As the company that gets you yourPersonafix, and by association, the Shin Megami Tensei games from which Persona spun off, publisher Atlus has been plenty busy drawing in new fans lately,what with remastersofPersona 3 PortableandPersona 4 Goldenavailable on Game Pass. Persona 5’s mass appeal has extended even beyond the select subsection of JRPG gamers, with its too-cool-for-Japanese-high-school jazz soundtrack and its flashy, metaphysical costuming. It was my entry into a series that I’d been putting off playing for way too long. But when I first booted up that game, I was met with a company logo that drew me back to one of my favorite games of yesteryear — one that I haven’t seen the likes of since.
I’m talking about Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, an underappreciated gem from a Nintendo era when numerating sequels was a confusing and tricky business. And just like with Persona, I showed up late to the party, because there had already been a SNES game titled Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, which I managed to pass by despite that metal AF name.
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But I’m not gonna let the dorky “64” in the title ruin my nostalgia for this one, because I still come back to it from time to time, and it absolutely holds up 22 years later — mainly because no one’s bothered to replicate its magic since then. (Suikoden 3’s army battlescame close, but they’re too few and far between to really count). From its innovative mix of real-time strategy and turn-based tactics to its immersive squad management and unit evolution, this is a game I can’t stay away from. Come, let me show you around the war camp.
Ogre Battle 64 follows the story of Magnus Gallant, son of General Ankiseth Gallant, who’s just graduated the military academy for the southern region of the Kingdom of Palatinus, which itself is subject to the Holy Lodis Empire. He’s passively selected to lead a small army to put down a rebellion, but after seeing the plight of the people firsthand, he soon receives the task of executing the leader of the rebellion and pulls an about-face, instead leading an army against his own country, his father, and his best friend, Prince Yumil.
Each mission begins at a blue-outlined base camp, with a bunch of red-rimmed, enemy controlled villages and towns dotting your way to the level’s boss and your goal. Aside from giving your units a place to restore their stamina (lest they fall asleep during a march and have to pitch a tent in the middle of a battlefield), you may also liberate these towns by occupying them with troops of a similar alignment (or have the people turn against you by getting it all wrong). For example, a lawless town doesn’t want a bunch of paladins and clerics driving out its standing army, but the people will be much more welcoming if you send in chaotic units like dark knights and sorceresses, and your happy ending is dependent on your ability to put the right people in the right place.
And you’ll have to do that before the battle too. I get a little obsessive with Ogre Battle 64, but I probably spend more time on the preparation screen than I do in battle, forming my five-person (or fewer, if you’re using large monsters) units with the right balance of lawful and chaotic alignment, bestowing special weapons upon my best performers, and managing the evolutions of hundreds of troops, from leveling wizards up to archmages or thunder dragons to quetzalcoatluses.
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Individual skirmishes will play out differently depending on where your troops are placed. For example, Paladins use three powerful sword attacks from the front row, or two healing or elemental attack spells from the back row, so its important not to let an enemy flank you or attack from behind. While you control where your parties (up to 10 at a time) move around the map, the action will play out on its own, generally, with you being able to interrupt the action for commands like ordering a retreat or unleashing a devastating attack from one of your magical, rechargeable crystals. It really raises the stakes, and it’s an immersive battle simulator, because you’re not playing as all these dozens of characters — you’re their general, preparing them as best you can, issuing them orders, and praying you’ve done right by them enough to keep them alive and ensure victory.
Even though there’s a war that threatens to take the county’s autonomy and an evil sage’s plot to tear down the bond between this world and the nether, it all still plays at a relaxed pace, so you can take your time searching cleared battlefields for loot you may have missed, hunting down monsters to tame and add to your ranks, or unveiling the legend of divine dragon Grozz Nuy.
Time keeps marching on, sure, but there’s no consequences to dilly-dallying — there’s even an item you can only obtain as a present from your army celebrating your 100th birthday. I first played Ogre Battle 64 at roughly the same time I picked upthe first Fallout— a series I actually did play from the beginning, thank you very much — and playing at my own pace was a nice change from having to find the damn water chip for Vault 13 before too many days pass and it’s an automatic game over.
While I’m content to keep on coming back to this game as long as my N64 (or my backup N64) holds out, it would be nice to see a sequel someday. Or, hey, maybe a remake? After all, Atlus has been reviving a bunch of old Persona titles, so if I’m lucky and patient enough, maybe I’ll finally get my Ogre Battle 65.
