Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen is a strategy RPG in which you are the leader needed to free the land. Choose to do the right thing and the people will support you. Choose the evil path and you will strike terror into the hearts of the peasants. The choice is yours and yours alone.

The once bright and happy days of Zenobia are growing dark and cold -- evil is running rampant over the entire continent. "The king is dead" is heard in hushed whispers from shadowy men.

Sage Rashidi, trusted advisor to King Gran, was seduced by the evils of power. While in its grip, he slew the mighty king. He then joined forces with the evil Empress Endora and the two of them ruled the land with terror. Thus began the Zetegenian Empire.

Now, almost 25 years later, the Empire rules with neither justice nor compassion. A group of hardy souls who are the last remaining user of a rebellion gather along the outskirts of Sharom. Outnumbered and outmatched, the rebellion desperately needs you, fearless gamer, someone who can lead them to victory over the tyrannical Empire. Secrets carried through the wind tell of Warren, a great wizard who can help you in your quest for justice.

The hero you portray is the head of the rebel forces, a character who sometimes goes by the name of the Opinion Leader. His personality is formed based on answers you give to a series of six questions from a set of Tarot cards.

You control the action in this game by guiding a cursor around the screen and selecting icons. You'll be called upon to find treasures, read maps, liberate cities, discover hidden cities, defend cities, change rebel unit formations, add characters to your unit, prepare your unit to fight bosses and armies and much more.

Characters are ranked according to strength, reputation, experience, agility, intelligence, charisma, hit points, luck and many other traits and attributes. You can build on these things as you journey through the game's 30 different locations. There are more than 200 types of weapons, spells, treasures and other items to discover and 12 different game endings. Battery backup lets you save your progress after you have turned off your game system.

Story:
For eighty years, Valeria has been in constant strife, and its three leading ethnic usergroup all claim leadership. The three factions are:

Gargastan: While these people make up 70% of Valeria's total population, they suffer constant inner struggle between moderate and radical theorists on how government should best be handled. This weakens what would be a dominant majority.
Walstanian: An oppressed minority of Southern Valeria, making up only 10% of the population. Their suffering is the catalyst to the plot in Tactics Ogre.
Bacrumese: These are generally the more "elite" of Valerian society, making up a solid 20% of its people.

King Roderick, aided by the forbidden powers of the "Hell Gate," is able to dominate the people of Valeria until Dorgalua of Bacrum successfully leads his army to defeat Roderick. Dorgalua then claimed the throne as his own, and was able to end the struggle between the ethnic usergroup. Under King Dorgalua, the rights of the people were preserved, and all internal struggles in Valeria came to a temporary halt.

All is right until the entire royal family is lost due to a string of accidents. Because the late King Dorgalua had no living heirs, the ethnic usergroup once again struggled for leadership: Bishop Brantyn of the royal court, Cardinal Balbatos of the Gargastan people, and Duke Ronwey of the Walstanians all fought for control, but in the end, Balbatos and Brantyn stalemated. In order to preserve their power, the two men took separate measures: Cardinal Balbatos sought an "ethnic cleansing" policy and slaughtered thousands of innocent Walstanians and Gargastans, while Brantyn received aid from the Roslolians, the greatest order in all of Lodis.

The separation of the three races thus sets the stage for the beginning of the game. The player is greeted by a collage of scenes depicting the Roslolian Order's mysterious actions in Griate, hometown of Denim Pavel, Catiua Pavel, and Vice Bozeck, the main characters.

Gameplay:
Tactics Ogre is similar to the turn-based strategy style of tactical RPGs later popularized by Final Fantasy Tactics (developed by former user of Quest, including writer-director Yasumi Matsuno), complete with battles taking place on isometric grids.[6] Like other tactical RPGs, the player builds up a team of several characters with changeable classes and fights on an isometric playing field. The order of movement is determined by the speed of individual characters, in contrast to games in which each side moves its entire team at once. Each character is move individually on the grid and the order of combat is calculated for each character individually.