Poll of the Day > Month of the Ogre 25: Ogre Battle is a fine RPG, but is it a bad strategy game?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Building up units and heroes and all the dialogue and interesting political stuff... iz good.

But rolling over entire armies with a god unit is more RPG than strategy.

...

In MotBQ the army strategy was a little different. Every unit type the enemy can spawn has its own custom orders of desired waypoints - and as such they'll rarely free lost towns or pursue your idle units. When a unit is destroyed or returns to base the enemy has a finite number of funds to replace their units... which is why it seems like sometimes the enemy has unlimited units despite how many you destroy: Slaying the leader and having them return to base may be a solid tactical move, but reviving just the leader is a relatively low cost move... a total wipeout of a unit bears the highest cost and drains the enemy resources the most.

Of course, there are a few missions where the enemy funds never seem to deplete... this is because CERTAIN units (Ogres, Gares, etc) don't have a hiring cost - and other units have very low hiring costs, so the enemy can send many many more of them.

...

It's different in Ogre Battle 64 where every map has a fixed number of specific units as well as triggers for specific reinforcements/brige destructions/etc... instead of a unit working alone according to a unit-type script the enemy has a better grasp of team strategy and will try to press their advantages when they can (which is almost never since the enemy is usually weak). As such when you eliminate whole units they tend to never come back, and routed units tend to be obsolete. However, individual units are a LOT more likely to make actually good moves like bait your units away from objectives while a second unit captures (as soon as the third mission even) and are more likely to gather a large force and sieege your HQ (something you'll almost never see since the trigger for it is rare... you have to have nothing on your HQ while controlling only the closest 2 towns to the enemy HQ)

On top of this, individual maps have more minor objectives; such as escort quests, merchant quests, protecting a bridge, capturing a scout, and so on... almost like campaign missions in normal RTSs

---

Lokarin posted...

But rolling over entire armies with a god unit is more RPG than strategy.

I can't recall, are you actively playing the game right now? or just watching videos of it? (that seems odd)

do you know, is it the case that you can roflstomp the enemy and not lose tons of alignment? it's "supposed" to be that if you do that, you'll nosedive your alignment. I do vaguely recall that the gain from being high alignment VS low alignment offset that a lot (and also vaguely recall that certain maps with holy units were very difficult for that reason (since all of a sudden you can't slaughter them without huge penalties).

otherwise I think you're right that the gameplay is a little weak on strategy (which personally I don't mind since I'm more of a "role-player" than "power gamer" anyway); or at least certain kinds of strategy (unit placement and counter-movement). the strategy is more about army composition, army growth, and how you deal with the opponent's army composition.

(imagine playing a 1v1 vs another human player... that would sure be a different experience...)

---

Sahuagin posted...

I can't recall, are you actively playing the game right now? or just watching videos of it? (that seems odd)

Not actively playing:

I do know that being overpowered drops your alignment, but that's typically not an outright victory condition... although it does affect quest interactions

---

This is cool. I had 2 PS1 games called Ogre Battle but played completely differently. One was like FFT but slower (and not as good, though it was still good) and the other plays out how you explain in the OP.

Man is this THE game if you like micromanaging your units though. Disgea has probably claimed the crown now but I was always constantly screwing around with unit formation and who had which items and which tarot cards to use and etc.. IIRC there were even little vampire units that would be useless coffins during the day haha. I should try and dig it up sometime, it was lots of fun.

---

Black_Crusher posted...

One was like FFT but slower

Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together

Black_Crusher posted...

Man is this THE game if you like micromanaging your units though. Disgea has probably claimed the crown now but I was always constantly screwing around with unit formation and who had which items and which tarot cards to use and etc.. IIRC there were even little vampire units that would be useless coffins during the day haha. I should try and dig it up sometime, it was lots of fun.

Ogre Battle 64 is a sequel like that, it's pretty fun, lots of micromanaging.

---

Black_Crusher posted...

This is cool. I had 2 PS1 games called Ogre Battle but played completely differently. One was like FFT but slower (and not as good, though it was still good) and the other plays out how you explain in the OP.

Man is this THE game if you like micromanaging your units though. Disgea has probably claimed the crown now but I was always constantly screwing around with unit formation and who had which items and which tarot cards to use and etc.. IIRC there were even little vampire units that would be useless coffins during the day haha. I should try and dig it up sometime, it was lots of fun.

Ya, for all the Disgaea sequels are worth - I get the most out of the first one due to the massssssssssive intrigue the item world brings

---

honestly I should give Ogre Battle another try, I dismissed it cause the world units were just grey statues lulz, I was spoiled by the OB64.

---

darcandkharg31 posted...

honestly I should give Ogre Battle another try, I dismissed it cause the world units were just grey statues lulz, I was spoiled by the OB64.

Ya, I wish I had MotBQ or even Clingy.

---

Lokarin posted...

Ya, I wish I had MotBQ or even Clingy.

*loads up rom*

*laughs at Lok*

---

darcandkharg31 posted...

*loads up rom*

*laughs at Lok*

Ya, my bro teases me for that, too; that I don't rom things

---

Lokarin posted...

Ya, my bro teases me for that, too; that I don't rom things

Good for you, enough pirates in the sea!

I actually still might have an Ogre Battle spin off somewhere around here but it's a gba game. IIRC each unit could win achievements or something similar. I'll give these games one thing that's sorely missing these days: Hidden items on the maps, sometimes under grass you gotta burn first with fire spells and etc. I had a lot of fun with Stella Glow for the 3DS but that game had zero hidden stuff like this.


---