When I was young, every year I received the same gift for my birthday. My mom would take me to the game store and I could pick out one that would come home with me. There were certainly mistakes made over the years, but two of the better choices that I made defined my expectations for gaming going forward. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together was the first, and later, Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena. While Tactics Ogre has had varying levels of success in being reintroduced, I’m happy to say that Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia nearly achieves perfection in carrying on the legacy of the original.
RUNERSIA: A NEW WORLD TO CONQUER
Runersia is a world that will remind any returning player of the series of Forsena, even if there are several important differences that set them apart. The experience begins with a selection of six nations that can be selected, each with a story uniquely its own with a separate overarching plot that leads toward the endgame and the final boss fight. Five factions have brigandines, artifacts imbued with mighty power from the Rune God, while the sixth does not and absolutely refuses to acknowledge the others’ perceived superiority.
Enter the Gustavan Empire, the first of these that I played. They were not only on-brand for my tastes but also immediately reminded me of Norgard, my favorite from Forsena. They certainly were not a disappointment, but Emperor Tim had some particularly large shoes to fill following Vaynard of Norgard, and he couldn’t quite accomplish it even though he was a strong character that earned my respect after only a few hours.
The other five countries include Norzaleo Kingdom, Republic of Guimoule, Shinobi Tribe, Mana Saleesia Theocracy, and the United Islands of Mirelva. Norzaleo Kingdom is your choice if you want to sort through the mix to find the ‘good guy’ and their Prince Rubino wears the Brigandine of Justice. The Rose Knight, Eliza, who holds the Brigandine of Glory and has been chosen by fate to lead her people, which include a group of enslaved fae known as Barretts led the Republic of Guimoule. The Shinobi Tribe is led by the carrier of the Brigandine of Freedom, Talia, and is a matriarchal society embedded deep in the densest forests of Runersia. Mana Saleesia Theocracy is the largest nation on the continent and its people are ruled over by Hierophant Rudo who is more or less a crusader seeking to impose his will and faith on all with the aid of the Brigandine of Sanctity. Finally, we have the United Island of Mirelva, a pirate nation loosely bound together under Captain Stella, the holder of the Brigandine of Ego.
Each country has its own flavor and roster of rune knights which provides a unique experience for whichever is being played. The majority of the characters are interesting and the character designs are clearly a work of passion. Many of them have unique conversations when they face off against or fight alongside other characters and those who are main characters in a faction get plenty of screen time to endear themselves.
RULING THE REALM
The strategic empire management layer of Brigandine continues to have a noteworthy impact on the experience even though battles are the clear focus of the title. It’s from this map that you recruit your units, determine where they are stationed, who they are attacking, and customize your roster overall. This customization includes organizing your armies based on the rune power of each of your rune knights, assigning equipment, using consumables, and changing classes.
Every location on the campaign map generates a predetermined amount of mana each turn which is used to both summon new units and pay for the upkeep of those you already have. As you might expect, as your empire expands, so too does its capability for fielding larger and more potent armies. Outside of this upkeep, your rune knights are the deciding factor on your army limitation size. Each of these characters is the leader of their own unit as the monsters that make up the vast majority of your forces cannot act in this role. These commanders have their rune power attribute which is a leadership skill that determines the capacity of their units. Though this may mean a higher quantity of units, it may also simply mean higher quality, as all monsters are not created equal, and a lich requires a much higher rune power cost to serve within a unit than a goblin does.
The growth of your military forces is tied in closely with the narrative of your story as you cannot directly recruit rune knights. However, there are several ways that your roster expands as you progress. Questing is the first that will be available to you and the knights that you send off on these are unavailable in your war for a turn. Upon a successful return, they will add equipment to your armory, new characters to serve to grow your court and experience growth for those who have completed them. Each region provides different types of quests that have varying rates of success depending on the classes and experience level of those who you have sent on them. A high-level rune knight is efficient when questing, but it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth taking them off of the battlefield for. When a nation is defeated, its knights will scatter throughout the land, some of which will even join the forces of their conqueror. It’s always exciting when a powerful former foe swears their allegiance to your faction. And hey, there’s always a certain dangerous independent individual who will sign his services on to whichever nation is the underdog at the time, but I’ll let you discover the details regarding that one yourself.
DRAWING BLADES (AND FANGS)
Even if the strategy layer of the title is entertaining, tactical battles are what Brigandine has always been about and this is where it truly shines. All of your customization efforts go into effect here and you get to experience the impact of your ever-improving armies in these. Starting with the general concept of tactical battles as we understand them in most titles in the genre, a few mechanics stand out to me here for bringing the experience from good to exceptional and we’ll focus on these here.
Terrain is integral to the strategies that you employ as your units have different movement types that determine how quickly they move across certain spaces and the positive and negative modifiers they receive regarding their accuracy and dodging rates. Your golems, for example, will do amazingly well in their natural mountain environment but will drastically lose their effectiveness if you send them out to engage in fisticuffs with the enemy’s lizardmen in the swamps. The weight that this mechanic puts on your maneuvers is highly noticeable especially when you’re facing off against an enemy faction in their home environment. Taking the forests that the Shinobi Tribe lives in is intense due to their specialization in forest-type units on maps that are sprawling woodlands themselves. When a strategy game makes me feel that I need to drastically change my army composition for a new environment that I’m pushing into, that’s a big win and a credit to the designers in my book.
Elements are another aspect of combat that can be used by a clever commander to turn the tide of battle. Units have varying combinations of these (or a lack thereof) and each existing element provides a slight bonus to attack and damage. If there are opposing elements between the unit and their enemy, their damage will be increased; likewise, if there are similar elements this damage will be decreased. There are few things that can cause more havoc on a foe than an angel blasting a demon with a holy explosion or a sea serpent spraying down a flame dragon with its water breath.
As minor as some might believe it to be at first, encircling can also be a massive boon to your strategy when you pull it off. Encircling is when every space that an enemy can move to is within the zone of control of an enemy unit. This significantly reduces their ability to dodge incoming attacks and increases the chance of enemy critical hits. This singular mechanic makes flanking maneuvers deadly and can turn a fast unit that you’re struggling to hit into an easy target that can be massacred by slower, more powerful units in a single turn. Remember to keep an eye out for your own vulnerability to this as well though, as the enemy will turn this to their advantage as well.
TERRIFYING MONSTERS AND THE KNIGHTS WHO RULE THEM
If you’re anything like me, you enjoy having the opportunity to tailor your forces and micromanage each unit’s individual development through classes, items, and equipment. Good news, Brigandine has you covered. With an impressive selection of classes, a handful of familiar attributes, and a wide variety of equipment, you have many tools for making your faction your own.
For those returning to Brigandine from the Legend of Forsena, Runersia makes a few notable changes. Some of the old classes of rune knights and monsters were cut while others were added or expanded upon. Though some beloved creatures may not be present any longer, each one feels incredibly unique now and stands out from the others. It’s also a nice addition that every faction has not only a unique class for its leader with an earned upgrade but also a character discovered in the story that is unique to that nation as well.
Class trees are divided up into categories, with male rune knights having one, female rune knights having another, and then each monster having its own significantly more restricted one. Rune knights are restricted only by their gender and can freely swap between those they have the minimum attributes and masteries for while most monsters are fairly linear with the occasional split on their roster. Though a unit must reach a specific level to move on to the next tier, they only need five levels of mastery in any given class meaning that a well-managed character could master two available classes in each tier if you’re trying to build a hybrid. Mastered classes provide some of their abilities permanently to the character, so it’s a good way to get out-of-class skills as long as you’re willing to sacrifice a few levels of the original class’ attribute level-up template for them. Though there are plenty of combinations, one of my favorites was combining offensive spellcasters with healers so that you had a versatile mage backing up your forces that could fill whichever role was necessary at the time.
Outside of attributes and abilities, equipment and consumables play a meaningful role in the customization of your armies. Every unit can be equipped with four pieces of equipment with the specific slots being different from one class to the next. Each item is part of a tier classification with the lowest tier offering minor buffs to the unit while the highest provides far more noticeable effects, sometimes even altering the strategies that you would use such a character in. On the other hand, consumables are used up immediately for benefits including permanent attribute increases and top-tier class changes for monsters. Both types of items are most often found when sending your rune knights questing, though they can also be picked off of the broken bodies of your enemies after their defeat.
THE WAR GOES ON
There are a few features that have been implemented in Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia to establish something of an end-game and a new game+ feature. Once you have successfully conquered the continent, you’ll be introduced to the final battle’s location that you can pursue at your leisure. You can also engage in high-risk, high-reward battles that become available involving enemies that are likely far stronger than those that you have been facing. I won’t spoil the story-based elements of them here, though they require you to engage with high-level enemies that have unlocked top-tier monster classes in environments that are perfectly suited for them. The loot after these is fantastic though, as is the experience you’ll gain simply from fighting the overpowered foes. This pairs fairly well with another interesting feature that allows you to transfer your remaining consumables from your current campaign to the next one. If you use restraint, this can result in an incredibly powerful force right out of the gate.
Alternatively, if you want a different Brigandine experience, the challenge mode will provide this for you. Mechanically, challenge mode plays much the same as the main mode, though you will be choosing which rune knights you want to start with from all of those that have served you at some point in the past. This allows you to mix-and-match to customize a faction made up of your favorite characters. It breathes plenty of new life into the experience if you’ve already played a few games as all units in the armies start at level one instead of their usual, lore-accurate start levels. If you are someone who’s looking to start with and develop a unique faction where the reins are in your hands in which direction each character grows, this mode will keep you entertained for quite some time.
THE PERFECT BRIGANDINE EXPERIENCE – ALMOST
There’s no question in my mind that this title was expertly designed as it met nearly all of my expectations for a sequel, though I do wish there were a few minor improvements based on my own preferences. English voice lines may be at the top of the list for me, as I absolutely love the heart and soul that went into the characters in the game. We can read via subtitles all of their important lines regarding their place in the story and their interactions with other characters on the field of battle, though the experience would be improved if I could understand what they were saying via the audio as well. Even worse, the activation lines that they speak in combat don’t have any subtitles whatsoever. This makes it so that you will hear their voice but not understand what it is they like to repeat frequently in combat unless you are fluent in Japanese.
The other concerns that I have are nostalgia-based and unlikely to have much of an impact on players new to the Brigandine series. I would have liked to have seen the personal battle animations of the original make a return, though the artwork and related graphics do the job fine on their own. There’s nothing quite like seeing an intense up-close and personal fight between a giant and a dragon smacking the hell out of each other though.
As for the overall artistic design, the theme and characters have taken a deeper dive into an anime feel than they had in the original. Characters fall into more of their tropes and whereas Forsena seemed fairly heavily inspired by Arthurian legends, Runersia takes far more from current pop culture anime. This may actually be an improvement for some, though my long-standing nostalgia made it so that I had a period of adapting to it before I could fully enjoy this sequel.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is an excellent entry for a genre that has needed some improvement and innovation. It carries on the series’ legacy of offering a title that stands out from its competitors and leaves a lasting impression on its players. Whether you enjoy intense tactical encounters, deep army management, engaging storylines, or simply painting a world map your color, Runersia has you covered. I know that I’ll be coming back to this one often in the future, especially now that we’ve got a couple more modes to keep us occupied. I can only hope that the recently released Tactics Ogre: Reborn lived up to its legacy as well as Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia has. That one is next on my list!
Aurumlamina (Steve Keator) is always looking for new games to try out and will dive into just about any genre though he has a special place in his heart for strategy titles. Outside of PC gaming, he’s a writer, world-builder, and tabletop game designer.