Recent reviews by This PC

cringey dialogue, tired rpg-lite mechanics, some awkward puzzle gameplay, cliche'd, forgettable story, but it all comes together so well with the amazing combat and breathtaking look of some of the locations. Not wanting to say this is like freelancer, it isn't, it's a lot simpler, I guess, but I haven't had fun like this with a space RPG since freelancer like 20 years ago.

Fantastic iteration on one of the top 3 tactical RPG's of all time.
This is the best version of Tactics Ogre by far.
I am a long time fan, played it at least a dozen times on PS1, and played it a couple of times on PSP.
I was disappointed by the PSP version, felt like it tried too hard to be FFT when tactics ogre has perfectly stood up on its own against FFT forever.
This version dials it back a little, while keeping some of the novelty the PSP remake brought.
The only real complaint I have is how they smoothened the sprites, and that is not togglable.
9.5/10 remake, will play it again and again.

A few complaints I've seen and my answers:
-"This is not like FFT, why not make it more like FFT?"
TO has always stood on its own and was always more based on characters' raw stats and face to face crossing of swords. Magic, huge skills and such were never part of TO's pedigree. There are some in this remake, but they've been dialed back a fair bit. Overall, the entire package is more reminiscent of the original TO, while bringing some modern sensibilities to it.

-"Characters can only equip 4 spells!"
Tough luck man, on the ps1, if classes could equip 1 spell, it was pretty pog, mages could equip 2~4 in the very end-game. This feels a lot more in line with TO.

-"Enemies are damage sponges!"
If you chip away on a 1000HP health pool on an armored knight with piercing weapons, that's on you brother. Moreover, there's plenty of high impact moves designed to drop huge chunks of HP. Try using a warrior with mighty blow and a crushing weapon ? Things like that. In short, there are damage types, and it's advantageous to use the appropriate damage type against the appropriate armor.

-"Archers are useless!"
They were actually waaay too strong prior to this version. They've toned that back to balanced levels. I run two archers, they take potshots every turn, while they don't do high impact shots, the damage racks up quick. That's not even counting the huge hits they can land on caster classes.

-"Rune Fencers/Valkyries are op!"
Yeah, they absolutely are, especially compared to original TO. >.>
They absolutely still feel balanced, though ? They are reliable fighters on all fronts, but if you overextend with them, it gets dangerous fast for their survival.

-"Healers are useless!"
They aren't, healers can land pretty big heals when everything works in your favor considering it costs no resources to heal with them. If you want big lifesaving heals, you need items, but that costs resources.

-"I can't carry my class skills between class changes!"
That has always been a FFT thing, leveling multiple classes to make one OP package. Never was what TO is about, although you could level a character in one class that has better stats, and then class change. I'm fine with this, I'm fine with this game requiring me to think a little rather than grind my way to an easy victory.

-"The party level system is too restrictive! I can't grind as much as I want!"
I mean, if you always grind to the max level you can, you'll be overleveled for content anyways. Grinding more would remove the necessity to think tactically and would remove all challenge from the game. And with how fast grinding is in this iteration, you'd be level 50 within hours. The original required you to throw stones between your characters for days to get to 50 lol, it was really thankless and boring, yeah, you could grind your way to max level really early, but that sapped your soul and your will to live. I'd much rather have this. :P

Fairly good game, certainly meets and exceeds my expectations. Trailers and demo don't do it justice.
Looks pretty beautiful, Larcasse Region comes to mind. For the budget I assume they had, they did extremely well.
Combat is fun and fast paced, definitely feels like the more old-school star oceans, but modernized.
I hear it stutters a lot and has low fps, but I haven't encountered this issue on the OS it's meant to be played on.
A few tips that might help:
-Rollback nvidia drivers, running this on slightly older drivers (4 months ago or so) and performance is just fine on midrange hardware. Solid 60FPS with high settings.
-Recompile shaders when you change graphics options.

I did however have major issues running this on linux with proton, so don't rely on this running on steam deck.
Felt cute, wanted to post early opinions, might delete or update later.

I do not get the people who say that the start sucks. Just start in space with a space pod, build a ship drill and an ore detector, and you're golden. Takes 20 minutes to get to that point in survival and from there, you can build anything. Some of these issues can also be solved with game settings. Most of the further problems that you encounter can be solved with mods. You don't have to start on a planet. ._.
The only real issue there is is that there's no real content, but I still got 500+ hours (and counting) of fun building bigger and bigger spaceships.

Actually, I'd even say that the little content there is (drones occasionally attacking you) counters the experience of gathering resources/surviving/making amazing builds in space and are pretty annoying until you get a turret setup, and then they become like, meaningless ? So might as well turn them off in the settings. :D

It's a niche game, for sure, if you're looking for action, you won't find it here, if your goal is to thrive in space and be creative, then you'll love this.

This game will slap you with late 90's jrpg nostalgia harder than a baseball swing from mommy Diana's warhammer.
If you're 35+ and you miss that golden era, this is a game for you.
I thought I personally had lost that magic, and thought I am just not as interested in video games anymore, but nope!
I absolutely am. I hope this teaches the big bois that we don't need high poly models and flashy 'splosions, we just want games to be as good as they used to be.
I did not think I would see such a quality product on this engine in my lifetime.
Edit: Runs like a charm with Proton on Linux.

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Pizza time.

Game is great, simple to learn, difficult to master, lots of room to become good at it. Must be a blast for a pvp players, I am not though and I am still thoroughly enjoying it. Game has some potential for griefing in pve, so if that's not your thing and you're unwilling to play with that in mind, make your own server and play with friends instead of playing with strangers. Simple building mechanics that just work, simple combat that has enough depth to take a while to fully master, satisfying progression, ability to tinker with very specific game settings to modify the experience to your liking. If you're a fan of the survival progression curve in games like terraria or valheim, this is absolutely a game for you. Despite being in early access, it is very polished and essentially bug-free. Runs like a charm on linux with latest proton. Great bang for your buckaroos.
Some things you might want to know:
-Connect your castle with a road to keep people from boxing you in.
-Horses are really good (probably better than using waygates), don't forget to feed them with water canteens.
-Make separate rooms and use matching floors for your workstations.

Offering my support for a strong, no non-sense developer and a great game.

Much addictiveness, such fun, special twist on the colony sim formula that works quite well.
Very playable in its current state, very stable.
Loads of content already.
Simple enough to pick up and play casually, deep enough to keep you entertained for hundreds of hours.
Definitely worth every penny if you enjoy colony sims.

6/10 online with randoms
10/10 in a discord group with friends.