In-Depth Guide for Ogre Battle 64 on n64 Version v.1 14/10/00 written by `Xenocide Version History --------------- v.1 Initial release - not finished, folks ================= Table of Contents ================= I. Introduction II. FAQ III. Story IV. Controls V. Characters A. Plot Characters B. Pud Characters C. Classes D. Stats VI. Items VII. The Field Map VIII.Weapons IX. Enemies X. Secrets/Codes XI. Thanks XII. Legal =============== Introduction =============== Ogre Battle 64 is an excellent Strategy game with RPG elements. It fits under so many catagories its really hard to place it, just like all the best games. About as accurate as you can get is Real Time Strategy RPG. What seperates it from RPGs is that you do not control units directly, but rather give them a general "Battle Stratgy." What seperates it from RTS games is that your units rise in level, rather than just pumping them out. The real strategy is in min/maxing your characters and units. For those of you unfamiliar with the series: yes, it uses 2d graphics (sprites). For those of you familiar with the series: yes, they kept the good 2d graphics. However, they upgraded the world map from tile based mode 7 style to a polygonal environment. I can think of no detriment to the series from this change, fortunately. If you've never played before, or if you have and intend to play the game seriously, you'd better start off with the tutorial, which you may or may not recognize as Deneb from Ogre Battle SNES. If you like Ogre Battle 64, you might give Ogre Battle:March of the Black Queen (SNES), Warcraft, Final Fantasy Tactis, or one of the Ultimas a try. Next to the part everyone really is looking for... the FAQ! === FAQ === 1. Why arent my soldiers promoting? Soldiers earn experience in a differant manner than other characters. They get secret exp based on the number of other soldiers in the group, provided the unit wins the battle. There's a formula, but I doubt its validitiy. Also, soldiers have to see REAL combat, not training. 2. Why are my characters alignmen falling? Alignment is a big deal in Ogre Battle, to balance the game. Units that level too high above the enemy lose ali by killing them. Similarly they raise ali by killing units of a higher level than them. Other factors are involved, but this one is the biggie. If you're curious, my in depth ali FAQ should be integrated to this below at a later time. Just wait until then, or read my posts. 3. Why do the enemy units have differant classes than I do? The enemy always gets classes before you do, I guess to show you why they're useful. Don't sweat it. You'll get the class too when you have the items and qualified characters. 4. Why do my soldiers turn into Zombies after I complete a map? When you complete a map, there is around a one in three chance that a dead character will turn into a Zombie. Theres nothing you can do about this, not even selling off Old Clothes. Just make sure people are alive when you beat the map if you don't want Undead. 5. Where can I get new characters to fill out my ranks? You can get new humans by giving soldiers battle experience, and find the rest of the classes through area investigation after a map is complete. Simply use the "Talk" interrupt command that replaces battle strategy. Neutral characters are listed by entering HQ of a map during Area investigation. 6. How come a class I isn't available for my characters? First you have to have at least one of all the required equipment for a class. After that you can purchase more for new class changes. In addition, the character must meet the stat requirements and the ali requirement. 7. Whats the point of elem pedras? They're never allowed! Elem pedras are the last interrupt command to be enabled, following Battle Strategy and Retreat. It takes a lot of damage to reach this stage, so don't expect them to be used for a while. When you first do use them, its not going to be very impressive, since they're based on the level of Magnus. 8. Why do I keep losing? You probably left the HQ undefended, or Magnus died. My suggestion is to not have him leave the base. This way you have it protected, and you don't risk him dying. 9. Is the game worth it? Yes. 10. Are you just saying that? Go rent it if you don't believe me. You probably bought turok 2 on less merit, so why start worring about being ripped off now? Seriously, rent it if you're unsure. ========= Story ========= You are Magnus, a youthful graduate of the Military acadamy. In the process of making a name for yourself, you have decided to apply to the Southern Division. Much of the plot will unfold, and in fact, you can intentionally alter the flow of it. And I don't want to ruin the replay value or degrade the hard work the makers have done in creating a great interactive storyline, so I'll just say this: you can expect the usual plot fare, an evil empire that sold its soul for power, the incompentant general trying to save himself from doom, the "Rebellion" thats always in every game. And thats just the first chapter... =============== Characters =============== A. Plot Characters These are the named Characters you'll see in cutscenes, progressing the plot. I'm trying not to spoil the game, so the list will definately be incomplete. You can view a dynamic chart of all the plot characters from the Hugo Report. Magnus Gallant - This is you. You can rename him, obviously. Newly graduated from military acadamy, you are searching your way in life. The last name obviously means gallant, for whatever reason. Diomedes Rangue- Your friend and rival from the acadamy. His dream in life is to be a knight. Hugo Miller- Mandatory wise man. He gives you a general strategy for the maps, along with information about the past and present, presented in "Hugo Reports." General Godeslas - Incompitent general who's out of to climb the ladder of power any way he can. And you get to work with him. His last name seems like a play on the term "godless" to me. Prince Yumil - Old friend of yours you left when you went to the acadamy. His kind nature is easily subverted by the corruption of the people surrounding him. His name seems to be a play on "humile." B. Common Class The rest of the characters in the game do not serve the plot much, but rather, they help you win the war. Characters are divided into races (not really races, but thats what the game calls them), and are further divided into classes. The races are Human Female, Human Male, Demi-Human, Monster, Golem, Dragon and Undead. characters can change freely among classes, but only the ones inside their race, provided they meet the statistics. In order to change class, the character must have good enough statistics, an alignment inside the yellow range, and proper equipment. You cannot recruit new characters from cities as you could in Ogre Battle SNES. Instead, new characters are either found in random battles, as is the case for monsters, dragons, golems, and demi-humans, or promoted from soldiers, in the case of humans. I've put my reccomendation on which row the character's attacks are best in parenthesis next to their name. Please note that I am falliable and in addition that there are always other concerns when creating units than their best attack row. Classes that can lead have a L in the title line, like: Knight (front) L 1. Soldier (rear) The Soldier is a the basic class for humans. They are not named, and are of indeterminate gender, presumably to save on RAM. They are placed in groups of three, taking up one slot in a unit. Their statistics are determined by the non soldier units in the group's averages. A group of Soldiers DO earn experience, but its not shown to the player. It earns exp for victories rather than killing things. When they earn enough exp, one is promoted to Amazon or Fighter after battle, depending on the gender of the unit leader, and the rest dissapear. I prefer to place soldiers in the rear, because every third of the groups exp kills one of the soldiers, weakening the group, and they're not in the unit for their strengh, but for training. If you're gonna have one you might as well have more since they can combo their attack. See more on Combos down a bit. 2. Human Female a. Amazon (Rear) The Amazon is the basic Female class. She uses a bow and arrow to attack enemies from afar. Around Level 5, Amazons usually have the stats for advanced classes. b. Archer (Middle) L The Archer is basically a better version of the Amazon. They still use a bow and arrow, but they're better from the second row, than the rear. c.Dragon Tamer (front) L The Dragon Tamer is akin to the valkyrie in that they're good in the front row, but theres a great reason not to put them there. Dragons in a unit led by Dragon Tamers perform better than usual. Since dragons are good in the front until their breath attack gets better, Dragon Tamers are better suited to letting the dragons kick booty and sit in the back to avoid dying. d. Valkyrie (front or rear) L The Valkyrie is a great frontline warrior and a decent back line magic user(lightning). They use a spear to attack in the front and middle rows, and magic in the back row. e. Sorceress (back) L The Soceress is a magic wielder. Their magic is determined by the kind of SpellBook they carry. If they carry a regular spell book, then they cast magic of their own element, otherwise they cast the spell of the book's element. f. Cleric (Back) L The cleric is a woman of their god. Rather than fighting the opponent, they instead heal the unit. For some reason, they carry a mace, rather than the Ankh of Ogre Battle SNES. g. Witch () L Unfinished h. Angel Knight () ? Unfinished 3. Human Males a. Fighter The Fighter is the basic class for human males. They use swords to attack the enemy. Around level 5 they begin to be eligible for advanced classes. b. Berzerker (front) L The Berzerker is the ultimate fighter, sacrficing everything for strength advantages. Supposedly this class does not lose fighting power due to status aliments. c. Fencer (front) L The Fencer is a swift version of the fighter, sacrificing defense for agility. A decent front line warrior, especially useful if a series of first strikes can decimate an opponent character. d. Phalanx (front) L The phalanx is a real bear of a unit, and a decent fighter. They sacrifice their magical defense and agility for more defense. Excellent for winning battles because the take little damage and deal out normal damage. This also makes them good candidates for raising soldiers. e. Beast Tamer (back) L Beast Tamers are best used in conjunction with beasts. They raise the performance of the beasts in the unit, so its best to put two beasts in the unit and the tamer. Might as well place the tamer in the back on a side and let the beasts do the work. f. Doll Master (middle) L The doll master is a master of manipulation of inanimate objects. His specialty is attacking with dolls or puppets. In addition, he gives golems, created from inanimate junk, the same master bonus as beast and dragon tamers. g. Ninja (front) The ninja is your quick low ali unit. He attacks with lethal claws. I don't like these guys because their too weak, really. h. Wizard (back) L This guy is the only magic user out if all the male classes. If you're gonna put one in the unit, you might as well add one or two more in the same row for combo attacks. See more on combos down in the text. 4. Demi-Humans a. Faerie b. Gremlin (back) The gremiln is a batlike creature, sort of evil by nature. They aren't very useful, but whatever goes, neh? c. Pumpinhead (back) The pumpkinhead is a menace on either side. Their front row attack halves the attacked characters HP, and the back one does like 30 damage to a radius of characters, at a cost of 30 HP to the pumpinhead. Not fun to fight against. d. Hawkman () The Hawkman is basically a guy with wings. His weapon of choice is the hammer. He's also the only Demi-Human that can you can change the class of. Note that he's a sky unit. e. Raven () L The chaotic pumped up version of Hawkman. One of two leaders of the sky movement type. f. Vultan () L Like the Raven only Lawful. The other sky leader. Attacks 5. Beasts a. Hellhound (front) The Hellhound is one mean beast. It attacks by biting with its two heads. It also gets three attacks in the front row. Vicious. b. Cerberus (front) The higher class of Hellhound, its stronger and has 3 heads rather than two. Even more vicious. c. Wyrm () d. Wyvern () e. Griffen (front) The Griffen is a sky character, with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. In the front and middle they dive at the enemy, and in the back they create a wind storm at an enemy. f. Cockatrice () g. Opinincus () 6. Golems a. Golem () b. Stone Golem () c. Baldr Golem () 7. Dragons a. Yonng Dragon (front) The young dragon is an undeveloped dragon, and useful for filling out your ranks as damage absorbers. When they get a high enough level, they change into the dragon of their element. If their ali is high or low enough, its thought that they'll turn into the elusive Black and Platinum Dragons. b. Thunder Dragon (front) Mature dragon with lightning breath. c. Red Dragon (front) Mature dragon with fire breath. d. Earth Dragon (front) Mature dragon with acid breath. e. Blue Dragon (front) Mature dragon with cold breath. f. Platinum Dragon (front) Mature dragon with sacred breath. g. Black Dragon (front) Mature dragon with swamp breath or something. h. Tiamat () i. Bahamut () j. Hydra () l. Ahzi Dahaka () m. Flarebrass () n. Quetzalcoatl () 8. Undead The undead are a special race, of humans who weren't revived in time. If you finish a map with dead characters, then theres around a 30 percent chance that the characters will change to Zombies, with no way back. I have... 8 of them at the moment, but three were from before I figured out how it worked, and another three were a bad move on my part. Don't let the same happen to you. Oh, and don't think that not having any old clothes will stop the transformation; the game is kind enough to lend you them.(Yes, this was the bad move on my part.) a. Zombie (front) Zombies are the basic undead class. I hear you can pick them up in random battles, but personally I have a problem thinning my ranks of these guys. c. Skeleton () Skeletons are axe wielding... yup-skeletons. I have not seen this for myself, but supposedly lighting fire to zombies ala opponent's fire magic gets you skeletons. d. Ghost () Ghosts attack with supernatural powers. They dont really have much in the way of damage attacks, so they're useless to me. ============ Controls ============ If you've used windows, I think you can handle Ogre Battle 64. Everything is presented in windows and dialogs for you. Start is useful for explaining menus and windows in most cases. To the schemas- On the Field Map: D-Pad - moves the curser. Joystick - moves the curser too. Start - pause. Select - the n64 doesnt have one. A - selects the current highlighted object. B - cancels a selection R - brings up the action menu. C-Up - raises the camera angle C-Down - lowers the camera angle C-Left - toggles the overview map C-Right - toggles scroll modes, and pauses the game while pressed. Note that the cursor has an affinity for objects in the field, meaning it moves torwards units and strongholds if they're near it. Action Menu- Dispatch Brings up a list of units avaiable to bring to the field. Organize Units Brings up the unit orginization screen Elem Pedra Shows you what Pedras you have and how soon until they can be used again. Settings Change settings like game and message speed. Mission Objective Replays the winning and losing conditions. Suspend Saves the current progress and quits. Restarting from the save will erase it. So no save state cheating. Unit Command Menu- Commands - commands for movements Move Sets the waypoints for units. Press A to set a waypoint, then move the cursor to set another one. To end the waypoint track, press A before moving the curson again. Direction Tells the unit to look in one of eight directions. Useful because a unit's visibility is severly limited behind it, and for facing the enemy. Orders - sets the pathing of the unit releative to enemy units Dir - the unit moves in the shortest distance to the waypoint, reguardles of enemey units. Hit - the unit attacks enemy units relatively close to the path. Eva - the unit avoids enemy units. Guard - the unit holds its garrison when approached by enemies Int. - the unit cuts off units passing by its garrison. Ret. - the unit retreats is garrison when approached Destintation Shows the waypoints set for a unit. Retreat Retreats the unit, so it can be reorganized, etc. Usable only on units stationed in HQ. Unit Commands - commands pertaning to the unit organization. Battle Strategy Sets the initial battle strategy for the unit. Formation Reorganizes the unit formation. Use item Uses one of the expendables the unit is carrying. Change Leader Changes the leader of the unit, if theres anyone else that can lead. Legion Commands - commands pertaining to the legion a unit may be in Formation Alters the legion formation Divison Placement Alter placement of units within the formation Stronghold Commands - commands available while garrisoned at a Stronghold Enter Stronghold Enters the stronghold to talk with the townsfolk Stronghold info Displays the stronghold's population, moral, and special functions Shop Purchase equipment and expendables, when available Witch's Den Revives dead characters, for a fee. Exchange characters Trades characters if theres another unit to trade with Exchange items Exchanges items with any other units in the stronghold. Exhange units Exchanges Units between legions. Camp/Break-camp Orders the unit to set up camp or break it. Camping recoups HP and fatigue. Status View the quick stats for your characters in the unit. More to come later..... ============= The Field Map ============= The Field is comprimised of three things: strongolds, units, and terrain Strongholds are cities and castles for defense and restoration. Units include both your units and the units of the enemy. The biggest consideration on the map left is terrain. Terrain is divided into 8 types 1. Highways 2. Plains 3. Forests 4. Marsh 5. Highlands 6. River Banks 7. Wilderness 8. Snowy versions of these. Movement across these is impeded by units with differant movement types than the terrain. ======== Items ======== I'm not that bored. Read the manual, or use the help cursor by pressing start. =========== Weapons =========== same deal. you know, i think someone else allready entered this all, straight from the instruction booklet. go read that one, or the booklet, for god's sake. ===== Armor ===== did you think i was gonna change ============ Enemies ============ this i might actually add later ========== Thanks ========== to Atlus for translating this cool game, even if the cussing was comic to Quest for a great lesson in object orientation, micromanagement and strategy. to the gamefaqs.com boards for posting good questions and giving good responses. ============= Secrets/Codes ============= -Enter your name as "MUSIC_ON" to enter a Background Music Test. -Enter your name as "DEL_DATA" to delete all the saved data on the cart. taken from Desmond Gaban at http://ogre.gaban.com/codes.html ======== Legal ======== This work falls under US copyright laws. Do not distribute without express written consent. Any names ( like ) are probably trademarked by No llama were harmed in the creation of this game. You should have found this FAQ at www.gamefaqs.com