Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber

About Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (1999) is Quest's real-time tactical RPG for the Nintendo 64, the third Ogre Battle game, in which young captain Magnus Gallant leads a revolution across Palatinus.

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber in Depth

The protagonist, Magnus, commands a battalion of up to 50 troops divided into units of up to five, each needing a leader; most humans can lead, but not non-human creatures, soldiers or basic classes such as the Fighter and Amazon, with Gorgons and Saturos the main exceptions. The game is split into chapters, each a mission with objectives set out by the adviser Hugo, usually capturing an enemy stronghold or defeating a particularly strong unit, though his advice on how to deploy units need not be followed. When two units meet on the map, combat plays out automatically on an isometric, pre-rendered battlefield, with several characters acting at once and an array of attacks, critical hits and parries. A unit is disbanded when all its members die, and Magnus's death ends the game.

A class system defines each character's attacks, equipment and statistics, most characters can change class, and many classes work best in particular positions within a unit. Magnus, a recent graduate of the Ischka Military Academy, joins Frederick Raskin's revolution against Palatinus, then faces the Holy Lodis Empire and the Dark Hordes of the Netherworld. Three endings, chaotic, neutral or lawful, depend on the player's Chaos Frame.

Making Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber

After Tactics Ogre, series creator Yasumi Matsuno planned a third game balancing that game's "soft" concepts with the "niche" style of the original Ogre Battle, but he left Quest for Square, where he made Final Fantasy Tactics. Ogre Battle 64 was the first Ogre game Quest made without him. Characters were designed by Toshiaki Kato, and the team found realistic 3D models hard on the hardware. Hayato Matsuo, Masaharu Iwata and Hitoshi Sakimoto composed the music; Sakimoto found the N64's sound environment hard to work with.

Nintendo published it in Japan on 14 July 1999, and Atlus released it in North America on 5 October 2000, adding Controller Pak saves, in limited quantities attributed to a shortage of chips. Reviews were favourable, Famitsu giving it 33 out of 40; GamePro said that beneath its "intimidating interface and plodding pace lies a wealth of strategy". GameSpot noted its sales had "fallen prey" to the N64. It reached PAL regions only on the Wii Virtual Console in 2010.