Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is a 2001 video game, a Gaiden Game for the Game Boy Advance based on the popular Ogre Battle series. The story follows a young Knight of Lodis named Alphonse in his best friend Rictor Lasanti's military unit, the Order of the Sacred Flame. He is sent to an island called Ovis. Ovis is divided by conflict thanks to an agressive push of Lord Batraal, living on the north of the island. Alphonse is separated from the rest of his units, and begins to uncover a sordid plot opposing the pope and the empire of Lodis over the fabled spear of destiny and the possible resurrection of a fallen angel.

Like the previous Tactics Ogre, this is an isometric view turn based strategy game.

Tropes used in Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis include:
  • Artificial Stupidity: Guest characters are very stupid. Even worse, they refuse to come into the training sessions with you, meaning that they remain low-leveled while the enemy becomes just as strong as you... not that this will stop them from charging right into them while you are trying to maneuver your army in a different direction entirely.
  • Boring but Practical: A team of eight Knights may not be the most interesting or diverse combination, but it's certainly a very effective one. Every one of your units is capable of taking a beating, dealing out decent amounts, and using healing spells. Even the final boss will have trouble getting kills in.
  • Catch Phrase: For the series overall. "FIGHT IT OUT!"
  • Character Alignment: Chaotic, Neutral and Lawful.
  • Crossover Cosmology
  • Dem Bones: If you defeat them conventionally, they'll pop back up again in a few turns; you can beat them more permanently with an Exorcism spell.
  • Doomed by Canon: If you already know who the player character in The Knight of Lodis is, then it's best not get attached to Rictor, Orson, or Eleanor.
  • Downer Ending: The best ending is a Downer Ending that reveals this game is a prequel to Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, and Alphonse is Lanselot Tartaros, an antagonist of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. Best friend killed, love interest killed.
    • The non-canonical B ending is better, in that Rictor at least doesn't die. Of course, depending on how you interpret the ending, Alphonse and Eleanor might die. Either that or they completely vanished from the pages of history and never met any of their friends again.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Well, of sorts. There are three sets of two opposed elements: fire and water, earth and air, and holy and dark.
  • Fragile Speedster: Ninjas.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: During fights, the sleep spell is nigh worthless; low success rate, doesn't last for very long (maybe two turns... the time it takes someone wearing armor to job 40 feet and swing a sword twice), and the target will wake up if someone so much as musses up their hair. During a cutscene, however, Alphonse takes a sleep spell, and wakes up (probably several hours, at least a several minutes) later in a dungeon, tied to the wall.
  • Geo Effects: Depending on where you're standing, your elemental spells and attacks can do slightly increased damage (standing in water makes your water attacks stronger, stone improves earth spells, etc).
  • Guide Dang It: Want the Relix emblem (for males) or Ripple emblem (for females)? It gives you a permanent +2 on your mental gauge, which is quite handy... but you'll have to have the person in question go through every class, including angel, ghost and lich. Good luck...
  • Heroic Sacrifice: An odd example in that the main character does this very early in the game; you take a crossbow bolt for your commander, and fall into the ocean (also, you can't swim much on the best of days, and you're wearing armor).
  • Infinity-1 Sword: Longinus, the spear of plot advancement, is a very good weapon... but it's still weak compared to snapdragon swords.
  • Infinity+1 Sword: There are precisely four items in the game (some of which are missable) that, when used, transform their user into a sword, with stats based on the person the sword was made from. Even if you have a level 1 character use it, the sword will still be noticeably stronger than Longinus, and if you turn a max-level character into a sword, the game might as well throw up its hands and say "I give up".
  • Interspecies Romance: Caused the mermaids to lose the war.
  • Magic Is Mental
  • Mighty Glacier: Many of the larger beast characters, like Dragons.
  • Multiple Endings: Based on a choice you make halfway through on whether to capture a mermaid or not, you'll end up siding with Rictor or Cybil.
  • No Arc in Archery: You'll love that they averted this whenever you start on the top of a map, and hate them for it whenever you're at the bottom.
    • Played straight with crossbows, which just shoot in a perfectly straight line. They don't do any more damage though...
  • Optional Party Member: Elrik, Euphaire, Saia, Lobelia, Deneb, and more depending on Path A or B.
  • Our Fairies Are Different: These ones tend to show up wielding bows, and use magic via kissing. One of them runs away from home and dresses up as an enemy just For the Lulz.
  • Our Liches Are Different: Undead spellcasters with extremely high defenses and better spellcasting abilities than any other unit. Only their inability to use Summon Magic keeps them from being Game Breakers.
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: They have a culture with temples, and had an all-out war with the humans at one point. They would have won too, if one of them hadn't stolen the sacred spear.
  • Percent Damage Attack: Ghosts have one that does 10% of maximum HP. It's fairly useless against most enemies, but an extremely effective way to beat the Final Boss, who has 800 HP and is almost immune to damage. If you give the spell to a Lich, Saia and a Ghost, you can deal 300 damage per turn...
  • Public Domain Artifact: The Spear of Destiny.
  • Rival Turned Evil: Rictor is turned evil supernaturally.
  • Say It with Hearts: Invoked with series mascot Deneb. Naming a witch Deneb unlocks the special "Witch <3" class.
  • Secret Character: Deneb, who is summoned by hiring a female soldier, naming her Deneb, and changing her class to Witch. She's basically the same as the Witch with better stats and attacks, and can use Summon Magic.
  • Secret Shop: It's in the first town, and is accessible only by Deneb.
  • Shout-Out: Features one to The Lord of the Rings. When the ogre Rimmon dies, he regains his "human heart" and says "my precious".
  • Sirens Are Mermaids: Mermaids, at certain levels, learn the ability to sing their enemies to sleep.
  • Standard Status Effects/Useless Useful Spell: Status effects generally don't work very often or last very long. And poison is just a series of slaps on the wrist.
    • And the exception to this rule is Paralyze. Long duration? Check. Locks the character down completely? Check. Does not break from the character taking damage? Bloody check.
  • Summon Magic: One for each element besides bane. The only standard class that can wield them are Sirens.
  • Vancian Magic: For the most part, you can only cast the spells that you equip, and you require MP to cast them.
  • Whip It Good: Beastmasters love to whip.
  • White Mage: Cleric, Priest and Bishop.
  • Winged Humanoid: Hawkmen in general.
  • Younger Than They Look: Ivanna. She looks like she could be in her forties because of the grey hair!
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