A war is coming in “Future Tactics: The Uprising” – do you have what it takes to end it?

by Louis Bedigian

A tactical RPG for all gamers, not just the hardcore crowd.

Remember the good old days when the PSone was still considered an advanced gaming machine and role-playing games were everywhere?  The success of Final Fantasy VII was just too good to resist.  Before anyone had the chance to cope with the death of Aeris there were dozens of brand-new RPGs to buy.

Few had success though, and that’s why we’ve been in a role-playing recession ever since PlayStation 2 launched.  Square, the genre’s biggest supporter, used to release several RPGs a year.  Now they only release one or two games per year, and they’re not always RPGs.  How can we expect the smaller developers to expand their RPG lineup after Square-Enix reduced theirs?

Despite these issues, there are still a few dedicated developers out there who want nothing more than to see the genre grow.  Developers like Crave and Warthog, who recently completed work on the multi-platform release, Future Tactics: The Uprising.

Robert Bryant, Studio Director at Crave, comments, “It was my privilege to serve as executive producer on Future Tactics.  It was a real treat to work so closely with the team at Warthog.  They’ve produced a very addictive, innovative, genre-bending game and we’re looking forward to seeing what they’ll come up with next.”

GameZone Online decided to do a little role-playing of our own with Robert: we fire the Qs, he retaliates with answers.  The following is an excerpt of our battle, which includes many exciting details about the game, including an interesting comparison of tactical RPGs and walnuts. 

Future Tactics: The Uprising is being called a "turn-based tactical RPG that looks and feels like an action/platform game."  Could you elaborate on that?  How are all of these gameplay elements being merged into one title?

Robert Bryant: Tactical RPGs have historically been like walnuts—worthwhile once you get inside them but tough to crack if you’re a beginner.  The first time I tried to play one, I spent hours trying to figure out the complex menus and scores of numbers and stats that pop onscreen at any one time.

Future Tactics places much of that die-rolling number generation and statistics display in the background of the game, leaving you immersed in the action and the story unfolding on-screen.  For example, rather than showing each unit’s movement points as a set of numbers, the game displays a ring of colored dots around an active unit.  This quickly and elegantly shows you the movement radius available to that unit. 

In a similar fashion, when you take a shot at an enemy unit, you can manually affect the “to hit roll” because the game makes the process aiming and shooting your weapon an actual timing puzzle.  The better you get at this puzzle, the greater your skill as a player (and, hence, your units’ skills).

Don’t mess with guys in multi-colored suits.

Most strategy games involve the simultaneous command of units, not just one man.  Does Future Tactics differ from that?

RB: In keeping with the “us-against-the-world” theme of the story, the core gameplay in Future Tactics features squad-level, turn-based tactical combat.  Every unit counts, and so does every turn, so you command every unit individually.

Who are your enemies in this game?  Who are the heroes?

RB: Your enemies are extra-dimensional creatures that “invaded” the Earth long ago and are now the ruling faction.  The heroes are a small band of humans trying to survive against the cruel oppression of the creatures.  They’re led by Low, a headstrong young man, and his kid sister, Pepper.

What is the reason for fighting?  What is the catalyst that begins the characters' journey?

RB: Low’s father is killed when the creatures attack his family’s encampment.  Low vows vengeance, but his and Pepper’s journey becomes as much about discovery as revenge, because along the way they slowly solve the riddle of who the creatures are any why they enslaved humanity.

Locked-on and ready to strike.

I understand that Future Tactics' story will be told through voiced cut scenes.  Can you give us an estimate for how many minutes of story sequences will be in the final game?

RB: About half an hour total, broken up into short scenes between levels.

Is there more than one ending?  Are there any optional quests within the game that reveal additional story elements? 

RB: There is only one ending, and there are no optional quests.  However, once you’ve completed the story one time, you unlock “unit turn” mode, which allows you to play through the story again with one crucial difference.  Rather than taking turns by squad (i.e., you go, then the bad guys go, then you go), you take turns by unit, so their units are moving and shooting in-between your units.  This makes a lot of tactics you used before—like ganging up—very difficult, so it’s almost like playing a whole new game.

What kind of a weapon system does Future Tactics use?  What kinds of weapons are available, and are they specific to each character?

RB: There are two types of weapons in the game.  One uses line-of-sight, where you line up your shot through a targeting scope.  The other is a ballistic weapon, which is like using a mortar or other indirect fire weapon. 

Each character uses only one type of weapon with a couple of exceptions.  Low, Pepper, and the General all have both types of attack.

This appears to be a movie sequence of some kind.

Can you use magic in this game?  Do the characters have any kind of supernatural force helping them along the way?

RB: No.  Eventually you discover the Eternity Engine, which enables you to resurrect fallen units, but we’re still not sure whether this is a device based on magic or arcane technology.

What is the purpose of destroying landscapes?  How will that change the course of the game?

RB: This is one of my favorite aspects of Future Tactics—stuff blows up good.  It’s very cathartic to reduce a cottage or boulder to smithereens with one shot.

But this deformable terrain has a real impact on the way you play the game.  Because you can move, shoot, then move again, one of the first tactics you learn is to hide behind cover.  One of the very first tactics you learn to counter this is to blow stuff up so that your enemy has fewer places to hide.  But be careful—big craters make great foxholes.

How does the two-player mode work?

RB: Custom Battle Mode is a versus-style game that you can play against a friend or the CPU.  There are many unlockable conditions you can achieve in the single player Story Mode that add new options to the Custom Battle Mode.  For instance, you can choose the way the teams take turns, the level of the team members on each team, and even the number of units on each team.  You can unlock the ability to play human vs. human or designate a “leader” unit that you must keep alive in order to win.

Boy is he ugly.

Tell us about the experience point system.

RB: Like most of the other statistics in Future Tactics, the experience point system is kept mostly behind the scenes.  You see an orange bar next to the character portrait that indicates how close that unit is to its next level.  To gain experience you simply need to shoot enemies.  The location of your hit and the level of the enemy together determine how much experience you gain.  As you gain levels, you take less damage from lower-level creatures, and you do more damage to same- and lower-level creatures.

You can also upgrade your weapon by discovering upgrade icons hidden in some levels. 

Some of the screenshots show on-screen button commands, like "Jump" (square) and "Toggle Camera Distance" (circle).  Are these the default commands, or can you assign different actions to each of the buttons?

RB: These are the default commands.  You are not able to re-map any of the controls.  We’ve tried our best to optimize the control scheme for each platform’s button layout.

Thank you for your time.