Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber is a real-time tactical role-playing game developed by Quest Corporation. The game was published for the Nintendo 64 by Nintendo in Japan and by Atlus in North America. Though conceptually similar to Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, significant gameplay tweaks were implemented to change the game's overall flow. Ogre Battle 64 is the third game in the series, the first two being Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, and Tactics Ogre. Gaiden have been released in Japan, on Game Boy Advance and Neo Geo Pocket Color. Ogre Battle 64 was released in PAL regions for the first time via the Wii Virtual Console in 2010.
Gameplay
Unit formations
Ogre Battle is a real-time strategy role-playing game. Magnus, the protagonist, commands a battalion of up to 50 troops. Members of the battalion are sectioned off into units, by the player. Each unit must contain a leader. Any character can be dubbed leader, minus most non-human entities, soldiers and basic classes like the Fighter or Amazon. Gorgons and Saturos are the main exceptions to this rule. Each unit, including the leader, has a maximum of five members. Units are used to battle enemy units, which follow the same structural formation.
Structure and objectives
The game is divided into several chapters, each chapter serving as a mission with specific objectives outlined by the battalion's adviser, Hugo. Although suggestions for how the battalions units may be mobilized are given, it is not required to follow Hugo's advice so long as the main objective is completed. Most objectives require capturing an enemy stronghold with any unit or defeating a particularly strong unit. Ogre Battle 64 was the first Ogre title developed by Quest after Matsuno and other staff left for Square. Production began sometime prior to 1997 for Nintendo 64 (N64), at which point it was known only as Ogre Battle Saga. During this stage, the developers were debating whether to release it as a standard cartridge, as a title for the disc-based 64DD, or both. While apparently planned for the 64DD, it later settled into being a standard cartridge-based game. It was credited as having the second-largest N64 cartridge at 320 megabits. It was also the first in the series to use 3D graphics. The characters were designed by Toshiaki Kato. The team created the character models to appear realistic, using 3D graphics to create them. This provided difficulties for the modeling team due to the hardware.
Music
The music was co-composed by Hayato Matsuo, Masaharu Iwata and Hitoshi Sakimoto, all returning from previous entries in the series. Matsuo had previously held a minor composing role for the original Ogre Battle, but for Ogre Battle 64 he was given a far larger role. For Sakimoto and Iwata, Ogre Battle 64 was their only work for the N64 platform. A soundtrack album was released by Datam Polystar in August 1999.
Release
The game was announced in April 1997 as Ogre Battle 3, with a planned completion date of March 1998. It was released in Japan on July 14 the same year. The game was supported by multiple pieces of additional media, published through several different outlets. Six guidebooks were released, including various levels of explanation for levels and mechanics. Additional releases included an artbook featuring designs and illustrations by Kato, who comic anthologies, and a novelization by Hosai Tsuruoka with illustrations by Shirou Ohno.
In North America, the game was localized and published by Atlus USA, who had previously handled Ogre Battle ports for the PlayStation. It was released in North America on October 5, 2000. The Western version shipped in limited quantities, a fact attributed to lack of manufactured chips in the game's cartridge which made it playable. It was later re-released for the Wii through the Virtual Console market place in 2010 by Square Enix, who dissolved Quest Corporation after its predecessor Square bought the company; this marked the title's debut in PAL regions. It was later released through the Virtual Console for the Wii U in 2017.
Reception
The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.
The game won the award for "Best Strategy Game" at GameSpots Best and Worst of 2000 Awards, and was nominated for the "Best Game No One Played" award, which went to Samba de Amigo. The staff noted that the game's sales had "fallen prey to [its] console of origin, the N64." The game was also nominated for the "Best Console Strategy Game" and "Gamers' Choice: N64" awards at The Electric Playgrounds Blister Awards 2000, both of which went to Front Mission 3 and Perfect Dark, respectively.
It was rated the 111th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Powers Top 200 Games list. Reviewing the Virtual Console re-release, IGN said that it "was (and still is) lordly indeed".