Together We Ri... Wait, Different Series: Ultima's Ogre Battle 64 Review!

The Nintendo 64 was a great and successful console thanks to the slew of quality games on the system from first parties and third parties alike. It had fun games from multiple genres, like platforming, fighting, racing, and puzzles. However, one of the few missing genres was the RPG. The N64’s RPG lineup was relatively small compared to its rival the PS1. This is where Ogre Battle 64 comes in. It’s an exclusive RPG made specifically for the N64! Let us see if it holds up to this day!

Story: You are Magnus Gallant. He is a fresh recruit in the Southern Division army, hoping to divert himself away from the talk of his dad’s attempted crime. His first task assigns him to liberate a mine. Once he does so, however, he learns from the enemy about the revolution that is to take place! Little does Magnus know that revolution will be the least of his worries, as eventually Ogres and other monsters previously thought to have been banished return to the world, and soon he’ll have to deal with the Holy Lodis Empire trying to conquer all the lands! What is going on? Who is behind this? Only Magnus will find out as his quest continues…
Story starts off strong, and stays relatively strong throughout. The game quickly presents Magnus himself as someone who is doing his best to do what is right, while doing his best to deal with the Holy Lodis Empire, monsters, and daddy issues. Other characters have personalities too, but none are as fleshed out as Magnus’.
There is a LOT of story in Ogre Battle 64, but the game does allow you to read up on any story elements IG, while already explaining the story quite well.

Gameplay: Welp, there is a LOT of gameplay to explain. I’m not the best at explaining, but I’ll do my best. Here we go!

Ogre Battle 64 is a real-time tactical RPG. The goal is to complete the map objective. This could be several things, but it usually involved taking control of a certain town or stronghold. You do this by controlling your many units in your army across the map. Your army can consist of knights, wizards, valkyries, beasts, DRAGONS, and even the undead if you’d like! Before you do all of that however, you need to go to the organization screen to create your army!
In the organization screen, there are a HUGE amount of things you can do to edit your army. You can form units, add or remove characters, change their equipment, change their classes, add items for them to use, and more. Make sure to learn everything you can about the organization screen, because you will be revisiting it a LOT.

Here is an example of what the Organization Screen looks like!

To form a unit, pick a character able to lead. After that, feel free to add whatever additional characters you’d like. Big characters, like beasts, take up 2 character spaces and cannot be placed next to other characters, and units can only have a max of 5 characters. There is a good amount of freedom and plenty of strategy making each unit. You can have a unit full of knights. You can have Knights and a cleric. You can have a mixture of different characters! Each character in your army has their own strengths and weaknesses to keep in mind, which also means each unit will have strengths and weaknesses. Be wise when making your units, place characters in smart positions, and have either units or characters make up for each other's’ weaknesses! Make sure they are well stocked in items and equipment! There is a lot to keep track of to creating the best army you can create! The organization screen can be access on the map or in the field, but it is best to use it while on the map.
But don’t run off yet, because that’s only part 1! Now we talk about gameplay on the field!
On the field, you are given an objective, which is usually to take over the enemy headquarters. You are also given losing conditions, which will give you a Game Over if met. From there, you are ready to go. You can do many things once the mission has started. You can look around the field, look at enemy units, look at strongholds, but what you’d want to do is start dispatching your units! Once a unit has been dispatched, you can send them to wherever you want. You can even specifically set a unit’s destination to a stronghold, location, or enemy unit. Once you’ve set their destination, they start moving. There is more you can do, like set orders to evade enemies, or make units stand in a certain direction. These actions give you a lot of freedom when controlling units, and can allow you to act out your many strategies, like forming a defensive wall. Contact with enemy units will engage a battle!

BATTLE ENGAGE

Battles are automatic, so you are mostly watching. You can, however, change battle strategy, choose when to retreat, or use a special item called the Elem Pedra to deal more damage. Combat with other units is not as simple as I make it out to be, as combat performance will show how well you have made your units. It is more than just throwing a unit against another one. Some characters will do better VS others, like magic users VS characters with low magic defense, and some units will do better VS other units for multiple other reasons.
You are also capable of taking strongholds for your own. If you do this, you’ll be able to use said strongholds for helping your units rest. Keep all of this in mind while doing your best to complete the main objective!
Gameplay is great, and smart, requiring much thinking and strategy lest you lose. The overall freedom with making units helps a lot too, as you’re able to make a personalized, but powerful army.
The only bad thing I can say about the gameplay is an invisible gameplay mechanic called the Chaos Frame. It is never explained nor mentioned at all. It affects which characters join you and which ending you get.

Graphics and Sound:
Ogre Battle 64 is unique among most old N64 games, as it mostly contains 2D graphics! Most of the 3D is used on the field maps. They may look basic by today, but they don’t look terrible, only aged. The 2D graphics on the other hand, hold up extremely well! Characters sprites sport a rather cutesy chibi like look, while the portraits of said characters look sharper and contrast with the cute character models. Graphics shine the most during battle. Characters animate smoothly on the battlefield, and attacks look crisp and even pretty at times, especially the spells.
The music certainly fits the tone of the game, sounding heroic, grand, and epic. Some tunes are even disturbing or rather calming. It’s a good range of tunes.
A good example of a great tune is Fortune Teller. A tranquil and heavenly tone fills the ears.

Conclusion: Ogre Battle 64 is pretty brilliant. It’s gameplay requires good thinking and is not only fun, but well done. Graphics hold up fantastically, and the game sounds great. It’s worthy of being on the N64 as not only one of the few RPG’s on the system, but one of the best games on the N64.

Score: 9/10