#9

Ogre  Battle: March of the Black Queen (Originally released in 1993 on the SNES)

Before there was Tactics Ogre, there was Ogre Battle. It followed the same storyline that TO had, but it was set in the past because, well...it was the older game! OB was more of an all out war based SRPG then most the others of its genre. I guess it would fall under the category of a simulated all out war. The premise was that the kingdom of Zenobia, which was once a lovely and rich area somehow became corrupted by the Black Queen, Endora. Through witchcraft and trickery she corrupted the once proud kingdom into a heap of broken down subsections which were all slums. She killed the king and queen and made Zenobia a pawn of her kingdom, Highland. No one could stand up to her might and most who did ended up dead or missing. Enter the protagonist. A youth by the name of Destin, who takes a small unit of rag tag nobodies and forms the liberation army. It was foretold by the prophetic seer, Warren that Destin would be able to rise up, unite the lands, and reclaim Zenobia.But first, Warren had to test you.


Like I said, this game is unique because you don't do any actual fighting. The game does it all for you or rather, you are given a grid and you can place units on that grid and depending where they are assigned their abilities and number of attacks change. You are allowed only a select amount of units per grid or battle party and when you have those arranged you can have them venture out and conquer the land. Every map is large, but most of the early stages are relatively small so you can grow accustomed to the game mechanics. There are towns and temples, all of which are enemy controlled. It is up to you to send out multiple units and to reclaim those areas for the liberation army. Now there is a catch. If you leave a liberated area open, the enemy can reclaim that area which causes you to lose reputation. Oh yeah, there is a reputation meter and the higher it gets the more loved you are by the people. The lower it gets and the game makes you out to be a tyrant which alters the endings. To make your reputation go you up must liberate cities with units that have high alignment and charisma. To raise those stats you must fight enemies that are stringer then you and become stronger yourself. Its a simple, yet tricky system to work. If you allow one of your units to get too powerful, when they crush an enemy unit, their alignment and charisma will start to drop and if you constantly slaughter weak or helpless units you will reach a zero rating relatively shortly. This game demands supreme balance. 

Of course like any SRPG there are tons of classes to choose from and this game lets you promote characters that have reached a certain criteria. A knight with high alignment can become a paladin, or if he has low charisma he can become a beast tamer. It all depends how you want your team to grow. Some units require special items to be allowed to promote. You even get special classes like Dragoons, which rank among the top of your physical damage output units.

The game can be played in a number of different ways and you can get numerous different endings with just a slight change in your progression. This is a truly fun game to replay becau8se its almost never the same. The game super easy if you decide to become evil because you can just have all your units overpowered with almost no repercussions. there are tons of bonus, and even Easter eggs such as the Island of Avalon being a map and a quest to find the Holy Grail.

Ogre Battle (along with the 64 title) is a game that is unlike anything else on the market. Its a fun game of risk with RPG and fantasy elements all bundled up in one package.