restructuring and he had to take on the sole burden of reorganizing his team. Matsuno created Ogre Battle as the fifth chapter in a seven-chapter "Ogre Battle Saga". His design for the world had been with him since before joining Quest, and he added to it during his work on other titles before pitching Ogre Battle. The story was written as a simplistic high fantasy battle between good and evil with a demonic enemy and little backstory, a decision Matsuno regretted due to its unrealistic tone. The central character names were recycled by Matsuno from the names he gave a party in the game Master of Monsters, which he had enjoyed playing. A challenge faced by the team was creating a 3D-like display on the limited SNES hardware. The angled perspective on battles was to contrast against the common first-person or overhead top-down views of other RPGs at the time. The graphics were handled by Hiroshi Minagawa and Akihiko Yoshida. Yoshida later described the game's character designs as "Disney-like". Ogre Battle was Yoshida's second title while working at Quest, having first done artwork for Musashi no Bōken. In addition to character art and sprite work, Yoshida also designed the cover art, a choice made to ensure high quality within budget. Music The music was co-composed by Masaharu Iwata, Hitoshi Sakimoto and Hayato Matsuo. It was Sakimoto's first attempt at orchestral music, as he had previously only done with in techno and electronic music. He simulated an orchestral using a Roland SC-55, using an instrument dictionary with accompanying sample CD Iwata bought to replicate the various sounds. His work on Ogre Battle informed much of his later compositional style. Matsuo described the whole experience of composing for the game as informative, as each composer informed the other's work. A soundtrack album for the game was released in April 1993 by Datam Polystar. An arrange album was also released. A further compilation arrange album, featuring tracks from both Ogre Battle and its sequel, was released in October 1996. Releases Ogre Battle was released in Japan by Quest on March 12, 1993. The game's title is derived from "Ogre Battle" and "The March of the Black Queen", two songs by the British rock band Queen, of which Matsuno was a fan. The SNES version was published by the American branch of Enix in May 1995. The localization was produced by Robert Jerauld, who