Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen is a strategy role-playing game set in the fantasy world of the continent of Zeteginia. As the player you’re tasked with managing and deploying troops in a series of “Scenes” in an effort to lead a rebellion against the evil empire of Palatinus. With an interesting storyline, complex class trees, and multiple endings, your success and the fate of the kingdom is decided by the choices you make and the characters you recruit along the way.

Audio (18/20)

Plainly stated, the music of Ogre Battle is fantastic. The soundtrack’s orchestral nature fits both the gameplay and the themes presented while also enhancing other aspects of the experience. Frantic tracks like “Guerilla War” pile on the tension as battles play out, while others like “A Brief Respite” are appropriately calming as you review unit stats and issue promotions. And while we wouldn’t have minded a bit more variety just based on the sheer length of the game, we believe it’s a testament to the quality of the sound design that even after hours of commanding our squads to “Thunder”, we were never annoyed or inclined to turn the music off.

Similar to the music, the game’s sound effects (and in particular the unit abilities and tarot cards) are extremely well done. From fireballs to sword slashes the audio design of the game makes even simple abilities feel powerful and potent. It was always a treat to hear the crackle of lightning as we used our Hermit tarot card to roast a group of enemy demons, and watching our run-of-the-mill beastman deliver a lash of his whip to an enemy hellhound really gave us the feeling that our units were doing everything they could to further our rebellion’s goals.

And, if for whatever reason you don’t share our love of the top notch soundtrack or sound effects, the game’s creators were kind enough to add the option to turn the music or sound effects off. Honestly though, we have no idea why someone would ever want to do this… as the audio design does exactly what it should, which is to support the action, convey emotion, and build atmosphere as you strategize your way across Zeteginea.

Visuals (19/20)

While the maps you’ll be commanding your troops on aren’t much to look at and do make the game feel a bit outdated, this is about the only aspect of the visuals which we could see turning off modern players. Setting aside this singular shortcoming however, the game’s visuals have aged incredibly well.

Whether it’s the detailed and interesting character portraits, stunning tarot card artwork, or cheery battle sprites, Ogre Battle undoubtedly has some of the best art direction of any game on the console. We’re certain that if the game had used the simpler, battle scene sprite style in other places, that the visuals would have come off as jarring due to the contrast of their cutesy appearance and the games more serious themes. Instead, the game capably strikes a balance between the more mature art style while using the traditional 16 bit sprite work where it’s needed.

The quality of the visual presentation goes beyond even these staple elements though. The backgrounds and terrain are also nicely detailed and character animations are smooth. And while we did eventually turn off the battle animations just for the sake of time - we often found ourselves toggling it back on whenever we came across a new class of unit, just so we could witness the power of its abilities in their full glory.

Visually the game is an absolute treat to play, assuming you can get past the lower resolution terrain maps.

Gameplay and Controls (18/20)

At the core of Ogre Battle’s gameplay is the strategic management of your troops. This requires assembling complimentary units into small squads and then commanding their movement on the battlefield against the AI in an attempt to liberate towns and eventually defeat the “Scene’s” boss residing at the enemy castle. So if you’re not into unit management, squad formations, or terrain strategies then you might want to look elsewhere, but if being a battlefield General is your thing - you’re in for an absolute treat.

Now if you’re like us and dive in expecting a turn based tactics game, then you might be surprised in your first battle when you realize you can only give general commands to your squad, and not individual unit instructions. This doesn’t mean just sitting back and watching battles unfold though, deciding when to attack the enemy squad leader and when to prioritize other units is something that needs to be carefully managed (more on that later). In addition to squad commands, you can also influence the outcome of battles through the use of tarot cards, each of which have their own unique battle effect and are awarded for liberating towns.

Outside of the battles gameplay involves issuing movement commands in order to prepare enemy ambushes, position squads to fight favorable unit match-ups, liberate towns, and to ensure no enemies slipped by our defenses to seize our castle. We should point out that while the enemy AI isn’t particularly strategic, when combined with the level design and difficulty, the gameplay feels well balanced. Even long after we had gotten the hang of the many systems at play, executing our strategy required careful troop movement and tactical thinking. Enemies who punched through our defenses had to be chased down by our faster units, and on occasion we even had to deploy reserve units from our stronghold to avoid cities and temples from being retaken.

Of course doing all of this brings us to the controls of the game, which are thankfully very intuitive and well structured. Being a menu heavy game A and B are used for selecting and deselecting respectively. On the battlefield L can be used to review deployed units and which have active movement commands, while R toggles between the two map zoom levels available. Pressing Start pauses the game, providing the time required to issue commands, while Select gives additional detail on whatever item, equipment, or tarot card is selected.

Overall, while the gameplay and controls appeared simple Ogre Battle expects a surprising amount of management and understanding before we could execute on our strategies successfully.

Story and Presentation (20/20)

Ogre Battle’s writing and dialogue was perhaps the biggest surprise for us. Jumping in we were expecting a pretty run of the mill hero’s story and were caught off guard by how genuinely funny, dark, and engaging the world was.

Right from the very start we were impressed with the games’ unique introduction sequence where instead of simply picking a class for our Lord, we got to answer a series of questions to determine it while also introducing the thematic tarot and god elements of the game.

Once in the action we also immediately appreciated how the strategic requirement of liberating towns was tied together with the world building. It’s a smart and consistent way to deliver exposition and strategic hints outside of direct character interactions, and we found it really helped to create a story driven motivation for the gameplay.

Combining all this with humorous dialogue, like when the werewolf boss politely asked us if we could come back at night, and some surprisingly dark backstories on the atrocities the empire had committed, like burning surrendering forces alive in the Pogrom forest… yikes, and it wasn’t long before we were fully invested in our rebellion.

Mirroring the well executed story is the game’s essentially perfect presentation. In a game focused so heavily on unit management, the intuitive menus, clear unit icons, and well laid out interfaces are well designed even by modern standards. Overall the story and presentation really help elevate Ogre Battle from game to art.

Systems and Design (19/20)

If we had to pick one word for the systems of Ogre Battle it would have to be “Deep”. While there are many systems we could talk about, the two most interesting ones in the game are definitely the army management and the battlefield defeat system.

In the case of the first system, army management, we enjoyed all aspects of it including the squad composition, formation, and unit/class leveling mechanics. And while we can’t possibly cover even one of these to the depth it deserves, just know that the sheer variety of unit classes and resulting squads is what really makes Ogre Battle shine. Notably, while not all classes are equal in strength or utility, we were impressed that we were never felt forced into building our squads in a particular way to secure our victories.

In the case of the second system, battlefield defeat, this was undoubtedly the most satisfying of the game mechanics implemented. Since battles between squads are a limited number of turns and the losing side will be knocked back on the map, we discovered that if we wanted to successfully kill a particularly tough or fast squad, we couldn’t just throw units at them because when we eventually killed their leader they would simply return to base for a new one and come back at full strength.

Instead we needed both an attacking force that could out damage them but also a squad positioned behind them to knock them into and cut off their retreat. This system in particular forces you to strategically position your units, and the rewarding feeling of successfully pulling off a ‘bounce chain’ to defeat a tough enemy squad really can’t be overstated.

Impressively, these systems aren’t just interesting in isolation either and as we played the subtler interactions between them became apparent. Unit classes determined our squad composition, which impacted how we deployed our troops, which influenced their alignment, which in turn impacted what classes they could become, which influenced our squad composition, at which point the cycle began all over again.

Summary (94/100)

Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen offers a compelling fantasy strategy RPG experience, where players shape the story and outcomes through their choices and actions. From its fantastic orchestral soundtrack and powerful sound effects to its detailed artwork and smooth animations the game has very few aspects which might frustrate or turn away the modern player. The engaging story surprises with both humor and tragedy, while the intuitive presentation enhances immersion. Gameplay is interesting and revolves around strategic troop management, with tarot cards adding depth to its battles, and the deep systems of army management and battlefield defeat offering rewarding challenges for anyone willing to invest the time in this impressive title.