For the follow-up, Matsuno opted to dial down the high fantasy of the first game in favor of bloody realpolitik, in the process shifting to more familiar (for Japan) turn-based combat. It followed in the footsteps of Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, a strategy RPG in which you formed parties and moved around a map in real-time.
Its portrayal of political maneuvering, massacres, and the consequences of constant warfare was unusual for a 16-bit console RPG, and is even pretty mature by today's standards. Developed by a team led by a young Yasumi Matsuno, its story of war and ethnic hatred was based in part on the bloody civil war that was taking place in the former Yugoslavia in the early '90s. Tactics Ogre ripped its subject matter straight from the headlines.
