A Strategy RPG for the PlayStation Portable, inspired by the MMORPG known as Ragnarok Online. The developer is Apollosoft and Chime, while the artwork is provided by Tomatika (who'd you recognize from Eternal Poison).
In the distant past, there was The Holy War, in which people fought a battle against gods and demons that ended when humanity sealed their enemies away. Countless centuries later, most of humanity has made its home in the Grantria Peninsula, which has towering mountains to the north and a vast ocean to the south. Two nations at war with each other exist in this area: the Branshaldo Empire led by Emperor Bernard III, and the Aura Republic currently chaired by Counselor Gilsede. In the middle of this mess is the Toren Militia, a mercenary group established by former legend Toren and focuses more on the problems created by war than participating in one. The Empire and the Republic fought for control, but once resources on both sides ran low, a tenuous peace was established.
Enter the Hero, a young mercenary training under Toren when they happen upon a large group of monsters they must hunt down lest they terrorize the innocent. Along the way, they meet two people aiming for the same goal: Yuri, a dutiful soldier of the Republic who lives according to the word of his rulers, and Cynthia, a brash mage from the Empire of unknown background but wishes to fight for her homeland. Despite the animosity between the two newcomers, they manage to get along, slay the monsters, and separate on good terms as comrades.
Unfortunately, hostilities between the two nations have yet to dim since then, not when Prince Veda of the Republic wishes revenge on the Empire for his mother's death, Emperor Bernard's passing and leaving his young, inexperienced daughter Adelaide to take the throne, and a shadowy force seeking to reignite war. And this is not getting into the possibility that the seal binding away the demons and gods might one day be broken. Thrust into this situation is the Hero, now looking to strike out for themselves—and the decisions they make may well steer the fate of the world.
Ragnarok Tactics contains examples of:
- The Ace: From a story perspective, especially later into the game, it's often stated by other characters that the Hero is responsible for a lot of the strength needed to win battles.
- Ax-Crazy:
- Jester, Isara and Veda, all of whom see nothing wrong with the mass genocides that's happening in the war. The revived princess Adelaide and Darius also counts.
- The Hero themselves can become this in the Dark Route. At the very end of the route, Darius realizes that the reason the Hero ushered in the end of the world is because they're simply curious about the ending (which may well be a jab at the player's curiosity by extension).
- Dialogue Tree: The player is sometimes given three choices during dialogue between characters, which are usually split between three options: acting as a Nice Guy, a Jerkass, and being neutral/can't be bothered.
- Dump Stat: The LCK stat. It raises magic attack and criticals, but 1. Criticals almost never trigger and 2. It's easier and more efficient to raise magic with the MAT stat, which raises magic attack, magic defense and MP at the same time.
- The Evil Prince: Veda, who has nothing but hate for the Branshaldo Empire over causing his mother's death, and doesn't care how it goes down even if that means getting his own people killed. Not even his brotherly friend Yuri is exempt from his cruel plans.
- Featureless Protagonist: Fitting for a game based on an MMORPG, the main character's name, gender, hairstyle, hair color, voice, and initial job class (as classes can be changed when desired) are determined by the player at the beginning of the game. The default selection, however, is a male named Rito.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The game's story justifies the player taking any side in a battle due to their mercenary-style neutrality, letting them even fight against factions they were with in just the previous battle. This, however, can get odd should they somehow know information they would only know if they've been in the mission beforehand, such as the meeting at Livia's grave, where the Hero tells an incensed Cynthia that Yuri wasn't the one to kill Adelaide, even if they hadn't chosen to be involved in the assassination (unless Yuri had confessed to them earlier offscreen).
- General Failure: Gaston is infamously known as the "Angel of Death"... because every squad he led suffered was shamefully defeated in battle.
- Glory Hound: Gaston's main motivation for going to war.
- Good Republic, Evil Empire: Subverted. Neither the Aura Republic nor the Branshaldo Empire are truly evil, but they went to war with each other to expand their territory until the tenuous peace that followed. During the game's story however, when the Emperor of Branshaldo passes away from an illness, Prince Veda of Aura orders a False Flag Operation to resume the war, followed by the hastily crowned Princess Adelaide of Branshaldo taking General Darius's advice to strike back, which she didn't realize would escalate into full-blown war.
- Heroic Mime: Though a voice can be chosen for the protagonist, the only times he or she will speak is during battle or when a plot-altering dialogue choice appears.
- Multiple Endings: Most of the game's plot is determined by the player's choices, and there are five different endings. And similar to Tactics Ogre, once the game is beaten once, the player can go back in time with the A.I.Z. system and make different decisions.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Both Yuri and Cynthia are very loyal to their respective countries, and though they hesitate to fight each other when they think of it, they ultimately come to blows over their ideals. Yuri himself remains loyal to Veda despite all the deaths he's causing throughout the peninsula because of his debt to his father Gilsede, who took him in after Yuri’s own father's death, though he eventually comes around to stopping Veda from doing worse.
- Player Character: The Hero.
- Playing Both Sides: Jester, the Big Bad of the game.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The prologue starts off with one of these when you, a rookie alongside teacher and former mercenary legend Toren run into Yuri, a soldier of the Aura Republic, band together to chase down some monsters, later running into Cynthia of the Branshaldo Empire doing the same thing—though it's sparked by the abrasive Cynthia, two patriotic people of countries at odds with each other wouldn't have gotten along were it not for Toren mediating between the two. At least by the end of it, they come to be friends, which still carries into the ensuing fights between themselves later in the story.
- Supporting Protagonist: A majority of the plot is mostly driven by characters other than the Hero, who has complete freedom to pick which side to support; what stories that get viewed is just one perspective of a larger storyline, with other battles that the Hero doesn't take part in playing out regardless of their intervention. The Dark Route however has them take a more active role, where they become a key figure in supporting Jester, and the dark-turned Adelaide and Darius in destroying the world.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: During the new war between Aura and Branshaldo, a monster attack happens in Luft Blume, and with the Toren Militia busy dealing with the war causing monsters to act up, Livia gets killed looking outside the orphanage before the Militia arrives.
- War Is Hell: It's made clear throughout the story that this trope is in effect, noted by anyone who's seen war (like Toren) and is rational enough to see the big picture (like Gilsede). Veda lacks any remorse for the casualties and cruelty this brings about as long as Branshaldo is wiped off the world, Cynthia herself learns a war's cost as she breaks down seeing a field of war dead, Yuri is forced to shoulder responsibilities (courtesy of Veda) for various atrocities the Republic commits during and after the war, and Livia herself is an indirect casualty when monsters agitated by the war invade Luft Blume. Even Jester is implied to have lost loved ones to human warring, and he speculates that given humanity's track record, the Holy War might have been started by humans as the aggressors rather than gods and demons as history said so.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: Losing the Hero will instantly cause defeat. The same occurs should any other named allies go down depending on the battle.