Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber is the third in a series of strategy RPGs from Quest.  The first two -- originally on the Super Nintendo and re-released on PlayStation -- were relative successes in the U.S.  Released some time ago in Japan, Atlus has picked up Ogre Battle 64 for a US release.  Given its status as a high profile RPG on a system not known for RPGs, is Ogre Battle 64 any good?

In the tradition of the best RPGs, Quest has loaded Ogre Battle 64 with a grand and sweeping story.  The story encompasses issues of class warfare, religion, abuse of power, and social strife.  The game's protagonist is a new graduate of Zetegnia's military academy and is assigned to the far reaches of Zetegnia.  He soon learns of the plight of the lower class and their need for a revolution.  The inevitable clash amongst nations and the church follows the revolution of the people.

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, unlike the majority of game releases recently, takes the 2D hand-drawn route when it comes to visuals.  The game does use some 3d polygonal graphics, but the vast majority is 2D.  That said, the game's hand drawn art is of the highest quality.  The shadows, lighting, and animation of the 2D art are especially noteworthy.  The personality that this visual style lends works well for this type of game.  

Ogre Battle 64's gameplay consists mainly of organizing and equipping your army and directing their movements on the battlefield.  The main area from which your campaigns are launched is called the world map.  The world map is where all extraneous activities of your army are waged.  You can manage the outfitting and unit assignments to your army, read intelligence reports, and train your soldiers. Your choices of where to launch a campaign on the world map depend on the state of the game's story as well as choices you have made earlier in the game.  More often than not, you are presented with several different options on where to launch your next campaign and each will have a different implication on the game's storyline.

Once you have launched a campaign, you will be briefed on the status of the area and the objective you must accomplish to win, and what can cause you to lose.  This is called the field map, where the majority of the game takes place.  This is where you actually command your units and battle with enemy units takes place.  You dispatch your units and order them where to go.  Depending on your preset strategy and concurrent orders, they will avoid or attack enemy units, capture fortresses, and make war.  The CPU, based on the strategy and the formation of the units you've designed, fights the battles.  Where units go and their orders are implemented in real-time by the player.

Much of Ogre Battle 64 consists of the micromanagement of your army.  Aside from individual fighters and soldiers, the basic pieces of the army are units.  A unit is comprised of at least one soldier of leader rank, and up to five total fighters.  The unit formation is plotted out on a 3x3 grid.  Most characters take up one spot on the grid, but larger characters such as dragons and golems take up 2.  Based on where a soldier is placed in the grid, their attacks and defensive abilities are affected, as well as any cooperative attacks with teammates.  The next largest unit of the army is the legion. A legion is a tactical grouping of units under a legion commander or centurion.  The player is able to equip each and every soldier in his or her army individually or by group.  Like most RPGs, each soldier in the army acquires experience points and the like, increasing in level and abilities.  Armor, weapons, and other adornments will affect these abilities, as well as their teammates'.  For example: A dragon tamer can positively affect the ability of dragons in his or her unit.  Magic users in a unit can also combine magical attacks.

Ogre Battle 64 also uses an alignment system somewhat similar to Dungeons & Dragons.  There are 3 main levels of alignment: neutral, lawful, and chaotic.  The alignment of characters can affect the abilities of a character, what classes they can inherit, and how they are seen by NPCs and other characters.  A lawful character in a chaotic unit will take on the alignment of his comrades and vice versa.  Towns, forts and strongholds are also affected by the alignment.  If a chaotic unit moves into a lawful town it will have been captured.  However, if a lawful unit takes a lawful town, it will have been liberated.  The overall alignment of your protagonist and your army affect the scenarios of the game and the story line. 

Ogre Battle 64 manages to innovate while maintaining links to traditional RPGs.  The gameplay may be a little slow-going for most gamers, as it requires a lot of time and work.  Micro and macro management are the keys to this game, and the gamer that spends time will be rewarded.  The mix of story development and strategic warfare payoff handsomely.  While being the best RPG on the N64 isn't exactly huge praise, Ogre Battle 64 is great of its own accord.  It's initial complexity and slow-to-start storyline hides an extremely entertaining game for those who press on.