Together RPG - SRPG - Ogre Battle MotBQ - 1/11/14 -> 3/11/14

[Ack]

Woo, done! I've beaten Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. I admit that I built a couple of powerhouse squads and effectively threw them at the last few bosses. And once only the final level remained, I used a bunch of jokers to get a few cards I needed and then used a merchant and dropped about $1 million on stat boosting items.

I wonder how the final set of bosses felt when they looked up and saw the likes of liches, princesses, wyverns, and dragoons, knowing that each had stats of 200+. I wonder if they realized that these characters would be capable of killing a god?

Well, I pushed for it, and I got the World ending. I am very, very happy to be crossing this off my list.

[Jmustang1968]

Woo, done! I've beaten Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. I admit that I built a couple of powerhouse squads and effectively threw them at the last few bosses. And once only the final level remained, I used a bunch of jokers to get a few cards I needed and then used a merchant and dropped about $1 million on stat boosting items.

I wonder how the final set of bosses felt when they looked up and saw the likes of liches, princesses, wyverns, and dragoons, knowing that each had stats of 200+. I wonder if they realized that these characters would be capable of killing a god?

Well, I pushed for it, and I got the World ending. I am very, very happy to be crossing this off my list.

Happy to cross it off as it was a chore, or happy to cross it off because it was a rewarding experience?

[Ack]

A bit of both, I'd say. Pierrot is right in that, if you focus entirely on doing everything in a battle, eventually it wears on you. But while I felt I missed things in the fights I flew through, I also developed squads powerful enough to go on and found ways to make up for the issues I faced. And rushing a stage created a certain pride in its own right, that I could annihilate a dreaded enemy so easily.

[pierrot]

You cant recruit the 2nd boss. You should be able to recruit Gilbert if you have Canopus on the map and I think if you encounter him with Canopus.

I mean, I beat him with Canopus' unit. Shouldn't that have recruited him?

As far as attacking the boss, I usually kill all the enemy units before going for the boss. They aren't random, but a set amount of certain unit configurations will be deployed each map. It is a real time strategy and rpg mix. So you basically take over towns, defend them until you kill the enemy force, then go after the boss. You have to wipe out the enemy force. If you just kill the leader, they will retreat back to the base and revive and come back.

The first three chapters I was able to kill all of the enemy units before engaging the boss; that wasn't so much of a problem. I haven't seen the boss come out of the enemy base at all. I always have to go to the enemy base to encounter him, and if I kill an enemy in the unit that isn't the leader, but lose the fight, the entire unit just regenerates to full health because he's sitting in his base, and just recruits to fill the empty space. Is that not how it's supposed to go?

This game kind of requires micro-management if you want to control your alignments and reputation. The units you want to get low alignment, should fight a lot early to get their levels up, while your high alignment units fight sparingly.

You can recruit characters by going to town and hiring them. Who you can hire changes on the unit leader, but there has to be an open spot. To get random encounters, you have to be walking over a certain terrain per each map. Each map has 3 different types of possible random encounters. Typically these occur in mountains or water.

If you dont like the strategy element and micro managing the alignments and such, this might not be a game for you.

Your reputation is mostly affected by town liberation. If you liberate a bunch of towns with low aligned units, it will plummet. The tarot cards have an effect, but it is typically minimal. The fortune tarot card will randomly effect your rep between -3 and +3, so you probably pulled that one and werent lucky.

It seems I don't like the micro-management, yeah. If it felt more streamlined, and less of a time sink, I wouldn't mind, but it probably wouldn't be micro-management at that point.

I'm fairly certain I've been liberating towns with my highest alignment units, but after the first chapter, my rep was steadily falling by small increments.

A bit of both, I'd say. Pierrot is right in that, if you focus entirely on doing everything in a battle, eventually it wears on you. But while I felt I missed things in the fights I flew through, I also developed squads powerful enough to go on and found ways to make up for the issues I faced. And rushing a stage created a certain pride in its own right, that I could annihilate a dreaded enemy so easily.

Seems like you enjoyed playing this game, Ack. I really want to feel what you're feeling right now! (That, may not sound quite as right as it did in my head.)

[Ack]

It's ok, I understand what you mean.

The biggest issue I have with Ogre Battle is that it is so heavily front loaded. Over time, it does become much easier and less stressful, and once I got a handful of certain characters and classes, I no longer needed to rebuild squads. But the beginning was extremely stressful. Yes, you can recruit Gilbert, but it is also one of the most complicated processes of any character to recruit in the game, and his usefulness is...well, his alignment veered too much, and I kicked him out of regular use around level 10. You have to have visited certain towns in a specific order, and I think you have to have certain alignment/reputation, though I could be wrong. I did it, but that was a month ago.

The boss unit never leaves his final place, and if you actually kill a unit, they will respawn instantly. But the enemies you wound will not heal immediately. They have to wait, so if you can pick a few squads that are built for attacking and arrange them effectively, you should be able to focus fire better. Arrangement tactics take a little while to learn, but there are ways to manipulate the combat system to your advantage, such as entering the menu after each action to redirect who the squad is meant to attack based on your needs at the moment.

The crapshoot of tarot cards is tough to handle, though in general you'll notice that more of them are beneficial. The negative ones that you can get are the Hanged Man, Tower, Death, and Devil. The Fortune card is a bit of a crapshoot as to whether it will be good or bad. The rest of the deck will have a positive effect on your characters, though whether they have a positive effect in battle is dependent on your needs.

[Jmustang1968]

I changed Gilbert into a ninja and he is an amazing ninja master.

I defeated Organa and Malano last night and recruited Fenril (my favorite dragoon) and Tristan. Damn Malano is such a big map, but was so nice to pump up high aligned units with all the evil units they fielded.

I am nearly done with Shangrila and then getting Debonair. I shut it down as it was getting late. Just a little over halfway done.

[Jmustang1968]

Want to hear me talk Ogre Battle with a few others at RPGamer? Well now is your chance. Their Ogre Battle RPG Backtrack Podcast coincidentally lined up with this TRPG!

http://www.rpgamer.com/backtrack/2014/backtrack112.mp3

[BoneSnapDeez]

I dubbed around with the game tonight, but I doubt I'll be finishing it. I waited way too late to start (got bogged down by Phantasy Star Online + other games + a dead SNES battery) and given my propensity to play strategy RPGs slow as ass I wouldn't end up finishing until April. I have enjoyed reading this thread though, and best of luck to the rest of yous. And here's to hoping I have a bit more motivation come 3/12.

[Ivo]

I'm in Shangrila and got 3 Liches, got a 2 Dream Crowns just trying to decide which of the "named" ladies to promote (thinking Norn and Rauny as I have Aisha and Deneb flying with my leader and Canopus, and the leader's unit has to be lead by the leader).

I already thought the Ali / Cha system for changing class was a bit flawed and I'm getting more and more convinced of it. At least after you "reach" the final class you want for someone you can mostly stop caring - which feels too much like relief, sort of proving that the system isn't brilliantly designed.

I'm ok with anti-grinding measures, but the screwing up of Ali / Cha is not the best way. The traditional diminishing returns for experience works much better by itself IMO.

I'm also starting to feel some repetition settling in, and I still think that there are too many very similar classes. E.g. Samurai line and Knight line are more or less redundant. I also don't think there is much of a reason to have Valks, Wizards and Doll Masters in the game system when the Wizard tree eventually replicates the others (and at least on this game I got plenty of Undead Staff, I have like 6 Sorcerers) - had the Wizard tree been decoupled from Alignment (as I believe it is in Tactics Ogre but maybe I'm mis-remembering).

There are also loads of cool beasts and such that I end up never using because they don't really matter and take up slots - like Water units in particular. In fact I think other than the Fighter and Amazon trees, I'm only using flying units - Gryphons and Wyverns; Hawkmen, Angels and Demons.

The terrain is mostly rendered useless as I fly everyone around, and also for that reason a lot of "strategy" is lost. What basically happens is that the 2D map is mostly reduced to a "line" of conflict where the enemy units flow out from their HQ almost in a queue and I pick the off (there are a few exceptions to this).

It is a good game, but it feels like there are several design flaws so I hesitate on calling it great.

[Jmustang1968]

I'm in Shangrila and got 3 Liches, got a 2 Dream Crowns just trying to decide which of the "named" ladies to promote (thinking Norn and Rauny as I have Aisha and Deneb flying with my leader and Canopus, and the leader's unit has to be lead by the leader).

I already thought the Ali / Cha system for changing class was a bit flawed and I'm getting more and more convinced of it. At least after you "reach" the final class you want for someone you can mostly stop caring - which feels too much like relief, sort of proving that the system isn't brilliantly designed.

I'm ok with anti-grinding measures, but the screwing up of Ali / Cha is not the best way. The traditional diminishing returns for experience works much better by itself IMO.

I'm also starting to feel some repetition settling in, and I still think that there are too many very similar classes. E.g. Samurai line and Knight line are more or less redundant. I also don't think there is much of a reason to have Valks, Wizards and Doll Masters in the game system when the Wizard tree eventually replicates the others (and at least on this game I got plenty of Undead Staff, I have like 6 Sorcerers) - had the Wizard tree been decoupled from Alignment (as I believe it is in Tactics Ogre but maybe I'm mis-remembering).

There are also loads of cool beasts and such that I end up never using because they don't really matter and take up slots - like Water units in particular. In fact I think other than the Fighter and Amazon trees, I'm only using flying units - Gryphons and Wyverns; Hawkmen, Angels and Demons.

The terrain is mostly rendered useless as I fly everyone around, and also for that reason a lot of "strategy" is lost. What basically happens is that the 2D map is mostly reduced to a "line" of conflict where the enemy units flow out from their HQ almost in a queue and I pick the off (there are a few exceptions to this).

It is a good game, but it feels like there are several design flaws so I hesitate on calling it great.

It is great. The class lines are different because of alignment. The alignment brings in a level of strategy that is built into the games. Liberating towns and such and your rep.

Flying units are also typically weaker than a unit of non flying units. I only employ a few fliers. Dragons become very powerful, especially the ones who come with your Dragoons. The hawkmen and griffons and wyverns only get 2 attacks, so they arent near as good late game. But another way it is great, is that you have that freedom to construct the units to your preference.

I have 3 undead staffs, you just got lucky. Muse are better than mages because they get 2 full attacks and get great int gains. They are also the only high aligned spellcaster. Doll Masters/Enchanters are a mid alignment.

Actually I think the end game is not as fun as early and mid as you kind of go on cruise control. The maps do get bigger, and the difficulty as far as opponent goes ramps up, but you lose that tension with the alignment and developing classes. They should've had another tier of promotions with branching paths for end game. You get most of the advanced classes by mid game.

I am on Fort Allamoot. I screwed up last night and used a mass summons instead of a 7 league boots. It was really late and I was tired so I just turned it off lol. Will tackle it again today.