Ogre Battle-Style RTS/RPG
by John Knerr 5th · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 03/08/2008 (3:08 am) · 1 replies
I've been playing a lot of Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (SNES/PSX) and I've become interested in creating a game along the same lines. For those unfamiliar with Ogre Battle, it is a fantasy-themed pseudo-war game that merges RTS-style movement with Final Fantasy-like turn-based battles and character development. It is very story-driven, and quite challenging. Detailed information about it can be found here and there are some nice screen shots of it here.
The gameplay mostly revolves around deploying units on a battle map in order to liberate towns, cities, temples, forts, etc. scattered across it. A battle is won when the enemy's base on the map has been liberated (by defeating a boss stationed there). A battle is lost by either having your base on the map conquered by the enemy or having your hero unit defeated. Each of your many units are comprised of up to 6 characters (or as few as 1 character) of different races or classes, and each character can gain levels, be equipped with an item, and get promoted to a stronger class or race.
Moving the units is done similar to an RTS where you select the character and then select the location for them to move to. Different classes or races move at different speeds over different terrains. When one of your units reaches a neutral city (etc.) it liberates it, gaining a bonus and giving you a tarot card, as well as initiating a short story segment (NPC interaction). When one of your units comes into contact with an enemy unit a battle takes place on a Final Fantasy-like battle screen. The battle lasts about 4 rounds, with the side with the least HP or no HP losing. A unit losing due to low HP is pushed back on the map, a unit who's lost its leader retreats back to the home base and can't be controlled until it has healed (at the home base). Units can heal on any captured city (etc.) or via spells during a battle. A unit that loses all characters is destroyed (if your hero unit is destroyed the game ends).
I really like the mixed RTS/RPG formula this game has and I want to stay pretty close to that, but I also want to expand upon it greatly, especially the battles. In Ogre Battle, the player has limited control over the turn-based segments (i.e. when two opposing units meet) and it has no multiplayer options whatsoever. Those are two things I definitely want to change in the formula, but also introducing story segments between battle maps, as a game like Final Fantasy Tactics does. Having locations on the map besides just cities, forts, etc. that provide more than just healing or shops would be good too. In Ogre Battle both sides (the player and the enemy) have access to the same unit types, I'd prefer to go more along the lines of War Craft 3 or Dragon Force (Sega Saturn/PS2) and have units unique to certain factions.
What other ways could the formula be improved or added upon? Especially the battle system, as I can see why the battles last only 4 or so rounds given that any longer and the battles overall (i.e. the battle map as a whole) would get very tedious and time consuming. So I want to keep the unit-to-unit battles quick, but add a little more control and depth to them... Maybe something like Dragon Force (Sega Saturn/PS2) where you have a ton of little soldiers running around the battle screen in real-time rapidly wiping each other out. Or perhaps I could forgo control in battles and speed up the action even more by making it similar to Advance Wars where you see the characters in a unit blasting each other, and each character represents an HP of the unit overall. What do you think?
The gameplay mostly revolves around deploying units on a battle map in order to liberate towns, cities, temples, forts, etc. scattered across it. A battle is won when the enemy's base on the map has been liberated (by defeating a boss stationed there). A battle is lost by either having your base on the map conquered by the enemy or having your hero unit defeated. Each of your many units are comprised of up to 6 characters (or as few as 1 character) of different races or classes, and each character can gain levels, be equipped with an item, and get promoted to a stronger class or race.
Moving the units is done similar to an RTS where you select the character and then select the location for them to move to. Different classes or races move at different speeds over different terrains. When one of your units reaches a neutral city (etc.) it liberates it, gaining a bonus and giving you a tarot card, as well as initiating a short story segment (NPC interaction). When one of your units comes into contact with an enemy unit a battle takes place on a Final Fantasy-like battle screen. The battle lasts about 4 rounds, with the side with the least HP or no HP losing. A unit losing due to low HP is pushed back on the map, a unit who's lost its leader retreats back to the home base and can't be controlled until it has healed (at the home base). Units can heal on any captured city (etc.) or via spells during a battle. A unit that loses all characters is destroyed (if your hero unit is destroyed the game ends).
I really like the mixed RTS/RPG formula this game has and I want to stay pretty close to that, but I also want to expand upon it greatly, especially the battles. In Ogre Battle, the player has limited control over the turn-based segments (i.e. when two opposing units meet) and it has no multiplayer options whatsoever. Those are two things I definitely want to change in the formula, but also introducing story segments between battle maps, as a game like Final Fantasy Tactics does. Having locations on the map besides just cities, forts, etc. that provide more than just healing or shops would be good too. In Ogre Battle both sides (the player and the enemy) have access to the same unit types, I'd prefer to go more along the lines of War Craft 3 or Dragon Force (Sega Saturn/PS2) and have units unique to certain factions.
What other ways could the formula be improved or added upon? Especially the battle system, as I can see why the battles last only 4 or so rounds given that any longer and the battles overall (i.e. the battle map as a whole) would get very tedious and time consuming. So I want to keep the unit-to-unit battles quick, but add a little more control and depth to them... Maybe something like Dragon Force (Sega Saturn/PS2) where you have a ton of little soldiers running around the battle screen in real-time rapidly wiping each other out. Or perhaps I could forgo control in battles and speed up the action even more by making it similar to Advance Wars where you see the characters in a unit blasting each other, and each character represents an HP of the unit overall. What do you think?
About the author
Stevo
I've wanted to make a Ogre-Battle styled game for a while also. I've been working on one for 2 years, although everything is only on paper. I have an insane amount of diffrent classes over 120, and the each have unique abilities and stats. So there would be alot of variety. And I have an original story. I have also drawn concept art for characters and some maps, but it's very basic. I have a ton of ideas, what do you think?