HELLO, GENTLEMEN.
I have music for you!
Ladies and gents, I am calling you into this topic partially to celebrate and partially to help spread the appreciation of one of the all-time underappreciated franchises, Ogre Battle. ideally, this topic is something more than its title: instead of just being for fans of the game and owners of the game, I'd like to use this topic to introduce people to something they may have never experienced otherwise. Let's get started.
What is Ogre Battle?
I am glad you asked. Ogre Battle is a saga of games, the brainchild of Yasumi Matsuno, who you may recognize as the director of Final Fantasy Tactics. It deals with the shape of nations hundreds of years after a cataclysmic war called the Ogre Battle, and how repercussions of that conflict are still being felt in the present. Many people have refeerred to Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII (which Matsuno also directed for a time) as watered down versions of the Ogre saga, and this is true in a sense.
Ogre Battle as a series focuses on national conflicts, on the politics of nations and the nature of what constitutes just or unjust rule. It features a deep and intricate plot, excellently written characters - you know, all that crap.
March of the Black Queen, the game we're talking about today, is the first game in this series, though it's actually the fifth episode in the Ogre Battle story (the early episodes have yet to be produced). It is the basis for all Ogre Battle gameplay concepts, and though it is not neecessary for understanding later games it is still worth playing both on its own merits and for the sake of familiarizing yoruself with this huge, rich world.
So that's what this topic is about: I like Ogre Battle. Lots of people, in point of fact, like Ogre Battle. More people would like Ogre Battle if they played it. So we're going to play together, or talk about the game, or just whatever.
How can I play Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen?
March of the Black Queen is available in several forms, though only one is both readily available and legal. The game was released on the Super Nintendo originally, with a re-release (with tweaked graphics and sound) on the Playstation. Today, the original version is available on the Virtual Console in all regions, so if you want to play the game legally, I would do it there. Otherwise, there's always emulation? But you should really pay for it!
Okay but how does it play?
Ogre Battle is a game unlike any other outside of its own series: it mixes equal parts strategy with RPG elements. It may be thought that there are three modes of play. The one you will be seeing most often is the overworld mode, where units made up of members of your army move across maps, capturing or liberating enemy fortresses and engaging with enemy units. The composition of your units determines the types of terrain they can move across most effectively, and the day/night cycle makes units either more or less effective based on their alignment (guess when the demons are more powerful). You can control the speed at which the overworld map moves, so if things are too slow you can crank it up a bit and if things get hairy you can slow it down to give yourself time to breathe.
Battle is initiated whenever your unit meets another unit on the field, and battle actions are primarily determined by the placement of the soldiers in your unit. Different actions are taken depending on whether they're stndingi n the front or the back, and you can change their targeting parameters so that they go after the strongest enemy, the weakest enemy, the leader of the enemy unit, or the enemy against which they will do the most damage, probably the most primitive precursor to FFXII's Gambit System.
Character progression works through class trees - a Fighter can become a Wild Man, a Beast Tamer, a Knight, a Wizard, or a Dollmage, and from these can be promoted further along his chosen tree, or even go back and go down a different tree if you so choose. The type of enemies you fight help to determine the kind of warrior you can make, by determining your character's alignment and charisma!
ANYWAY
What it comes down to is this:
Ogre Battle has been surprising people with the depth of its gameplay and the strength of its writing for over fifteen years now, and though it is not for everyone it is deeply loved by all of those who put in the time to play it. It can be legally acquired - through the proper channels - for an almost criminally low price, given its physical rarity and its length and breadth. It is a tremendous game, taking anywhere between 50-80 hours to complete on the first time through, and it is difficult to imagine getting a btter deal for your money.
Those of you who want to play, say tht you're doinng so, and we'll talk about our playthroughs here. Those that don't, feel free to sit around and chat - if you've played the game before, don't hesitate to give out valuable advice. You know how tough this game can be - and how rewarding it is to work out the system.
Who would like to play with me?
Let us sit and talk!
WAAAAIT! I need help! This game is hard and I don't know what's going on!
Well okay then! Here are some quick and easy tips that will help you survive long enough to learn the ropes, and may help you play like a pro!
All tips and tricks are by noname2200 and myself, and are listed according to complexity rather than authorship.
The Simple Stuff:
Spell-casters in back, melee in front. Spellcasters use their magic most effectively in the back, and melee units attack more often up front.
Try to keep a cleric in nearly every unit, especially early in the game (they restore HP).
A unit in a town recovers HP fairly quickly. Standing on towns is therefore the best defensive position for most units!
Put out as many units as you can reasonably afford! You want all of your units to level more or less evenly, and more units means that you have more chances to turn back the enemy if one unit is knocked out!
If you don't know how to deploy units, then you press Y while on the level map, select "deploy unit", and select the name of the leader of the unit you want to deploy. You'll be able to confirm which unit it is before you deploy it.
You can build and take apart units in the "Edit Units" screen on either the world map or the level maps, but in levels you can only do it with units you haven't deployed yet.
A unit whose leader has been killed will automatically retreat to its army's home base - this includes your own units. You can change the leader of your unit if they're able to lead (basically any human unit that isn't a Fighter or Amazon can lead), but enemy units will always retreat all the way back to their base when the leader is dead.
Capture or liberate as many towns and temples as you can. All of them provide tributes every day at noon, which gives you money to keep your army running. If you have all the towns on a map and spend wisely, you will almost never run out of money!
Think of there being two different games: the strategic and tactical maps. The strategic one is where you move your units around. In this game, enemies tend to zoom in on your base, so in the early stage stick close to home (keeping your guys in the cities!) and repel them that way.
One important thing to remember: if an enemy loses its leader, it will retreat to its base and rebuild itself completely. So a good tactic is to pincer them: keep most of your guys close to your base, send one or two around the enemies' flank, and then have those units hammer any survivors that are retreating. Once that's done, move them out of the next way of the next wave, and repeat the process. These hit-and-run tactics are made easier with flying units.
Another thing about the strategic map: enemies will often try to retake any city you've taken. Use this to your advantage, as you know where most of them are heading!
The tactical phase is when you're in a fight. You may have noticed that you don't tell individuals what to do. Instead, you can only do three things: use a Tarot card, retreat, or issue one of four general orders: Best, Leader, Weak, and Strong.
"Best" means they try to do as much damage as they can to the enemy unit.
"Leader" means whoever can hit the enemy leader tries to do so.
"Weak" means they pick on the enemy with the least amount of health.
"Strong" is the opposite of "Weak."
You can get a new Tarot card whenever you liberate a city. They all have different effects, but only one of them can ever hurt you (Sun).
You can retreat at any time, but you lose a point of charisma for every character in the retreating unit.
nteresting fact:
If you select Strong as your strategy, you will both inflict and take less damage.
If you select Weak as your strategy, you will both inflict and take more damage.
Strong may be the best strategy to use early on, not only because it allows you to take down enemy units more decisively but also because it will make your own units survive for longer!
Note, though, that this is not the case for boss fights. In boss fights you should always set your strategy to Leader, because beating the enemy unit's leader in a boss fight will win the level!
Characters need to be at a certain level before they can become different classes: Amazons become Clerics at level 4, making them the earliest and easiest class for low-level Amazons to become.
Early on in the game, it's worth it to use characters like Dragons or Gryphons on the front line because they have really high defense.
Equip items that you find! They are potentially very powerful, and will make your life a lot easier. You can see what a given item does by pressing Select on the Use Item or Equip Item screens.
If you have Charisma to spare, do not be afraid to run when appropriate. If you have two of your units standing on a town and you are attacked by an enemy unit, you may weaken the party but not kill them - or you may kill the leader btu not anybody else, which means they'll retreat to their base - and generally that means that the enemy will get pushed back when they lose the fight, and if they run you may not be able to catch them. But if you select the "Flee" option at the end of the battle, your unit will get pushed back and the enemy unit is left within direct range of your second unit.
There, that should be enough to get your started! If anything else needs to be added, I will edit it in.
Players:
Khuutra
Soriku
noname2200
Kasz216
MontanaHatchet
shakarak
benao87
Procrastinato
