On Ogre Battle, and By Way of That, Funny Game Titles
I’m still working on an article that has turned out to be really, really long. As a result I wanted to write something small in the meantime to hold you guys over until I finish this other post. And yes, that is a conveniently-worded way of saying I’m lazy.
The Ogre Battle series is one of the less famous strategy RPGs, or at least it has become less famous recently, but it is storied among people of my generation as one of the best ever. It was a little different than the grid-based strategy RPGs today, in that you manage your empire kind of indirectly. Instead of sending out 3 or 4 units to attack, you send out several armies to meet other armies that are coming to attack your cities. When these units meet, you just watch them fight, and pray that the combination of units you chose will be good enough to win. As such, it was much more purely strategy than today’s strategy RPGs.
As a lifelong Queen fan, however, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen and its sequel, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, hold a bigger significance. Namely, the developer, Yasumi Matsuno, is obsessed with them. If you aren’t a Queen fan (and seriously, please get hit by a bus and die if you aren’t), Ogre Battle, March of the Black Queen, and Let Us Cling Together are all the titles of Queen songs. Matsuno, who is more famous than you think, having been the designer of, among other things, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Vagrant Story, absolutely loves Queen, and sneaks references to them in a lot of his games. For example, there’s a chapter in FF Tactics called Somebody to Love, and the sword you start with in Vagrant Story is called Fandango (a reference to Bohemian Rhapsody’s operatic section). Even in FFXII the summon Hashmal (no, I will NOT fucking call summons Eidolons) uses an attack called Rock You, a reference to We Will Rock You (obviously). Unfortunately, in the translated version of the game, the attack is called Roxxor, because WE ARE UP ON INTERNETES SLANG! FOR THE EPIC WINNER! LOLCATS FAILBAN!
There isn’t really much of a point to this post. I just mostly wanted to demonstrate how lucky we are the Matsuno was obsessed with a band that lent itself to cool titles, because Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen is just two Queen songs with a colon in between. It could have been much worse, as these examples demonstrate:
- Steely Dan: Kid Charlemagne: Do It Again - The story of a young Charlemagne as he attempts to expand the Frankish empire across Europe. A platformer, obviously.
- Styx: Mr Roboto: The Grand Illusion - A psychological survival horror game about an imaginary robot that follows the main character around trying to kill him. Also the main character is Dennis DeYoung.
- Journey: Don’t Stop Believin’: Faithfully A Christian game by the makers of Left Behind. Try to keep your faith alive while faced with such Biblical evils as homosexuality, pornography, and environmentalism. First-Person Shooter.
- The Eagles: Take It Easy: Life in the Fast Lane - This one borderlines on nonsensical. Am I taking it easy, or living life in the fast lane? Make up your goddammed mind, Don Henley. Either a relaxing sim game or an intense racer.
- Kiss: Love Gun: Lick It Up - This one is just vile. No comment.
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Wii game.
