Characters can have resistances or weaknesses to certain elements defined by their level up progression, species and elemental affinities. Winged creates are weak to Piercing attacks, Kineticists are resistant to their own elemental affinity but weak to Slashing, Stone Golems resist physical attacks but are weak to Light and Cold.
Yes, that's right. While the game strives to be mostly deterministic, it does use random factors in a few areas, but sensibly and sparingly. For the most part.
The most obvious instance of randomness is the enemy turn order, the way the AI is currently programmed, it will randomly select the turn order of its active characters and make them act one by one, forgoing the benefits that can be gained from having a cohesive movement strategy. The potential hokeyness caused by this AI behaviour is diminished in the game's single-player maps, where enemy layouts are such that they won't be tripping over each other and blocking each other's routes due to their starting positions and their triggers to start actively engaging with the player, unless of course you manipulate them to do so. As such this element of randomness mostly serves to make it so you cannot simply restart a battle, play the exact same first turn and have the enemy react the exact same way, the enemy characters will act in a different order, which does affect the outcome, but can also still be planned for.
While characters have 100% accuracy by default, there are some exceptions to this rule. Some attacks have less than 100% accuracy, these are attacks that aren't restricted by linear targeting and are as such more flexible in their use. The most prominent example of this is the long-range Arc Shot ability from Bowmen. This attack only has a 60% accuracy and won't do much damage from a high distance, so it should be factored into your turns not as a cornerstone of your tactic but more as a little bonus. It's still better to rely on your other abilities, but it can be a little extra bonus damage on targets you can't otherwise reach. This accuracy can be mitigated by targeting enemies at a lower elevation, enemies who are swimming in water/lava or by inflicting certain status ailments, which actually raises the accuracy back to 100%, giving the player some ability to mitigate the RNG.
Likewise, certain specific classes have an innate dodge rate. This mechanic is used very sparingly by enemies, there's only one type of enemy that has any innate dodging ability and they only appear for two battles, so it mostly factors in as a lucky break for the player. On the player's side it's mostly the special Hero class and the Assassins who get dodge growths. It's not something you should rely on, but it is helpful to have on your designated front-line fighters as well as your characters who prefer to be among the enemy lines. Dodge rates can also be sidestepped by Mental attacks such as Mind Blast or feedback, which have a 100% hit rate regardless of Dodge rate or the user's accuracy. Just be careful to not have your own Assassins get backstabbed with a Mind Blast!
There is one other factor that is randomized, and it's one factor which I do actually take issue with, and that is random status ailments. There are a few abilities which have a 50% to inflict a status ailment, most prominently the elemental attacks used by Kineticists and Spriggats. These status ailments can be incredibly crippling when inflicted on a party member and they appear rather prominently on some maps. This makes completing these maps much more luck-reliant than any other aspect of the game, much to its detriment in my opinion. While it is possible to resist status ailments with elemental resistances (or be weak to them in the case of an elemental weakness), it's difficult to fully resist these ailments altogether.
This is rather annoying with the Dark Spriggats and Skiakineticists who can reduce your characters's speed and the Photokineticists who can Blind characters to reduce their accuracy down to 0% (deterministic!!) The worst offender are the Frost Spriggats, who have elative high movement, can fly and have AoE Frost Breath attacks with a base 50% chance to freeze someone solid, which renders the target unable to move, act or use items. The only way to heal this condition is the Melt ability from the Pyrokineticist, and oftentimes you'd rather be attacking with her rather than healing your party members. These sudden freezes can at times come down to 50% coin flips as to whether a certain character is doomed or not, and I'd much rather this system was reworked somehow to make status ailments deterministic in line with the rest of the game's design.
Still, that is just one problem I have. It doesn't even begin to weigh up against all the things I greatly respect the game for! I sincerely hope other games take note of the things Telepath Tactics did!
Plot, character, scope and politics
Alright, that's enough gameplay talk. Let's talk about story! Because Telepath Tactics does some interesting things with its story.
 |
Yes, the story of a little girl needing to find someplace to pee.
... Do Shadowlings pee? We'll get into that. Maybe. |
One aspect of the plot in Final Fantasy Tactics I really admired was how down to earth and gritty the political drama was. Past tense, because as the story progresses, the hero ranks up from dealing with political intrigue to dealing with a far less interesting evil cult bent on resurrecting some great demon. What an absolute waste! While the hero is off dealing with the thousandth evil cult and fighting against God, the foil Delita gets to partake in all sorts of intriguing politicking and gets to actually make morally grey decisions.
 |
| A less interesting story than you, Delita. |
Telepath Tactics doesn't fall into this pitfall. It starts off with very clear states stakes and contains itself to resolving those stakes. The protagonist and her sister were kidnapped by bandits at a very young age and sold off to a mining company where they grew up as slaves in their mines alongside their sick father. When through various circumstances the two sisters manage to escape and get dropped off in a remote, isolationist village, the elder sister is determined to go back to those mines and make the slavers pay, rescue the slaves and reunite with her father who couldn't escape with them.
 |
| How to maintain an upper class: Divide and conquer the lower and middle class. |
And that is exactly what the game is about. There aren't any sudden cults, the mining company aren't some font for a greater evil, because as it turns out, private industries are perfectly capable of being sufficiently evil to provide menacing antagonists and motivations for a protagonist to fight against. If anything, they are more suited as main villains when you consider we're all living under the suffocating heel of capitalism and human greed, and it's not the prim princesses who want more or the moping disowned royals who deserve the spotlight but the regular common folks who don't have any political power or birthright to leverage, but choose to team up and fight back regardless.
 |
| You never actually get a meeting with the guy, either. You're on your own! |
So, you've got your stakes and your antagonists. Time to fill out the party roster. On their quest, the sisters meet a large stable of characters willing to join the party for a variety of reasons. Some are also looking to liberate people from the mines, others are hankering to fight some bandits for great glory while others ally with you for their own personal safety or convenience. You've got your insufferable master of puns who's adapt with a bow, your miasma-breathing, horned, winged and clawed starving artist, your scheming mentalist who puppeteers enemies across the battlefield and your hardened bandit-hating mantis rider with a gigantic stick up her arse. Though the amount of interactions between the party member is limited to certain scenes, I did enjoy the scenes that were there a lot.
 |
That's why we play video games, to escape the madness.
But thanks for reminding me, Meridian. |
 |
| Really, Gavrielle? |
 |
| God damnit Zimmer, you absolute fucking moron. |
Sadly, not every party member gets to be as developed, some characters join late in the game and mostly serve to fill up the ranks to make up for any characters lost to the cruelty of permadeath should you not be playing on casual mode, but it is natural for late joiners to not get as much growth.
One thing that the game never comments on but did inform its character designs is the fact that most of the playable cast is female. It's never pointed out in the game itself, nor does it make girl power or anything of the sort a part of its plot, but it is unusual compared to the majority of games that have a male majority or an even split. Personally I welcome it, I think it's perfectly fine for games to choose a primarily male playable cast or an even split, but we should also see more games with majority female casts outside of the genres where that is already the standard.
So all-in-all, I liked the game's plot! It's simple, it's straight-forward, it's to the point. It can be emotional at times, it can be funny when it needs to be, it features themes of sisterly kinship, the evils of capitalism and greed, the power of the common man united against a dehumanizing regime and it subverts some tropes without falling into the pitfall of defining itself wholly by subversiveness. It crafts its own identity, and part of that is owed to the setting. Let's squee about the setting.
Nostalgia: Cannonballs, Gargoyles and Psionics, oh my!
I would be lying if I said this game came on my radar by accident or coincidence. Telepath tactics is far from the first tactical RPG made by Sinister Design, and was preceded by the Telepath RPG series.
I quite enjoyed playing these games way back, that must have been over a decade ago, considering Telepath RPG 2 came out in 2008. For some reason the series left a strong impression on me, rather like MARDEK, Epic Battle Fantasy and Sonny did. Funny to think the people behind those are all still working on these series, in some form or another.
Anyway, Telepath Tactics is set in the same setting as the previous games, so for someone like me it was rather nostalgic to see species like Shadowlings or Spriggats again, or fight using Psy Fighters again. It's not really required to have played other games in the series to understand any of it, since all the relevant factors are explained in the game, but I still want to gush a bit about the setting because I find it interesting!
The most bizarre aspect has to be the Shadowlings, which are like floating cannonballs with unattached floating arms and smoky plumes. They're underground dwellers feed on negative emotions and typically prey on humans because they're just such great sources of misery as it turns out. But they're not really all bad, and they've appeared as party members in every game since TRPG2. They never do address how this feeding process works in detail as far as I know though, perhaps they did that in the third game, which I still need to play... Well, anyway, one wonders whether they feed on your opponents or they are the party counselors because they feed on anyone venting at them. Who knows?!
 |
| Some of them also have radical text-box blocking horns! |
They are highly skilled at mental abilities rather than any sort of physical combat skills, and they exclusively communicate using telepathy. They are also somehow very capable at mining vibra, which is why the mining company you fight is mostly made up of Shadowlings. Their colours are also supposed to indicate age, but in this game they indicate team alliance instead, meaning you can get RIDICULOUSLY IMPOSSIBLE variants like white or black Shadowlings! They are probably my favourite species in the series, because like, what are they? They're so unique! So strange! So
edgy! I like that!
 |
Seriously what are those mouths for? ... Reproduction?
Also, try guessing which is the male or female Shadowling! |
There's also the Spriggats, another species of underground dwellers. With skin as smooth and hard as polished marble as well as wings, horns and claws, they look a lot like gargoyles. Ohyes, we do all love ourselves some gargoyles, don't we? But they don't turn to stone overday, nor do they roam
New York City. They do however get elemental breath, as indicated by the colour of their skin! Red Spriggats with Fire Breath, Frost Spriggats with Frost Breath, Black Spriggats with a corrosive Dark Breath and the newly introduced Gold Spriggats with electromagnetic radiation Light Breath! Yeah, it's weird.
Funnily enough, they're all named after philosophers and other well-known intellectuals, so there's Spriggats with names like Seneca, Cartwright, Rousseau, Hipparchia or
Bacon. Just like the Shadowlings, they've been party members ever since TRPG2. They were also engaged in a civil war with the Shadowlings in that game, following an uprising sparked by them figuring out the Shadowling Queen was selectively killing off and imprisoning female Spriggats to control their birth rates, committing fantasy genocide. Good thing she's dead!
 |
| Damn bro, you got the whole squad laughing |
There's the Stone and Bronze Golems, steam-powered giants fueled with Vibra. Big, strong, quiet and with seemingly a questioned amount of sentience, yet in specific cases sufficiently sentient to be able to form simple sentences and form emotional bonds to their owners. A pair consisting of an Engineer and a Cryokineticist appear in the main campaign, the former of which fancies herself the mother of a Bronze Golem. It's precious, and makes me wish the game had more interactions between them!
They are naturally pretty slow on the battlefield, but they are very study as well and resistant to various types of physical attacks, though at the expense of some elemental weaknesses on the Rock Golem's part. Bronze Golems depend on their spinsaws to deal AoE slashing damage, while Rock Golems are able to throw units across several tiles. I do wish the main campaign had a Rock Golem party member, I'd very much love to toss enemies off cliffs or into the murky depths!
 |
| My new OTP |
A species added in the third game, The Servants of God, was Spirits! Nobody seems to know exactly where they come from or why they exist, but they perpetually repeat their own name to themselves to prevent themselves from forgetting their identity and devolving into a primal state where they will possess inanimate objects or haunt creepy crypts and basements aimlessly. Spirits don't appear much in the game, only appearing in a haunted crypt as well as accompanied by one of the higher ups in the Mining Company who fancies herself a researcher and loves to 'study' humans...
They have unusually high energy reserves, and they can feed on enemy health to recover their own energy as well as feed on enemy energy to recover their own health. They can also donate their energy reserves to other characters, making them useful when paired with Psy Fighters who have powerful but costly big AoE attacks.
 |
| I like the aesthetic, Spirits kinda look like negative photos |
This also translates over to the setting's wildlife. Rather than knights riding horses, there's knights riding mantises. Scorpions are a common household pet, though they sadly don't appear in Telepath Tactics. It's a nice way to use some familiar animals in a new way. Mantis riders are conceptually cool.
 |
| D'you think this setting has teenagers obsessed with caring for their mantises? |
One aspect that's been mentioned a few times before is mental and psychic abilities, psionics, kineticists and elements. This all ties in to the setting's substitute for a magic system. Some characters in the setting have psychic abilities that let them manipulate air particles, perform telekinesis, communicate telepathically, read minds, create psychokinetic barriers to protect people and directly alter or assault the target's mind.
Of course the source of these powers is still not entirely defined, some characters in the setting consider it a gift from a higher power, but this is only speculation. The game does have clear limits on what these psychic abilities can do however, bar certain Spirits and some exceptionally powerful individuals who have powers that surpass common understanding, though those do not appear in this game.
I particularly like the flavour used for the four elements and healing abilities! Heat abilities don't simply conjure fire, they
accelerate particles to cause intense heat and combustion in a localized area. Likewise Frost abilities
decelerate particles to cause intense cold and freezing in a localized area. It's very scientific! Shadow and Light are even wackier, Shadow skills are an offshoot of mental abilities which
physically manifest negative emotions as a corrosive miasma which breaks away water vapours while Light skills combines
electromagnetic radiation and percussive force to concentrate photons and damage the opponent at a cellular level, then released with a bright flash. All scientifically sound, no doubt!
 |
| Kinetic attacks also have fancy visual effects! |
Meanwhile, healing abilities don't manifest as magic to mend flesh and heal wounds, but instead reinforce a character's psychokinetic defenses. It's more like armor stapled on than actual healing, though it does also function on non-psychics and environmental objects. It's even possible to create psychical objects that function like an Engineer's barricades, or to create especially hard to maintain shields that can increase a character's total health beyond their regular maximum health. These barriers are apparently invisible to the human eye, but able to thwart both psychical, mental and kinetic assaults. This is also why Psy users are naturally weak to slashing, as they rely solely on psychokinetic barriers for defense and psychokinetic barriers are more easily broken by slashing attacks than any other sort of attack.
 |
| The apt-titled "Big Shield" |
But for real though, we all know the question is whether you'd hit that or not. Heck yeah I'd make out with a Golem. Or a Spriggat. Or a Shadowling. Definitely a Shadowling. Or maybe a Spriggat and a Shadowling making out... Maybe a Ghost could possess a Golem. Saucy!
Anyway! As I'd mentioned before, most of this is just background fluff and they aren't things you need to know or understand to enjoy the game! This was just a long-winded ramble on my part about why I like this game's particular setting and find it nostalgic!
Remake: Fixes and wishlist
This is the part where I pull the wool over your eyes and discuss the aspects of the game I didn't like, but the developer pulled the wool over my eyes by already working on fixing many of these problems in a
remake. And now there's wool all over the place.
During my playthroughs I ran into two engine-related problems, one which overrode some characters's inventories with another character's inventory as well as slowdown during long battles. The latter wasn't that much of a problem, it only happened thrice and only started kicking in when I was nearly done anyway, but the first bug actually made me have to manually edit my save file to mostly fix things, though one hookshot was sadly lost to the void.
These problems are fixed in the new engine! That's good!
Another issue I ran into was with the game's resolution. My screen has a 1680x1050 resolution, which caused cutscenes to look zoomed out with large black borders around the screen, as well as making the relative sizes of text, sprites and character portraits appear very small in combat maps. Which is a shame, since the spritework itself is very well-done!
 |
| Lots of enemies, too. |
Thankfully, this problem is also fixed in the new engine!
The new engine also promises to have a lot of new features, improved UI and accessibility and much more. It even seems there are plans to do more projects with it aside from recreating the Telepath Tactics main campaign. I look forward to it!
 |
Apparently the game will also have more facial expressions.
So there won't be moments like these, much as they amuse me. |
So, while I am here, I might as well mention some things I do want to see or some neutral observations.
Stone Golem party member: One of the most fun things to do in TT is pushing characters into environmental hazards, whether it's shoving with a melee character or using telekinesis to fling them around. But nothing would feel better than using a Stone Golem to simply pick one up and throw it over somewhere else!
EXP system: TT grants experience for using most types of actions, only some movement abilities don't give exp for being used. The formula for calculating this EXP yield is pretty smart, and grants more exp for using actions with an energy cost, AoE attacks that hit multiple targets and attacks against high-leveled foes. This means support characters won't linger behind if they use their support skills frequently, and you don't miss out on exp when using Shoves instead of attacks. Reaching level 20 even promotes one of your units, giving them cool new sprites as well as various bonuses depending on their job, ranging from extra stats to extended range on certain actions or lowered energy costs for core class skills.
Not all classes are created equal though. Classes that can perform multiple actions per turn have a big advantage, since cheap support abilities are an easy way to quickly gain levels. It's not possible to grind by spamming the same action over and over in a turn, but it's still the difference between 10 EXP per turn and 20 per turn. On the contrary, melee units and (cross)bowmen level up much slower because their EXP yields drop off late in the game when you frequently fight swarms of low level enemies who only give paltry EXP, whereas support abilities earn full exp and Kineticists can score lots of EXP with their high-cost skills and AoE EXP bonuses. A combination of a flat EXP bonus for scoring a kill regardless of level difference as well as higher minimum exp yield for fighting low level enemies, perhaps?
Weapon durability: One game mechanic I couldn't really get into was weapon durability and weapons breaking during combat. It feels punishing towards weapon-using Humans and Lissit and pushes you to play Psy users and your Shadowling/Golem/Spriggat instead. It's the sort of feature you don't really think much about until it suddenly bites you in the ass. I did read the new engine might have a mechanic that lets characters repair their weapons during camp scenes between battles to restore uses, I hope that's going to feature in the main campaign!
More party interactions: As stated before, I enjoy the party interactions a lot! More sequences where Emma or maybe even Sabrina could interact with the party at their campsite would be nice, or more scenes scattered around between party members.
More side missions: One of my favourite missions was the lategame solo mission with Harriet! It's just a simple 1-on-1 mission, but you get used to playing with a party of 8 or more for most of the game, so smaller scale battles using fewer characters and less enemies are a nice change of pace.
I think that should cover most of it.
Closing thoughts
Honestly, I really enjoyed my time with Telepath. It's been a while since I've played a tactical RPG, but this is one I could see myself coming back to, since there's enough characters to tackle maps in a variety of ways. The no-nonsense approach to combat and the grounded nature of the plot really clicked with me. It solved a lot of the issues I've had with the Final Fantasy Tactics games, as well as doubts I'd have over playing other tactical RPGs. The game also has a good
OST, containing very fitting tracks for the tactical combat and whatnot.
Telepath Tactics is a game that often is overlooked due to its visuals, though I personally like them just fine, but it's a game that really shines in its gameplay above all else. I wish the developer the best of luck with his work on the remake, and eagerly look forward to what's next in store!
I strongly recommend this to any fan of the tactical RPG genre, though I can also understand waiting for the remake to come out first to get a more polished overall experience. The Kickstarter for the original game posted an update containing a backer demo just this day, so progress seems to be coming along steadily. I'll keep my eye on the forum's
devlog in the meanwhile, and maybe post again once it's out.
In the meanwhile, I might consider trying out Telepath RPG: The Servants of God. It's a game that was on my radar during its development but was above my price range back when it came out. Now that I'm an adult with an income, I can afford to spend a little now and again. We'll see if or when I'll get around to it!
