Has it really been 25 years? Yes, my wizened friends, it has. Back in the year of our lord 2000 (or 1999 if you’re from Japan), if you weren’t still calming down from the trauma of Y2K (still can’t believe nothing happened) you may have been getting completely sucked into one of the few truly amazing RPGs on the Nintendo 64. Because you are a person of lordly caliber. A top of the range model. No skimping on the quality ingredients in your sauce, champ.
Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, besides having a belter of a name, is also a game that had me — and I’m sure plenty more ancient N64 gamers besides — glued to my CRT screen when I should have been down the club dancing to…well, an S Club 7 remix or something.
This real-time strategy classic from Quest (who dissolved into Square Enix in 2003) sees players descend on the Holy Lodis Empire, where a bunch of bad guys are oppressing the people. It’s up to you, through some delightful battling, to raise the revolutionary flag and fight back for the good of the people. Hey, we should try doing that in real life sometime!
The N64 had precious few outstanding RPG experiences of this type for players to enjoy, and certainly in comparison to other consoles of the time, so it’s a good thing that Quest hit it so far out of the park we ended up giving it a 10/10 here at Nintendo Life. Heck that’s one more than we scored the first game, 1993’s Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, and the same score we gave the legendary Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (both reviews for the Virtual Console versions, of course).
There’s a quality mix here of a top-notch story and a battle setup that excels. In fact, having sat through a few hours to get reacquainted with it recently, it really does remain highly playable and enjoyable today, even if it does look and sound distinctly of, well, the Nintendo 64 era. Maybe that’s a good thing!
For an adventure that includes no voice-acting (according to Nintendo, it was already the second-biggest N64 game, so it’s lucky they didn’t try to squeeze that in) whilst presenting its surprisingly affecting story entirely in-game rather than through naff cutscenes, Ogre Battle 64 excels because it makes the clever decision at the offset to remain grounded. Well, as grounded as something called Ogre Battle can be; its story is still relevant today, focusing on politics and issues that still affect us. It’s immediate, it gets to the point and it underscores the action perfectly.
Taking place in the mining colony of Palatinus, the game tells the tale of people who’ve been abused and set to work in terrible conditions to the point that they finally rebel against the empire that’s keeping them down. Magnus (that’s the fella you play as) is initially dispatched as part of a force sent to quell revolutionary disturbances. But things don’t exactly go to the Military’s plan…
From here there are twists and turns aplenty to keep you involved, and it’s surprising to see just how well-handled some of the more difficult topics are. The story keeps things real and they aren’t glazed over, providing an emotional core that keeps it all ticking along very nicely.
All of this is tied to cracking battles of the Ogre Battle variety. The real-time scraps here involve sending out your dinky little troops (up to 50 men, women and beasts in total by the end), made up of the usual array of classes, to locations to gather up treasure, take over settlements and fight as they go. You arrange your selection of troops into a unit or “legion” placing class-types that work best at the front and back in suitable positions and so on and assigning a leader. These legions will then scrap against enemy groups.
Once you’ve been given your orders at the start of each mission, you’ll set out to achieve an objective, and the game is quite free-wheeling in letting you get to this your own way. Battles kick off as and when you happen upon foes, the action plays out automatically, and it’s up to you to ensure that you have your units in a setup that gives them the best chance to come out on top.
There’s a lot of depth here, with loads of moves and skills to use against your opponents; you don’t even necessarily have to physically defeat the enemy, just do enough to push them back and stop them gaining any ground, as you work to take over strongholds and dominate the map you are on by assuming control of towns and such forth. The fact that the battles are real-time helps add a frisson of urgency, and you can feel the desperation as you struggle to keep things moving your way. This is all then strengthened further by a clever ‘Alignment’ system, where your decisions and actions determine what ending of three you get to see.
Are you a man of honour who lets a defeated enemy live, or are you a bit of a bloodthirsty bad’un? Alignment goes so far as to affect the towns and settlements that you take over, as each one has its own set alignment rating. Match this and you’ll be considered to have liberated the peoples there, rather than just having captured them all by force.
This adds plenty of replayability and considered thought processes to proceedings, especially for folks who get properly into the story. And get into it you should, because, besides the fun fighting, it’s really the story and its handling of political matters that keeps this one up top as an all-timer. Ogre Battle 64 doesn’t shy away from things; it’s willing to have you question morals, and as a result it’s got much more to say politically than plenty of modern efforts seem bothered with.
Is it still worth a playthrough today? Absolutely. If you can get over the slightly weathered looks and underwhelming sounds, there’s plenty to recommend here, with engaging gameplay and a narrative that gets the old revolutionary blood pumping. Not that you’d need much help with that these days, most likely.
Played Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber? Let us know how you found it! (If you can still remember)
