

Densetsu no Ogre Battle is one of those SNES gems that flew under the radar back in the day—probably because it’s a weird mix of real-time strategy and RPG that doesn’t play like anything else. You start by picking a leader (I went with a knight first time, regretted it later) and slowly build up this ragtag army of wizards, clerics, and weird monster units. The battles play out automatically while you scramble to position your squads just right—mess up and you’ll watch your healer get wrecked by some werewolf in the back row.
The whole thing has this dark fantasy vibe with branching story paths depending on how you handle missions. First time through, I accidentally ended up with the "tyrant" ending because I kept looting villages like an idiot. The sprites are tiny but packed with personality, and that soundtrack? Haunting, in the best way. It’s clunky by modern standards, but there’s nothing quite like watching your customized undead dragon finally start carrying battles.
Fair warning: the Japan-only NP version has some untranslated bits if you’re not emulating with a patch.
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