Game 42: Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen

Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen is a console strategy game initially released on the Super Nintendo and then re-released on the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation. I guess the game is rare but I bought the Super Nintendo version at a rental store when they were going out of business for five dollars (also scored that day was Yoshi's Island). I consider myself lucky, too bad the battery has died since then. The game has seen a bunch of sequels including Ogre Battle 64, which I also own.

Decent non turn-based strategy games are tough to come by on consoles, but March of the Black Queen stands out as one of the first and best in the genre. I'm not so sure how the first hour will turn out though, as the game moves pretty slow. Well, let's just get right into it and find out. I'll be playing the Super Nintendo version.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select New Game and the hour begins. A man named Warren begins talking. He is a great Seer, which means he can see destinies. He's going to use Tarot cards to decide if I'm fit to be a leader. But first I enter my name, Greg.
01 - Warren asks me my sex and then reveals the Sun card. He then asks me a question on who do I attribute victory in a battle to. I answer, "those who fought with me."

02 - The World card is revealed next. How full is my glass the night before a battle for a toast? Filled to the brim! Warren draws the Hierophant card.

03 - I answer "a sense of justice" in what I see in a leader. The strength card is brought up, it is a woman standing with a lion. Justice, again, is the most important attribute of a warrior in my opinion.
04 - Wow, more cards still. Now the Magician. I'm asked what kind of potion I'd make: poison, wealth, or immortality. None of them sound that great. I guess wealth.

05 - The Judgement card now. Who would I save in battle if I could only save one: my mother, lover, or child. Child, no idea though, I hate these kind of questions. Warren spreads the remaining cards out and asks me to grab one. It's the Fortune card! No questions that time.

06 - I'm now faced with the world map, The Zeteginea Age. I have a few options, but I'll save my game first. Time to start the first level, the Castle of Warren.
07 - Scene 1 - Beginning. A view of a lush green island appears. I guess I have control over some golden guy and have to beat the boss? There's also a day/night indicator in the corner.

08 - I click my guy a few times and tell him to move on what appears to be a building with a pink roof. He slowly starts crossing the plains. Woah, I'm walking over a mountain.

09 - I have liberated the trade city of Daskania. "Liberation!" the female computer voice calls out! Cool! The people are cheering for me. I have the option to pull a card, woah, it's the Hanged Man. The city calls out "Boo Boo!" Oh no!
10 - Liberating towns rewards me with tribute which I need to run my army. Next up I move Greg west to another building. The screen scrolls smoothly with my sword cursor.

11 - I have liberated a Roshian Temple! I pull the Strength card and get a "Thank you" instead of boos. A monk tells me that everything is moving in real time, and that I should pause if I get overwhelmed. Well, with only one character on the screen that won't be a problem. I head further west to the boss!

13 - Sweet, the sky is turning purple, it's twilight! Warren welcomes me to his castle and tells me I must do battle with the Zenobian Empire. He's going to put me to the test.

14 - Warren won't fight me, just keeps telling me to liberate more towns and return to them. Lame.
16 - I've returned to both towns so it's time to kick some ogre butt! Ugh, Warren tells me about a hidden city to the northeast. Can my character cross water? I guess so. Slowly though.

17 - I have liberated the Walled City of Zeltenia! I pull another Hanged Man card! Nooo!

18 - I talk with Lans, a knight of the Royal Zenobian Army. He likes the look in my eyes so he'll join my cause. Wow, what is my cause anyway? And only if it was that easy in real life. I head back to Warren again.

20 - It has become day again. Finally, it's time to fight! Wow, this looks totally different than the overhead map! It's five against one, seems unfair!
21 - I don't even have to do anything, my guys just fight it out. Greg casts Icecloud on Warren and then gets healed by the mage. Sweet, I won!

22 - I have liberated Volzak! Haha, fireworks are set off from the city. I have completed the map and receive 6748 bonus Goth. Goth is what their money is called. Umm... odd.

23 - Next level is called Sharom and is south of Warren on the world map. Scene 2 - Rally.
24 - Wow, this is a big map, and I also have a ton of units available to me now. Time to start deploying I guess and sending them to towns. Interesting, it costs Goth to deploy units. Cost of an army I suppose.

26 - I send out Lans and Geena along with Greg. Lans liberates Valna. I pull the Moon card. It immediately switches the time to night! Oh, I can buy items here at Valna.

27 - Greg liberates a town and pulls the Emperor card. The enemy hasn't deployed any enemies yet.

29 - Oh, the enemy has finally arrived! Greg liberates a temple, I think I'll stay here and wait for the enemy. Another Hanged Man. I am one unlucky fellow. Temples can revive buddies, that should be helpful.
30 - Greg has met the enemy! My tactics are set to Best, which means I always attack their best character. I think I'll set it to weak and take out the little ones first.

31 - Woah, the battle has ended but they still have two guys remaining! That's weird... Interesting, their character hasn't disappeared from the map, they just got pushed back a few inches on the map.

32 - Greg starts battle with another enemy. These guys have a giant wolf. This doesn't seem to hard when Greg's group has a healer.
33 - This last battle was closer, no one got killed but I still won. Must be based off of damage or something. The enemies just keep coming so I deploy a group that looks like it has ninjas in it. Another battle with Greg.

35 - This team is another set of two, just a mage and a giant guy with a club.

36 - Oh no! I lose! None of my guy's die but that giant brute was doing massive damage and getting to attack multiple times in a row. Geena will have to hold the temple.

37 - Geena's team has two amazons, two soldiers, and a healer. We don't do a lot of damage but are rewarded the win. Geena gets into another battle right away though. Oh snaps, it's the mage and the brute with the club!
38 - We have killed the giant! Just the mage left.

39 - Oh yeah, Geena to the rescue! She has killed the mage too, even though he threw two fireballs at one of my amazons.

40 - Man, just battle after battle. It's the two-headed wolf/mage team. They're weak so hopefully I can finish them off. Well, that was easy, they're gone already.

41 - Another battle against a weakened enemy. Good thing they're not running off to heal.
42 - Well, I don't finish off their leader but their team does level up! Now if only I could get Greg back to the temple to help defend it. I'm fighting another battle against a group with a healer. Could be a long battle. We win but they have plenty of health left.

44 - Back at the map, that loser who only has a few hit points left is running back to the boss. Fighting a beastmaster now and his two-headed wolf.

45 - The wolf is dead leaving the beastmaster, but we're declared the winners.

46 - Ugh, these amazons keep getting left with one hit point and then their cleric heals them.
47 - Wow, I forgot about Lans but he found a secret temple on an island! Liberation! I pull the Strength card. The monks give me the Star of Heroes. I get a "HEROSTAR!" Haha.

49 - Greg has healed a bit so I put him in front of Geena. Greg will meet the beastmaster! Greg only attacks once per battle, and its the Icecloud attack that always seems to miss the leader. I defeat the beastmaster though with my little soldiers. That takes care of him.

51 - Greg levels up as we almost defeat the cleric. It has 8 hit points left. It's probably going to run away.

53 - Woah woah woah! Some enemy is flying across the water and might take the city near my capital! I have to deploy Warren and we race there. Geez, the enemy turns and heads right for my capital city. Crap. They have a gryphon. No wonder they moved so fast, they were literally flying.
55 - Warren just whooped down on their leader but I can't manage to kill the gryphon. It'll probably fly away. I have things under control for the moment so I start moving around my characters. I send Geena to the end of a road where a city undoubtedly is. Lans doesn't find anything in his latest search so I send him back near the capital.

57 - Sweet, I do have a ninja on my team. His name is Morgan though. What kind of ninja is named Morgan?

58 - I have re-encountered the weakened cleric, but she's picked up two more clerics. Lame.

60 - Greg's Icecloud finally hits everyone and does some pretty decent damage. Well, it doesn't look like I'm going to get across this bridge anytime soon. It's going to take a while to defend and slowly push forward. I guess that's the end of Ogre Battle's first hour.
Time for some scores out of 10.

Story: 6
About the only unique thing Ogre Battle has going for it in the first hour in terms of story is the tarot card introduction. It was pretty fun answering Warren's questions about how I would manage an army and how much wine I would want to drink the night before a battle. Maybe not fun... but definitely weird and quirky. Being given tarot cards which I can use in battle is also cool and gives the game an extra layer in what seems like a pretty straight-forward system so far. The rest of the story isn't as interesting, and seems pretty derivative of basically anything else, but the tarot card approach is unique. Destinies and fates are intriguing concepts, whether you believe in them or not.

Graphics and Sound: 7
I read a few reviews that knocked on the game's graphics, but I like them. They're simple when they need to be simple like on the world map, and more detailed when in battle. The battles have a cool background behind them that makes it look like they're just being fought out on my desk. The sprites in battle are also well detailed, but plain on the overworld. This isn't bad though, as they're distinct and are more like pieces out of a board game. The game also features the day/night system which I'm sure will be used uniquely further on, but is more just for show in the first hour.

Not much going on with sound in Ogre Battle. The highlight though is when you liberate a town, you get the sound effect, "Liberation!" I still remember hearing that 12 years ago sitting in my bedroom as a kid and thinking how cool it was.

Gameplay: 5
Two different types of gameplay, and both are relatively hands off most of the time. When managing units on the map, you have to scroll around quite a bit to get a handle on things and you have to understand your unit's strengths and weaknesses. It was kind of a shocker when the enemy sent a flying unit at me from across the sea and almost caught me off guard. But most of the time you're just fortifying a town or temple and trying to hold your ground. A lot of moving characters just a little bit in front or behind of another so they can be the won to battle it out. It's almost requires too much control for a strategy game like this.

Battling in Ogre Battle is mostly automated, which is kind of a relief. Many console RPG's just have you tapping the A button to do the same thing turn after turn, but Ogre Battle makes it easy on the player and takes over for them. You can still press the A button and mess with tactics, but other than that, not much to it. Just hope you hit them and they miss you.

Fun Factor: 5
Ogre Battle's super slow moving pieces on map may be great for planning out strategies and preparing for attacks, but it'd be nice if there was a speed up key or something for the times when you just want to get where you want to be. On the other hand, fighting in the battles can be pretty fun but since it is automated, there's nothing to get too pumped about. The battle is essentially decided before you even start, you're just there to watch it unfold. The game doesn't seem to be too heavy on micromanagement within its first hour though, and that's a plus. Ogre Battle is simply not that fun, it's simply delivers average enjoyment.

Minutes to Action: 20

Overall: 5
Twenty minutes is a long time for any game to get rolling, and Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen suffers from this. I think it would have been more effective if after our Tarot card draw, if we immediately were thrust into battle. The game can still force us to move around Warren's island and liberate towns, but it just takes a long time to get to what the player wants: action. The game's gameplay and fun factor falter due to Ogre's Battle below normal game speed, but the story and choice of graphics save it from falling into the land of crappy first hours. If you're into console strategy games, you probably owe yourself to check out March of the Black Queen for whatever system you can find it on, but don't spend too much money on it; plenty of good strategy games are still being released. The bad part is they probably all still take a quarter of an hour to actually start.

Game 31: Suikoden II

Suikoden II is a rare PlayStation RPG that can fetch some pretty ridiculous prices on eBay, with sealed copies climbing over $200. Expensive doesn't necessarily mean the game is any good though, as I've seen friends pay many bills for mediocre games that triggered the nostalgia portion of their brain. Either way, Suikoden II is a Konami developed role-playing game on a Squaresoft dominated system and thus never saw sales for this odd sounding game that came close to most other games. The Suikoden series is still being developed by Konami but many fans consider this as the best in the series.

The game itself features an interesting political storyline with highly memorable characters. This description reminds me of Final Fantasy XII, but the difference between the two games is that in Final Fantasy XII the characters seemed far removed from the political scheming where in Suikoden II our heroes are right in the mix of things. The battle system is unique in that your team of fighters consists of six characters in turn-based combat. There are also 108 total characters you can recruit to your cause, a number that seems way too high but is actually manageable and keeps the game entertaining. When not in use, all your recruits hang out in an ever-expanding castle that also serves as your home base.

This is all extra information mostly non-applicable to just the first hour of gameplay, but I consider myself a Suikoden II evangelist and will take any opportunity to push it to the masses. Now let's get started with the first hour of Suikoden II.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select New Game and the hour begins. First things first, I need to name my main character. Greg, of course. I'm then asked if I want to load saved data from the first Suikoden, interesting, but not today. Our little guy flashes his nunchucks and we begin loading.
01 - We're overhead at a soldier's camp at night, a blonde haired fellow is walking around outside and enters a tent with Greg in it. His name is Jowy. It looks like Greg is one of those Silent Protagonists who never speaks and his words are implied throughout.

02 - The two talk for a bit, something about Greg's family and his sister Nanami and a dead Master Gengaku. I get the option to get some fresh air with Jowy and we head outside. Jowy joins my party, that was quick.

03 - I talk to the soldiers in the camp and they keep mentioning a peace agreement, some soldiers like it, others don't. What's up with these characters by the way, they're all super skinny and tall.

05 - We head north out of the camp. I can see a waterfall in the distant but it doesn't seem like I'm going to trigger a scene or anything.
06 - Whoops! Guess I entered the captain's tent and he's pissed that we're out of our uniforms. I head east from the campsite this time.

07 - I see a man hiding in the shadows but then he runs off, Jowy doesn't want me chasing him tonight, I guess we're going home tomorrow anyway.

08 - Time to hit the hay, we both crawl into our beds. Woah, I can hear men shouting. "Surprise attack!!!" Intense music starts playing.
09 - Jowy joins my party again. The camp is on fire! Captain Rowd runs up to us. The City-State has broken the peace agreement! He tells us to save ourselves and run east.

11 - Men are dying and injured all over. Before we run into the woods Jowy stops us, he says that the enemy must know this is the only way out and that there must be an ambush waiting. This kid has a good military mind. We head back to warn Captain Rowd.

12 - Oh no! Rowd has betrayed his own soldiers to Prince Luca! Man, that Luca guy looks evil!
13 - Jowy and I agree to run north, no where else to go.

14 - Rowd and some soldiers have followed us! Time for our first battle. The screen switches to a 3D like isometric battle. The characters are still sprites though and they look pretty good.

15 - I have the option to do a Unite attack with Jowy, that seems obvious like an obvious choice! Jowy and I circle our enemies in dramatic and lightning quick fashion and hit them all hard! The weak soldiers go down. Only Rowd left. Next I just attack individually, Rowd counters Greg but then Jowy defeats him. The battle animations are really slick and pretty nice looking.
16 - Jowy realizes we have to jump off the cliff into the water, I half-heartedly agree.

17 - Jowy and Greg make an X on the rock with their knives so that if they ever get separted they will return here to meet back up. We jump.

18 - The graphics switch to sepia tones so it must be a flashback. The opening credits start appearing slowly. Some kids are playing hopscotch. Could be Greg, Jowy, and maybe Nanami? Next it's three little bit older kids with an older man, maybe Master Gengaku?

19 - Then Greg and Jowy looking out over some plains followed by Greg and a girl at a grave. The next scene features Greg and Jowy performing some fancy battle moves against each other in front of a bunch of soldiers.
20 - Finally it is the march to war, Greg and Jowy included in the ranks. The flashback is over, and a dark-haired man starts talking. He says "this punk is a waste of time." That punk might be me.

21 - Greg wakes up surrounded by three men, Jowy is no where in sight. The man introduces himself as Viktor, and says he's my enemy! He's a mercenary and friend of the City-State of Jowston (which sounds suspiciously like Jowy). Another man enters, his name is Flik. Viktor and Flik argue for a minute.

23 - We all head back to their fort. Viktor shoves me in a room and locks the gate. Guess I'm a prisoner.
24 - A kid named Pohl walks up, time for breakfast, and then I have to work. My job is to push all the boxes against the wall... are you serious? What is this, Shenmue? Pohl demonstrates the difficulty involved. Oh, then I have to clean up some rope! Haha.

26 - With the room nice and tidy, I head out, but Pohl has the gall to check my work. Time for supper already after that "hard day's work"!

27 - Greg goes to town on his meal. The next day I have to run errands. Two pairs of boots, three flints, and two bags of flour.

29 - I run around collecting stuff from people, but the storeroom is out of flour!
31 - I'm exploring the base, pretty large place. Flik apologizes for not saving Jowy. I'm sure he's okay.

32 - Pohl tells me we'll have to go to Ryube village for the flour, but someone will have to escort me. Why not Pohl? Woah, my escort is Gengen, some kind of giant fox person! Creepy. He's a Kobold warrior. A little kid named Tuta wants to tag along too. Why not. Both Gengen and Tuta join my party.

35 - Gengen warns us about monsters, awesome. Woah, overhead map of the area! I have to head northeast. Hope I get into another battle.

36 - Well, Ryube village was about 10 steps away. There's some traveling performers setting up in town; Bolgan, Eilie, and Rina are there names. They have portraits and real names so they're probably important.
38 - We get the flour at the store, but before we go back Tuta wants to have some fun. I'm not sure where this "fun" is so I just head out of town and back to the base camp. Too bad I didn't get into any fights.

40 - I'm locked up again and fed. The next day my chore is to clean up oil spills around the building. Odd. I get down on my hands and knees and do the work though.

42 - I clean up about five spills and then it is dinner time again.

43 - The next day, an intruder has arrived, it's Jowy! Wow, he's come for me! Jowy joins the party, time to haul out of here.
44 - We run upstairs and encounter Flit, we're desperately outnumbered but Greg tries to bust through anyway, he's knocked on his rear end by Flik's sword hilt.

45 - Now we're in the war room with Flik and Viktor for an interrogation. Viktor doesn't think our army could have originally been ambushed by the City-State, so we tell them the truth about Luca. Luca Blight.

46 - Viktor isn't going to let us go home, so he locks us both up. Pohl comes and feeds us both. Jowy offers me his carrots, how sweet.

48 - It's nighttime now and Jowy is ready to bust out, he asks what I'm holding: flint, oily rag, and rope. The perfect escape combination! Jowy uses a spoon to open the cell door.
49 - Sweet, Jowy distracts the guards by lighting the oily rag on fire with the flint and chucking it across the room. We head out on the balcony, let the rope down and escape to safety.

50 - Jowy and Greg agree to head to Kyaro town, where Nanami will be waiting. I'm back on the world map but I have no idea where to go!

52 - We do battle with some CutRabbits, they're fluffy bunnies wielding axes! We both level up to level 3 with the win.

53 - I decide to head west. We get into a battle with four Cousin Its, the Unite attack takes them down quickly!
54 - We find a bridge but some men won't let us cross to Radat town. I guess west wasn't the right way.

56 - Our Buddy Unite attack continues to kick butt. Kind of overpowered actually... Level four!

57 - I find Toto village, this is where Jowy floated ashore. Cool, I can save my game at the inn. I haven't saved yet at all.

59 - I leave town and head east and enter North Sparrow Pass, it's pretty foggy here. Some soldiers tell me that the path to Highland is closed.

60 - In the final minute I decide to head all the way north, but Toto is as far as I can go. I supposedly can head west through Toto to Muse, but another soldier blocks my way. I'm stumped, but that's the end of Suikoden II's first hour.
Story: 6
Suikoden II's first hour is the story of two young men conscripted into a war that should be over, but one evil man seems set against that. After a surprise attack, the two friends, Riou (official name) and Jowy are separated and Riou is captured by his former enemy who thinks the war is really over. Jowy then busts Riou out and they set out for home. This all sounds pretty exciting, and the first half is. But once you're captured, the game grinds to a halt as you're ordered to do a bunch of remedial tasks. This isn't Suikoden II's way of training you either, this is just an out of the way route to provide a means of escape. So up until the flashback montage, everything was really great.

As for the characters, Riou is a silent protagonist. Something that was really popular at this time but you don't see it very often anymore. Once voice acting became mainstream for RPGs, that seemed to be the end of an era, not that I'm complaining though. Jowy, Rowd, Viktor, and Flik round out the rest of the hour's main characters, and I think they're all starting to be developed well. And of course we get our first look at Luca Blight, the game's arch nemesis. Once again, games that introduce the ultimate bad guy early on usually do much better developing him and making you believe that he is evil.

Graphics and Sound: 9
The animations in Suikoden II are quite impressive. The characters and environments are not any more detailed than some of the best looking Super Nintendo games, but Konami was really able to step up the depth and complexity of the battle animations on the PlayStation. Check out the Unite Attack screenshot, there's a lot going on here and it really looks nice for its day. 2D sprites will never die, and Suikoden II is one of many games that really prove great artists can enhance a game's appeal. There is a ton of variety in this PlayStation RPG: detailed characters and animations, excellent art design (especially in the flashback montage), nice looking character portraits, and a very detailed (if sparse) overworld. And this in a game where the super skinny characters really bothered me at first.

One of the most important aspects of an RPG is the music, and Suikoden II doesn't disappoint there either. There were some great songs playing, especially during the dramatic flashback, and some were typical village songs that must be a pain to write but are a necessity for a game like this. The battle sound effects were also pretty good, with the sound of numchucks banging on the enemy's head.

Gameplay: 5
Lots of variety with the graphics, but not so much in the gameplay. But it is a console role-playing game so they're not exactly known for much more than walking around and being in battle. The battles themselves seemed really, really easy. I had plenty of hit points, and my Unite attack with Jowy was incredibly overpowering. I have a feeling this is one of those games where the battles are either really easy or really tough, but time will tell if this Unite attack will be available for much longer. Running is necessary to get anywhere fast in the villages or camps, but you have to hold a button to do so. I know that Suikoden II was released before running was the standard instead of the slow-walk, but it is still a pain. And my last complaint is on the way the dialogue was handled. It's pretty slow appearing so you're constantly tapping the X button to move it along, but if you tap it too fast and an option appears for you to select, you'll automatically select the top option and you'll have no idea what you selected! This happened to me at least three times in just the first hour.

Fun Factor: 7
Suikoden II's first hour is an enjoyable experience, we get a good story and an interesting cast of characters, along with great looking animations and battles. The story slows down a bit too much about half way through though, and my hour ended with me having absolutely no idea where to go next. Something I don't appreciate in a world this large. Other than that, I had a good time.

Minutes to Action: 14

Overall: 7
If you can find this game, definitely give it a try. Suikoden II is unfortunately too rare for its own good, there was a PSP port a few years ago but it was never released outside of Japan. The game's first hour is pretty good, especially for a console role-playing game, though it does take rather long before the first battle starts. Suikoden II doesn't come close to something like Final Fantasy VII's first hour, but if I may say it, I believe the game as a whole is the best RPG I have ever played. Geez, here I am way out stepping the bounds of just reviewing the first hour. Time to end this before things get out of hand.