Snes - Ogre Battle Review

Overview

Ogre battle is a strategy game placing you in the boots of a rebel leader leading rebel forces to liberate cities and towns and defeat each map's "boss", personally I think its a great strategy game, the music tracks are awesome and the combat system is extremely easy. Some people may find the game slightly confusing with the multitude of statistics to read.

Gameplay 9/10
In Ogre battle playing the game is a breeze, all you do is select groups of your troops (collectively known as units) to move anywhere you like. If they encounter a city or enemy troops, they will take the appropriate action, for example attack or report that something has been found. Naturally any good strategy game should have this.

Besides the above, what makes Ogre battle unique is the wide range of different items and spells that can be used providing variation. For example in the game you get Tarot cards which are actually spells that you can use when fighting, there are a total of 22 serving a wide range of functions which can tilt a battle in your favour.

Some people may think it would then be quite easy to win the game, well think again, Ogre battle has a built in "equaliser," you cannot just keep using the cards because you have a limited amount, plus using these cards to kill enemies will cause your unit's leader experience to increase and cause him to "level up." Which will in turn cause his "charisma" and "alignment" to drop if you use him against substantially lower level enemies. In other words, for those of you who think you can just use your more powerful units against less powerful units who have no chance, think again, the people you are trying to liberate may start to hate your troops and start to distrust you although it may not be apparent at first and worse some troop types may be unavailable to you because of your actions.

Furthermore, each of your troops have different and varied strengths and weaknesses making you think twice before just attempting to destroy the enemy with sheer numbers.

There are some weak points however, for one the units move quite slowly on the map so running away from an enemy unit and returning to a city or temple to heal just will not work since healing is relatively slow and by that time the enemy will have caught up with you. Also you cannot really control your troops during battle, just dictate to them tactics like "leader" which tells units to attack the leader if they can.

The enemy artificial intelligence is also questionable. They usually make a beeline for your main base or what its target may be ignoring any cities or places you have liberated which they might heal in. Usually the only time they return to a city if only their leader of the unit is almost dead.

What makes it worse is since the enemy does not have to worry about their reputation they simply keep send wave after wave of troops making it extremely difficult to reach your target, the "boss".

All in all however, it keeps you on your toes and makes for an interesting time.

Graphics 3.5/5
The graphics for Ogrebattle are definitely above average but not the best around. It's more than adequate for the game however, you find all the troops colourful and bright although the graphics on the main map has a very large pixels making it look terrible.

Sound & music 4/5
There are 24 music tracks in Ogre battle each unique and rich in sound and expression (for those of you musical students). The sound however is another matter, it's usually limited to the words "Liberation," and other one word sayings. The attacks do not even have convincing sounds, e.g. the fireball fired from the wizard does not have a "burning" or whooshing sound to go along with it.
Tip: To access all the music tracks start a new game and type your name as music/on in capital letters.

Difficulty 4.5/5
Unlike most games you do not have a difficulty level however the game is hard enough without having to make it harder, you have to think long and hard on what troop combinations to use. In fact I believe, that whether you win or lose is usually decided in-between the missions when you can edit and change your units and formations.

Longevity 5/5
Ogre battle is extremely replayable and considerably long lived. Why? You ask, because in Ogre battle there are countless variations in playing the game. For example, even before you start you decide what attacks you get to use by answering questions. Later on, you can talk to certain people and depending on your previous actions, these people may help or hinder you, some actions or decisions you make (like for example forgiving someone or agreeing with someone) may get you some information or items. There are even hidden cities and temples for you to find. The possibilities are too many to list.

For: Extremely long lived gameplay with countless variations. Easy to play. Great music

Against: Sound annoying and limited. Little strategy during battles, more a matter of having the right units.