Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen

"A decent port of a good game."

Pretty good game on the Snes, a little better on the PSX.

Gameplay-7
You are the commander of a Liberation army in this game, and thats what you do. You don't select each characters actions in battle, the fights are cpu-controlled, rather, you command the army itself. The army is divided into units consisting of three to five Characters each. You pick the individual units destination , and they go there. Generally, the idea on each stage is to take settlements from the enemy as you make your way toward their HQ, and the stages boss.

In the battles themselves, you have control of only a few things.
1) Battle commands-you chose between a few commands that determine how your characters will act in battle, but not who they will attack or how they will attack them, as I said before, you command the army, not the individual characters.
2) Tarrots-Every time you liberate(take control) of a city or temple, you are given the option to draw a tarrot card, which have different effects in battle.
3) Run-You have the option to run from any battle that you chose.
4) Recruit- only available in random encounters, you can sometime persuade the enemy to join the Liberation army.

Story-9
I love the games storyline. It may have been done before, but this game pulls off the classic oppresive government vs. rebelion perfectly. The dialouge is very good in most areas and it doesn't get monotanous like some other games do. The only reason the story doesn't get a 10 is because it lack originality.

Graphics-4
The graphics were amazing on the Snes...they just weren't inproved upon much in the PSX Version. They could have been alot better in fact. One of the games few bad points.

Sound-5
Not the games strong point at all. The music is good but there is very little variety. Hearing the same tune each battle will make you hit that mute button and pop in a cd very quickly. The sounds are decent but not great, average at best.

Replayability-10
Definetly a strong point, Ogre battle has a ton of replay value. many different endings, different reruits, different treasures, Job clases, ect...You could play this game for a year and not see everything it has to offer.

In conlusion, Ogre battle is a very good game, but Its not for everyone. If you are looking for amazing graphics and sound, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a great story with a ton of replay value, look no further.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/00, Updated 07/27/00