Ogre Battle: The March Of The Black Queen.

There are few certainties in life and one of them is this: good things are scarce. Here are some of those precious jewels with which i was fortunate to play into years ago when I was in high school.

On the continent of Zeteginea, Empress Endora has launched a massive assault with intent to subdue all the neighboring kingdoms. The military superiority of the Highlands does not take long to manifest, thereby defeating all his opponents in the brief period of 2 years.After the victoty, the queen starts a regime of brutality and repression in order to hold together the newly conquered kingdoms and avoid any insubordination. 25 years later, in a forgotten territory in what was once the kingdom of Zenobia, people are beginning to organize to start a rebellion against tyrants. Faroda Destin, thanks to his charisma and military prowess, becomes the leader of the revolution. This is when you start Ogre Battle: The March Of The Black Queen, the fifth episode in this saga which currently only 3 episodes have been produced.

The world of Ogre Battle is the responsibility of the mind of Yasumi Matsuno, the creator also of other great games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant History. He said his main inspiration when creating this series was the conflict of the Yugoslav wars, ethnic war that took place in the late eighties and marked him deeply in his youth. The other major influence was the group Mastsuno Queen, Ogre Battle as well as The march of the black queen are the titles of two songs from the album Queen II.

Ogre Battle was a game that took a major step forward in rpg games, because back then it was usually only handle 5 or 6 characters and move them into the story. But here in Ogre Battle you can handle up to 100 characters simultaneously, forming such a large army consisting of soldiers of various kinds: There are paladins, dragons and wizards, a must in any Medieval setting game. Then are also the Valkyries, warrior with the ability to control the forces of wind at will and can be helped by the Gryphon, half eagle mythological half-lion.

The development of the history of Ogre Battle is brilliant as the progress we will understand that the real reason for the Empress Endora is not the conquest of the continent itself, but it started this war motivated by the threat of future invasion of the empire Lodis. When she tried to warn other kingdoms of this danger, they ignored it, and was at this time appeared Rashidi magician, a Machiavellian individual who ends up handling the queen for the good of their own interests. Then when she tries to remedy the situation unifying the 5 kingdoms of the continent ends up being a victim of his good will and becomes the villain of this story.

Ogre Battle is one of the most addictive games rpg I've ever known, and highly recommended for this holiday period. A great story, good gameplay and superb graphics for the time he was released, make it one of the best SNES titles, unfortunately as often happens with quality products, had not the fame he deserved.