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Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
Nintendo 64
I always name a paladin squad leader "Freddy"
4.5/5 stars
It's such a sad thing that this game is so under-played. And I blame its under-the-radar status on why the series has essentially disappeared.
It's an extremely deep game, with well over 50 character classes (aside from special story characters) consisting of male, female, undead, dragons, golems, and more that you can spread into multiple squads of allies. You can deploy as many as 10 squads into a single mission to build a large, well-rounded army, or deploy just a few and concentrate all the experience and create 4-5 super-soldier squads to run through the game. I have a hard time even keeping it to 10 units because I enjoy trying to use as many classes as possible.
Squads are formed on a 3x3 grid broken down into front, middle, and back rows. A squad can consist of a maximum of 5 human-sized soldiers, and fewer if you start including monsters such as a dragon in the squad. Human-sized characters take up 1x1 spaces on the board, while larger monsters take up more space. The attack patterns of your men depend on what their equipment is and what row they are in, so building an optimal squad can be very involved. As the squads level up they get promoted and open up new classes for your characters. The elite classes really make you feel like it was worth the time you put into developing the character because they're so powerful.
Battles are carried out automatically when two parties meet on the battlefield map, with the player interrupting to escape battle, change the battle strategy, or use a special attack, though these options can be modified. Battles usually don't take a lot of time, so before too long you're back to the battlefield orchestrating the battle again. There's quite a bit of strategy between fights, between trying to flank the enemies, using terrain to escape quickly, or staying in a town for the bonuses in a fight while it's attacked by multiple invaders. You can revisit old battle areas and roam around looking for monsters to add to your army to bolster the ranks in between missions.
The story here is quite good, with a cast of great characters and a few twists just to keep things fresh. Decisions you make can influence extra characters joining your party, and the classes available for every character. There are multiple endings, based on decisions throughout the game as well. You'll definitely get your money out of this game, as I've never had a playthrough shorter than 60 hours... though I'm a bit OCD playing the game and can't help but try and do everything.
The 2D sprites of the characters will look familiar to anyone who's played Ogre Battle games before. Overall the graphics are bright and clear. The character classes are varied and each has a look of it's own. During battle, the devastating magic attacks look truly punishing and can be great to watch.
Any strategy-RPG fan really needs to find a copy of this game and play it. Possibly the least appreciated game on the Nintendo 64, including Jet Force Gemini. It's a shame this series hasn't carried on throughout subsequent generations, but after playing this, at least you'll know it wasn't for lack of quality.
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