Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber

Gather your troops, polish your sword, and prepare for battle.

An impressive blend of strategy and RPG elements, Ogre Battle 64 builds on the celebrated heritage of two Super NES games, Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre.

In Enix's Ogre Battle for the Super NES, players built teams of wizards, knights, monsters and more, then set them out to battle the evil Empress Endora and her minions, who were holding the peaceful folk of Zenobia in their thrall. Tactics Ogre shifted the emphasis from unit movements and conditions to battlefield strategies. Although never formally released in North America, the import version of Tactics Ogre became an underground hit stateside.

Like the original Ogre Battle, Ogre Battle 64 emphasizes unit movements over a vast world map; but like Tactics Ogre, it requires players to skillfully direct troops in battles. Players must carefully develop individual warriors, master spells, balance unit strengths and cope with a wide variety of terrain. Waging war is only part of the game, though: you also have to search for hidden characters and items, liberate towns and battle bosses.

The game takes place on the continent of Zeteginia, which is home to two neighboring but very different empires. On one side is the Holy Lodis Empire, which swarms with armies of ogres and other fierce warriors. On the other is the Palatinus Kingdom, where the hero of the game, Magnus Gallant, has recently become an officer in the Southern Division of the Palatinean Army.

The Holy Lodis Empire has enslaved the lower classes of the Palatinus Kingdom, while the upper classes do nothing but fight amongst themselves to gain favor with the evil empire. When a group of rebels attempt to abduct the Prince of Palatinus, Magnus realizes that he must rally the people and do everything in his power to crush the Lodis Empire. When you're a person of lordly caliber, it's not easy to sit back and watch your countrymen suffer.

Veterans to the Ogre Battle series will be impressed with the addition of amazing special effects and beautifully rendered 3D environments. Novice gamers will be equally impressed with the game's pleasing visuals, but they will definitely want to take advantage of Ogre Battle's in-depth Tutorial Mode.

One of the best aspects of Ogre Battle 64 is the amount of freedom given to players. The game contains three major scenarios that branch through 35 crucial battles. The way you interact with other characters and your success in battle work together to determine which scenario you follow.

Ogre Battle 64 contains numerous endings, which is a powerful incentive to play the game over and over to discover new wrinkles in the plot. Atlus, the publisher of Ogre Battle 64, estimates that it should take about 50 hours to play through the game each time.

If you're familiar with the Ogre Battle series, you'll recognize some of the units from the previous two games. There are also new classes of allies and enemies, with 30 classes of males, females and monsters. In all, players command up to 94 characters and 200 soldiers in six legions.

Commanding these armies involves equipping your soldiers, setting up battle formations and building up their experience levels. This requires extreme organization and careful planning.

When your troops make contact with an army of ogres, the actual battle plays out automatically. You'll witness awesome real-time fighting sequences, but you don't directly control the participants. Based on your pre-arranged battle formations and war strategies, the CPU calculates the outcome of the conflict.

Players hand-pick individual groups of five characters, who work together in battalions. As you continue to use the same battalion, the members begin to learn how to work as a team. Eventually, these groups learn to cast combination spells which are much more powerful than if the groups were to attack individually.

If your battalion leader gains enough experience points, he or she will eventually become eligible to lead a legion consisting of up to five unique battalions.

At 320 megabits, Ogre Battle 64 is the second-largest game in N64 history. Although there is no multiplayer mode, the single-player game is rich enough to give any four-player Pak a run for its money in the replay value department.

Source:

www.nintendo.com

The Holy Lodis Empire is planning the domination of the entire continent of Zeteginia! It is up to you to raise the flag of revolution and rid the land of the Lodis threat. Make decisions in real-time and take control of numerous characters to prove victorious on the battlefield and regain freedom for all people!

Source:

www.atlus.com