I made it my mission today to go dust off my copy of Tactics Ogre for the PSP and try it again after neglecting it for so long. It's now been 3 hrs and still playing. I guess something just clicked for me. The reason why I turned away from it was because that I just hit this difficulty spike in story missions and especially in side stuff. But trying it again today I managed to get through a fight and it was engaging and helped level up my classes a bit. So I dunno, I still have issues with it that the game doesn't explain to me (like how come my Ninja can only deal 1pt of damage with the strongest katana I have and only 1pt damage with her ninjitsu spells?) but it's such a time sink to level up your party members and my god the battles are so fun to play. Gonna play some more. I'll need to read up to find out what the hell was going on in the story when I left it!
It does have a character in it though that I genuinely dislike, Catiua, Denam's sister.
*SPOILERS*
She's been constantly nagging and bitching at me from the start with all the choices I make, calling me selfish for clinging onto an ideal of peace and not looking out for the good of the people. But considering that I didn't kill innocent people when commanded to suggests otherwise wouldn't you think? Then she goes and gets her ass kidnapped and I fight through heavily armed forces risking my life for her, eventually saving her and she bitches at me for saving her! She left my party when she found out I turned down an offer to join with the bad guys and she was my strongest healer! Fuck off.