the rest of the development crew are not syndicated game-show fans; they’re referring to the tarot card labeled “The Wheel of Fortune,” and it connects to a couple of the big new features they’re implementing in this game.
In Tactics Ogre, the story branches depending on the choices hero Denim decides to make. These branches lead to multiple endings, and in the original, seeing them all required a major time commitment and an even greater amount of patience. The remake’s Wheel system aims to make that a bit easier. If you pick up a Wheel card off a downed adversary and use it, you’ll be allowed to jump back in time to previous events — retaining some of your current stats, like unit levels and skills — and choose a different path. It’s sort of like the classic “New Game+,” except you’re able to pick up the story anywhere you want to, not just at the beginning.
That’s not all, either, for a variation on the Wheel also lets you turn back the clock within individual battles. A subscreen shows every action you’ve taken during the fight in tree-diagram form. You can then use a card to go back to any point you like, letting you get out of pinches and try out other strategies without breaking a sweat. (Relying on time tricks too much, however, can lead to unspecified penalties later on.)
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