The series takes several naming cues from the English glam rock band Queen, who are highly popular in Japan. The name of the series itself, Ogre Battle, comes from a song off of Queen's 1974 sophomore album Queen II; another song on the album, "The March of the Black Queen", is the namesake for the series' first installment. The second game, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, takes its name from Queen's 1976 song "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)", an homage to their Japanese fanbase.

Another Queen reference in The March of the Black Queen can be found with one of its regions, the Rhyan Sea. The area's name comes from "Seven Seas of Rhye", a song which appears in an unfinished instrumental form on Queen's 1973 self-titled debut and was later completed with vocals on Queen II.

This game was created by Yasumi Matsuno, who has paid homage to the rock band Queen in several of his works. The game's name itself is a homage to the band, as it is the name of two songs from the album Queen II; "Ogre Battle" and "The March of the Black Queen". Also, one of the games levels is named The Rhyan Sea. This is a possible reference to the Queen song "Seven Seas of Rhye", from the same album.

Yasumi Matsuno was driven to make Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, as he wanted to create a game that dealt with war and its effects in a realistic way by the 1990s civil war in Yugoslavia, which lasted for four years and introduced the term "ethnic cleansing" to the world.

Many cities in the game are references to some of Brazil's states:
• Acre
• Para (Pará)
• Goyas (Goiás)
• Matt'gro (Mato Grosso)
• Lolaimia (Roraima)
• Melanion (Maranhão)
• Rhodnia (Rondônia)
• Alagoyas (Alagoas)
• Celjipp (Sergipe)

The American release changed Celjipp's name to Vyer, but an NPC still mentions the original name due to a localization error.