Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia Review

Brigandine: The Legend Of Runersia is a sequel to the 1998 Playstation title Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena. Needless to say, the series has stayed faithful to its history of annoying to type names. It takes place in a fantasy world filled with magic and monsters that can apparently be trained for tactical combat. Even if you're not familiar with the original 22-year-old title, Brigandine: The Legend Of Runersia is likely to 🌳be more than enough game to satisfy hardcore strategy and RPG fans.

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

The story takes place in the year 781 on the mystical continent of Runersia. There are special warriors called Rune Knights who are able to command a force of monsters to fight for them. There are six nations all residing on the giant landmass and their peaceful co-existence is about to come to a violent end. Five of these nations have access to items known as Brigandines, which are more or less infinity stones. Only instead of governing things like time or soul, they give their owner power over nebulous concepts like Ego or Freedom. Each of the nations feels as though they should have possession of all the Brigandines, and thus, a giant war breaks out. It's up to the player to choose a side to control and become the ruling nation of Runersia.

It's a solid concept for a story and it allows for multiple playthroughs to be possible since each nation has a different plot and colorful characters. One aspect of Runersia I quite liked was how each nation wasn't exactly filled with honorable heroes. Some of the people you control could be outright evil, delusional bastards. One leader even kills their own father so they take over! Each nation has their own reasons for entering into full-scale warfare, my favorite being the United Islands of Mirelva since they're just a band of pirates looking to make a quick buck off the warring kingdoms.

I just wish the narrative was more of a selling point, as🍬 it mostly takes a backseat to the action. This is a game that focuses more on the tactics and strategy than the storytelling. That being said, there are some engaging or humorous moments of dialogue here and there that made some characters seem especially likable.

The graphics are fine for a game in this genre. The cut scenes are static shots of some rather beautiful hand-drawn art. The overall map looks pretty plain and the sprites during combat are more detailed than they were on the PlayStation, although weirdly enough, I think I preferred how Forsena looked. That might just be my nostalgia for 90s era JRPGs kicking in, but for some reason, the game's visual style reminded me of something you might see in a modern-day mobile title. I swear I've seen multiple games advertised before YouTube videos that looked just like this.

The gameplay of Runersia involves a lot of jumping between menus to make sure your troops are combat-ready. There are two ph🌃ases to go through during the game: Organization꧋ and Attack.

The Organization phase is where the strategy elements of Runersia kick in. You have an overworld map that shows the territories that you control and the ones that are under the command of the enemy nations. Much like a game of Risk, you move your troops around the map towards countries and invade them in order to 🀅conquer them and gain more ground. Depending on the difficulty setting, you have a limited amount of time to take over the entire continent.

Before you do that, there's a lot of planning and upkeep you have to take care of. You need to make sure your soldiers are all properly equipped with gear. You can also change their classes so they can go from a thief to a mage and so on. On top of that, you need to manage your monsters. Each troop has a Rune Knight along with a regimen of monsters. You can also recruit more monsters if you lose some or are unhappy with the ones you have. In addition, you can also send any Knight not currently doing anything on a quest to acquire more gear and extra units or send them into training to increase their level and the levels of their monsters.

Personally, I thought cycling through the menus became a tad tedious since there's a lot to go through. I found myself constantly running through one set of menus just to exit out to get to another set of menus. Plus, you can't just manage every troop together at once. You have to go to each country where your Rune Knights are stationed just to make tiny adjustments here and there. Also, every time your units level up, you have to skip through a nearly endless parade of screens informing you that a lizardman's defense went up by 10. It's not enough to ruin the game, but it definitely can be a slight drag.

Monster Mash

Once all that's sorted out, you enter the Attack phase. Here, the player chooses any Rune Knight not currently moving or on a quest and points them toward an enemy territory so they can battle for ownership of the land. The fights operate like a tactical RPG, similar to something like Fire Emblem. Each unit has a special attack or skill depending on their class. Attacks vary depending on their type, with some affecting the baddie in front of you while others damage all units within a straight line or the radius around your chosen character. Terrain is also a factor as certain units receive buffs for being on the right type of ground. Monsters who are slain die for🐟 good, while Rune Knights are simply defeated and retreat back to their base to heal their wounds.

All in all, the fights are fun and offer a variety of combat options, while there's plenty of strategy to sort between while not in the heat of battle. However, I found myself thinking back to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fire Emblem: Three Houses a lot during Runersia and how I found that game's combat to be more enjoyable. It offered a greater assortment of choices during gameplay and the animations were superior in almost every way. In comparison, Runersia can't help but fall a little short.

Despite that feeling, I still had a good time playing Runersia, and as it༺ progresses, more options open up for you to upgrade your units and gain new forms of attacks. It just takes a while to get going.

Nothing Better Than A Portable War

The Nintendo Switch is a perfect system for long RPGs and strategy games. The option to play anything in handheld mode means you can take your 30 to 40-hour long adventure anywhere you want instead of being stuck in front of the TV. Brigandine: The Legend Of Runersia is one such game that benefits from the Switch's portability. It's perfect for work commutes, road trips, and perhaps as a late-night gaming fix just before bed. Granted, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is probably a better choice for Switch owners look🅠ing for this kind of game. But for those who finished that title and are looking for a new🎃 strategy game to play, this is quite solid.

It's a little too bloated in some places, but for the most part, Brigandine: The Legends Of Runersia could be a fine choice for those looking for some tactical action on ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚthe🅠 go.

A Switch copy of Brigandine: The Legend Of Runersia was provided to TheGamer for this review. Brigandine: The Legend Of Runersia is available for Nintendo Switch.