Ogre Battle 64

"True RPG depth that everyone wants."

Introduction
Ogre Battle 64 is the sequel to the series Ogre Battle that was on the Super Nintendo. A classic fantasy RPG that has everything hardcore fans want. Good and evil, dragons, magic, ruthless monsters you can control to whip out your opponents. You'll find yourself playing for over 40 hours even if you wanted to speed through the game. Trying to collect all the rares, get secret characters, adds dozens of hours onto your gameplay.

The depth at which you can customize characters and setups is flawless. It's the main reason this game is so awesome. Dozens and dozens of scenarios, multiple routes you can take, changing the storyline as you go. The game has a tutorial which provides easy learning of the controls and how to smoothly function them all.

Gameplay - 10/10
From the very start of the game you take control. Questions that determine what kind of classes, items and stats your characters have. The ability to have up to 200 characters that you can split up into groups determining the size of the character if it's human, evil or a monster. Having the choice to train small solider into mere soldiers, later becoming powerful warriors or mages based on how you raise them.

Over 30 classes and dozens of monsters to train and make powerful allies gives you the choices you want in an RPG. Hundreds of weapons and items to find, it's probably impossible to get them all without being a true know-it-all to Ogre Battle 64. All having there special abilities based on the position of the character using it. Elemental magic adds to the attacking and strategic combinations you can do on the battlefield.

Stats determine how strong and nimble your character is like most RPG's. Except the kind of classes and ways you raise them determine what grows strong and what they lack in. A brute warrior with a sword is more than likely to excel in attack power and endurance while an archer excels more in agility and dexterity. Which all can affect what kind of classes the characters can be later on depending if the stats meet the prerequisites.

A good and evil balance also affects your characters class possibilities and the worlds view on you and how you're taking action to make it peaceful once again. This has a huge affect on the game and can change the storyline in ways you wouldn't expect because your characters are pure hearted or pure evil.

There are two main views of the game. The world view, where you have options to view information on all the allies and enemies you make and fight. Full customization of your characters and the option to train your characters to become more powerful for battle, at the cost of money.

And then there is the in-game view... which is more like a war commanders birds eye view of the field and then the battle view for the nitty gritty. Climate and environment affects the battles you'll engage in each campaign. You can also fight wild monsters and creatures, having them join you in the fight for good or evil, which ever you wish.

Oh and incase I confused anyone, I use campaign loosely because this is the term used for each installment in the storyline. The world view is the sort of pause period between each campaign. After a certain amount of campaigns, you'll advance in chapter, kinda like a book, lol. So think of the campaigns as the chapter of a book.

Control - 8/10
The controls are kind of hard to learn at first. There are many different button actions along with multiple presses to activate some menu's. Though the tutorial can quickly help you out if you're feeling forgetful. You won't have to worry much about battling because you don't have much control over your characters actions besides who they attack.

Story - 10/10
The story is by far superb. It's one of the few games you will ever play with such a lush and rich story that goes along beautifully with the game. Every special character plays their role depending on how you use and raise them, which can affect the storyline. Along the way you have choices on which paths you take that can have adverse affects on the storyline and the characters. Which can either greatly benefit you or do nothing for you.

The story is so large with so much information to absorb you'll be spending a lot of time reading character biographies, the timeline of what you've done and the history of places and things. The Storyline basically consists of everything in this game no matter how small it is.

Graphics - 7/10
With most older RPG's, graphics aren't exactly the strongest attribute of the game. But Ogre Battle 64 has some very nice graphics, colors and lighting affects. All characters have their own little features and markings. Along with every single weapon, armor, item and magical spell. Which makes the game unique.

Sound - 8/10
The music falls along the lines of classical fantasy. Regular fights, boss battles, campaign environments all have a perfect rhythm for the area you're in which gives you a very intune feeling as you play.

Replay Value - 10/10
This is such an addicting game, with so much depth it's impossible to attain every item or do everything the first couple times around. There are so many paths you can take that you'll want to make new games and play through just to know what the alternatives are. Like I said before, hundreds of weapons and items that you can equip on your characters to make them unstoppable. Even things as odd as character age can net you rare items, possibly even different encounters or incidences in the game.

This game is one of the few I've spent so much time playing and mastering. I love the game and will never sell it. I'm hoping a few years down the road I'll be less knowledgeable of the game so I can enjoy playing it once more without knowing every little thing from my previous experience.

Overall - 10/10
An awesome RPG that everyone should play. I recommend it to all soft and hardcore RPG's fans alike and anyone that enjoys adventure or strategy games.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/04, Updated 08/28/08

Game Release: Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (US, 10/07/00)