Entry 726 - Ogre Battle

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Epic compositions in the glorious sound of the SNES

Thoughts: I've had a lot of thoughts about a lot of different video game soundtracks over the years. Specifically when it comes to the SNES there are some truly excellent soundtracks. There are also some exceedingly poor soundtracks as well. The ones I tend to enjoy the most are the epic and far reaching ones. The one's that tell a story through the music as much as they do through the game itself. 

Ogre Battle is a rather unique game. Every full battle is a series of small skirmishes that you have no direct control over. You set up your teams and you direct them where to go, the rest is automated. Your troops will attack in a specific order, and your commanders will give orders in line with what you've instructed. It's a fascinating yet flawed game.

The battles can take a long time... like over an hour each. The fights are tedious and a lot of the time you are at a solid stale mate with the opponent. One of the things that kept me engaged in the game past my four hundredth "fight it out" was the music. 

The music in Ogre Battle is way better than I would have initially thought. The way that the songs are composed make the absolute most out of the SNES soundchip and allow the music to feel more grandiose and epic than it has any business being. 

The SNES sound board is limited to eight tracks at any given time. How they managed to get such intricate and varied arrangements in just eight tracks is beyond me. There are times that this mimics a full orchestra, at other times its as minimalist as a violin solo, other times as grandiose as any Wagner symphony. 

Although short, the soundtrack does make up for it's length in quality. So many of the songs will get stuck in my head long after the record has stopped spinning. The map music and overworld music in particular are a pure joy to listen to. They hearken back to the glory days of RPG's on 16 bit consoles and remind me why I love this stuff so much.

I used to rent Ogre Battle from my local video store. I never did beat it, but I did get close. I have mixed memories of the game itself, but the soundtrack... oh the soundtrack is one for the ages.

Written March 3rd