Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen/Gameplay

Introduction: a strategy game
In Ogre Battle: the March of the Black Queen (Ogre Battle MBQ or OB:MBQ) you control a full army in a war campaign across the fantasy world of Zeteginea. During the game, you will command your units in order to defeat increasingly stronger enemies on increasingly less favorable terrains; you will also be able to recruit more units with useful fighting and logistic skills.

Ogre Battle: the March of the Black Queen is a strategy video game with role-playing elements.

Three aspects that can define the genre of RPGs are listed here, and they partially apply to Ogre Battle as well:


 * 1) Text is an essential part of the game, and the characters have to talk and interact with non-evil characters to proceed in the adventure;
 * 2) There are permanent upgrades, in the form of enhancements of the various attributes of the characters (strength, magic etc.);
 * 3) There is freedom of exploration, all the areas are connected by an "overworld", and areas that have been previously cleared can usually be re-visited; in other words, the game is non-linear.

As stated above, Ogre Battle is mainly a strategy game, and only two of the three RPG aspects apply to it, as follows:
 * 1) Dialogues are mostly flavor text. Depending on some of your answers, though, you may or may not obtain some items, or you can affect your reputation (good/bad) and alignment (holy/evil);
 * 2) Fighting attributes progressively increase, but reputation and alignment may also decrease, depending on your playing style; in other words, depending on the role you play.
 * 3) The freedom of exploration is missing: all the warzones are rectangular and connected not by an overworld (as in Final Fantasy VII), but by a map (as in Super Mario Bros. 3, that is not a RPG at all).

Game start
The game begins with the seer Warren using ../Tarot Cards/ to ask a series of questions to determine your suitability as leader of the revolution. There are several questions out of a fixed set which are randomly asked, each of which is associated with one of the twenty-two Tarot cards of the Major Arcana. Each question has three possible answers: one righteous, one evil, and one neutral. After you finish answering the questions, Warren wishes luck for the revolution and the game begins.

Modes of play
Ogre Battle has three main modes of play: the world map (management and logistic), the tactical map, and the battle screens. On the world map, the player can manage his characters changing their class, re-ordering them into different units, and erasing them. The player can also save and load the game, as well as manage items. In addition, the world map is where the player chooses the next stage, which can either be an already completed stage or a new stage.

Tactical map
Once the player has selected a stage, action shifts to the tactical map. Here, the player can deploy units and move them around. Each unit has a cost associated with it which must be paid to deploy the unit and every day at noon thereafter. There is a limit on the number of units which can be deployed at one time. Time passes on the tactical map alternating between day and night. Characters with high alignment fight better during the day while those with low alignment fight better at night. There are also towns and temples which can be liberated by units. Upon liberation, a random tarot card is drawn which can affect either the liberating unit's statistics or the reputation parameter. In addition, liberated towns provide income every noon which can be used to buy items (some towns have shops which can be used when a unit is stationed there) or pay for unit costs. In addition, there are often hidden towns, temples, or items which can be found by moving a unit close to the appropriate location.

Battle
One of the most important aspects of the tactical map is combat with enemy units. Each stage has a number of enemy units which attempt to re-capture the player's towns and temples.

If a player's unit gets too close to an enemy unit, a battle ensues. Characters alternate taking actions with the battle ending after one round of combat (many units can attack multiple times per round). During a battle, a player does not directly control his unit, but selects a tactic for the unit to follow (Best, Strong, Weak, Leader) which the characters follow when choosing who to attack. The player can also use stored tarot cards (which can cause damage or have a special effect), retreat, or change tactics during a battle.

The unit which caused the most damage is the victor and forces the other unit to retreat. If the unit leader is defeated, the unit will invariably retreat to its army base; if an enemy unit leader is defeated, the unit retreats and is restored with a new leader; if one of your unit leaders is defeated, the unit retreats and you have to either resurrect or change the leader, then spend money if you want to deploy the unit again.

World map
This map is visible between battle stages. There, you can choose the next destination of your army. You can also manage and reorganize your units.

Classes
One of the most important aspects of Ogre Battle is the class system. Each character has a class which determines the characteristics of that character. There are over 75 different classes available in Ogre Battle, but any given character is limited to a subset depending on his/her initial class. Within a class tree, there are usually level, alignment, and often charisma requirements to change class. In addition, some classes also require the use of a special item. Finally, some trees are unique in that they have separate branches in their tree and characters can be demoted to move along a different path.

Apart from attribute increases at level-up, a character's class also determines how the character moves and fights. Each character has a terrain type where he/she move fastest and fight the best (some classes also get additional attacks), with flying characters able to move quickly over all terrain. In addition, each class has a set of attacks characters can perform, ranging from physical attacks targeting one opponent to magical attacks targeting a whole unit.

Despite the title, there are no Ogre classes nor Ogre characters in the game.

Alignment
In Ogre Battle alignment indicates how good or evil a character is. The scale runs from 0 to 100, the higher the number, the more good the character is.

When characters with high alignment liberate towns, it will raise your reputation (high charisma is also required). Characters with high alignment will be weak against dark attacks but strong against white attacks. They will fight better in the day and worse at night. Alignment can be raised by defeating enemies stronger than yourself, defeating ghosts and other dark creatures, and drawing tarot cards which raise your alignment directly. Once your alignment is high it is recommended that you not exceed the level of the enemies you are fighting, keep even with them. Characters which naturally start out with high alignment include clerics, knights, angels, and samurais.

Low alignment characters are more evil. They fight better at night and are weak against light attacks. Liberating towns with these type of characters will lower your reputation, especially if their charisma is also low. Alignment will drop when you defeat high alignment characters such as clerics and angels or when you defeat characters who are much weaker than you. Do not liberate towns with them unless you want an undesirable ending. There is nothing wrong with having these types of characters. One benefit of using low alignment characters is that you can raise your levels as high as you want and don't have to worry about lowering your alignment because it is already at rock bottom. Characters with naturally low alignment include ghosts, skeletons, and demons. Human characters such as wizards and ninjas have moderately low alignment but they can go either way. Evil Ones are human characters with very low alignment.

A good mix of high and low alignment soldiers is the best way to beat the game. Just keep low alignment characters with low and high with high. Just use your low alignment characters to slaughter enemy units while your high alignment characters travel the map liberating towns.

Stages
There are thirty levels to be played, five of which aren't required to beat the game. The map where you choose a location allows for some forks, and so some variation is possible in how the stages are played.

The non-required levels are:
 * Muspelm, Organa, Antanjyl and Shiguld: they are special stages that can only be unlocked by completing a sidequest.
 * Dragon's Haven: this final stage is accessed by naming your hero "Fireseal" at the beginning of the game; it is sometimes referred to as the Easter egg stage.

Note that the game can be completed without finishing all the stages. There are twelve different endings to the main game, depending on the conduct of the player during the course of the game.