Games like Ogre Battle 64

[tigerusthegreat]

I'm wondering if there are any games out there like Ogre Battle 64, particularly in the aspect of levelling up soldiers, changing their classes, and the like.

TBH, I enjoy that micromanagement aspect of the game more than the tactical combat or anything else. I like seeing my dragon grow from a baby into a wyrm, and seeing my soldiers become more powerful and change into an elite class.

Something like what Heroes of Might and Magic does for each hero would be interesting as well, except at the soldier level.

I'm probably fishing in an empty pond here.

[The Dark Fiddler]

I'm wondering if there are any games out there like Ogre Battle 64, particularly in the aspect of levelling up soldiers, changing their classes, and the like.

TBH, I enjoy that micromanagement aspect of the game more than the tactical combat or anything else.

Hmm... Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Advance, and Tactics A2 seem like obvious choices here (PSone/PSP, GBA, DS respectively). You level up soldiers, change their classes, give them abilities based on what weapons they have equipped, and unlock more advanced classes.

Disgaea (any of them, plenty of 'em) seems like it'd fit too, but I didn't much care for the game and abandoned it a few hours in, so I can't say for sure it'd be a great fit.

Fire Emblem, maybe? It's a bit more combat, with your impact on the characters not as in-depth, but once they level up enough you can change or upgrade their classes...

Devil Survivor 1 and 2 (DS, or 3DS for DS Overclocked which is an updated version) has the tactical RPG part down, and is a really solid game over all, but the focus of building your forces is more in buying a fusing demons, trying to cover their weaknesses and make well-balanced teams. The human characters don't change much, aside from leveling up (and you only control the main character's stats), but I feel like the demons might be in-depth enough for you?

[Tylorious]

I'm sorry to say that I have not been able to find a game like this. But you may find luck in a PS2 game called Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land. It is made by the same people...Atlus I believe. You could also try Battle for Wesnoth or Land of Legends, though I can't quite remember what systems they are on. A quick google search would tell you what systems they use. Your best bet would be Wizardry though. Also, if you haven't played the Breath of Fire series, it has scratched my ogre battle itch slightly, but it still just doesn't quite do it. We could make our own though!

[tigerusthegreat]

I'm sorry to say that I have not been able to find a game like this. But you may find luck in a PS2 game called Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land. It is made by the same people...Atlus I believe. You could also try Battle for Wesnoth or Land of Legends, though I can't quite remember what systems they are on. A quick google search would tell you what systems they use. Your best bet would be Wizardry though. Also, if you haven't played the Breath of Fire series, it has scratched my ogre battle itch slightly, but it still just doesn't quite do it. We could make our own though!

I've considered it a couple times, and once I get any real free time again I will probably look into it.

But, given that that will be after I finish school next year, I wouldn't hold your breath.

[Tylorious]

I've considered it a couple times, and once I get any real free time again I will probably look into it.

But, given that that will be after I finish school next year, I wouldn't hold your breath.

Well just let me know when you do. I hope you enjoy it when you play :)

[tigerusthegreat]

Well just let me know when you do. I hope you enjoy it when you play :)

I probably won't enjoy it very much, unfortunately. I enjoy figuring out how stuff works in games and optimizing it....knowing all the code would make that impossible.

But I will enjoy the heck out of figuring out how to make all of it work.

[Tylorious]

I probably won't enjoy it very much, unfortunately. I enjoy figuring out how stuff works in games and optimizing it....knowing all the code would make that impossible.

But I will enjoy the heck out of figuring out how to make all of it work.

Understood, I made a FF Tactics type game with mechs, and even though my friends like it i just can't play.

[Mando Knight]

Fire Emblem: Awakening is probably the best of the Fire Emblem games to date...

[LansXero]

Tactics Ogre : Let Us Cling Together and Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis perhaps?

Also, the Front Mission 3 for PSX was very much like that: You get a team of 8 (or 9?) mech pilots, train up their individual skills and also tune up and customize their mechs.

[TaRix]

After a quick scan and a not-as-quick scan of this thread, I couldn't help but notice the absence of... Ogre Battle. It was a SNES release, subtitled (in game) as "March of the Black Queen", I think. Gameplay is almost identical to the 64 title.

It is available on Nintendo's Virtual Console (via Wii, not sure about the portable systems) for about $8. An original SNES cart sells for several times more, as Enix didn't make and ship too many stateside.

[LansXero]

After a quick scan and a not-as-quick scan of this thread, I couldn't help but notice the absence of... Ogre Battle. It was a SNES release, subtitled (in game) as "March of the Black Queen", I think. Gameplay is almost identical to the 64 title.

It is available on Nintendo's Virtual Console (via Wii, not sure about the portable systems) for about $8. An original SNES cart sells for several times more, as Enix didn't make and ship too many stateside.

ISnt that the same game?

[TaRix]

Oh no. 64's a different chapter. In fact, the (likely) main character in the SNES version can join up in Ogre Battle 64. And Deneb makes an appearance somewhere.
I know Lans is about the first guy you recruit in the SNES version, but I don't remember seeing him in OB64. (It's been a long while, and on a rental. Finishing it on a rental makes for a marathon session and fuzzy short-term memory.)

Different characters, different story, mostly the same mechanics.
I think 64's was subtitled "Persons of Lordly Caliber", but I might be mixing it up with the GBA title.

[erikun]

You're looking for Soul Nomad and the World Eaters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Nomad_%26_the_World_Eaters). Trust me, I was surprised when I found it too and noticed the similarites to the Ogre Battle franchise. Individual characters have their own levels, stats, and equipment, and units are composed of anywhere from one to five characters with a chosen squad leader. Units move around on a grid system (rather than the psudo-RTS of Ogre Battle) and fights happen automatically, just like in Ogre Battle. Also, in true NIS style, you can both have the standard "storyline" fights along with a bunch of optional side-fights to level up you troops to absurd levels.

The biggest difference is that Soul Nomad does not have the Alignment/Reputation system. You go from area to area, fighting enemies and taking out bosses. You aren't liberating towns or holding them.


Other than that? Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen was the first game, and out of the SNES, PS1, and Wii Virtual Console. Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber was the n64 game. There was also another Ogre Battle title on the Neo Geo Pocket, titled Legend of the Zenobia Prince, although good luck with that as it is Japan-only. Oh, and if you like the Ogre Battle series itself, there are two related games titled Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on the SNES/PS1/PSP, and The Knight of Lodis on the GBA. They behave more like the Final Fantasy Tactics/Shining Force/Fire Emblem sort of system, though, different from how Ogre Battle plays.

[Philemonite]

I was gonna suggest March of the Black Queen, but somebody beat me to it. Same goes for Soul Nomad, and since it's NIS game the humor is crazy, in a good way.:smallwink:

Nice to see someone else played Person of Lordly Caliber.:smallbiggrin:

[Maryring]

Oh no. 64's a different chapter. In fact, the (likely) main character in the SNES version can join up in Ogre Battle 64. And Deneb makes an appearance somewhere.
I know Lans is about the first guy you recruit in the SNES version, but I don't remember seeing him in OB64. (It's been a long while, and on a rental. Finishing it on a rental makes for a marathon session and fuzzy short-term memory.)

Different characters, different story, mostly the same mechanics.
I think 64's was subtitled "Persons of Lordly Caliber", but I might be mixing it up with the GBA title.

You're correct. The SNES version gave you the option of making your own Lord, but the N64 chapter assumes a male, Neutral-Good Opinion Leader. You also meet Aisha, Saradin, Gilbert and Debonair from the SNES game in OB 64.

So yeah, if you haven't tried the SNES version it's well recommended. It's obviously a bit simpler, but I personally prefer the SNES game. Ogre Battle 64 had some mistakes... like the extreme difficulty of altering alignment.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, altering alignment was pretty frustrating. Didn't it involve defeating units much higher in level than yourself? Or am I thinking of the other thing?

In either case, I second or whatever Final Fantasy Tactics. I also enjoyed Knight of Lodis, but I never could find a copy of the first Tactics Ogre.

Bahamut Lagoon is a good one like it, but it's also Japan only. There's a fan translation of it out there though.

[tyckspoon]

Yeah, altering alignment was pretty frustrating. Didn't it involve defeating units much higher in level than yourself? Or am I thinking of the other thing?


March of The Black Queen (Ogre Battle SNES) was relatively simple, although a pretty big pain to fix alignment if you let somebody's ALI get out of hand before you knew what you were doing. The short of it is:

Killing a higher-level enemy raises Alignment. Killing a lower-level enemy reduces it.
"Evil" classes (undead and demons, mostly) give bonus ALI for killing them. "Good" classes (clerics and angels) give a negative.
It's harder to change from the extremes - a character at 0 or 100 ALI changes much more slowly than one at 50.

It's not hard to get a character's ALI where you want it if you're aware of that stuff going in, but it can be really tricky to correct it once it's already gone too far (the classic case is if you wind up with an early Wizard that is getting all the kills, making him overleveled and plummeting his ALI straight down to 0.. thus making him *too evil* for the promotion to Mage and probably having to rest him for a map or two until the enemies get high enough leveled for him to claw back some ALI from them. That or get lucky and have him in units that manage to pull ALI-increasing Tarots from city liberation.)

[Maryring]

There was also a matter of which units you killed. Killing undead would propel your alignment skyhigh, while killing angels would kill your alignment with it. Still, alignment was much easier to handle in the SNES version. In the N64 version, it feels a lot harder to manipulate to get what I want. And in many fights where I expect to get Ali Up, I would get Ali Down for reasons I still haven't figured out.

At least there's a glitch to give you an infinite amount of alignment changers.

[Triaxx]

I always did a lot of training, so I wouldn't get wiped, and I'd end up with bottomed out ALI because of it.

Solved it by using one high level unit in a bunch of low levels to shift it's alignment.

[erikun]

Yeah, the best way to handle alignment is to have a number of units handy, some with high alignment and some with low alignment. Your high-alignment groups would liberate cities, while your low-alignment groups would take care of stragglers (including angels and low level groups).

I played the heck out of Ogre Battle on the SNES, so have a bunch of little strategies for managing alignment and reputation in that game. I can understand it being difficult if you just played it for levels like a normal RPG, though.

[Led Icarus]

nutaku.com has a game called Kanpani Girls which is about as close to OB 64 I've seen lately, though its somewhat simpler. The company that makes it seems to mostly make 18+ games, however this one isn't.(nutaku.com is under 18, nutaku.net is 18+) Though all that characters are female and when they are defeated it flashes a pic of them w/ their clothes tattered that's the extent of it(no naughty bits are visible, just cleavage).

You play a CEO of a company that awakens in another world in which you start a Mercenary company.

Each character has different star ratings from 1 to 6 which determines their max lvl (1 star is lvl 10, 2 star is 20, etc.) The star rating can also be increased using items and gold so the max lvl can go up. Each character can be part of a 5-woman (all female characters) team arranged in a 3x2 grid similar to the 3x3 in OB64. Each character can be equipped w/ a weapon, armor and an accessory which can upgrade their stats and change their skills. The skill used is also determined by the row they are in, much like in OG64 melee are stronger in the front row while ranged are better in the back. You also have an HQ which gather resources, hire more employees, and build gear. The gear can be sold for gold which is needed for various things (like upgrading the girls).

I would say the biggest differences are:
• You don't wander a map, you click on a quest and the enemy units attack in waves w/ the story mixed in between the waves.
• There aren't alignments to worry about
• There isn't a base unit that all other characters can be made from, there are base classes that every 10 lvls can upgrade to a better version (star rating goes up).
Example: Cleric(1star)>Priestess(2star)>High Priestess(3star) etc. New characters are acquired once a day for free, or by using an item slowly acquired or payed for w/ RL money. The story will also unlock specific characters and each quest will give you a random character. You can layoff extra employees to acquire the items needed to upgrade them.

Overall most of the key parts from OB64 are in this game, the thing that I'm missing the most the the lack of a base soldier to work from.