Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen

1993 · Strategy RPG · SNES

Overview

Ogre Battle (1993) is Yasumi Matsuno's real-time tactical RPG, in which a Liberation Army sends squads across a map to free towns from the Zeteginean Empire. Its 13 endings depend on the army's reputation.

Deep Dive

The player leads the Liberation Army against Empress Endora's Zeteginean Empire, which is influenced by the dark magic of the sage Rashidi. Squads of up to five fighters are sent across the map to liberate towns and temples, and the battles play out automatically according to the chosen tactics, with tarot cards played during combat. Each character has an alignment, and the revolution's reputation decides which of the 13 endings the player reaches. There are 25 main stages and four hidden ones.

Developer Story

Yasumi Matsuno directed and designed the game at Quest, pitching it as a real-time tactical rival to Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Masaharu Iwata, Hitoshi Sakimoto and Hayato Matsuo composed the music. It was released in Japan on 12 March 1993, and Enix America brought it to North America in May 1995 in a print run of about 25,000.

Did You Know?

The title comes from two songs by Queen, a band Matsuno liked.
The Japanese print run was doubled from 200,000 to 400,000 copies and still sold out soon after release.