The premiere console strategy series, in my mind, has always been the TACTICS ORGE/OGRE BATTLE series. While you don't see many titles hit shelves over here, when they do, it's usually known that they'll be top notch and worth playing. With a dedicated fan-base in tow, Atlus has released the latest TACTICS OGRE game, THE KNIGHT OF LODIS, for the Game Boy Advance.

TACTICS OGRE is turn-based strategy focusing on individual unit placement, unlike OGRE BATTLE where the game is much more army based. You are given several units, each of varying classes and you order them around a battlefield with varying altitudes, obstacles, and of course enemies. Unit placement is key; for example archers are better used from afar, and it's best to sneak behind an enemy to attack as you will then prevent a counter-attack. In many ways, it plays somewhat similarly to chess, albeit a much deeper version of that game.

While battling is the core action element of the game, character development is also key. This game doesn't quite reach the massive nature of OGRE BATTLE 64, but has around 35-45 hours of gameplay in store for the patient gamer. Throughout the game you will evolve your characters into new classes with new abilities, to improve your character's alignment and stats (the amount of stats has been reduced from previous console versions of the game) to make certain classes. This is something that might turn a casual gamer off, as managing your resources and characters is a very important part of the game and can, at times, be rather time consuming. You also now have to collect emblems to manage class upgrades, which is a slightly new spin on a tried and true idea.

The biggest downside to the game is that it is very deep and does require a lot of patience. For instance, after you complete your turn, you have to sit through the computer's entire turn. After a while this can get tedious, especially in a long battle. It's also true that this isn't the best pick-up-and-play Game Boy Advance game due to the fact you can't save during battle. However, the gameplay remains addictive, and with multiple paths in the story and endings, many will be able to forgive this fault.

The game is played from an isometric view that actually looks very good. The backgrounds are very detailed and have lots of color and depth to them. The fighting animations are good as well and overall the presentation is quite good.

The music is the typical fantastic fare that Quest usually puts into these games. Included in the game are many ambient effects to add to the realism and those are pulled off very nicely. And finally, the battle noises are well done and continue to pull together a very sharp technical package.

THE KNIGHT OF LODIS is not for everyone. It has a complex storyline, deep gameplay, and can take some time and devotion to get into. But for those fans of RPGs or strategy games, or any mature gamer for that matter, it's one of the best offers on the Game Boy Advance.