Ogre Battle 64

"Ogre Battle is my life."

Ogre Battle is my life. I fell in love with the game when I rented it on the SNES. I wanted it for Christmas. I put my parents through hell looking for it. Finally, after nearly a year, we were able to locate a copy, by getting on Funcoland's national waiting list. Forty people were ahead of me.

To make up for the fact that I couldn't get the game for Christmas, I got the strategy guide instead. I read it everyday, soaking up as much information as possible. Needless to say, I was an expert by the time I actually got the game, and only continued to improve. The SNES version had it's faults. When I saw the PS version in Funcoland, I made damn well sure I was the first name on the waiting list at the one by my aunt's house. Things looked bleak, as that Funcoland decided it was closing time. The day that Funcoland was destined to close, it's final day of business, I got a call.

Two hours later, I popped my new and improved Ogre Battle into my Playstation, and oogled over every improved detail. Meanwhile I had been awaiting the release of Tactics Ogre, the sequel to Ogre Battle. I had played FFT, and when I played TO I said, look the SNES version of FFT. Later, I found out that FFT is actually the PS version of TO, that many of the makers of TO worked on FFT. The difference between the two is that TO was a sequel. Which is why I love the world of Ogre Battle. It has a story which is rapidly unfolding with each passing game. Final Fantasy makes up a new story for each game, and the last few have had such spectacular stories, that you really wish the game was an extra disc or five long. You can't believe it's the end. In Ogre Battle, you KNOW it's not the end. The story picks up again, and all those lovable characters from the original, they appear again. That's right, for all those people that prayed Cloud would be in FF8, this is their game. And they don't disappoint either. They develop more and more as the story goes deeper, much like Star Wars.

Anyway, when I read my Nintendo Power and saw an article about Ogre Battle 3, I immediately wanted a Nintendo 64. I got one, and anticipated it's release. This is where I lost respect for Nintendo. Nintendo kept pushing back the release dates. Eventually, they even canceled bringing it to the US. Fortunetly, Atlus (aka the savior of the world) stepped in to keep the evil Nintendo from doing this injustice. For two years I sat through awful Nintendo game after Nintendo game, passing the time until the most anticipated game in my life arrived. Finally, on October 6, 2000 the game hit shelves at you guessed it, Funcoland. I got the call about 20 minutes before I was about to go on a 4 day camping trip (Columbus Day weekend). I was elated, but pissed that I wasn't going to be around to play it. My parent's picked it up, using about half the store credit I had left from selling them all of my bad games.

After a weekend of happiness and frustration, knowing my dream would come true as soon as I came home, and that once again I was forced to wait, I went home, opened the door and ran upstairs popping in the game as fast as possible. Jubilation filled the room as I beat that first stage. And then I saved my game, and actually turned it off. I rushed to my computer to brag about getting this game. What I found was a once empty message board now thriving. I didn't feel the need to brag, because I would have looked the same as all the other posters bragging. Instead, I ran back upstairs, and continued playing.

All of a sudden, I nearly fainted. One of the greatest moments in video game history. Debonair appeared from nowhere. The Zenobians entered, cool and collected, thwarting Rhade's attempted execution of Qad.

Now that you've heard my story, its time to actually talk about the gameplay. The graphics are pretty good, and other than the world map, are PERFECT for this game. I couldn't have asked for anything more. The music is excellent, especially if you got addicted to any of the music from the last one. The only thing I don't like is the Yumil theme whenever something sad happens, but thats because I didn't like Yumil that much. The in game database, known as the Hugo Report, has an excellent layout. One thing I didn't like about FFT's was that it was very bland, and were random names placed on a list. I now want to make my own layout for the original OB, since they didn't have one, though they do have the portraits. The game speed is higher, and there are more strategy elements in OB64 than in OB and TO combined. Unfortunetly, not all of these are used effectively COUGH COUGH legions, elemental properties, training, etc. COUGH COUGH. I blame a majority of the game's short comings on the N64, and their insistence on using cartridges. It was just so perfect, and they tried to take it so deep, but came up short of their goal because the very system they were making it for was an obstacle in itself. THE BIGGEST SHORT COMING is the decrease in difficulty. The difficulty of the original OB was so great that it actually turned off people. Those that met success in OB, will notice the decline in OB64. The game was dumbed down so it could accumulate a fanbase, before it increases in difficulty again. Now, the OB series has a fanbase. More OB games are sure to follow.

I may sound biased when I say this, but Ogre Battle 64 is the best N64 game there is. It is EASILY the best one player game, but the fact that there is no multiplayer means you're not going to invite your friend over to play a rousing game of OB64. So games like Perfect Dark and such, which have excellent multiplayer modes have OB64 beaten there (though if you have friends that are morons like me, this won't matter as much).

Ogre Battle 64, though flawed, was worth 2 years of wait. It is the best game on the Nintendo 64 (if only because all the other games on N64 have larger flaws). I can only hope that by reading this, you too will soon someday share my opinion of the Ogre Battle Series, a series that has changed my life forever.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/15/01, Updated 03/15/01