Let's play Ogre Battle: This is the dawning of the age of Zeteginea

Welcome back! Today we go unite a beastperson with a beastman.





Sharom District's layout means most enemy units are going to head straight northeast past Latingurue then to Vannu. Some enemy units are sneaky and will try and liberate a town like Sagebard if they see it undefended however, so you'll want them to be defended.

To recruit the special character Canopus (and later, Gilbert) you'll want to do the following in this order:

• liberate Latingurue
• liberate Bah'Wahl
• visit Latingurue again
• Liberate the hidden temple west of Parcival, the Enemy Base to meet Canopus's sister Yulia. She'll give you the WING which will let you recruit Canopus.
• Finally, visit Bah'Wahl again.

Doing it in a different order risks you potentially missing the event flags, and without Canopus in your party you cannot recruit Gilbert.



We begin by fanning out. LANS (with his new winged bros) heads over to the west island to score a free item and liberate the temple and Bah'Wahl there. BOWIE heads south to find the hidden item.

Most of the rest of my crew head towards Latingurue, as I expect to meet most of the enemy. I specifically send two units with archers in them; we'll want them to gain some levels so they can promote into Clerics as we'll be fighting Undead sooner than later.

Getting clerics is relatively simple. You need an Amazon that is at least level 4 with a CHA and ALI of at least 50. Most Amazons will have this by default. Talking about raising CHA and ALI is a whole other post, but needless to say if your Amazons are fighting battles against higher level enemies they should be ok.



We get a free THUNDER Helmet from the nearby temple. Nothing special (+5 Physical Defense, +8 Lightning Defense). I like random and free.



Killing a random enemy unit gets me a random item drop, a BEAST (also known as an "Egg of Wonder"). If used with a unit that has an empty space, it will randomly give you a unit. Mogri got a Golem out of I believe named Falselogic. We'll use it later.



BOWIE finds out worst item yet, a BATTLE dagger. This only gives a +3 to STR. I'll use it (because why not?) but this is one of those "bottom of the item barrel" items for a guaranteed magic item pull.



LARS meanwhile finds a DRAGON spear (+7 STR). Eh. For reference you're really looking for Str+10 or higher for most weapons so while usable, these are nothing great.



He also finds a DEMON hammer from the nearby temple. This is a pretty good item for a fighter (+12 STR, -4 INT, Black damage) and goes on a random Fighter. The loss of INT only hurts units that do special attacks, so just make sure it's on a unit that is just trying to hit something real hard.



I wanted to point out this Dollmage enemy as he can take you unprepared. While missing a unit or two, Dollmages are relatively easy to get early, and their Acid attack can hit all enemy units for pretty good damage.

The problem is that they require an average CHA and ALI to promote later, and Doll Mages will be good at killing things, thus making it easy for their stats to drop well before you can promote them to Doll Masters. Wizards may only hit one enemy, but they do get better INT gains per level and Mages are basically better.

Anyway, enemy Doll Mages don't have to worry about stats so they'll pummel you, especially your armies that have 5 units. Be careful around them and you should be ok.



Another random enemy fight gets us a SUMMONS. They summon all units on the map to your Opinion Leader's location. These are not very useful, save perhaps for returning all units to your base to avoid paying their deployment cost (please don't do this until you are sure all the enemies minus the boss are dead).

I also pick up a SUNSHINE, which like it suggests, turns the night into day. Unfortunately that puts you closer to paying expenses again. It's only worth using these if you're having trouble fighting low ALI units at night,



LANS picks up the last random item on his way to see Yulia. FLAME sword provides +4 Str and Fire attacks. Meh.



We do the unfortunately easy to mess up steps noted at the start of this update, and Canopus joins. We immediately send him to go fight Gilbert...



...once we change up his army a little. I don't like the Griffin's in general (save for being cheap High Fliers for BOWIE). I throw some Amazons in instead to potentially turn into Valkyries later.

I didn't get it and didn't have a backup save.

:derpbird: I originally had the right BBCode but I had to remove derpy to get under 25 images for this post.

(I'm not 100% sure there is a pre-battle dialogue between the two tho...)



Anyway I use a spare Hermit card to weaken Gilbert. This should be pretty easy as he's left himself wide open.



Uh.

We'll get him next time!



Drat!

There's no real penalty (save for time and your units getting battered) for attempting boss fights over and over. The boss while revive and slain mooks before you return and will regen some HP from sitting in their base, but you'll probably need to take a few swings at most bosses.



I use a Priestess card as I'm too lazy to use items to heal my Hawkmen, but they're able to take Gilbert down on the third try without any casualties.



Well if the new stranger we just recruited says he's okay...



Before we go, let's check out that BEAST item.



Flawless programming!



Fairies are pretty bad until they class change twice, the last being at level 20. They can raise a unit's attack power a little until then. Hard pass. Pretend I soft reseted the game and didn't cheat with an emulator.



As Mogri mentioned, Golems suck too. They get a high STR which makes them stretch their low HP values but they have poor AGI and magic tends to tear them up. They can't even promote into something better. Hard pass two.



Now here we go! Demons are great. They get a LOT of HP and make pretty good front line fighters, at least as good as Knights. They also give the army they're in Low Sky movement, and can promote twice without the sticky ALI problems Knights have. I stick him with my wizard MUSASHI.



And that's it! I am not going to Pogrom Forest next as that's really dumb! How do you even kill a Ghost?

Join me next time for Scene 4: Full Moon, or, "NO SERIOUSLY THIS IS THE MUCH EASIER MAP THAT WILL PREPARE YOU TO KILL THE UNDEAD."

Rascal is a good name for an imp, too

I might have mentioned this, but speedruns love some SUMMONS. They fly the opinion leader over to the enemy base, summon the entire army, and go to town on the boss without bothering with the enemy armies (at least on the any% route).

Well, eventually, anyway -- the early maps are cleared with just the Lord's squad and a fistful of tarot.

The full any% speedrun is just over an hour, which is less than I've spent on some individual maps.

Seems like there's a crazy amount of luck in the item drops. Is it significant enough that some runs are steamrolls and some are slogs just based on which item drops?

I think of something like SotN where just having the endgame gear is enough to fight the final boss.

Euros is good at +18 total, Ogre is top tier at almost +40. That seems like a pretty big boost up from Battle dagger, but I guess it's mostly down to how much of that bonus is to STR or INT.

Equipment is helpful, but it is not critical to beat the game. Tarot cards are what *really* help you beat bosses, and those are plentiful.

The BIGGEST item drops are CROWNs, STAFFs and UNDEAD rings that let you get Princess and Liches, and neithet of them are available from buried treasure.

If i get nothing but crappy gear I will be fine to beat the game. I'll be sad if I get no randomly dropped CROWNs tho.

- Eddie

Looking at a list of random treasure yeah it looks like +10 or better to a stat is a get. Most weapons also swap your hittin' element from physical to something else, allowing a knight to take out a golem by hitting its Fire weakness.

It's a little odd how many items give both +STR and +INT. Characters only use one or the other at any given time!

Then you don't have to equipment juggle on a Ninja at least.

It also means that you don't get completely hosed for gear options instead of randomly getting 20 swords in a row and no magic staves instead.

Sure, but... there are like two random-treasure staves that are just +INT, and one of those is a piddling +3. The Pristine Sword is one of the better +INT weapons, and it's still +8 STR.

(For a real INT boost you're looking at accessories, and even then, some of them still give a bonus to STR...)

Right, but general gear/loot table design principles.

Str is still a defensive stat vs. Str based attacks.

5. Moon Moon



You've voted for Lake Jannenia, so that's where we're headed next. Pogrom Forest is the higher-level map, so this was a good decision.



Here's the MOBQ map. Not a lot to find here. Of note: the enemy has really good water access to everything, and you really don't.



We've added Gaston to Ovelia's squad, because no one flies like Gaston. Each flying class has a list of other classes they can lift, and they can lift any number of units as long as none of them is too heavy, so Ovelia's squad is now a Low Sky liberation machine.

Seems you're really a thorn in the Empire's side. Not bad.

But there are some good guys in the Empire, too. The local boss isn't too bad himself. He's a great guy. So don't push yourself too hard on beating the Empire. Just take it easy.

Oh, yeah. If you want to see the boss, you need to go at night. He's always in a better mood then.

Ooops. Gotta' go. My girl's waiting for me. See you tonight!

I'm going to go ahead and spoil that Sirius is the boss of Lake Jannenia.

I have a favour to ask of you. Please help us. All of the girls from this town have been taken from the man in the castle on Lake Jansenia. We can hear their screams from within the castle. It's unbearable. Will you please help our daughters? (yes/no)

Thank you, Rebels! We're counting on you!

The translation is a bit rough here...



Bert and friends liberate the hidden temple, pulling a Sun card. During the daytime, the Sun card rewinds time instead of advancing it, so you don't trigger tribute.

That means that he is most powerful during the night. You'll have a hard time beating him with normal weapons, then. So try your best not to meet him at night! Let me give you this white magic weapon, the 'Rune Axe'. If you use this, you'll be able to fight him even at night.

In case you had any doubts as to whether Sirius had the rebellion's best interests at heart, priestman is here for you.

The Rune Axe is STR+15 and White-element, which is really nice. And it's free! And guaranteed!



Our army has met with the enemy. DEDMET has assumed leadership of Kahran's (formerly Lans's) squad today.



That tarot luck!

People still believe in werewolves around here. You know... Man during the day and wolf at night? Do I believe it? Oh, come on now... In these times? Please...

Destil has reached level 6, but with the rest of his squad at level 4, I'm not ready to bench him yet. The main body of the enemy army is headed to the town where my units are stationed, but there's a Knight and Beast Tamer that look as if they have designs on my base. Remember, if your base is taken, you lose the map (and, of course, a boatload of reputation).



Because it pleases me to do so, I have placed our Tiara on Serephine. She's no garden-variety octopus -- she's octopus royalty!



Ooh. This is a dangerous enemy, and it's got nothing to do with that Golem. Gotta watch out for Doll Mages. Destil loses this battle, partly because I was focusing down the Golem to avoid sending the leaderless squad back to base.



Ovelia intercepts the base runners and picks up a few kills. Since she's a level below the enemy, this will do nice things for her CHA and ALI. The rest of the squad levels up from wiping out the enemy. That's level 5, so the Fighters become a Knight and a Beast Tamer (since one has lower ALI than the other). That's the enemies' level, so we'll want to let these fellows stick to liberation once we've finished with the raiding parties.

Destil's teammates promote as well. The Fighters in DEDMET's squad are also level 5, but they're ineligible to promote due to their low CHA. That's not a problem you often run into at this level!



Ovelia takes advantage of a lull in the enemy forces to liberate another town.

Sirius seems like a decent fellow, but he's actually quite cruel. He feeds the kidnapped girls to dogs! We find what's left of them in the lake. Someone like that just isn't human...

"Not human" indeed. But why do you have to be a sexist serial murderer, Sirius? Boys taste just as good!



Our first Fool!

The people of this temple try to convince us that werewolves really do exist. In these times? Please...



Because most of our active units have reached level 5, I've resorted to deploying the reserves. They're obviously quite a bit weaker, so I attempt to make up the difference with tarot. Chariot may not be the best card, but I love that animation. Since the tarot damage doesn't help us win and it doesn't weaken the units enough for us to finish them off, we still lose this fight.



Another of our reserve squads fights these clowns. In the front row, a Wizard flails his staff ineffectually in your direction.



In a normal playthrough, you get roughly as much reputation as you lose from tarot cards.



Yes, yes, we've been over this. But look! Here's Sirius at night. That's proof positive he's not a werewolf.

Oh, how manly. Yep. Real cool. Wow. (I love Sirius)

Well anyway, I have a message for you. From the Boss. He wants to join forces with you to help topple the Empire. Whaddaya think? Sound good? (yes/no)

Stubborn, aren't you? OK, OK, I got it. Do as you please.

If you agree, he'll tell you to drop by the castle tonight. Oh, and you lose reputation.

This town is the first in the game to sell "Ray of Sunshine," which sets the time to noon (as with the Sun draw). Total coincidence that it's on this particular map, I'm sure.



As we finish off the final enemy squad, Bert uncovers an Ice Axe, which is an improvement on the Iceblade, giving STR+11 and Cold-elemental attack.



We are!.

Gee, what a bother. I'm not quite ready for you yet. Could you come back a bit later? Come on... Gimme a chance to get ready, OK? (yes/no)

Oh, boy. What a great bunch of guys. Come back tonight, OK?

(later) Sirius: Oh, no. It's still early yet. I don't really feel too well... Come on back a little later, OK? (yes/no)

Mercy! Mercy! What a swell bunch of guys... See you tonight, right?

In the day, Sirius is a mere Fighter surrounded by Amazons. Sure, they're level 6, but you have no excuse for running into trouble here. Set tactics to Leader and kick him to the curb.



At night, it's a different story. Sirius is stronger, yes, but he's also extremely bulky, sporting Golem-level Physical resistance and excellent elemental resistances with the exception of White. Because he's actually quite vulnerable to White, there's a squad somewhere out there that does better against Werewolf Sirius, but you'd be hard-pressed to get that this early in the game.



If your first visit to Sirius is at night, you get this dialogue instead.

Hmmm... You all look a little silly to me. Why don't you try a new wardrobe, like mine? You'd get a lot more girls that way, I promise! (Werewolf Sirius is not wearing anything but gloves and a hat)

...Well, anyway I'm kind of tired of looking at you. Dinner time!!

And here's his response if you attack him straight away in the day. Sirius probably has more unique dialogue than any other boss in the game, even if you don't count his earlier appearances.



Even a fresh-off-the-benches squad can take daytime Sirius below half health. Just watch your health.



Noon hits. We could've squeaked this one in before the 24-hour mark. I've returned our higher-level squads to base to minimize our expenses.



Sirius falls unceremoniously to one of our rookie squads. I'm going to have to do a bit of shuffling before we head to Pogrom Forest, which is probably great news for Gerad, Zeebs, and Buge.

Now, it's well-known that there's another way you can have fun with Sirius, and I'm curious if Eddie is going to showcase that, so I won't steal his thunder.

I always fought Sirius at night with a bunch of frontline Fighters, juuuuuust in case.

I don't remember if it ever actually worked.

Fighters slain by Sirius have a chance of becoming Werewolves themselves. I do not know if this improves their overall potential, but in the short term, this is a way to trade Goth and prestige for an extra swing per encounter (only at night)

The thing about the castle on "Lake Jansenia" is because that was the original Japanese name of the map. As to why they changed it, I have no idea.

Welcome back!

As noted, the game gives you the choice of going to Pogrom Forest or Lake Jannenia for our next battle. I'm choosing Lake Jannenia first because Pogrom Forest is our introduction to the Undead, and there is a guaranteed White/holy weapon in Lake Jannenia you can acquire.





It's also a much easier stage than Pogrom Forest overall, so that's a plus. You can either push for G'Jiandep or wait out the first wave of enemy units at Antayla.

There is a single flying unit, and none that can otherwise travel (at least, quickly) on water, so you don't have to put much effort to protecting any city other than G'Jiandep once captured, although leaving a unit at Antayla is helpful in case any enemy units do slip through.



As Mogri pointed out, the real "challenge" in this stage is that the boss powers up at night. But as he noted, there is a SECRET that you can take advantage of!



The gang pushes out. In case it's not clear, I tend to send one good ALI unit to each city, with an evil ALI unit near its borders, ready to swoop in once the town is liberated.

That Beastman flying over the water is the one unit to worry about making a beeline to your HQ, but he shouldn't be a problem to defeat even if he reached your Opinion Leader (who is likely guarding the base).



Liberating this hidden temple gets us a RUNE axe. It has a hefty +15 to STR and is White aligned, making it an incredibly useful item, and the reason to do this stage ahead of Pogrom Forest.



We get TERMITES as a random item. Enemy bases (notably, one later in the game) sometimes have walls that you can't move over unless your unit can fly. TERMITES removes *all* walls on the map. You are guaranteed one TERMITES later in the game from when you really need it, so this is not a premium drop, but a jar of bugs.



The one random item on the map I get is a very powerful one, a DEMON ring. This item provides a whopping +21 to STR and +17 to Black defense. It also comes with a -15 to White defense however, so you will know why Angels are murdering the equipped unit later in the game.

There is a way to have fun with Sirius!

Step one:





Murder him during the day so you avoid him being a werewolf.

Step 2:



Recruit all the damn werewolves you want by searching the mountains east of the hidden Temple, avoiding the need to sacrifice Fighters to him and then hoping they revive as Werewolves.



Knowing is half the battle!



Horray!



I return afterward and have a few units scour the mountains until I get a trio of werewolves. They are overall better than Knights or Ninjas and have the added benefit of moving through mountains quickly, so they will make a good front line for WARREN.



Next time: Scene 5: Advance, OR THAT MAN IS GHOSTING US

6. Massacres for Fun and Profit



Welcome back to Let's Play Ogre Battle Advance.

Wait, that's not right. Welcome back to Let's Play Ogre Battle: Advance.

"Advance" is about as nondescript as you can make a chapter title.



You know the drill by now. This is the March On, Black Queen map.

This is a densely-forested map without a good system of roads. We don't have access to the Forest move type yet, but Low Sky and High Sky are still as effective as ever, and the network of rivers is good enough to make Ocean passable, too. (All water is the same terrain type.)



I start by deploying all of our reserve squads. While there's still a level difference between us and the enemy, I'd prefer to spread out the experience and avoid a level crunch. Ovelia gets to liberating.

I've heard that the Pogrom Forest is full of ghosts. How scary!

You live here. Shouldn't you know?



Bert has been active on every map since he joined, but he hasn't seen a lot of combat. This is a good opportunity for him to catch up, too.

I have lived in the Pogrom Forest for 20 years, hoping to save even a few lost souls... I've done my best, but as long as Kapella's here there's nothing I can do.

Hmm... Do skeletons have souls?



The Ghost-bearing Wizard squads reach us ahead of the others; I believe they're Low Sky.

You might notice that the Ghosts have zero HP. How does one defeat the undead?

Well, a Cleric will do it. She can cast Healing on the entire enemy squad, instantly destroying any undead she hits (and not actually healing the enemy).

Failing at that, any White-elemental attack does the same thing. Ovelia has the White-elemental Banish in the front row, and any melee attacker can be equipped with a White-aligned weapon to become a ghostbuster.



We failed to do any actual damage, and Falselogic was no match for the Wizard, but the Ghosts are gone, and our Cleric just got a bunch of CHA and ALI.



Good cards today! Judgment is also White-elemental.

This town teaches us that thing I just said, and it adds that you should set your tactics to anything besides Strong if you want to fight the undead. On Strong tactics, Clerics heal your party instead of busting ghosts.

I recently saw a man in the forest. It looked like he was casting a spell. He drew a shape on the ground and called a demon up out of it! I'll bet that was Kapella himself! Oh, how scary!

With lots of flying units -- including an exact replica of Gilbert's squad -- this map has quickly become a mess. Evil-Gilbert has designs on our base; we'll have to deploy someone to defend it. The units in the upper left are headed in the same direction, fortunately passing right by the temple Bert liberated. They do this often enough on this map to convince me that the Empire really only cares about towns -- I've been needlessly defending the temples.



After some equipment shuffling, Bert gives them the business. You can unequip a character by attempting to equip it with an empty item slot.



This is a cheap knockoff of the Iceblade we found a couple maps ago.



Evil-Gilbert has a familiar name. I guess that's bound to happen sooner or later when you're messing with the pool of generic unit names.



Just as I was starting to like the look of our reputation meter, Bert pulls this card.

To defeat undead monsters, use this white magic staff.

The Mystic Mace (which is kind of like a staff, I guess) is STR+2, INT+7. It won't turn a spell to White element, and the INT is useless on a character who cares about the White damage, but like I said, you're never sad to see another White-element weapon. This is our third.



After soundly thrashing Turtle's squad, Gerad doubles back. What's the plan here?



Turtle liberates the temple near our base, pulling another awful card and a Thunder Whip (STR+6, Thunder element).

The forest in this area is a very frightening place called the Pogrom Forest. ...Oh, I can't bear to speak any further of it.

Ovelia's squad is level 6. To get them away from the fighting, I send them to liberate the hidden city in the corner of the map.

The ruler of the Pogrom Forest, Kapella, spent several years studying under the Mage Rashidi. Rashidi apparently had 3 students, and Kapella was one. They say that Kapella is taking the souls in the forest...

...and using them to make deals with demons.

Rashidi is the guy who killed King Gram. We won't see him for a long time, but we'll spend the whole game dealing with the ripples of his actions.



Clever Gerad has gone for the fakeout, but we're on high alert here.

...That was the plan, anyway, but once again, Gerad wins a battle and runs off. Getting pretty sick of your games over here, Gerad.



The clock tolls twelve. This map is taking a lot longer than Lake Jannenia, partly because we're fielding our reserves and partly because the enemy is just sort of meandering all over the map.



At least I figured out what Gerad does in his spare time. He must be really fast to pop into a city halfway across the map for a quick heal.



I thought I was keeping Ovelia off the front lines, but I guess it can't be helped. Some enemies will head straight for the opinion leader, no matter what.



I send some units to liberate the city Gerad was holing up in.

I hear that the bodies of those who were massacred still lie in the forest. Last year, several people went into the forest to bury them, but they never came out. I guess that those who couldn't rest are still wandering the forest, lonely and in pain. They probably want to be friends with those who are still alive. It's almost too much to bear.

Good Gerad (still just a level 3 Fighter) defeats Evil Gerad with the help of some of our weapons before moving on to liberate this town. Gerad will appreciate the bonus!

I remember the night 25 years ago, when Castle Zenobia fell to the Empire's forces. The few survivors of the battle ran into this forest, pursued by the Empire. They knew that they couldn't fight anymore, and were prepared to surrender. But the disgusting Imperial Army ignored their surrender, and set the forest on fire. The entire forest went up in flames, and in one night was leveled - along with the people in it. Ever since then, this place has been called the Pogrom Forest.

That explains the massacre referenced above, not to mention the name of the forest.



Many of the enemy squads on this map are targeting Ovelia. To keep them guessing -- and to keep her out of battle -- I keep her moving and away from cities. The enemy will finish going to where she was before they change directions.



A few busted ghosts later, and another one of our recruits is ready to lead her squad. Welcome, Buge!



Meanwhile, Ovelia is hunting for Imps, and she snags one. Howell is the newest member of the rebel army, and he's ready to lead a squad. If anyone would like to serve the rebellion as a demon, Howell is up for grabs.



Gerad has made a name for himself. Welcome to the rebellion!



But all of Gerad's fighting has distracted me from moving Ovelia around, and she gets tagged by some Imps in the middle of nowhere.



Here's Buge in action.



Ovelia finally liberates the map's last town.

I wonder if I could get you to deliver something to a man named Toad there for me? (yes/no)

Then let me give you this 'Evil Censer'. This is a very precious item. Don't you dare sell it!

I see nothing wrong with this!

Incidentally, this event only happens when you're below 50% reputation. It's not that I'm trying to be evil; I'm just not very good. Anyway, this is the kind of exclusive content you won't get from Eddie's side of the LP. Also, I screwed up and didn't visit Toad before the end of the map and now he's moved on. See again: "not very good."



It's time to attack the boss.

However, you will get no farther, because I will stop you! I will send you to the underworld with the powers given to me by the Great Mage Rashidi!

Kapella is a Mage, the promoted form of the Wizard. That means he only attacks once, but he hits the whole party for a whole bunch of damage. This is a good opportunity to use a World or Moon card.



Instead of being smart, I try tag-teaming Kapella with Gerad and nosimpleway. They almost pull it off!



Unfortunately, bosses revive their minions instantly. You're often better off weakening the minions rather than killing them outright.



Gerad's Valkyries finish off Kapella, securing the win.

The path splits again:
Slums of Zenobia is home to a great hero of yore.
Deneb's Garden is famous for its flirtatious witch.

Where to?

Deneb.

Let's go to to the garden. Witch rhymes with lich.

Wow, I seem to be good both as a villain and a hero.

Knowing nothing about anything, I'll say the garden also.

I seem to remember that I would tend to go to Deneb's Garden first because you could spare her and then do a quest that would lead to being able to recruit pumpkinheads who have a pretty useful attack. Also, if you go to Deneb's Garden first and choose to spare her you take an alignment hit. So the more time you have to improve your alignment afterwards the better off you'll be.

Welcome back! We're moving on from Werewolves to GHOSTS and GHOULS (or just skeletons.)





This is the first map where you really need to make sure your base is protected, as there is a path for enemy units that will let them creep past Acre and the pair of temples without hitting a unit that may be protecting them. Compounding it is that a large portion of the units can fly, so they'll make a beeline to your base.

You will want to protect those temples and Acre. If you're someone like me whose Opinion Leader "stays and guards the base" expect a few fights with them. This is not a problem if you're like me and have your MOGRI at level 1 still.

As there are a lot of undead units on this map, units with Clerics in them will do particularly well.

One thing missing from this map: there is a hidden item in the middle of the three mountains northwest of Lolaima.



While fanning out, we run into one of a number of neutral units on this map.



Mogri noted the Demons you'll find in the mountains. In the forest you find Ghosts and Skeletons. Mogri mentioned how they work pretty well (0 hp, die to a whiff of White magic).

For giggles I grab two Ghosts and three Skeletons.



See this asshole just heading straight to MOGRI?





I draw an early World Card, which is awesome. Let's see how I do! I also get the Mystic staff (+2 STR, +7 INT, White aligned) that will help kill some of the undead on this map.



How ALI and CHA work is not well explained in the game. It works like this:

If your unit defeats/kills an enemy that is a higher level than your unit, you gain ALI and CHA.
If your unit defeats/kills an enemy that is a lower level than your unit, you lose ALI and CHA.
If your unit defeat/kills an enemy with a higher ALI than your unit, you lose ALI.
If your unit defeat/kills an enemy with a lower ALI than your unit, you gain ALI.
Running from a battle lowers your units CHA.

Killing certain classes provide bonus/negative ALI. Killing Demons and Undead will give you bonus ALI, killing Priests and Angels will give you negative ALI.

(There is a formula but it's complicated.)

Note that ALI is unit specific. You can absolutely raise a 100 ALI Lich or Zombie Dragon. It's difficult however as ALI is a spiral; if your ALI is low, you will likely lose ALI for killing an enemy as even low ALI enemies might still be "gooder" than your unit. Meanwhile if you can hit a high ALI, you'll probably keep it high.

NORAN is not a great cleric, with a measly 51 ALI (the cut-off for Priesthood is at least 50 ALI) and is level 6. Let's fight one of these undead units, which are level 7 with 0 ALI.







Success! Through killing a mere two Ghosts, NORAN gains 12 CHA and 8 ALI. Pretty sweet!



Boo! (Reputation -2)



Sadly no Skeletons named BEAT in this game.



White Necklace is a very disappointing piece of armour (+5 White defense) but I guess you can give it to an evil unit for a bit of protection.



This is a pretty good fine with a World Tarot in play.



Tiara's are meh but at least they're better than White Necklaces (Physical defense + 3, White defense + 8).





This is our first fight with our trio of Werewolves (at night!). They are pure murder.











(+3 INT, +2 STR for all deployed units).



Found Heroes Sword randomly; not great, but not bad (+11 STR).

A unit that makes it to MOGRI drops a PROMOTE, which instantly gives a unit +1 level. Very handy!



We also from an ALI, which increases a unit's ALI from 5 to 10 points. VERY handy, especially when your Wizard inevitably dips below the maximum ALI they need to promote to a Mage.



One of our clerics, SUSAN, has done a great job mopping up undead.



Not great, but with a World Tarot out a loss of Reputation is a hit I'd rather take than a army-wide penalty to STR or INT.



Killing a unit (who uh, may have reclaimed a temple I accidentally let the enemy recapture) drops an INT. This item gives a unit +5 to +10 INT. Not useful for promotion, but a good bonus for a magical unit.



Giving all your deployed units +1 INT is GREAT.



After mopping up the enemy, we fight our first real challenging boss, Kapella. He is a Mage guarded by three Imps, so they can push out a lot of damage.



As our party deals mostly physical damage that Mages like Kapella are weak too, removing his mooks with a Fool is a good idea here.







Mages hurt.





But the outcome is inevitable.



Horray!



Post-Scene, we go back in and fill up on the undead we want. I give three Skeletons to MUSASHI for fun.



STING (in WARREN's army) is dangerously close to dropping below 11 ALI and not being able to become a Mage (WARREN is not too far behind at 16 ALI). The perils of overleveling. We'll have to be careful with them so we're not relying on ALI drops to class change them.



And that's it! Join us next time for Glass Pumpkin, or "WITCH WAY TO FORGIVENESS!"

7. Pumpkin You Up

I'll bet there's still somebody somewhere on the continent playing with people's souls!

Welcome back to Let's Play Ogre Battle, where two dumbs are about to make a smart. See, I've been staring at my most recent screenshot for some time:



This is the town where I was told to find Toad, but I arrived after clearing the map only to discover that Toad had moved on.

But I awoke this morning with a start, thinking, "Where is Malano?"



And then I pulled up this map, and because I couldn't actually remember the name of the town, I ended up going to Melanion.



The townsdude goes on to tell us that a Stone of Dragos can convert a Beastmaster to a Dragoner, and a Dragoner can call dragons.

What a Dragoon can actually do is recruit dragons. Each leader unit has a list of classes he or she can recruit when stationed in a town. For most of our leaders, it's just a Fighter or Amazon. You can only recruit if there's room in your squad for the unit, and recruits join a few levels below the leader.

Anyway, Melanion is clearly not Malano, so at this point, I do something smart: I look it up. Turns out Malano is the name of a map, and Toad will trade for the Censer when I get there, provided my reputation isn't too high.



But this visit has been productive for other reasons! I manage to recruit two Imps and two Ghosts. I'll have a proper evil squad up and running for the next map.

I would rather have had a Skeleton than a Ghost, though. The main advantage of undead units is their functional invulnerability, which is often wasted on a Ghost, who performs better in the back. Ghosts do have the advantage of Low Sky movement, but I can get that just as easily from my Imps.



I also find the Musashi Blade, a Fire-aligned weapon that gives STR+12. I'd appreciate this more if I paid any attention to resistances besides Physical and White, but STR+12 is always welcome.

And that wraps up our business in Pogrom Forest. Now for something completely different.



Here's our map. Truth be told, Deneb's Garden is among the easiest maps in the game. The enemy is constrained by mountains, while we have easy access to everything. Beyond that, this is a Witch-heavy map, and while Witches can improve your odds of winning a battle, they don't do any damage on their own.



Our first reputation-increasing card! Will I still have a low enough reputation when we finally meet Toad? Don't worry; I'm sure I'll figure out a way to screw it up.

Deneb lives in Valparine Castle on the other side of those mountains. Deneb is beautiful beyond belief, but behind that face she's as cold as stone. How does that saying go? 'Beautiful roses have thorns' was it?

Deneb appears in every game in the Ogre Battle series (although she's merely a cameo in Ogre Battle 64).



This is Gerad's unit. They don't need the INT as much as most squads, but every squad has a back row.

Deneb seems to have stopped her experiments on humans. But now she goes out destroying crops! What could she be doing?

Have you heard about Deneb? She's a beautiful young witch. They say that Valparine Castle is full of men who were bewitched by that beauty. But she's as smart as she is beautiful, and she's researching a new kind of magic.

Gerad's squad is getting stacked.

There have been a lot of strange monsters in the mountains lately. A lot of people say they've seen men with pumpkins instead of heads!

Our reputation is out of control!

I guess you will be taking on Deneb, soon. Please remember that as bad as she may be, a life should not be easily taken.

This is a war, though? I mean, no one told us to take it easy on Kapella.



After liberating most of the map, we finally have enemy contact. This one's a High Sky squad, so I don't know why it took so long unless it was deployed late.



Bert pulls some junky junk. This is a meager +5 Fire resistance.



Buge meets the enemy. Because I'm full up on tarot, I use a Lovers card, and this is the result. This is our first Cockatrice sighting. In the back row, they get two shots of Petrify, which disables a single target for the duration of the fight and deals a small amount of damage. Like the Witch, it's powerful but unreliable.



The Karanborg is a straight STR+17. Simple but effective.



It took them a while to get here, but we're swarming with enemies now.



Alongside some semi-competent squads are goofballs like these. You might well imagine that Clerics are not particularly effective front-row units, and all Faeries can do is augment another unit's attack. Turtle's squad, at a lowly level 3, is nonetheless able to come out ahead in this fight.



On the other end of the spectrum, this is a yikes fight for Kahran and DEDMET, so I pop a World card, completely nullifying the Ninjas' magic. World is among the most powerful cards, but I won't really need one for some time.



DEDMET falls in the next battle -- Wizards are weak to fire. Kahran and Lans team up to secure a win anyway.



We've cleared out the first wave, but Deneb has another one up her sleeve. This is the first stage not to send out everyone in one big burst.



We hit noon -- delayed quite a bit by our early Sun card. At this point, there's a mess of enemies still on the map, but we've reached their level with almost all our units, so I'm rushing the enemy base.

Hey, OVELIA. You're not so bad looking yourself. But I'm sure that you have an ugly personality. I can tell. ...Even if I don't look like it, I'm a very respectable witch. Actually, I'm researching a new spell just now. But I won't share it with you. It's all for me!

Heh, heh. Jealous, aren't you? Go ahead and pout, but be careful! It causes wrinkles!

This dialogue is quite clearly the same regardless of your opinion leader's gender... but while I'm not sure that's intentional, it certainly doesn't feel out of character for Deneb to flirt with Ovelia.



Deneb is a front-row Witch surrounded by Pumpkins, which I don't think you'll find on any other map. Pumpkins attack by taking off their head and kicking it, halving the target's health if they hit. However, their hit rate is abysmal, and they don't land a single hit against Turtle's low-level squad. Given she's a Witch, Deneb packs a punch with her rod, but she's the only one in the squad who is capable of finishing off an enemy. This is not a hard fight.



During our attempts at Deneb, Gerad wanders into and befriends a dragon. Dragons are bulky but not especially intimidating, at least in this form.



nosimpleway also liberates the hidden city at this time. (This is probably ill-advised; after all, there are about six enemy squads bearing down on us right now.)

Deneb wasn't always a crony of the empire. Why did she join them? The Empire promised her access to all the books of magic they had if she'd help them. ...And you know how important research is to Deneb.

No, I don't. Should I?



It takes a few tries, but Turtle's meager squad is able to finish Deneb before anyone else shows up to help.



Oh no! It's a moral choice! FIGHT or MERCY?

Well, because Eddie is going to kill Deneb, we'll do the opposite and spare her.



Deneb makes extra sure we're extra sure. This act lowers our reputation by a pixel (which doesn't sound like much but is significant given the total size of the meter) and increases Ovelia's ALI by a bit.



And that's Deneb's Garden. Up next: Slums of Zenobia.

Heh, DEDMET sure lived up to his name.

Ogre Battle really likes to throw decisions at you without a lot of context for understanding what effects they will have. This was really confounding for a young Meditative_Zebra who was fixated on playing through games the 'right' way.

I mean, is sparing Deneb and taking a reputation hit and an alignment boost really something that makes sense? Maybe it is, but it feels like the game should have done a better job of signalling consequences. The reputation meter is so small that it's hard to discern changes and alignment is buried in the menu where you look at your character's stats. I suspect that most people playing this game in its day little or no sense of what was going on with these mechanics.

I salute Ogre Battle for its ambitions but it was an early enough iteration of this sort of gameplay that it sure was wonky to play.

There's a good rationale for it. Forgiveness may be divine, but that's cold comfort to the people who've had their relatives abducted for Deneb's experiments.

The game doesn't signal the consequences heavily, but in this particular case, I'm okay with it. There's adequate information to puzzle it out ahead of time, and the consequences are fairly inconsequential over the long term. It is emblematic of the inscrutability of the game as a whole, sadly. Many of the finer points of the game are hinted at in locations easily missed: on revisiting Deneb's Garden, visiting the hidden city near Deneb's base will give you information on how battling affects units' ALI. That's way too obscure for such a central piece of the puzzle! (It's not the only place you'll hear about it, but it's certainly the most direct; other references are extremely oblique.)

I would like to be named in the game. I'm not picky. Whatever the army needs.

I'm not sure if you plan to recruit Deneb, but either way, there is a bit of a fun fact related to it. In the Saturn version, doing so unlocks a new map where you fight one of her failed experiments gone rogue.