Ogre Battle 64: Person of the Lordly Caliber was one of the few strategy games that were present in the Nintendo 64’s relatively small library. Ogre Battle 64 was released in October of the year 2000 and was actually one of the last 50 games released in the console. On the surface the OB64 did not appear to be much due to its generic character models and lack of input during combat, but once you broke through the ground you would discover a plethora of depth which few games could rival at the time. Ogre Battle 64 received exceptional reviews at the time of release, yet perhaps due to a lack of marketing or even availability (this game was hard to find) it sold rather poorly.

Let’s begin with the most obvious things first. The graphics in Ogre Battle 64 were nothing to write home about, most of the models will be the generic characters that make the bulk of your army. You will be looking at these models constantly and while their bodies are very detailed, they all have the same mouthless face with enormous eyes. Yet, one thing that stands out is that their character portraits were gorgeous, you can see the effort that went into designing their looks and the arduous work that went into creating each one.  While the characters do not switch garbs based on what they are equipped with, their weapon models will correctly correspond to the one they are using at the time (which is a neat little detail).  The battles themselves don’t do too much from the graphics department as every attack consist of two different animations, one used for critical hits and the regular attacks that happen normally. It is important to note though that the spells on the other hand can make battles that much more spectacular with mixed spells truly showing off what the N64 and Ogre Battle 64 can do (but, these happen much later in the game).

Speaking of battles though, if you did not like the battles in Final Fantasy XIII you will not enjoy the combat system in Ogre Battle 64. Skirmishes are the stages in the game and they are selected through the over world. You go move Magnus to a stage in the map and once inside you can dispatch a set number of units. Units consist of one to five characters with larger characters such as dragons and golems taking 2 slots for a maximum of 3 (you always require a human leader). These units can be pitted in combat against the enemies on the map and if they encounter one another it will initiate combat.  Now combat in OB64 is handled strictly by the computer and luck. You can pit an unit against another and order it 4 basic commands (with the game breaker being to attack the leader of the unit) and that is it, you can at some point later in the game use an item called Elem Pedra, which can turn the tide of a battle, but it utilizes a time recharge system to prevent abuse. As a kid playing the game, this made it extremely boring, but when I started becoming a teenager, I slowly came to appreciate the combat as something more akin to chess where I could only tell my pieces where to move and what route to take. I learned the intricacies of the game with practice and often got my rear handed to me in one sided battles because I did not understand the rules of the game. This is sadly something that you will have to get used to extremely quickly since Ogre Battle 64 does a horrible job at explaining the intricate mechanics of the game.

The game mechanics are extremely deep and the tutorial is often skipped, but even after I played the tutorial there were still questions left unanswered. For the longest time I did not understand that generic 3 man soldier units only gained experience from actual combat and not even in the regular sense. A battle that is won is counted towards their class change, if there are more soldiers in a group they actually change class faster, the gender is dependent on the unit leader unless you are using a specific item. OB64 doesn’t even bother telling you how to dispatch units in the first level. All of these things are only explained if you bother digging into the menu and at no point are you given this advice. Capturing and liberating a city in the game actually counts towards the ending and at no point are you given a heads up that this is not simply flavor text added for no specific reason. The time of day can affect your encounters with people in the towns and some events only happen at specific times of the year, during a certain hour in a particular village (when a werewolf is howling by the moonlight wearing a sombrero in a clown suit). The game has multiple endings and you can royally screw yourself out of the best one because you didn’t understand that your unit’s alignment and a village’s morale affected whether the unit captured or liberated that city which in turn affected the end results of the game. You can only recruit certain units if you explore an area after it’s been cleared. All of these things were learned through trial and error, and no doubt a lot of players shared similar experiences. But, they can be learned through the tutorial, my advice is if you’re a first time player you should definitely read a guide or go through the tutorial it will make things so much easier. This is important because Ogre Battle can be very unforgiving to players at time.

Yet, this unforgiving gameplay can make the story that much sweet to discover. The world of Ogre Battle spins a majestic tale which involves betrayal, conspiracies, old prophecies, gods and goddesses, ancient wizards and even extends to the events of the original Ogre Battle on the SNES March of The Black Queen. It is the masterfully woven tale of a conflicted (read very emo) young man who is trying to find himself amidst a kingdom experiencing a rebellion from the lower class. Magnus will encounter many different types of people and often have a clash of values in which only one of them will endure. He has to stand for what is right even if he has to destroy everything which he once loved, and you might even have to kill characters that would have potentially joined you (had you met the correct alignment/requirements for their recruitment at the time) (which are not explained in any way shape or form). Behind the scenes however, the Holy Lodis Empire is orchestrating a power play which might begin a second Ogre Battle (the catastrophic event for which the games are titled after). Yet, in the middle of this lies Yumil, Magnus’s best friend and biggest source of homoerotic subtext in the game; he is also the crown prince of the Palatinus and is hated by his father for his unique appearance (read bastard child).

However, this is only scratching the surface of everything that the game hides, almost all characters have some background which can be explored by visiting their hometowns and multiple other secrets that abound the game. Semi-unique classes which you can only have one character switch into, and even a few that have are a one way ticket to death (see vampires and liches). The lore is bountiful and almost every unique character has a backstory or a motivation for their participation in the war. From the wide-eyed idealist Troi to the conflicted Paul who turned his best friend into a statue with his innate magical abilities. The game is riddle with stories that can only be witnessed by making a consented effort to investigate further into each level before and after it has been cleared. Those who strive to complete a game fully beware this game rewards your behavior to the maximum of its abilities.

One last thing I’d like to mention is that Ogre Battle is very long, with at least 40 hours placed into my first complete play through and much more time placed into every subsequent one as I experienced new events since I was not in a rush to get through the story. It will forever remain a jewel of the Nintendo 64’s library and I will proudly keep my copy in the library of games that brought me endless joy as a teenager. You can buy this game on the virtual console right now, but if you’re like me then you’ll definitely want your own physical copy. Scratch the surface to discover the diamond within, Ogre Battle 64 deserves all of the accolades it received in its reviews back in the 2000’s and still holds strong to this day.

Dash The Bomber

Dash The Bomber is a sailor is his 20's with a penchant for goofy, yet deep thoughts. An avid gamer for generations he has played everything from the Atari 2600 to the PC in which he writes his work on. He currently lives in the middle of the ocean and appreciates donations in order to buy goodies from Amazon while deployed (makes his life slightly better). You can help the guy out by donating here: paypal.me/dashthebomber.