Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen

[Adam Smasher]

I previously nominated this game for "worst game I'd ever played." I have to make a public retraction, however. At first, I played the first map and I was like "what the hell is going on?!" but now that I've read some FAQ files, it's starting to make sense and is pretty cool.

I don't know how a game with such a slow pace can be so gripping. It takes me hours to complete a map, and I kind of like that.

Also, doesn't the title sound like it could be a gay porn movie?

[Swordsalmon]

Ogre Battle is a fantastic game (And series). I've actually just started on Person of Lordly Calibur. They are difficult to get into at first, but the games are so deep. My favorite series. ^_^

When you're playing, make sure to speed up the game rate; makes battles far faster. Also, don't bother with the Wild Man-Evil One line. Or Golems. Or Dragons. Or any large monster aside from Gryphon-Cockatris, Wyrm-Wyvern, and Titans.

[Parrhesia]

Also, doesn't the title sound like it could be a gay porn movie?

Queen songs.

[Adam Smasher]

Queen songs.

1. Not the question I asked.

2. I read the wikipedia article too.

Anyway, the general consensus in the FAQs is that large monsters aren't worth it, but I want to train the dragons just to see what they can do. And the Octopi are amazing provided you can get them on a waterway. I like positioning them so that a tough enemy will go lemming into them, the Octopi soften them up, and then they retreat into a unit I'm training.

I ignored warren's hellhounds, but maybe I'll play around with them on my next playthrough.

But yeah, I'm staying away from golems.

Edited May 17, 2010 by Adam Smasher

[Swordsalmon]

Anyway, the general consensus in the FAQs is that large monsters aren't worth it, but I want to train the dragons just to see what they can do. And the Octopi are amazing provided you can get them on a waterway. I like positioning them so that a tough enemy will go lemming into them, the Octopi soften them up, and then they retreat into a unit I'm training.

I ignored warren's hellhounds, but maybe I'll play around with them on my next playthrough.

But yeah, I'm staying away from golems.

Aside from (Arguably) Tiamats, dragon classes are terrible in the long run. Having an early basic Dragon (In Sharom Border), is a fairly nice asset at first. The problem though, is that they take up two slots for the damage potential of one promoted direct unit. Except for Evil Ones, but they're losers. Also, dragons are the second-largest class type, so the entire unit gets its movement type. This isn't much of a problem for the Black Dragon line, being Plains movement, but Reds have Mountains movement, Metals Snow, and the Zombie Dragon swamp. They really bog down unit movement, especially Zombie Dragon. If you're really going to bother with a dragon, reruit a basic one and phase it out after plains movement becomes useless.

Ocopi are so situational that they really aren't worth the time. It's battle combat in water is very good, but being the largest monster in the game, a unit will always have Water movement. And it's near-useless in most stages. I'd say just phase it out after the first couple chapters.

The starting Hellhounds are a very nice asset at first. Though they do slow a unit down, having those extra three attacks makes using at least one Hellhound worthwhile. I like using one of them in Warren's unit for a while, then adding some Fighters that will become Ninja. Having both Hellhounds is unnecessary, since they'll take kills. And their promoted form, Ceberus is only decent at best.

Not all Large monsters are bad. Wyrms/Wyverns are fantastic and at least a few should be included in any army. Gryphons are the best early-game monster, and still are viable throughout the game due to their High Sky movement. They don't need to promote into a Cockatris either; both are identical in front row combat and have situational back row attacks. Titans are very powerful for a while, and the Hellhound/Ceberus line is decent. The large monsters that aren't worth using are all Dragons (Except for Tiamats, and they get outclassed very quickly), elemental Giants, Octopus/Kraken, and all Golems.

Also, never use Zombie Dragons. They require a Tiamat and an Undead Ring. All that for an extremely weak character with the worst movement type in the game, with two single-target magic attacks. So essentially it's just two Evil Ones taped together. Worst class in the game.

Edited May 19, 2010 by Swordsalmon

[Adam Smasher]

Here's the thing...I'm not interested in doing what's purely optimal for now. Crappy or not, Dragons are a part of the game and I want to see what they do just for the sake of completeness. I just beat the 8th map, and so far, I've never felt like my victory was less than inevitable. Time consuming, yes, but never doubtful. So in that respect, this isn't a hard game, and I don't need to play for optimization. This is why I'm going to try training one red, one black, and one metal just for fun.

Oh and my Octopus unit kicks all sorts of ass. Two Octopi plus one Cleric. Granted, they are slow as hell, and a pain in the ass to get moving on rivers since their AI is too stupid to stay in the water. This requires a bit of micromanagement because I have to give them a new movement command everytime a river bends. However, they really shine when I get them in the periphery of the boss's stronghold, because then I leave them in the water and the enemy units rush them. Either the octopi shred them or they win the battle (hard to lose when they take like 1 pt of damage per hit), hold the turf, and push the enemy unit back into a weaker that needs kills.

[Thief]

Excellent game, this was.

When are they planning to complete the rest of the Ogre Battle Saga episodes anyway?

[Tangerine]

The Ogre series is one of the first real series' I played :o! I do not like many videogames at all, but the Ogre series is not among those games. I was pretty terrible at them before I actually learned how to play though, it's funny how unfriendly they are to people without guides or even stat sheets >_>. I love MotBQ and LuCT. Are you playing this on emulator or SNES/PSX?

[microwavefriendly]

Excellent game, this was.

When are they planning to complete the rest of the Ogre Battle Saga episodes anyway?

unless Yasumi Matsuno is involved, it should never happen. Nor will it. I am certain that he owns the story rights to the games since he wrote them as novels years ago (thus why they stopped making original titles after his departure from Quest studios. And before anyone argues, he did start directing Person of Lordly Caliber before leaving).

Square Enix has the rights to making the games, but since Matsuno hates Square Enix since they fucked him over with Final Fantasy 12, it probably won't happen. And i take serious comfort in that since Square Enix cannot make a good game to save their lives...actually, it's the square parts that blow it all the time (Dragon Quest games and Tri-Ace products are solid).

But yes, the original Ogre Battle was an awesome game. They're actually amazing, though Knight of Lodis is somewhat merely a unimpressive side story.

Edited June 16, 2010 by microwavefriendly

[Thief]

It's sad that corporate mismanagement led to the death of an otherwise fine saga then.

In other words, don't be way too ambitious and not start your series with Episode 1. Please. You never know what kind of fate lies in the future!