Great games never die - a review of Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen

Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen
Developer: Quest
Publisher (NA): Enix
Release date (NA): SNES 1995, PSX 1997, Wii virtual console 1999



Growing up with four brothers in a modest income family meant that I didn't have the leisure of buying video games on a regular basis. Instead, I would use whatever allowance money my parents would give me for performing chores (5$ a week) and rent a game every weekend. Blockbuster video didn't come to town until I was a teenager, so before that the games would be rented in convenience stores and every now and again in the one dedicated video store that wasn't too far from my house. Hence, the variety of games I got to play as a kid was somewhat limited, and most games would only be available for renting until it was replaced by a newer release.

How on earth one of the 25,000 copies of Ogre Battle released in North America for the SNES ended up in one of those modest sized corner stores I'll probably never know. What matters is that it did, and it changed the way I view video games forever. If it isn't evident by now from my review choice this year and the last (Heroes of Might and Magic V), chances are if I'm playing a video game it'll be something related to strategy. Ogre Battle, along with the original Warcraft (released in 1994), which my brother had gotten from a friend and installed on our old 486dx2/50, where my introduction to the genre. The game cartridge disappeared from the store after I had rented it once or twice, and I didn't get a chance to play it again until almost ten years later, when I first got access to a computer hooked up to the net in university. Had I known that a PSX version had been released (though in quite limited quantities as well), I would have hunted it down, but the wait only made it that much sweeter.

Whereas the original Warcraft has in my opinion lost a bit of it's charm in the interval - I replayed it a few months ago out of nostalgia - Ogre Battle remains as entertaining today as it was then. A big part of the reason why is that, apart from Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (which is as least as great, if not better than this game, by the way), and a Neo Geo Pocket gaiden (Ogre Battle: Legend of the Zenobian Prince) not released outside of Japan, there hasn't been a game to my knowledge that has replicated the game's unique gameplay. Two other games in the series were released, but under the moniker Tactics Ogre, and were very much in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics. This isn't surprising as the first of these, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, was in large part the basis for the FFT system, and Yasumi Matsuno, creator of the Ogre Battle franchise, directed all of the FFT games.

"So what is it that makes this game so great?"



As soon as you start the game, a seer asks for your name and gender, telling you that he wishes to peer into your destiny. By asking you questions related to tarot cards, he will help to determine the type of leader you will be. This reading becomes the basis for your lead characters starting abilities, as well as the makeup of your initial army.



After the reading is over, the map screen is brought up and you must enter your first battlefield, which will serve as a tutorial. you have only your so called Opinion Leader's [Henceforth OL] unit available for deployment. After a short introductory level, the seer, Warren Moon (insert sports-related wisecrack here) challenges you to battle to test your mettle. Once you have defeated him, he hails you as the leader of the Rebellion and tells you that the time has come to defeat the evil Empress Endora and her Zetegenian Empire!



"Rebellion? Empire? Been there..."

Here is one of the areas where the game begins to shine. Though the theme of rebels taking on an evil empire is hardly new, the way it is presented in Ogre Battle really makes it work. To start, the people aren't blindly supporting your rebellion. Your actions throughout the game will determine wether you truly are a liberator or simply an even more corrupt version of the oppressive regime they have come to despise.



There are many ways in which you can gain the trust (or ire) of the populace, and the reputation meter is your window into the people's view of your actions. When you begin a level, which consists of a map containing various terrain, bodies of water, cities and Roshian temples, the only city you control is your home base. All cities and temples are controlled by the empire, and liberating them on your way to the enemy army's headquarters on the level will be your primary goal. Once a unit stops on a town or temple, your are also given a chance to draw a tarot card, which could have a positive or adverse effect on the units stats, your reputation, or abruptly change the day/night cycle. One of the reasons drawing tarots is important is that, apart from the given benefits of the good tarot draws, the cards can be used in battle for a variety of effects. For example, the Hermit card will cause magical damage to all enemies on screen, the Priestess card will heal all characters in the unit, etc. Movement on the game map is not turn based, however there is a pause option available when you wish to deliberate on your next move.

"so I just liberate everything as fast as possible, right?"

Well, you could, but that is usually not the best strategy. And here's why: liberating a city with a unit composed mostly of noble warriors will affect your reputation in a positive way, while using a unit filled with evil critters amounts to capturing the city, and thus adversely affects it. What's more, the citizens of a city that is recaptured by the enemy will not be too pleased with your group and will thus hurt your army's reputation.

" Noble warriors, evil critters... What?"



And here is the crux of the reason that this game is so awesome: characters. The variety of available warriors in this game is beyond impressive. From the Fighter to the Platinum Dragon, to the Pixie and the Devil, each one has it's own unique fighting style, strengths, and weaknesses. With a cap of 100 warriors to your army, the game leaves room for some very crazy unit combinations, some good and others awful. The first way that units are differentiated from their peers is that they each have their own unique alignment score that defines them on a scale of 0 to 100 from unrepentant sinner to saintly. Though this score can be affected by the character's actions, (for example fighting enemies of a much higher level will improve the character's alignment and vice-versa), the characters class progression will determine his place in your forces. A Knight who overkills enemies and dispatches Clerics at every chance he gets will most certainly not have a high enough alignment to be promoted to Paladin when he reaches the requisite level, and will hence have to switch paths to the one of the Ninja or another similarly shady group. Being grouped with others of his ilk should probably be a good idea, as the whole unit will not have to worry about conducting themselves in a respectable fashion. Sending these guys in to take a city would probably not be the best idea, so you will inevitably need to balance these units with some who like to fight fair or even at a disadvantage. Alignment also determines wether your units fight better during the day or at night. Your OL's alignment will be of particular importance, as a number of possible game events' turnout depend on his goodliness or evil ways. Human characters can change at will between available classes, though monsters and demi-humans are promoted in a non-reversible way, so care should be used when promoting them.



Battles themselves take place in quite a unique fashion. When two units of opposing armies cross paths on the battlefield, the screen changes to a close-up view of the two units on opposed sides of the screen, looking much as you would expect battles to look like in a jrpg. However, contrarily to jrpg games, your only control over the battle is in deciding how the characters should focus their attacks, either by aiming to produce the most damage, (best), by attacking the character with most or least HP (Strong or Weak, respectively) or by focus all possible attacks on taking down the units leader (leader). An outmatched or damaged unit can also retreat from battle, which will affect another stat, charisma. The only other action that a player can perform during battle is to make use of one of his collected tarot cards to influence the flow of battle.

Units can contain anywhere from 1 to 5 characters, with large monsters (Dragons, Kraken, etc.) taking up two places. A leader must be chosen for every unit created, and not all character classes can lead units. Each leader type can recruit different character classes from towns to bolster your forces. All characters can be placed either on the front or rear row, with a limit of three characters per row. The row a character is in will determine his actions in battle, and each characters performs his action a set number of times per battle. The side which has inflicted the most damaged to the enemy unit once all have acted their set number of times will be declared victor, and obviously a unit that is completely destroyed cannot be victorious. Upon defeating the enemy, each surviving character will gain experience and eventually level up. A unit with surviving characters that loses a battle is pushed back a ways in the level map, potentially being flung off a city and leaving it open to the opposing army to capture. The only case in which a victor is decided on a basis other than damaged produced is when the enemy that the player confronts is the boss character. If the Boss is still alive at the end of the battle, he is automatically declared victor. If the Player defeats the Boss, the battle is automatically won, the city is liberated and the level is over. Finally, if your OL is killed in battle, the game is over and if your home base on a level is captured then you are thrown back to the world map, conserving all gained exp., goth and treasures but with a sizable loss in reputation.

Balancing attack types within units is of particular importance, as each class has its own elemental strengths and weaknesses. Damage belongs to one of six possible branches and each class has a particular defense rating for each. The six classes are physical, lightning, fire, cold, white and black. Each character can be outfitted with one piece of weaponry or armor, which helps to balance or boost certain attack types or defenses. The only types of units that can change their attack type at will are Wizards and Ninjas, with the Wizard being able to use any type except white, and the Ninja being limited to the three elemental types of magic (fire, cold, lightning).

Favored terrain also factors in when building units. Each class has a preferred terrain movement as well as a weight rating when determining their unit's preferred terrain movement. Large creatures will usually be the most important in deciding it, and hence are useful when creating units to fight in specific situations. For example, a Hellhound's preferred terrain is mountain, so a unit which contains a Hellhound will have a movement advantage on a very mountainous map. Careful consideration must be used when using such creatures, however, as the other characters in the unit will not fight as well in difficult types of terrain if it is not their own preferred terrain.



Replay value is quite a considerable aspect of this game, and the thirteen possible endings, while part of the reason why, are not the most important. The simple fact that you will probably never have (or want) two armies that are exactly the same are another one. The most decisive factor, however, is that there are an insane number of events that can be triggered only when certain conditions are met. As an example, the Witch Deneb, Boss of the level Deneb's Garden, begs you to forgive her after her defeat. Now, saying yes will reduce your reputation considerably, but it will also open the door to her recruitment later. To recruit her, a low enough reputation is required, because otherwise upon revisiting her she will only offer a gift to you, once you are done running an errand for her. The errand requires you to find a specific item, which can only be found by paying attention to hints given when visiting towns. Each level can be revisited after completion for hints or to buy items, as well as to run errands as the one mentioned above. Also, there are a large number of hidden towns and temples scattered throughout the levels, and certain ones are essential to getting special characters to join. In turn, most characters are essential to getting the best ending (as are three specific items), and thus finding them all on a first (or fifteenth) play through can be hard. Here's a challenge to anyone with too much free time on their hands: find all twelve zodiac stones without using a guide of any kind. Good luck… Mwaha!



In trying to optimize your army, there are a certain number of very useful classes that can only be unlocked by meeting very specific requirements, and the harder ones to find (aside from the unique classes of certain story important recruitable characters) usually involve getting a specific item. Most of these items can be obtained in limited numbers by performing errands, but some are almost impossible to find by any other means than by the enemy randomly dropping them after they are defeated. A good example of this is the Blood Kiss (simply BLOOD in game), which allows you to turn a Knight or an Evil One into a Vampyre. Another means of recruiting them is to meet them as neutral encounters (which occur randomly in levels) on a specific level. The two most powerful classes in the game (Lich and Princess) can only be recruited by finding the items that allow you to promote a character into them, and the Lich even requires two rare items to create!

There are a certain number of items that can be obtained in game, either through shops, gifts from townsfolk, monks and special characters, defeated enemy units, or randomly found treasures. The means through which you can buy items is through the use of the game's currency, goth. Goth is obtained mainly through tributes that are given by liberated towns to the player at the beginning of each day spent on the conquest of a level. Troops deployed also need to be paid a certain amount of money to keep fighting, so the player has to perform a balancing act on the financial level as well. Buying healing and other types of items is essential, but a reserve of goth to keep a good sized army fielded is even more important. What's more, since your reputation will start to drop if you spend too many days on any given level, your coffers are not by any means bottomless.



As much as I love this game, there are a few limited aspects which tend to make things confusing at times. The naming scheme of items is one of them, as most item names don't really explain much about the item, and there are a few items which have the exact same name as another. Pressing select brings up the item description and removes the confusion, but it still is a minor inconvenience. Combat actions are also similarly confusingly named. In the same perspective, the translation isn't always necessarily top notch (at least in the SNES original, I haven't played the PSX or Wii ports), but this could be expected and excused, considering the small number of copies were produced for the original SNES run in North America. It isn't necessarily bad, but a number of dialogue screens are a bit odd. Certain of the game's mechanics are also either obscure or completely hidden from view. Though not as notorious as the invisible reputation meter in Ogre Battle: Person of Lordly Caliber, the absence of elemental defense ratings on a characters stat page makes it hard to tell who's weak to what. Common sense usually prevails (i.e. a Cleric will be weak against black and an Ice Giant will be weak to fire), but it would still be nice to have access to this information. Also, a very small number of the classes, which aren't necessarily stronger than most, require a very delicate balance of charisma and alignment (beast master coming to mind) and hence are not as easily obtained as others while not conferring a great impetus to obtain, and thus will be overlooked by most players. Finally, a few of the classes are also next to useless *cough* Golems *cough*, but they are very few and far apart, not taking much out of the general experience.



So there you have it, my humble rundown of one of the greatest games of all time. I've only just scratched the surface of this game's depth, and the only way to really get a feel for just how much fun it is to play is to do so. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes RPG, JRPG, strategy or real-time-strategy games, as it includes elements of all of these types of games. The presentation of the game, though obviously of that of an SNES game, still holds well even today. This is due in great part to the unique visual style of the warriors themselves, as well as the very detailed character portraits. The music is also quite enthralling, ranking pretty high in my list of most hummable SNES tunes of all times. There is also a very limited amount of voice acting, related to events that happen on the level maps (encapsulated in pics throughout this review). while it isn't really gonna affect the game much, it does add to its quirkiness.

Should you decide to undertake this adventure and would like to have a bit of help along the way, this site is quite exhaustive and detailed. The look of the page may be a bit dated, but it's the most information I've found on this game on the net in one place, including detailed maps and discussions on the relative usefulness of every class in the game, as well as a rundown of every possible special event that can be triggered in the game.

As for the future of the franchise, well, the outlook doesn't seem too good. Quest, the company behind the games, was purchased by Square in 2002, right after Tactics Ogre: The Knights of Lodis was released, and I haven't read anything beside a few vague rumors (that amounted more to speculation) about the possibility of a new Ogre Battle game. The release of the original on the Wii Virtual Console is certainly a good thing, but I sure hope this isn't the last we'll see of this amazing game series!

In ending, I'll offer these links to a few screens from a recent play-through of mine, for those who may be curious as to what the various aspects of the game look like.

Battle screen 1
Battle screen 2
Army Edit
Level Map
Portraits

Jam it back in, in the dark.