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Fight It Out! Let's Play Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
Prelude! (Part 2): It's all in the cards.
Ah, nice to see this. I quite liked the idea behind Mot BQ, but I could never get into it. Liked Po LC much better. But I'll be interested in seeing how you play.
gentlemanorcus
PoLC Refined the concept, but since I can't get my N 64 emulator working properly to run PoLC without an annoying bug that makes the background vanish, MotBQ won out. Someday I hope to do PoLC but first I need someone with N64 emulator skillz to get 1964 Mod to run.
Ghilz
Scene 1: Beginning
I actually lost to Warren the first time I played this game. No joke. Albeit losing simply propels you away from the enemy, but it was still embarrassing.

Also, it's nice to see Lans again. His fate in LUCT is pretty sad, though. Not sure if that counts as a spoiler.
gentlemanorcus
Well the nature of MOTBQ's boss battles makes it easy to "loose" to Warren, since the default victory conditions arent normal. And if you have a Lord other than the NG default one, it can be likely for that to happen. But the main thing is, Warren's unlikely to make you suffer casualties. Just gotta be careful if he decides to hit Destin though.
Ghilz
Squeee! ...Uh, sorry for that completely unmanly outburst, but I must admit that I truly admire Lans' traits and personality. Good to have him on the team. Warren's a good man, too; they say you should respect your elders, and considering that he survives a war or two and has enough resources to compile data on freakin' EVERYTHING in LUCT...

Anyways, this was a good introduction to the actual 'gameplay', and I hope to see more updates soon.
EndarkCuli
Scene 2: Rally
Very good read. That alignment micromanaging is what really ticked me off about this game. Eventually I just said screw it and let my one ultra-powerful team mow through the army, not caring about my rapidly decreasing reputation.
gentlemanorcus
There's tricks later in the game to eliminate the alignment micro management, just that we can't do them now coz we don't have enough troops. Eventually I'll get to it.
Ghilz
Actually, Charisma is affected by your characters' relative levels, not Alignment. The ALI and CHA stats themselves also have no direct relationship. A high-alignment unit can have low charisma and still liberate towns to large Reputation gains.

. . . On the other hand, this was written months ago, so you probably noticed that already. If so, sorry! But, Liebel's Rod and Euros - you found some awesome treasure early on O:
Javer
Scene 3: Revolution
Canopus' lines about classes and equality kind of remind me of Lans Tartare from LUCT.
gentlemanorcus
Man, Canopus was such a pain to recruit.
Javer
Interlude: The 22 Major Arcana cards
Interesting. Also, I'm jealous of how much better your formatting is then mine.
gentlemanorcus
Thanks! Just following the wiki markup really.
Ghilz
This guide is super helpful. Jokers were a real - I don't want to say "wild card" - but at least they were affordable if you played smart in the early rounds and took the time to collect tributes. Makes all the difference later, really.
Javer
Scene 7: Days Long Gone
Those termites...I have so many questions, yet so little time. Mainly, I have to wonder where that average NPC harvested them from. I mean, if they were encountered naturally in the Zenobian wilderness, it's amazing that anything's left standing. Able to cross an entire country and clear all defenses in a matter of seconds...yeah, dragons don't seem all that impressive in comparison.
EndarkCuli
LOL Too true. I wish we could recruit the termites! It's one of those Fridge Logic inducing moments. Where do the termites come from? Why are they so good? Why doesn't the empire learn and build stone defenses?

Another bit of fridge logic is Debonair's comment on how the queen as changed. Seeing as she's murdered Gran 20 years ago AND had her son pose as Ashe and kill Gran's family (Babies included), it's not like her Heel Face Turn is recent. And Debonair is not that old, its unlikely he even worked for Endora 20 years ago.
Ghilz
Wall of Defense is the best track in the game.
gentlemanorcus
Oh, and good post.
gentlemanorcus
Regarding the Fridge Logic with the termites, it only exists in the English version - in the Japanese version, the item was called the Trojan Horse. Still creates some fridge logic, though - how do they know about Troy in this world?
Kahran042
Scene 8: The Black Knight
A group of the elderly killed Destin's dog. He's hated them ever since.
gentlemanorcus
Or maybe something tragic, a couple driving* really slowly, and he arrived late at his wedding and missed it or something, causing him to swear revenge against old people.
Ghilz
Scene 9: Legend
Ah, the age-old tale of choosing between the 'right' thing and the 'just' thing. Perhaps it was wrong to fight against the oppressed, but the salvation of the rest of the land was put at risk. Plus, crass as I may sound, the rumours about mermaids being delicious coupled with their leader having the word 'Pork' right in her name isn't a good sign.
EndarkCuli
^ Ah! I never caught that lol

It occurs to me that a sign one has made it far in life when your enemy decides to chase myths to prevent them from joining. Okay, sure, All Myths Are True, but still, they had no way to know that.
Ghilz
Scene 10: Crimes
Working on getting video footage of Zsnes, planning to include a video of all boss battles from the next update on.
Ghilz
Scene 11: Thunderstorm
Just a suggestion, you might want to mention some of the random battles; perhaps do something like I do, give battles brief descriptions, to give a bit more of a feeling of combat.
gentlemanorcus
Will do. It's just that there's so many. At 26 or so enemy squads, thats _Alot_ of battles, but I will see about covering them.
Ghilz
This LP of PoLC is a pretty good example of showing battles but keeping them brief.

This still a great liveblog though.
gentlemanorcus
Scene 12: The Paladin
Tried to include more info on the random battles in this one.
Ghilz
I keep playing by this guide/blog/captain's journal and it's the best on the web. Thank you for putting your effort and time on this marvelous game and sharing it :)
200.8.195.73
Glad you like it!
Ghilz
Scene 13: The Lost Knight
That's better. Good job.
gentlemanorcus
I noticed on the map that, near Baldella, there's another Chaos Gate. I'm sorry if I missed something stated previously, but is there a reason why you did not mention visiting it in this update? It's just that I'd hate to picture you ten or twenty stages from now, having difficulty with a battle and wondering if there was something important that had been missed.

Also, I didn't mention this earlier, but Slust sounds more like a teenage surfer dude than a legendary warrior should.
EndarkCuli
Scene 17: The Wizard
Howdy! expressing how much I'm enjoying this game again after so many years just because of this guide ain't gonna be easy :) A little thing to point out, the Platinum Medal you say sells out for 135k it actually sells for 67500 goth. Thanks for everything though!
200.8.195.73
Thanks!

And as for the money, entirely possible. The liveblogs are written after I finish the level, it's likely I wrote this coz its how much money I got from selling the medal and a ton of the crap I had in my inventory.
Ghilz
Scene 20: Angel
To those interested, want to point you to this. Trying to overhaul the Ogre Battle pages, need help badly.
Ghilz
Scene 22: The Dragon Rider
I'm sorry I haven't commented on this for a long time, but it's lack of plot (compared to other games in the series) makes it kind of hard to consistently post. Keep up the good work.
gentlemanorcus
No problem :-P
Ghilz
Interlude: The Road Ahead
I say Debonair for Endora. I'll decide on Rashidi later.
gentlemanorcus
There's a way you can see more than one dialogue. As long as you don't beat the boss with your unit (retreat etc.), you can use another unit to fight the boss and see the dialogue for that unit.
nightwyrm_zero
I am aware of that, but that can be rather annoying, especially when I have to film the thing since it requires doing 4 times with Rashidi, and there's an infinite number of squads spawning from him who can interrupt the proceedings.

Plus, more fun for me this way!
Ghilz (edited by: Ghilz)
For Endora, I'm voting for Destin. Considering that he's the hero of the rebellion, I think that the last time he had any important dialogue was back when you recruited Tristan. My memory might be a tad off, though...

As for Rashidi...that's certainly a lot of choices, though I wonder why the Dragoons don't want to rant at him about being cursed to do his evil. As for which person I pick, I can't decide between Saradin and Yushis. If either one ends up in a tie once the voting is over, my vote will be for that person. However, if the tie is between the two of them, I'd slightly favour Saradin because of his direct connection to the villain and the Pupil vs. Mentor imagery.
EndarkCuli
Scene 23: The Assassin
I find it a tad odd that Prochon wanted to have his name placed in the history books. I'm aware that this whole war is quite a big deal and he'd deserve a lot of credit for ending Destin's grand rebellion, but it would kinda put a damper on that whole 'life hiding in the shadows' thing. Then again, many in the modern era now know about characters such as Sarutobi Sasuke and Hanzo Hattori...

Also, three cheers for those adamantium-toothed termites!
EndarkCuli
Interlude: The 12 Zodiac Stones
So, after searching the world for twelve stones of seemingly important value, the final one was...baked into a cake. I don't know whether to critizise the temple's cooking skills, or to make an overused Portal reference.
EndarkCuli
It's the kind of moon logic Japanese games of the SNES era ran upon really. "Of course the monk would have accidently put the stone of immeasurable value in the cake!"

It's kind of like if the guys at the tower of London accidently put the royal jewels in the recycling bin.
Ghilz
Scene 26: Grail
I've decided who I want to fight Rashidi: Saradin. Hope that'll work.
gentlemanorcus
So, the mystical grail held by Percival of the Round Table...uh, I mean Parcival of King Gran's Table, is just an ordinary-looking cup that 'calms the heart'? This is a world where demonic overlords truly exist and you've personally met the Goddess of Justice; you'd think there'd be a more developed backstory on this thing. Or is it just me?
EndarkCuli
It's on par with the series really. Take a Public Domain Artifact and never explain how it exists. Tactics Ogre The Knight Of Lodis has the spear of longinus, but no Jesus. So how DID the spear get it's mojo? Heck, earlier in the game, Deneb referenced Romeo And Juliet. Where DOES Shakespeare fit in Zenobia?

The calm the heart thing seems to be a translation hiccup. From what I heard, the Japanese version implies it's more mind control, allowing to kind of "impose" peace on the land, or force people to obey you, should it be used by someone evil (though you can only get it with a mexed out reputation, and while it's possible to have Evil Destin and full rep, it's unlikely)

And heck, the Grail is positively rich in back story compared to the Mystic Armbands. We are never told what those do.
Ghilz (edited by: Ghilz)
Scene 27: The End Nears
Keep on trucking. You've inspired me to give this game another chance.
gentlemanorcus
Cool. Feel free to ask if you have questions. Odds are I missed some detail somewhere. And the game isn't forthcoming for info.

However, if you want to hear the next part of the story, I recommend Ogre Battle 64. It's the same gameplay. But improved. Everything has been tuned, generally for the better, and while some additions like the class change business or the Chaos Frame can be at time confusing, it's a really good game. It has a better story, is even longer than the first. And it's on Wii (as is the original OB).

SPOILER ALERT
Ghilz (edited by: Ghilz)
I've actually played Po LC. I didn't ever complete this one mostly due to the fact that when you kill enemy leader, the unit retreats to heal instead of just wandering aimlessly like in Po LC. So if there was a large battle I'd lose track of leaderless units and eventually I would just keep fighting the same units over and over, which made my reputation steadily decrease. But I'm determined not to let it happen this time.
gentlemanorcus
Techncally, combat has no effect on reputation - its who you use to free towns that does that. The trick to TPK an enemy squad is to set your tactic to "strong". That way your squad rotates who they attack, always aiming for the healthiest, bringing the whole squad down at once in the end. That'll remind me, I'll add an in-depth view of the tactics for my next updates.

Be careful with certain events. For example, gaining the quicksilver requires high reputation. If you think you don't meet the requirement, you simply put it off till later.

Lastly, the site where I got my maps for the LP, http://www.houseofwacks.org/ogre/, is full with cool tips that can help you finish the game.
Ghilz (edited by: Ghilz)
Scene 29: The Black God
Cool, we destroyed a demon and all that... but more importantly, Destin finally achieves his dream of killing an elderly man instead of simply beating him up! I love happy endings.
gentlemanorcus
Is it wrong that I found Saradin getting petrified in that final battle absolutely hilarious? At the very least, it was one heck of a coincidence. Regardless, it's been a pleasure to read this liveblog, and I anxiously await for the grand battles awaiting us in these final updates.
EndarkCuli
The End of the Endings
Oh, those were quite dark at the end, weren't they? Though I must admit, it's a bit odd that Tristan decides to kick your bucket immediately if you've got a so-so view on the world, and stands back and lets you create an evil empire in the next listed ending. One can't help but wonder what was going through the prince's mind at the time...

Anyways, as I have said in other comments for other entries, this was a comprehensive, emotion-invoking, and ultimately enjoyable work to read about. And until the next time you make a Liveblog, I'd just like to wish you a good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
EndarkCuli
This was the first time I played alongside with a LP, and I must add it was flawless, thanks to you I got the WORLD ending (and 6 Liches and 4 princesses!) I'm very much looking forward to see the LP of Ogre Battle 64(Though, you can play it on Project64 and take screenscaps or frap the whole thing). For everything else, thank you very much. May the force be with you

200.8.86.116
Project 64 refuses to run properly on my computer (In fact, I doesn't seem to work at all), so only way I could play the game is on Wii (I have it on Wii Ware) but I lack stuff to capture footage.

I haven't given up hope of making an LP of it eventually. Glad you liked it.
Ghilz
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_comments.php?lb_id=13033640430B19019900