Ogre Battle 64

"Good, but an overall disappointment"

I'll be blunt: Ogre Battle 64 is a good game on its own, but next to the original, it's an almost embarrassing disappointment. This is most likely due to a different development team stepping in, one that, through a series of clearly unnecessary and painfully unfortunate changes, made this game a regrettably poor imitation of the one that inspired it. To be specific...

Game play

5/10 - In the original Ogre Battle, the player is given full control over item distribution. With a few exceptions revolving around specials, you can essentially give any character, in any unit, any item, at any time (as long as you've got it in inventory, of course).
In Ogre Battle 64, each unit is restricted to individually carrying only a set number of items depending on who's present.

In the original Ogre Battle, as in most RPG and strategy games, you're allowed to actually buy items capable of reviving fallen warriors.
In Ogre Battle 64, you have to be fortunate enough to stumble across a few Alters of Resurrection every now and them. Either that or drag the unit with the fallen soldier(s) to a Witch's Den to have them revived -- an inconvenience that not only gets tedious, but can interfere with one's progress in the current mission. Of course, it's not wise to just let the fallen ones stay down, because then you risk having them turn into the far less desirable ''Zombies'' -- another frustrating and very unnecessary new addition.

In the original Ogre Battle, the player was aided during battle by tarot cards, special tools offering a variety of entertaining and amusing possibilities -- such as attacking the enemies with magic; protecting your unit from magic; giving your troops an additional round of attacks; temporarily removing every enemy but the leader; making some of the enemy soldiers fight each other for the round, etc.
In Ogre Battle 64, the tarot cards have been replaced with ''Elm Pedra'' -- a system that simply attacks the enemies with magic. And in an unnecessary attempt to incorporate realism, sometimes magic-users don't even attack the target you tell them to aim for due simply to being indirectly positioned.

In the original Ogre Battle, class changes occurred far more easily and frequently, making for a great variety of soldiers that could compose a motley army limited almost only by the player's imagination. This customization was the core of what made the battles fun -- enjoying the fact that for the most part, the units fighting out there were mostly of your design.
In Ogre Battle 64 the freedom is not as abundant in this area. You can still customize your units, but it feels far more like a matter of working with what you're given at the moment than what you choose to have.

In the original Ogre Battle, the way units moved was very much influenced by who was actually in the unit. As a result, some would move significantly faster or slower than others on certain parts of land (or water). That was part of how the game restricted one's creative freedom when it came to putting units together; to balance power and mobility, you couldn't always have your cake and eat it too.
In Ogre Battle 64, there's barely any sign of this making a difference on the battlefield, and units tend to move annoyingly slow (even when the speed is set to ''fast'') -- something that can be blamed on the smaller map size (yes, the sequel often has smaller levels than the original).

And in the original Ogre Battle, the ever-entertaining, often helpful info given out by townspeople came automatically once a town/temple was liberated. You heard it, got it, and moved on.
In yet another tedious change, once a town is liberated, Ogre Battle 64 requires players who want this information to open up a series of menus first, then watch as the battle screen momentarily fades away so that the scene can briefly cut to the townsperson speaking with your unit leader.

The upsides? Characters can now combine their attacks during battle, making for some particularly effective and visually cool results. There's also a new system that allows you to set multiple destinations for a unit with the cursor -- the initial one and a follow up or two, which is helpful when attempting to maneuver around an enemy. That, however, brings up another unnecessary addition for the sake of ''realism'': the units' required resting points after they've been on the move for a while -- something that can test patience and leave a team open to a surprise attack. This can be used against the enemy too, though, not that one easily feels good about doing so (remember, morality is the name of the game ;).

Story

7/10 - Ogre Battle 64's story doesn't make up for it's problems in the area of game play, but it's quite an entertaining yarn. Deviating from the previous game's style of strictly telling things through the various encounters that occur on the battlefield, this one features cinema scenes and an accordingly deeper narrative. At times, it seems kind of standard -- even questionably executed -- but certainly not to the point of being boring.

Controls

6/10 - As mentioned previously, certain changes made to the item distribution, along with characters not always obeying the player during battle, make the controls a mixed bag.

Music

7/10 - This is a strong point. Combining a few remixed tunes from the past with a few nicely done new ones (I particularly like a tune heard during the snow stages -- something I don't much care for in the original), the music is rather enjoyable.

Difficulty

8/10 - The score here refers to the game's tendency to be a little on the hard side sometimes. Things just don't always seem as balanced as they generally should -- possibly because of the occasional difficulty in creating a well-balanced army.

Overall, Ogre Battle 64 does manage to entertain -- which is admittedly the most important thing -- but a series of highly questionable changes -- clearly outlined above, and all possessing some validity -- keep it from providing the same level of enjoyment as the first game in the series. If you want more of what you got in Ogre Battle, keep waiting (the potential good news is that Square -- where the series' creators are apparently still working at the moment -- currently has rights to the franchise), or try getting a copy of Ogre Battle Gaiden (possibly the best OB yet created) for the Japanese Neo-Geo Pocket Color. If you're a hardcore Ogre Battle fan who feels you have to have everything related to it you can get, this will make for a good collector's item and a relatively fun play.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/04