Live Blogs Fight It Out! Let's Play Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen

Ghilz2011-06-12 23:27:41

Hello there and welcome to my first ever LP, which I decided to dedicate to Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (here on referred to as MOTBQ). What's this game? Well it's a SNES game released in 1993 from QUEST, the predecessor of the Tactic Ogre games, which in turn lead to the Final Fantasy Tactics games. MOTBQ (and Ogre Battle 64) are quite different from these games, being a unique brand of Real-Time Strategy games. But we'll get into those details in due time.

MOTBQ also has another thing going for it: It probably deserves some sort of Guide Dang It! lifetime achievement. The game manual is incredibly incomplete, barely telling you how to work the interface, but leaving out so many details that it may be unlikely for one to finish the game (let alone get the best ending). But once you do learn how to play it, it's a game of incredible complexity and depth. This LP aims at explaining how the game works.

Because MOTBQ is a bit light on the story side compared to its successors, I will try to spread exposition on how the game works across multiple update, as I go through the game's first stages. But let us get down to business:

So here's our setting. Assassinated royals. Evil Empire. Rebellion. Yaddy Yadda. Looks like we have our plate full! In case you may ask, no, there is no (yet) Ogre Battle episodes 1 to 4. 1999's Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber is episode 6, and 1995's Tactic Ogre: Let us cling together is episode 7. Tactic Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is a Gaiden Game and not given an episode number. Yes, this series is big on releasing titles in a puzzling order.

Next time: Fate will select a hero to lead the rebellion

Oh yes, and visit gentlemanorcus's LP of Tactic Ogre: The Knight of Lodis.

Comments

gentlemanorcus Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 1st 2011 at 12:37:44 PM

Keep on trucking. You've inspired me to give this game another chance.

Ghilz Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 1st 2011 at 5:45:21 PM

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

^{And Ogre Battle 64 features Destin again!}

gentlemanorcus Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 2nd 2011 at 12:48:38 PM

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.

Ghilz Since: Dec, 1969

Jun 2nd 2011 at 3:27:01 PM

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.