Wiikly Wares: Ogre Battle, Family & Friends Party
by David Hinkle 
{ Mar 2nd 2009 at 10:00AM } 
Virtual Console
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (SNES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): The classic strategy title finally comes to the Virtual Console. Personally, our own experience with the franchise has been mainly through the N64 sequel, so we're anxious to give this one a whirl. Look for it in our VC in Brief segment later today.
WiiWare
Family & Friends Party (Gammick Entertainment, 1-8 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): Billed as "an interactive board game," this WiiWare title sounds a lot like Mario Party in its description and supports up to eight players.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sohcahtoa @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:10AM
OMG! what the hell happened to this franchise/title?!
I adore this game back in the days
adam @ Mar 2nd 2009 2:07PM
Seriously!!! can you imagine playing this with a wiimote?! no more dragging around with the joystick or d-pad you just point! i'm in for 1
Drahken @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:32AM
Ogre Battle! Yes! Rock on! (quite literally. The name, subtitle, the subtitle of the 7th game, Let Us Cling Together, are named after Queen songs. And Queen is the best, rockinest band ever. Also, the ingame Rhyan Sea is named after one of my top 3 Queen songs, Seven Seas of Rhye.)
I wondered the same thing for a years myself, sohcahtoa, you prince of triangles. So I looked it up a little while ago. The developer, Quest, was bought and absorbed/dismantled by Square in 2002. Most of the key players are still there, mostly working on FF Tactics titles, but Ogre Battle's creator, left in 2005, after writing and directing Final Fantasy XII. Since then, he apparently has a writing credit on MadWorld and is working on some unspecified project. But since Quest is no more, that most likely means no more Ogre Battle. Which is a real shame.
Santos L. Halper @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:34AM
Ogre Battle and The March of the Black Queen are both Queen songs. Coincidence?
Santos L. Halper @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:36AM
Damn, Drahken called it before me.
SuburbGuerrilla @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:35AM
O RLY?
JeffyP00 @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:45AM
Pic is from the PS1 re-release... Just sayin'... Awesome freaking game though! Big time sucker though...
David Hinkle @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:04AM
You would not believe how hard it is to find a suitable Ogre Battle image.
Roto13 @ Mar 2nd 2009 2:17PM
When in doubt, emulate.
mr nimblewick @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:55AM
Is this the one that was released on GBA?
David Hinkle @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:04AM
Nope, this is the O.G. SNES game.
Suichimo @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:57AM
You're thinking of Knight of Lodis which is more akin to the FFT series than Ogre Battle, despite it being an OB/TO title.
wudaheckman @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:17AM
what are the similarities/differences between this game and the one for N64?
Thats the one i played round the clock.
I really don't like the GBA, but that was "tactics".
Suichimo @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:59AM
Its pretty much the same type of gameplay and the only thing that is really different, as far as I know, is the graphics. Also, I don't think there are any Elem Pedras but I haven't played enough of it to know.
Yourself @ Mar 2nd 2009 12:12PM
I once thought OB64 was indisputably my favorite game ever, and then I played Ogre Battle. While it is not empirically the better title, there are a lot of elements which are significantly stronger than the sequel.
Cons include a bare-bones story (even by SNES standards, the presentation is minimal), some indecipherable graphics (unit icons are tiny yellow sprites that all look identical), and a few cheap tactics by AI opponents (they can return to base after losing a battle and restore ALL health instantaneously).
Nonetheless, the game requires considerably more strategy than N64 installment (which I found to be on the easy side), as enemy units are usually better structured and more appropriately levelled in comparison to your own. The 'Tarot' system provides a lot more interaction for the user during battles - I at first tried to use it like Elem Pedra, but soon realized that you get so many Tarot cards and are so challenged by the enemy that you will probably use one every battle.
Bloody. Great. Game. Buy it. Especially because if we all do, hopefully we'll see 64 as well (and perhaps a sequel? nah, probably not, but wouldn't that be exciting).
Oh, and it's much better than the GBA game (although to anyone who would call that a FFT ripoff, note that the original Final Fantasy Tactics was made by the same studio as the original Ogre Gaiden, which came first.)
Riptor820 @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:48AM
"Gammick Entertainment"
More like Gimmick....
umm....hello??? @ Mar 2nd 2009 2:36PM
sweet. I'm dl'ing OgreBattle.
Naota @ Mar 2nd 2009 3:58PM
i'll wait for the 64 version to pop up
TwEE @ Mar 2nd 2009 4:44PM
Sweet menstruating christ, Ogre Battle?!?! Other then Final Fantasy 6 and some of the games already out for the VC I cant think of another game Id be happier to see.
Great game!
Josh @ Mar 2nd 2009 7:51PM
Wow, shit. Awesome.
sohcahtoa @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:50PM
I think my Wii is slowly becoming a big fat investment of a emulator than a next gen system...
markoff @ Mar 3rd 2009 1:15AM
This game cost me an arm and a leg used a long time ago, and my ex still stole my whole SNES collection another long time ago. This is one of the best games of all time, definately groundbreaking on a console and I have trudged through it more that 5 times. Emulated it at work and beat it 3 of those times. One of the first 'good or evil, you decide', and the system was intriquate. If you leveled one or two killer units and mopped the floor everywhere, you lost good points.