Enix of America only distributed 25,000 copies of the Super Nintendo version to the United States, which made it one of the rarest critically acclaimed video game titles to date. It was re-released by Atlus as a PlayStation game (along with Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together) in 1997 with the name of Ogre Battle: Limited Edition.

The series creator Yasumi Matsuno was inspired by the rock band Queen's second album, which contained two songs titled "Ogre Battle" and "The March Of The Black Queen", to name this game. Even the "Rhyan Sea" in the Ogre Battle world is named after "Seven Seas of Rhye".

The next game in the series, the 7th episode, Let Us Cling Together, was similarly named after a song in the album A Day At The Races. The other Ogre Battle games in the series were not developed by Matsuno and do not have Queen songs in their subtitles. These include Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, Ogre Battle: Legend of the Zenobia Prince, and Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis.

Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen is often referred to as Ogre Battle. Four other games in the series have been released, of which Ogre Battle: Legend of the Zenobia Prince is most similar to the original, with Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber also being in the vein of the first offering. The other two titles, Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together and Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, have much more in common with Final Fantasy Tactics and other related video games.

Ogre Battle mixes movement elements of a real time strategy game with the character development and combat of a role playing game. The game consists of a series of battles where you deploy units to fight against enemies and liberate occupied towns and temples. Each stage has a boss whose defeat signals the end of the stage. Both during and after the stage, towns and temples can be visited to gain information or items. The game also features an alignment system, both for the revolution as a whole (reputation) and for individual characters (alignment and charisma). These parameters are influenced by how the game is played.

There are 25 main stages in the game, with some variation possible in how the stages are played. There are also 4 hidden stages accessible through the main game with an additional stage as an easter egg. Note that the game can be completed without finishing all the stages. There are 12 different endings to the main game, depending on the conduct of the player during the course of the game.