The Gamer's Quarter

[Crazy Bacon Lips]

The other day I bought a copy of Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen and a little Playstation. It came equipped with a little screen, so I can sit at the kitchen table and play it while I eat cereal. My legions had a rough trip past the border of Sharom, but they made it through without a single casualty. Brute force is usually the first tactic that any amateur commander will employ, but one quickly realizes that a ruthless willingness to shed other's blood isn't the most intelligent way to win over an empire. No, my only true weapon in this terrible war is LOVE.

Ogre Battle is a game most concerned with the human elements of war. Forgoing dialogue trees and choose-your-own-adventure schlock that actually separate morality from the actual content of the game, in Ogre Battle, your play choices ARE your moral choices. Send a wizard and some hellhounds into a town to liberate it? Well, good work. You just scared the shit out of everyone in the village. Oh, you're just going to parade your powerful units around and kill weak armies of know-nothing pawns? Good. You're a real hero, picking on people weaker than you. Make some fucking brutish viking the head of a group of knights? Yeah, they're really going to appreciate your decision to put a goddamn savage in the leadership position.

This game is fucking insane. I am in love with it. I've never played anything like it. It is easy to emulate and you all need to play it so we can share strategies and wallop these goddamned Zetegenians. DO IT. For justice and honor!

[Swimmy]

I have the N64 Ogre Battle. It's bloated and goes a bit overboard with what you're talking about--the characters change affinities based on very difficult-to-control elements, making moral choices much harder. Most people get around it by exploiting an infinite-item glitch.

Ah, videogames. . .
_________________

"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin

[dessgeega]

i very much admire how ogre battle allows the player to create her identity through her actions, and that cheap tactics make a player a despot. it means you have to play very deliberately, and that combined with long battle lengths makes me a little scared to break into my recently-acquired copy of the game. but for this thread, maybe i will.
_________________

[Ethoscapade]

honestly, ogre battle is about as playable as vagrant story in the "deliberate decisions" respect. it's really a shame; brilliant as all of matsuno's designs are, only tactics ogre and fft really let you sink your teeth into them and hang on.

[helicopterp]

[Mr Mustache]

Ogre Battle 64 is probably the closest I have come to spending unhealthy amounts of time on a game...this in mind, it's a bit sad that I lost the cartridge before I finished the game.
_________________
Straight up

[Crazy Bacon Lips]

I have learned something!!! This is of great import: the reputation meter at the top right is not just some assessment of your ethics. Essentially, it is your LIFE BAR and must be treated as such. I wondered just how I would be able to keep my reputation up with all of these scurrilous, low alignment rogues bandying about in my army, and I realized that the simple solution is to simply toss them out on the streets and rely on my fierce groups of chess pawns, braided mages, and skinny wizards.

[simplicio]

You know the hardest ending to get is the ALL EVIL one, where your reputation and alignment are all rock bottom.
_________________
"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

[The Great Unwashed]

Can we all just stop for a minute and appreciate that Crazy Bacon Lips is the best username I have ever seen
_________________

[Crazy Bacon Lips]

[Isfet]

i've owned a copy of Ogre Battle since it came out for the PS1, but i never really played very far in it. i enjoyed it, but i don't think i had the patience to really try to figure it all out.

but maybe i can try it out again.

[TOLLMASTER]

Once I finish some stuff I have been wanting to finish I will do this.

I've been afraid of playing because it's apparently the choice between a good guy, or a bad guy with Deneb the Witch on your team. That's a choice that no healthy, red-blooded male should ever (ever) have to make.

[dessgeega]

green-blooded males see no such need for equivocation.

i like witches, but i usually give the mob their bloody justice.
_________________

[simplicio]

[TOLLMASTER]

Ah, good. I can go into this with no regrets, then!

Speaking of Deneb: anyone else wanna bet she's the same blonde witch interacting with pumpkins as the witch in Magical Chase?

[simplicio]

I actually got back to this for a little while after finishing off Secret of Mana this afternoon. Then my girlfriend came home and I ended up quitting (and losing my progress) half an hour into the level.

I can't think of any other game where such a situation is so agreeable to me. This one just excels at being slow and unwieldy, in the best possible sense. The lack of specificity involved in the movement helps, I think. Probably combined with the indirect combat. I'd never get such satisfaction in replaying a grid/individual combat-based TRPG, even one of Matsuno's.
_________________
"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

[Crazy Bacon Lips]

Yeah, it's really never boring the play the same map twice. I've figured out how to build up my reputation meter properly. Once you get to the fourth and fifth maps, you should have a several clerics; putting one in every party not only guarantees you healing, but boosts your alignment like mad.

[simplicio]

So is there any point to large units, beside the flying ones you can use for a scouting/treasure hunting party? Cause I've never found one, though I was always partial to that double witch/golem group you start with, for humor's sake alone.
_________________
"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

[Crazy Bacon Lips]

Well, they're useful for quickly crossing large bodies of water, or mountain ranges. There are some octopi you can recruit that allow you to cross lakes, which is probably useful in like 2 missions. As scout units, they're invaluable. You can put one on patrol to all of the spots that look like they might have hidden towns or temples while you fight the battle at large. Try to put a high or neutrally aligned unit in with them so that you don't scare the shit out of the people you liberate. Golems and giants can hit twice in a turn, which is pretty cool, and they're neutral, so they don't bring your alignment down. Put one in the front lines of a unit to do some serious damage to magic units. Also, monsters actually perform WORSE when you have a beastman in the rear. It makes sense: would YOU like to be whipped?

Ogre Battle is an easy game to beat, but not an easy game to do well in. Not easy at all.

[parkbench]

ahhh oh man...thanks man. thanks. now i have to get this, too. as if i already didnt have 203809 games on my plate.

i don't usually like starting in 'the middle' with series, though. should i start with the snes one?

(ps this is lockeownzj00 i just wanted to create some kind of standard for here and sb to ameliorate confusion kayz)

[Ethoscapade]

the playstation one is the snes one.

there are only two games in the ogre battle (or tactics ogre) series, it's just that they all popped up on the psx so many times it gets confusing.

ogre battle and tactics ogre are on the snes, and were remade for the playstation.

ogre battle 64 is a sequel, as is tactics ogre on the gba. neither one had matsuno.

[SuperWes]

Don't forget Ogre Battle for the Neo Geo Pocket!

-Wes
_________________

[tybeets]

Do you think that for a person like me with a summer-induced short-attention span that I should give Ogre Battle a shot now, or like, wait a few months until it's cold and I'm forced to have warm, blanketed indoor-fun?

[player 2]

Ogre Battle takes a long time. Whenever I play it I have to do it emulated so I can fastforward through all the tediousness. Not that the tediousness is bad, it's just hard to do after playing through Tactics Ogre multiple times.
_________________
Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[simplicio]

[tybeets]

Note: There are a LOT of friggin' battles (who'd have guessed with the name?).

I've been having fun up until what I think must be the 12th hour of the game, and everytime going into a new stage I still hope to see only 2-3 waves of enemies tops. When it reaches the 4th wave I grow weary, and just want to get it over with so I can change up some formations, do some unit managing.. search for some neutrals maybe? You know, the fun stuff.

Technically I could rush to the boss and slaughter him, but that goes against my sense of completion, so I just sit here, as I am now waiting for these battles to play themselves through. Although I'm in a bit of a stalemate with the infinitely respawning ninja-army and its ever-dying leader. Does anyone actually maneuver around the waves of bad guys to silence the boss right off?

I am happy to report some awesome neutrals on my squad, especially Dibelga the Sword of Evil wielding werewolf.
_________________
Tunes Consumed: a little humble mp3 blog.

[Crazy Bacon Lips]

I don't have enough fast units to move around the enemies with any particular grace. Besides, I like to power through it. Makes you into a man, or something.

Getting into neutral battles is a rare treat.