Aspect Analysis – Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen and a Truly Fantastic Morality/Ending System.

Ogre Battle may be one of the most flawed games I would call amazing. A big reason for that is its incredible system used to determine the ending you get in the game, as well as special units you will and won't have access too. It's not a perfect system by any means, but it has more depth to it than any other Morality system I have seen in a game even though it's been years since this titles release. So for this Aspect Analysis, I'll be going over the good and bad of the system, while silently wondering to myself why we can't have something this nice anymore.

To start, Ogre Battle sees you take the role of the leader of a rebellion against an empire. The game is a Strategy RPG with some interesting twists, I won't get into most of the gameplay here so I can keep focused, but the idea is you are liberating towns in different areas as you try to maneuver your troops to take the enemy castle. With that said, there are three different attributes used in order to make up the games morality system and this is where you need to pay a lot of attention.

The first two stats I'll talk about here are Alignment and Charisma. While both are stats all units have, those stats on your leader have an effect on the ending, as well as access to different areas and units in the game. These stats don't change based on your level, but instead, change based off your deeds in battle. Beating up on weak enemies with really powerful units, for example, can impact the stats of a unit. Running away tends to work against your Charisma as well. Basically the more you fight like a bad guy, the more of a bad guy your stats begin to reflect. Certain choices you can make in the game can also affect this, but overall these stats are determined by the way you fight.

The Third stat relevant isn't on the character, but presented as a meter on the screen, Reputation. While Alignment is how good or evil you are, and Charisma is your ability to lead or convince people to join you, your Reputation is how the world perceives you. This is where things get interesting. Liberating towns with high alignment units can improve the world's perception of you, even if you yourself are an evil dick. Conversely, you could be a paragon of virtue, but because you have lost a lot of towns in a battle to the enemy, your reputation may be in shambles.

The good thing about this system, while complex, is that there is far more depth and nuance to what constitutes a 'good' person, and just being a good person isn't always going to be enough to win over the world. You are forced to think about your actions and the impact they have on the world around you, and if you don't you could see yourself become kind of an evil bastard by games end, or even a good person hated by the citizens. This system has more thought and interesting things about it then any other system I have ever played. With all the different Alignment, Charisma, and Reputation values paired with discoverable artifacts and special units, you are sitting at a game for the Super Nintendo with thirteen different endings, all of which are greatly different from one another.

And we aren't talking about endings where maybe all you do is have additional scenes with a character, the fate of the entire land can be changed. Does Tristan reclaim the throne as the one true king? Do you rule as either a benevolent or tyrannical leader after overthrowing The Black Queen? I don't want to give more endings away, but despite coming out on the SNES it's far more impressive in this regard than anything out even today.

That said, the system is not without problems. The biggest being the games inability to actually tell you what does or doesn't affect your three stats in any meaningful way. You get some guidelines, but the sheer volume of things you can do to affect these stats is unreal. Without playing the game several times and being incredibly observant to every minute change, you will need a guide to understand what is even going on with your stats. And somethings that affect your stats, like killing certain classes, can become frustrating.

And even with a guide and full understanding, the sheer number of things you are forced to keep track of is staggering. The game seriously pushes the line between being in-depth and thoughtful and just being silly and frustrating.

Despite the flaws, I adore this system for determining the ending you reach in the game. It adds a level of complexity and depth to the choices you make in a narrative sense, and it gives you options that are more meaningful than a lot of other games. The system needs some refining and streamlining to be sure, but I would love to see another game take a crack at this kind of set up. I am shocked at how rarely it is touched upon.