Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (SNES, 1993)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8.5 Control-7 Challenge-6/5?* Story-6.5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-6.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-7
Overall Score-6.5
*Evil playthrough
+
TBS/RTS hybrid (Real-time with pausing while issuing commands and checking menus)
Some player char customization (partially randomized personality quiz decides your character's starting class - similar to Ultima IV, can pick sex)
Day/night cycle (affects city events and a leader's battle performance; Werewolves, Tiger Men and Vampires fight better at night). Some cards can change the time of day when pulled (moon, sun)
Pretty good interface (tooltips for nearly all commands - select button, manual and automatic item sorting, buy more than one of an item at a time)
Pretty well animated units during battle (optional)
Buffs and attack spells via tarot cards (gain new cards randomly by liberating towns; some interesting ones like moon which reverses the enemy's formation and sun which hits everyone and does more damage the less ALI a unit has) - Hanjuku Hero
Can dismiss any unit
Terrain effects (movement (with a flying unit in the squad you can move as quickly across water as other terrain, hell hounds for example move better through mountains), certain units fight better on certain terrain, the defending unit (the one standing still) in an encounter gets priority in which terrain is picked - if both are moving the terrain in-between them is picked)
Decent tutorial map
Reputation system and multiple endings (Rep affects the storyline and ending if you let the meter fall too low (it's the one in the top right during a scenario), if you fight weaker parties (and especially if you kill everyone off instead of just the leader) it affects your rep negatively). Losing a liberated town (lose twice as much as you regain when taking it back) or waiting around for more than 5 days during a scenario (to gain more tribute, the amount of which is affected by rep) also affects it negatively; higher alignment when liberating towns means you'll gain more rep and vice versa (if the town has low morale you still gain rep with a high ALI squad (based on its average) - just less of it), some story event/dialogue choices also affect reputation - mostly minor but there is an exception in the city of xanadu scenario)
Some meaningful dialogue choices - can say yes or no to various basic side quests and in Diaspola you can choose whether to spare Norn or not if you have high enough rep
Basic city management (each one has stats for morale (cross)/friendliness to the player (heart)/income via tribute per day, unit recruitment during a scenario)
Game speed and text speed options (fastest game speed could've been a bit faster though)
Can trade units between squads/parties
Can shop in some towns (Valna)
Neutral unit encounters when entering some battles and while moving around an area can be recruited (befriend command)
Partially non-linear structure (some branching paths shown in the manual - choose between 2-3 scenarios at a time (more including the floating islands), there's some freedom in how you take on each scenario (army composition, defensive or agressive, evil or good), your performance (rep, player char stats, finding important items and NPCs) also affects the story and ending)
Hidden cities/temples/characters and items in most scenarios. Some hidden scenarios (find chaos gates while having the Holy Sword Brunhild to find optional floating island scenarios). On the optional flying islands, any unit that does not have a low- or high sky ability will immediately die if they lose a battle to an enemy unit (it makes them get pushed off)
Can teleport a unit back to your HQ or all units to the army leader with items (dinner bell/summon). Boots item can also be used to warp to a freed town or temple
Mode 7-style scenario map which can be zoomed out
Can revisit beaten scenario areas to get quest info/lore/buy items or liberate towns you missed or captured instead. There's also additional dialogue when revisiting towns in an area after a battle scenario and you can also activate new side quests
Unit compatibility mechanic (alignment but also some other factors affects combat efficiency (killing lower-leveled characters can lower your alignment and vice versa+if alignment between your unit and the enemy is high then the effect is greater and vice versa) - not too important though)
Editable party/squad formations (units tend to have a different back row move)
Pretty good class customization (can even demote units to access another class path)
Can also recruit directly to a squad/party during a scenario if it lost a unit or isn't full yet
Firework effect after conquering/liberating an entire map
Leader units have some influence on their squad (if a leader's stat is higher it improves the stat of a member with a lower stat and vice versa; similar to Langrisser) - however a stat can only receive a -3 or +4 modifier so after the early game it doesn't matter much
Some interactive dialogue (pick the topic to ask about like in Ys)
Decent enemy AI in that it will sometimes try to sneak past your army to take your HQ
Very good direction overall, Character portraits (busts) during dialogue
Huge item inventory which can be sorted
Decent ending (tells you what happened to each hero unit that you recruited along the way (although in a kind of unceremonious way - just a long dialogue scene while showing the current scenario map in the background; at least there's some nice artwork of the home castle afterwards))
+/-
Being evil/low Alignment is easier and faster. While it would seem that going for low alignment squads/army would be bad for your tribute income due to a lower rep it's not really the case, you can sit around and collect lots of tribute during scenarios if you want. If you want to be evil you can also gain certain items from it, recruit other units, get a different ending and can freely overlevel a smaller, elite army since you don't have to worry about the lowered ALI from taking out lower level enemies. You can also gain more cards by letting the enemy take towns and reliberating them if you ignore maintaining a high rep
Furthermore, you can also mix up your army with evil squads that take out enemies while you have good/high ALI squads liberate towns to keep your reputation high - You have to balance it though since rep is affected by taking out weaker squads or chasing them down to the last man
No direct control over units during a battle (you can just control which squad/party will attack which enemy squad and sort of control their attack priorities during battle (best (squad tries to deal the most total damage possible), strong (unit w/ most HP) - avoid if fighting undead w/ a cleric as he won't use heal on them, leader (if the leader is killed the squad will flee back to the enemy HQ), weak). You can also use buffs and attacks via tarot cards. This indirect control is part of why multi-target attacks are generally better than single target and why back row damage dealers are more effective than front row/melee ones
Three save slots (only info is your current level and ?, can only save between battles here (can be annoying when fighting bosses since they re-recruit their underlings immediately if you don't kill them) - can save during them on PS1)
Gain more of a money bonus by beating a scenario faster (however you might gain more in total from tribute by letting time pass if you don't care about being good)
More large scale/political story than usual
Some unintuitive stats (alignment=how much a unit cares for others and battle performance relative to the time of day (high ALI chars fight better during daytime and vice versa) - should be higher for the unit than the morale of the town you're trying to liberate to raise rep, charisma=leadership (used in the promotion of units that can be leaders* (the minimum amount is 50-80 Charisma)+to determine the probability of success for a unit leader to recruit
a neutral unit; affected by level disparity between the units when fighting), )
Unit upkeep (conquer/liberate more cities to gain more gold per day)
Can revive characters with an item or at temples (their exp goes back to the starting point of their current level if they die though, if the leader died you have to change the leader and then move to a temple). Dead characters are auto-revived after a scenario
Tribute is only paid up until you've beaten the enemy boss/leader of a scenario
The manual guides you through the first 6 scenarios
In a battle where neither side is wiped out any damage dealth with cards isn't counted towards the final result
Some cards have a negative effect when drawn
Every party/squad can access your cards and items from anywhere on the map
Can't make a party leader use a healing spell when outside of a vs. battle
Can't change formations during a vs. battle (can do it during the scenario however)
Can't check an enemy leader's stats (only HP and level)
A party leader can equip only one item at a time
Exp gains from a battle are given to all party/squad members involved
Killing enemies with tarot cards gives the exp to the player character/army lord regardless of who used them
Some random encounters (neutral units) - these can also happen when revisiting conquered land
You can have a mixed squad count as a flying one with the right units in it
Can't cast attack spells outside of vs. battles
Can escape from vs. battles as a tactic to avoid damage or to finish off a unit that would escape and revive after the fight with a second unit (or to give another unit the exp, or to escape back to your base faster, or to avoid completely killing a boss's minions at the end of a vs. battle since they revive immediately) - however you need to be careful as each unit in the squad will lose 1 Charisma/leadership (used for promotions of units that can be leaders)
How the answers during character creation correspond to the alignment result doesn't always make sense (a wealth potion arguably is more good than immortality for example),
Plain type units tend to automatically move around mountains when telling them to go to a location beyond one - can be good but occasionally leads to them moving into battles they're not supposed to
Some overpowered classes (ghosts, skeletons, princesses - requires a rare item though (only two preplaced ones), liches - also requires a pretty rare item (only four in the game), generals, cockatrices (upgr gryphons) vs lower level units?)
Found items are also random and this can affect the difficulty curve to some extent. You can get lucky early on and get something great - can also get items more than once although some might be "once per playthrough"
Starting with as many unis as you do (after the first scenario) and the relatively complex formation system is a bit overwhelming (you can get by with fewer squads but you don't know that yet)
Cards are overpowered since they are pretty cheap to buy (even though you gain a random one when buying them)
Some trial & error in finding hidden items and towns - sometimes there's a visual clue and you can sometimes get a clue from a found town when revisiting a map but other times there's nothing. There are items that reveal both, which are fairly expensive (dowser item), but you can use save/reload in emulation to get around it (still annoying in the City of Malano scenario though)
Too easy to manipulate the day/night system with relatively cheap items that will instantly change the time of day (Moonbeam/Ray of Sunlight
Can raise ALI with soul mirror (somewhat randomized gain but you gain about 10 ALI per use (but sometimes as little as 1 ALI!)) but it's pretty rare and lowering it quickly requires killing someone with very different (higher) ALI than your unit - remember the unit you want to lower it for has to make the killing blow as well
Compared to PS1: Stronger cockatrices, no loading times but instead there are some delays during gameplay mentioned below
-
Some interface issues (no quest log/journal feature, can't see class info in-game and it's not in the manual either (annoying when changing a unit's class), can't see the level of each unit in a party/squad without viewing them individually in a sub menu - slows the game down if you want to be good (and/or have a balanced army) since it's important to keep track of due to the alignment mechanic, can't see a leader's white and black magic stats?, have to choose equip and then an empty slot to de-equip an item, sometimes lacking item descriptions (in shops, can't check them on equipped items), can't see that you have more than 7 cards, somewhat slow menu transitions and there are pauses in the gameplay after issuing commands, can't check what a card does with select (for example) in the battle menu+sometimes the effect isn't obvious after using one, can't check the stat of a party leader in the deploy menu, can't see name of a party leader when picking between two or more of them in the same location, no in-game explanation of the icons shown when examining a town or for the reputation bar - also bad how there's no numeric representation of reputation so small changes aren't noticeable, some delay after a squad finishes moving during which the game doesn't respond to input, can't use select to check what each card does during an encounter battle - can do it during a scenario, can't order more than one squad at once - makes having a large army kinda tedious, have to pick a specific symbol in the menu to check a unit's current destination - should've just automatically appeared when selecting it or even better when hovering over it, can't see a unit's stats while using a stat increasing item on them nor how much they gained from using it, can't check an enemy unit's ALI, can't see on the world map if there are towns left to liberate in an area, )
The game doesn't explain the basic stats nor the parties in slots 4-9 in your army after finishing the tutorial map. Reputation and day/night mechanics aren't explained in-game either
The enemy AI isn't particularly smart overall (rather weak to rushing and doesn't take advantage of you turtling (it doesn't send more units at once or become stronger if you just sit and wait instead of liberating towns/temples, doesn't use card spells like Moon or World, tends not to tweak its formations for better combat efficiency, tends to keep sending squads on suicide missions against your stronger units which can also screw with your alignment and charisma stats if you don't take it slower and put weaker units in front of them, )
How the ALI stat is affected isn't always consistent - for example I could have one unit with high ALI and one with low in the same squad despite them being of the same type and level, and having fought the same amount of enemies
Some meaningless dialogue choices (various meaningful ones but you don't know which is which beforehand)
Some trial & error (can't view a scenario map before playing it (see Langrisser, no separate deployment phase before a battle starts here)+invisible fog of war/limited sight range for your units - enemy units pop up not that far from your units instead of you seeing them as soon as they exit a town (if there is no one near a town, you'll never see the enemy unit before it's taken), reviving dead leaders - need to make another unit the leader before the squad returns to HQ, effect of forgiving Deneb the pumpkin witch (yes=loss in rep+glass pumkin+she'll join if you're evil/no=loss in ALI+pumpkin and rotten pumpkins at Baljib, at Disapola you can get a beehive from one of the southern towns instead of buying it at raloshel, figuring out where a specific unit/creature can be found as a neutral encounter - for example in the Diaspola area you can only find angels over the deep sea, finding the zodiac stones (optional - yields 99 crowns) - not hard just tedious since you don't know which towns they're in, game doesn't tell you when you lose reputation from dialogue choices such as the monk's test in the late game)
NPCs join for strange reasons at times ("I like the look in your eyes")
For some maps pretty much all enemies will be underleveled (there's no dynamic difficulty balancing, it's static) - This also means a mercy or defend command to avoid stat loss would've been good
Scripting issues and trial & error makes recruiting Canopus and Gilbert in the third scenario (Sharom District) overly convoluted - have to enter and re-enter some seemingly random towns in a set order to recruit canopus (you could also use him to attack gilbert in the enemy HQ but it's only for extra dialogue). Recruiting Saradin is similarly convoluted
Some poor classes (mermaids and nixies outside of areas with enough water, giants - bad accuracy, amazons after the early game, fairies until upgraded). Big units generally aren't worth it with some exceptions (zombie dragon, gryphon, wyrm) - can get a balance path though
Kinda repetitive (not enough variety in how you should tackle scenarios to win after the first 6 or so, though you can usually either take it slow and steady or play aggressively with just one or two squads on the defensive, the sky islands add a bit but are optional). Not enough special events later on - see laser cannons (Shining Force), wildfires (Langrisser II), floods (Lord Monarch) or surprise reinforcements
Healers waste a turn on healing a unit with full HP if it's their turn before someone is hurt
Sometimes uneven difficulty depending on if you happen to have a certain card (fool to get rid of a boss' minions or world to defend against magic, sometimes moon (witch rows), lovers (confuse), emperor (one more player turn) or death (kill low HP enemies - can miss vs bosses))
Sometimes when you have a tight time window to get a squad into position or out of danger the frequent pausing from various actions+the game not being able to auto-pause when returning from a battle screen to the tactical screen can screw you over
A bit tedious how towns that have something new to say/give aren't highlighted when revisiting areas
Can't rename squad leaders
Some muffled sfx
Some repeated dialogue at different towns
Keep finding crappy gear later on due to loot being completely randomized - could've scaled a bit as you progressed since they're barely even worth selling in the late game and it then doesn't feel worth it to spend time looking for buried treasure
Saying NO to Rashidi during the final scenario makes that squad join him (mistranslation)
Compared to PS1: Can't set waypoints when moving units around, Less dialogue and pre-scenario text (some translation issues on PS1 though), lower resolution means you see less of the battlefield, can't zoom out to a top down view of the battlefield, can't get an overview of freed towns in an area via a sub menu? (only squads)
Notes:
-Finished a "good", high rep playthrough where I got all the zodiac stones and confronted the villains with the right characters
-Low rep/evil playthrough info: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/588541-ogre-battle-the-march-of-the-black-queen/79246935
-Need the Herostar (scenario 2/Sharom), 60%+ Reputation Meter and 70+ Alignment for your Lord to recruit a couple of chars in the mid-game
-Some unexplained additional effects of battle tactics: strong=attack bonus; weak=defense penalty
-*Units that can be leaders: Knight, Paladin, Samurai, Samurai Master, Beastman, Beast Master, Dragoner, Dragon Master, Wild Man, Evil One, Ninja Master (but not Ninja), Dollmage, Doll Master, Wizard, Mage, Sorcerer, Lich, Vampyre, Valkyrie, Muse, Cleric, Shaman, Monk, Witch, Princess, Eagleman, Ravenman, Mermaid, Nixie, Angel, Cherubim, Seraphim, Imp, Demon, Devil, Iainuki Lord, Thunder Lord, Phantom Lord, Dragoon, General
-A tier units (coffee potato YT): samurai, muse (upgr valkyrie), monk (upgr cleric), ninja, paladin, sylph (upgr fairy), cherubim/seraphim, wyrm, dragoon (slust/fenril/fogul only), gryphon, prince agairs (?)
-Can NOT place units in a Temple to gradually gain ALI points (stated in the RPG Classics guide)
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-6.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-7
Overall Score-6.5
*Evil playthrough
+
TBS/RTS hybrid (Real-time with pausing while issuing commands and checking menus)
Some player char customization (partially randomized personality quiz decides your character's starting class - similar to Ultima IV, can pick sex)
Day/night cycle (affects city events and a leader's battle performance; Werewolves, Tiger Men and Vampires fight better at night). Some cards can change the time of day when pulled (moon, sun)
Pretty good interface (tooltips for nearly all commands - select button, manual and automatic item sorting, buy more than one of an item at a time)
Pretty well animated units during battle (optional)
Buffs and attack spells via tarot cards (gain new cards randomly by liberating towns; some interesting ones like moon which reverses the enemy's formation and sun which hits everyone and does more damage the less ALI a unit has) - Hanjuku Hero
Can dismiss any unit
Terrain effects (movement (with a flying unit in the squad you can move as quickly across water as other terrain, hell hounds for example move better through mountains), certain units fight better on certain terrain, the defending unit (the one standing still) in an encounter gets priority in which terrain is picked - if both are moving the terrain in-between them is picked)
Decent tutorial map
Reputation system and multiple endings (Rep affects the storyline and ending if you let the meter fall too low (it's the one in the top right during a scenario), if you fight weaker parties (and especially if you kill everyone off instead of just the leader) it affects your rep negatively). Losing a liberated town (lose twice as much as you regain when taking it back) or waiting around for more than 5 days during a scenario (to gain more tribute, the amount of which is affected by rep) also affects it negatively; higher alignment when liberating towns means you'll gain more rep and vice versa (if the town has low morale you still gain rep with a high ALI squad (based on its average) - just less of it), some story event/dialogue choices also affect reputation - mostly minor but there is an exception in the city of xanadu scenario)
Some meaningful dialogue choices - can say yes or no to various basic side quests and in Diaspola you can choose whether to spare Norn or not if you have high enough rep
Basic city management (each one has stats for morale (cross)/friendliness to the player (heart)/income via tribute per day, unit recruitment during a scenario)
Game speed and text speed options (fastest game speed could've been a bit faster though)
Can trade units between squads/parties
Can shop in some towns (Valna)
Neutral unit encounters when entering some battles and while moving around an area can be recruited (befriend command)
Partially non-linear structure (some branching paths shown in the manual - choose between 2-3 scenarios at a time (more including the floating islands), there's some freedom in how you take on each scenario (army composition, defensive or agressive, evil or good), your performance (rep, player char stats, finding important items and NPCs) also affects the story and ending)
Hidden cities/temples/characters and items in most scenarios. Some hidden scenarios (find chaos gates while having the Holy Sword Brunhild to find optional floating island scenarios). On the optional flying islands, any unit that does not have a low- or high sky ability will immediately die if they lose a battle to an enemy unit (it makes them get pushed off)
Can teleport a unit back to your HQ or all units to the army leader with items (dinner bell/summon). Boots item can also be used to warp to a freed town or temple
Mode 7-style scenario map which can be zoomed out
Can revisit beaten scenario areas to get quest info/lore/buy items or liberate towns you missed or captured instead. There's also additional dialogue when revisiting towns in an area after a battle scenario and you can also activate new side quests
Unit compatibility mechanic (alignment but also some other factors affects combat efficiency (killing lower-leveled characters can lower your alignment and vice versa+if alignment between your unit and the enemy is high then the effect is greater and vice versa) - not too important though)
Editable party/squad formations (units tend to have a different back row move)
Pretty good class customization (can even demote units to access another class path)
Can also recruit directly to a squad/party during a scenario if it lost a unit or isn't full yet
Firework effect after conquering/liberating an entire map
Leader units have some influence on their squad (if a leader's stat is higher it improves the stat of a member with a lower stat and vice versa; similar to Langrisser) - however a stat can only receive a -3 or +4 modifier so after the early game it doesn't matter much
Some interactive dialogue (pick the topic to ask about like in Ys)
Decent enemy AI in that it will sometimes try to sneak past your army to take your HQ
Very good direction overall, Character portraits (busts) during dialogue
Huge item inventory which can be sorted
Decent ending (tells you what happened to each hero unit that you recruited along the way (although in a kind of unceremonious way - just a long dialogue scene while showing the current scenario map in the background; at least there's some nice artwork of the home castle afterwards))
+/-
Being evil/low Alignment is easier and faster. While it would seem that going for low alignment squads/army would be bad for your tribute income due to a lower rep it's not really the case, you can sit around and collect lots of tribute during scenarios if you want. If you want to be evil you can also gain certain items from it, recruit other units, get a different ending and can freely overlevel a smaller, elite army since you don't have to worry about the lowered ALI from taking out lower level enemies. You can also gain more cards by letting the enemy take towns and reliberating them if you ignore maintaining a high rep
Furthermore, you can also mix up your army with evil squads that take out enemies while you have good/high ALI squads liberate towns to keep your reputation high - You have to balance it though since rep is affected by taking out weaker squads or chasing them down to the last man
No direct control over units during a battle (you can just control which squad/party will attack which enemy squad and sort of control their attack priorities during battle (best (squad tries to deal the most total damage possible), strong (unit w/ most HP) - avoid if fighting undead w/ a cleric as he won't use heal on them, leader (if the leader is killed the squad will flee back to the enemy HQ), weak). You can also use buffs and attacks via tarot cards. This indirect control is part of why multi-target attacks are generally better than single target and why back row damage dealers are more effective than front row/melee ones
Three save slots (only info is your current level and ?, can only save between battles here (can be annoying when fighting bosses since they re-recruit their underlings immediately if you don't kill them) - can save during them on PS1)
Gain more of a money bonus by beating a scenario faster (however you might gain more in total from tribute by letting time pass if you don't care about being good)
More large scale/political story than usual
Some unintuitive stats (alignment=how much a unit cares for others and battle performance relative to the time of day (high ALI chars fight better during daytime and vice versa) - should be higher for the unit than the morale of the town you're trying to liberate to raise rep, charisma=leadership (used in the promotion of units that can be leaders* (the minimum amount is 50-80 Charisma)+to determine the probability of success for a unit leader to recruit
a neutral unit; affected by level disparity between the units when fighting), )
Unit upkeep (conquer/liberate more cities to gain more gold per day)
Can revive characters with an item or at temples (their exp goes back to the starting point of their current level if they die though, if the leader died you have to change the leader and then move to a temple). Dead characters are auto-revived after a scenario
Tribute is only paid up until you've beaten the enemy boss/leader of a scenario
The manual guides you through the first 6 scenarios
In a battle where neither side is wiped out any damage dealth with cards isn't counted towards the final result
Some cards have a negative effect when drawn
Every party/squad can access your cards and items from anywhere on the map
Can't make a party leader use a healing spell when outside of a vs. battle
Can't change formations during a vs. battle (can do it during the scenario however)
Can't check an enemy leader's stats (only HP and level)
A party leader can equip only one item at a time
Exp gains from a battle are given to all party/squad members involved
Killing enemies with tarot cards gives the exp to the player character/army lord regardless of who used them
Some random encounters (neutral units) - these can also happen when revisiting conquered land
You can have a mixed squad count as a flying one with the right units in it
Can't cast attack spells outside of vs. battles
Can escape from vs. battles as a tactic to avoid damage or to finish off a unit that would escape and revive after the fight with a second unit (or to give another unit the exp, or to escape back to your base faster, or to avoid completely killing a boss's minions at the end of a vs. battle since they revive immediately) - however you need to be careful as each unit in the squad will lose 1 Charisma/leadership (used for promotions of units that can be leaders)
How the answers during character creation correspond to the alignment result doesn't always make sense (a wealth potion arguably is more good than immortality for example),
Plain type units tend to automatically move around mountains when telling them to go to a location beyond one - can be good but occasionally leads to them moving into battles they're not supposed to
Some overpowered classes (ghosts, skeletons, princesses - requires a rare item though (only two preplaced ones), liches - also requires a pretty rare item (only four in the game), generals, cockatrices (upgr gryphons) vs lower level units?)
Found items are also random and this can affect the difficulty curve to some extent. You can get lucky early on and get something great - can also get items more than once although some might be "once per playthrough"
Starting with as many unis as you do (after the first scenario) and the relatively complex formation system is a bit overwhelming (you can get by with fewer squads but you don't know that yet)
Cards are overpowered since they are pretty cheap to buy (even though you gain a random one when buying them)
Some trial & error in finding hidden items and towns - sometimes there's a visual clue and you can sometimes get a clue from a found town when revisiting a map but other times there's nothing. There are items that reveal both, which are fairly expensive (dowser item), but you can use save/reload in emulation to get around it (still annoying in the City of Malano scenario though)
Too easy to manipulate the day/night system with relatively cheap items that will instantly change the time of day (Moonbeam/Ray of Sunlight
Can raise ALI with soul mirror (somewhat randomized gain but you gain about 10 ALI per use (but sometimes as little as 1 ALI!)) but it's pretty rare and lowering it quickly requires killing someone with very different (higher) ALI than your unit - remember the unit you want to lower it for has to make the killing blow as well
Compared to PS1: Stronger cockatrices, no loading times but instead there are some delays during gameplay mentioned below
-
Some interface issues (no quest log/journal feature, can't see class info in-game and it's not in the manual either (annoying when changing a unit's class), can't see the level of each unit in a party/squad without viewing them individually in a sub menu - slows the game down if you want to be good (and/or have a balanced army) since it's important to keep track of due to the alignment mechanic, can't see a leader's white and black magic stats?, have to choose equip and then an empty slot to de-equip an item, sometimes lacking item descriptions (in shops, can't check them on equipped items), can't see that you have more than 7 cards, somewhat slow menu transitions and there are pauses in the gameplay after issuing commands, can't check what a card does with select (for example) in the battle menu+sometimes the effect isn't obvious after using one, can't check the stat of a party leader in the deploy menu, can't see name of a party leader when picking between two or more of them in the same location, no in-game explanation of the icons shown when examining a town or for the reputation bar - also bad how there's no numeric representation of reputation so small changes aren't noticeable, some delay after a squad finishes moving during which the game doesn't respond to input, can't use select to check what each card does during an encounter battle - can do it during a scenario, can't order more than one squad at once - makes having a large army kinda tedious, have to pick a specific symbol in the menu to check a unit's current destination - should've just automatically appeared when selecting it or even better when hovering over it, can't see a unit's stats while using a stat increasing item on them nor how much they gained from using it, can't check an enemy unit's ALI, can't see on the world map if there are towns left to liberate in an area, )
The game doesn't explain the basic stats nor the parties in slots 4-9 in your army after finishing the tutorial map. Reputation and day/night mechanics aren't explained in-game either
The enemy AI isn't particularly smart overall (rather weak to rushing and doesn't take advantage of you turtling (it doesn't send more units at once or become stronger if you just sit and wait instead of liberating towns/temples, doesn't use card spells like Moon or World, tends not to tweak its formations for better combat efficiency, tends to keep sending squads on suicide missions against your stronger units which can also screw with your alignment and charisma stats if you don't take it slower and put weaker units in front of them, )
How the ALI stat is affected isn't always consistent - for example I could have one unit with high ALI and one with low in the same squad despite them being of the same type and level, and having fought the same amount of enemies
Some meaningless dialogue choices (various meaningful ones but you don't know which is which beforehand)
Some trial & error (can't view a scenario map before playing it (see Langrisser, no separate deployment phase before a battle starts here)+invisible fog of war/limited sight range for your units - enemy units pop up not that far from your units instead of you seeing them as soon as they exit a town (if there is no one near a town, you'll never see the enemy unit before it's taken), reviving dead leaders - need to make another unit the leader before the squad returns to HQ, effect of forgiving Deneb the pumpkin witch (yes=loss in rep+glass pumkin+she'll join if you're evil/no=loss in ALI+pumpkin and rotten pumpkins at Baljib, at Disapola you can get a beehive from one of the southern towns instead of buying it at raloshel, figuring out where a specific unit/creature can be found as a neutral encounter - for example in the Diaspola area you can only find angels over the deep sea, finding the zodiac stones (optional - yields 99 crowns) - not hard just tedious since you don't know which towns they're in, game doesn't tell you when you lose reputation from dialogue choices such as the monk's test in the late game)
NPCs join for strange reasons at times ("I like the look in your eyes")
For some maps pretty much all enemies will be underleveled (there's no dynamic difficulty balancing, it's static) - This also means a mercy or defend command to avoid stat loss would've been good
Scripting issues and trial & error makes recruiting Canopus and Gilbert in the third scenario (Sharom District) overly convoluted - have to enter and re-enter some seemingly random towns in a set order to recruit canopus (you could also use him to attack gilbert in the enemy HQ but it's only for extra dialogue). Recruiting Saradin is similarly convoluted
Some poor classes (mermaids and nixies outside of areas with enough water, giants - bad accuracy, amazons after the early game, fairies until upgraded). Big units generally aren't worth it with some exceptions (zombie dragon, gryphon, wyrm) - can get a balance path though
Kinda repetitive (not enough variety in how you should tackle scenarios to win after the first 6 or so, though you can usually either take it slow and steady or play aggressively with just one or two squads on the defensive, the sky islands add a bit but are optional). Not enough special events later on - see laser cannons (Shining Force), wildfires (Langrisser II), floods (Lord Monarch) or surprise reinforcements
Healers waste a turn on healing a unit with full HP if it's their turn before someone is hurt
Sometimes uneven difficulty depending on if you happen to have a certain card (fool to get rid of a boss' minions or world to defend against magic, sometimes moon (witch rows), lovers (confuse), emperor (one more player turn) or death (kill low HP enemies - can miss vs bosses))
Sometimes when you have a tight time window to get a squad into position or out of danger the frequent pausing from various actions+the game not being able to auto-pause when returning from a battle screen to the tactical screen can screw you over
A bit tedious how towns that have something new to say/give aren't highlighted when revisiting areas
Can't rename squad leaders
Some muffled sfx
Some repeated dialogue at different towns
Keep finding crappy gear later on due to loot being completely randomized - could've scaled a bit as you progressed since they're barely even worth selling in the late game and it then doesn't feel worth it to spend time looking for buried treasure
Saying NO to Rashidi during the final scenario makes that squad join him (mistranslation)
Compared to PS1: Can't set waypoints when moving units around, Less dialogue and pre-scenario text (some translation issues on PS1 though), lower resolution means you see less of the battlefield, can't zoom out to a top down view of the battlefield, can't get an overview of freed towns in an area via a sub menu? (only squads)
Notes:
-Finished a "good", high rep playthrough where I got all the zodiac stones and confronted the villains with the right characters
-Low rep/evil playthrough info: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/588541-ogre-battle-the-march-of-the-black-queen/79246935
-Need the Herostar (scenario 2/Sharom), 60%+ Reputation Meter and 70+ Alignment for your Lord to recruit a couple of chars in the mid-game
-Some unexplained additional effects of battle tactics: strong=attack bonus; weak=defense penalty
-*Units that can be leaders: Knight, Paladin, Samurai, Samurai Master, Beastman, Beast Master, Dragoner, Dragon Master, Wild Man, Evil One, Ninja Master (but not Ninja), Dollmage, Doll Master, Wizard, Mage, Sorcerer, Lich, Vampyre, Valkyrie, Muse, Cleric, Shaman, Monk, Witch, Princess, Eagleman, Ravenman, Mermaid, Nixie, Angel, Cherubim, Seraphim, Imp, Demon, Devil, Iainuki Lord, Thunder Lord, Phantom Lord, Dragoon, General
-A tier units (coffee potato YT): samurai, muse (upgr valkyrie), monk (upgr cleric), ninja, paladin, sylph (upgr fairy), cherubim/seraphim, wyrm, dragoon (slust/fenril/fogul only), gryphon, prince agairs (?)
-Can NOT place units in a Temple to gradually gain ALI points (stated in the RPG Classics guide)