Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen begins in the outskirts of the Zeteginean Empire, 24 years after the founding of the empire through conquest. The main character is leading a revolution against this empire, which has turned to evil through the use of black magic by the mage Rashidi. The main character's name and gender is chosen by the player, and called the "Opinion Leader" in the instruction manual. The game begins with the seer Warren using
tarot cards to ask a series of questions to determine the player's suitability as leader of the revolution. There are several questions out of a fixed set which are randomly asked, each of which is associated with one of the 22
Major Arcana cards of
divinatory tarot. The player's answers to these questions determine the Opinion Leader's abilities and starting units.
Ogre Battle mixes movement elements of a
real-time tactics game with the character development and combat of a
role-playing game. The game consists of a series of battles in which the player deploys units to fight against enemies and liberate occupied towns and temples. On the world map, the player can manage their characters, change their class, equip equipment, and choose the next stage to proceed to. Picking an already completed stage will not respawn the main enemies, although neutral monsters may still be there. The player is free to organize multiple squads of five fighters or fewer, with some large characters such as dragons or griffons counting as two for the purpose of squad size. Time passes on the tactical map, alternating between day and night. Time of day has several effects; for example,
vampires and
werewolves only function during the evening, with the former appearing in coffins during the day, and the latter appearing as normal men. Deploying a squad costs a small amount of money, which must be paid again as maintenance every time a day passes. Towns and temples on the map can be liberated by units, and retaken by Zeteginea if left undefended. Upon liberation, a random tarot card is drawn, which can have a variety of effects. Liberated towns also provide income when a day passes. Some towns have shops where money can be spent on consumable items and equipment. Also, some towns and temples are hidden and do not display on the initial map; only moving a unit over the area will reveal it, as well as hidden caches of treasure. Each stage has a boss; defeating the boss completes the mission. Both during and after the stage, towns and temples can be visited to gain information or items. There are 25 main stages in the game, with some variation possible in how the stages are played. There are also four hidden stages accessible through the main game with an additional stage as an
easter egg. The game can be completed without finishing all the stages. There are 13
different endings to the main game, depending on the conduct of the player during the course of the game. The alignment statistic for each character indicates how lawful (good) or chaotic (evil) they are, on a scale from 0 to 100. When characters with high alignment liberate towns, it will raise the player's reputation (although a high charisma is also recommended). Characters with high alignment will be weak against dark attacks but strong against light attacks. They will fight better in the day and worse at night. Alignment can be raised by defeating enemies whose level is higher than the player's, and defeating low-alignment enemies such as ghosts. Alignment will drop when a character defeats high alignment enemies, such as clerics and angels, or characters of a lower level. To keep a character's alignment is high, it is important not to exceed the level of the foes they are sent against. Thus, it is important for players who want to keep a high alignment to keep the fights "fair". Drawing tarot cards can also raise and lower the alignment statistic a little. Low alignment characters are considered more "evil". Consequently, they fight better at night and are weak against light attacks. Liberating towns with these types of characters will lower the player's reputation (especially if they possess a low charisma statistic). A player whose alignment is relatively high will not necessarily be penalized for employing units of low-alignment soldiers; rather, a mix of high- and low-alignment fighters results in the most potent fighting force. Provided the player keeps low- and high-alignment characters in their own separate units, and only liberates towns with high-alignment units, they can still see the best ending. Conversely, one who wishes to drop their alignment can continually capture towns with a few high-level, low-alignment units. For example, one can employ a few decidedly low-alignment units to slaughter enemy units, reserving high-alignment units for liberation purposes only.
Classes Ogre Battle includes a class system for its characters that determine their statistics and abilities. There are several different classes available in
Ogre Battle, but any given character is limited to a subset of class changes depending on their race. For instance, human characters can either be male (fighter) or female (amazon). There are also dragons, wyrms, pumpkins, angels, giants, hellhounds, octopuses, hawk men, demons, griffins, mermaids, golems and undead class trees. Gaining levels from
experience points allows characters to access later upgraded classes in a class tree. There are also often alignment and charisma requirements in addition to level requirements. In addition, some classes also require the use of a special item. Finally, the two human class trees are unique in that they have the most branches in their tree and characters can be demoted to move along a different path. Potential recruits include
knights,
ninjas,
wizards,
angels,
griffins,
witches, and others. Apart from statistic increases at level-up, a character's class also determines how the character moves and fights. Each character has a terrain type where they move fastest and fight the best (some classes also get additional attacks), with flying characters able to move quickly over all terrain. In addition, each class has a set of attacks characters can perform, ranging from physical attacks targeting one opponent to magical attacks targeting a whole unit. == Plot==