An all time classic with gameplay that is still inspireing sequels and bringing gamers back over and over again today.
STORYLINE:
Simple, yet complex at the same time. The game's over all story is pretty basic: An evil king wants to dominate the world and as part of an uprising against that you have to stop him. Your main character doesn't even have a real name or gender until you create it. The real snare, however, is in the details. Every decision you make can effect the outcome of the game. Each level has it's own history and story to tell along with special characters hidden within them. To make it even more confuseing the levels side story's can twist and overlap, sometimes giving to the feeling that you are stuck in the shoes of a detective intstead of a lord.
GAMEPLAY:
A stoke of genious. I'm not so sure how they did it, but their ideas behind Ogre Battle couldn't mix the style of simple and complex elements more neatly than this. You start out creating your character by choosing it's gender and answering Warren's random questions to decide how your main character functions as awarrior in hie/her troop. From there you can equip items, level up your troop members, change their classes, recruit new members in towns of in the wilds, put together more troops to assist your main characters...ect. In fact, a great deal of time is spent into raising units and putting together to suit your playing style. You'll get so attached to the little characters you put in your troops that you'll find yourself cheering them on.
There are also so many units to chooses from and alter, you'll find yourself filling up your roster fairly quickly. For your human characters, they usually start out as as begining amazons (female) or fighters (male) and level up to the point where you can change them into advanced class such as wizards, knights, clerics, beast tamers...ect. In turn these classes can also be upgraded over time. The same thing also tends to apply to the other non-human units although not as much. Monster and demi-humans also play a HUGE role in this game with their special abilities. In fact, there be many times where you might find your self with many troops made up of solely non-human characters...there are just so many different types to choose from (Werewolves were my favorite. Tip: You can first find them in the mountain area in the "Lake Jennenia" battlefeild) and they are very well fitted to compete with any human unit or troop (unlike most other tactic games).
The actual warring itself is pretty simple. Once you are on the feild of battle you dispatch your troops to the locations of your choice. From there you can engage the enemy, liberate towns, buy items, resurrect your dead, search the wilds until you encounter an neutral character, follow the stories...ect. However keep in mind that everything you do...from who you liberate to what tactic you use wil effect the story, how much money you spend/earn, who joins you...everything. This and the fact that the enemy can surprize you and retake your strongholds can keep you on your toes.
GRAPHICS:
Cute, SNES Japanese RPG style. But, that shouldn't surprize anybody who's played a SNES RPG before. The maps in the game are also really simplistic. Watching the battles and special effect make it worth while though. It's no Mario RPG, but it does okay for it's complexity.
SOUNDS:
The music is still used today and I'm told it was written by famous artist that worked on a good bit of the final fantasy RPGs. So..in other words...good.
COMPLAINTS:
The only one I've EVER had about this game was the fact that in battle, you have no direct influence on how they fight. Sure, you can point them in the right direction with the "Tactics" option, but I'd like to see something even more involving in the next sequel. It's a small detail though, otherwise this game is almost perfect.