Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen Review
Ogre Battle has a fusion of real time strategy overhead map and rpg battle system entirely unique to the Ogre Battle games. The story begins with you as the leader of the rebellion and are asked questions that will determine your opinion leader’s abilities, reputation, and alignment which affects the rest of your playthrough.
Setting up a unit can be both complicated and simple. Units have 2 main categories large or small, large units take up 2 slots while small units take up one there is a maximum of 5 slots for each party you create.Basic small units are Fighters which are all male and Amazons which are all female, based on various statistics they can take quite a few different class routes. Other small classes include various demi-humans that are recruit able either through towns or neutral encounters. Large units are usually mythical creatures such as dragons, gryphon, and hellhounds to name a few, they are stronger and have more hp then their smaller counterparts but are usually outshined by their because only 2 can be placed in a party compared to 5 small units. Units can be placed in the front or back row, this affects who and how they attack the opposing team. The statistic system can be a bit complicated and unlocking new classes was entirely a trial and error experience because the game lacks any real tutorial or explanation on what statistics effect class progression and items have no descriptions despite the fact that there are a tons of them, this was particularly annoying.
After setting up your team you can deploy them onto the stage map. Characters can be ordered to move around the map in real time though it may take them awhile to get to their destination depending on their movement type. You progress through the level by liberating towns and temples until you eventually fight your way to the boss, once the stages boss is defeated you can move on to the next map. Basics strategies on the stage map placing involve placing your unit on a town or temple which allows the unit to gradually heal and depending on the town buy items and recruit new units. When something is liberated it gives you tarot cards that affect your characters statistics and can also be used in battle to do different thing but many aren’t all that useful.
On an interesting note Yasumi Matsuno was inspired by the band Queen’s album Queen II and named the game after the song Ogre Battle and March of the Black Queen. Its sequel name was also influenced by one of Queen’s songs and some references to their songs can be found in the names of certain areas, I guess he was a real Queen groupie.
What We Loved
- Large variety of units
- Challenging gameplay
- Interesting storyline
- Multiply playthroughs can be very different
-Multiply endings
1 Comment
From looking at the screens alone, the game actually looks top notch compared to some of the DS RPGs I have been playing recently.