Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen

"Greatest Strategy Game Ever"

It's hard putting into words just how amazing Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen is. You simply have to play it to believe it.

Story

10/10 - Ogre Battle tells the tale of a civil war set in medieval times. Since this is a strategy game, a great deal of what the player comes across depends on how persistent he or she is (you're given the option of choosing a male or female character at the start). Most levels have their own subplots amidst the overall drama, many offering clues as to what one might do to be additionally entertained. Explore the world, hear the rumors, run a few errands, and the writing reacts accordingly to your enthusiasm/interest, rewarding you with opportunities to meet special people or attain significant items.
Head straight for the boss while ignoring everything else, and things are significantly less interesting than they'd be otherwise.
Some of the most intriguing elements of the writing to be discovered have to do with biblical metaphors and text -- such as area names -- that possesses similar allusions.
Ultimately, the most entertaining part of the storytelling is likely watching what happens when characters swayed over to your side are sent to face people who are still close to them -- such as family members -- on the other side. The conversations that ensue can make for some occasionally memorable drama.

Game Play

10/10 - The main highlights of the Ogre Battle series are game play and storytelling. Where game play is concerned, the key element of the fun factor lies in customizing your units -- via a growingly extensive selection of class changes, weapons, and new recruits -- then sending them out to battle and having the satisfaction of watching the teams you've put together succeed. The sheer variety of warriors eventually made available to the player, is something worthy of special commendation itself. Just about every legendary of mythological figure you can imagine is here, and, through a little work, they can be recruited and bunched up into some very unusual, very entertaining groups (Ninjas and angels fighting together? Werewolves and vampires?). Helping you out during battle (or sometimes hindering you if you're not careful) are the ever-entertaining tarot cards, which perform all sorts of different functions (lowering your opponents' defense; giving your side an additional round of attacks, etc).
All the while, the information obtained when you liberate towns, no matter how familiar it may eventually become, never quite seems to reach the point of being boring -- thanks to some very distinguished, helpful, and at times, amusing dialogue (the townspeople in this game can be quite opinionated).

Controls

10/10 - A nicely simplistic, very convenient system of commands. Often user-friendly, especially when you can press the Select button to get an explanation on just about anything.

Music

10/10 - The tunes seem very well suited to the overall ambiance of the game and are often very appropriately used.

Difficulty

10/10 - Simply put, Ogre Battle is well paced when it comes to difficulty. The initial missions are designed to give you a good feel for the combat, while the ones in the middle offer a great intermediate challenge, presenting the player with units he or she should be well prepared for at that point. Of course, towards the end there will likely be moments when the words ''not fair'' will be crossing a few lips -- as the game begins pulling out the bigger dogs and regenerating them almost as quickly as they're put to rest, making it quite hard to actually reach the boss of the area in some cases -- but overall, overcoming the challenges is, again, one of the biggest parts of what makes the game fun.

In conclusion, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, created for the great Super Nintendo Entertainment System, is one of the most special games ever made. It delivers on so many levels that I'm not at all surprised to be still playing it with a constant fondness years after buying the game. BTW, being the rare thing that it is, I ended up spending more on this game than I've possibly ever spent on any single title...and it was worth every penny.

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