Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia for Switch (Now also out for PC)

[Jinn]

Tried the demo when it came out for the Switch but I didn't find it all that good. Could be that it was just suffering from demo-itis so it's possible that I'll still pick the game up when it's on a deep discount but my first impression of it was pretty ambivalent.

What exactly was it you didn't like? For those unfamiliar with the original game, I guess some expectations need to be managed as far as the "grand strategy" aspect of it seems to go. That part is definitely on the lighter side, as is the case with most Japanese strategy titles. Combat, unit variety, unit customization, Hero progression all seem to be right on track for a good time though.

Personally a big fan of the artist involved and overall presentation too, though it would be cool to at least have the option for cinematic combat engagements.

 

[Hobo Elf]

What exactly was it you didn't like? For those unfamiliar with the original game, I guess some expectations need to be managed as far as the "grand strategy" aspect of it seems to go. That part is definitely on the lighter side, as is the case with most Japanese strategy titles. Combat, unit variety, unit customization, Hero progression all seem to be right on track for a good time though.

Personally a big fan of the artist involved and overall presentation too, though it would be cool to at least have the option for cinematic combat engagements.

Mostly the maps. The combat maps I witnessed in the demo were bland. The one that stood out the most was a big open field with a narrow river that separated your army and the enemy's. Combat starts and you're basically just throwing your blob against the enemy blob.
There might have been some other things as well but I only played the demo for a few hours and that was a while ago. But the maps were the biggest issue for me. I like having movement and momentum be a part of my tactics games. Maybe there are better maps and the demo just had the worst ones, I dunno. I tried finding some more info of the full game at the time of its Switch release but it was so niche that I could barely find anything.

 

[Jinn]

Mostly the maps. The combat maps I witnessed in the demo were bland. The one that stood out the most was a big open field with a narrow river that separated your army and the enemy's. Combat starts and you're basically just throwing your blob against the enemy blob.

As far as I know, a majority of the combat map variety is dictated by physical geography. I've seen narrow corridors created by by dense forests and bodies of water affecting where you can move so far. Who knows how that changes later. Certainly won't kill the game for me, but I get how it could be a turn-off. The large amount of units and unit skills seems like they're going to allow for a fair amount of tactical depth regardless of how the maps end up evolving through the game though.

EDIT: Also, Infinitron, would you mind terribly changing the title of this thread to indicate it's on PC now? I'm sure a lot of people's eyes just gloss over when they see "For Switch."

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Bought this but haven't really got the time to play it with the recent new release. I will probably play Eiyuden side game first but this is definitely on my play list soon

 

[Abu Antar]

I have the physical PS4 version, but it still has the wrapping untouched.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Was looking at more gameplay of this game today and it looked better than what I remembered. Perhaps the steep price (50€) also contributed to my initial disinterest. I think I'll promote this game to discount purchase status.

 

[jungl]

The game is worth for one or two playthroughs. The art and character design is good. The strategy portion is a simple and dated. There needs to more variables to make it interesting roaming independent monsters or bandits that show up in battles attack whatever. Too easy to streamroll after little success in your campaign. There needs to be stuff to make the player take losses and divert the players decision making.

 

[Puukko]

Put a few hours into this and it definitely feels like it's up my alley. I don't have experience with this sort of strategy specifically, mostly just Fire Emblem, but with the difficulty on normal, starting with the theocratic nation (the strongest - but also with the most fronts, so to call it the easiest wouldn't be exactly accurate) it definitely requires my full attention. I'm only up to the first battle which has been going for maybe a couple hours now and it's still teetering right on the edge of whether I'll be able to pull it off. A lot of that comes from learning on the go of course, but having the first battle be against a leader unit whose army is a bit stronger than mine means I have been reloading a lot and trying out different approaches. It's become a battle of attrition due to dwindling mana. I am still surprised how solidly I am doing considering this was an invasion forced on me as I was planning on attacking another nation.

Making it even this far took a while too. First I went through the whole tutorial which was absolutely worth it despite being lengthy. Then I explored the whole map and went through most of the characters. Then I poked the ice as to how much questing and training I could do before invasion - I think it was three free turns before forced combat. I recruited a few new units too, but they were largely too weak to be of any immediate use. So there's that balancing act of investing into units while propping up your defenses.

The presentation is really good... for the most part. I am a huge fan of the art and character designs. Some of the main characters lean into the overdesigned side, but a lot of them are outright inspired. Basically every female is waifu material (save for maybe that old high priestess) and there's booba galore but the artstyle is what makes the difference between this and moeblob fanservice.







The battle maps themselves are unfortunately very basic. The texture quality there is also at its weakest - I think the ground textures were lifted straight from the Switch version. They're closer to something you'd expect from a PS2 game.

The writing and translation are very solid and you get nice worldbuilding and character development in the cutscenes. The theocratic nation pulls a bit of a twist on you by going more dark-law. Definitely digging the tone. And the girls...

I had been aching for some proper strategy for a while and I think this is it.

 

[Jinn]

The battle maps themselves are unfortunately very basic.

I've found they've gotten more interesting the further in I've progressed, but they are also base-specific, so they depend on their location on the strategy map and the physical geography represented there. As far as these things go, they have served well to create varied tactical situations, particularly depending on what units you're running. The fact that different monsters and knights have terrain they can more easily traverse/fight on than others helps keep the physical geography-based battle maps interesting despite their deceptively simple presentation.

Game is very good. I see myself putting at least 60 hours into it, if not upwards of 80-100 between all the factions and difficulty choices.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Bought the game last night on Steam and have been playing it for a bit. It's really fun now, dunno what happened to change my opinion. I like all the new extra functionality they added for the PC release to increase the difficulty, but I hope consoles get these features too someday. Picked the animebros on the top left corner as my faction. On my first battle to retake Warren I managed to capture one of Tim's level 20 units for myself . Poor Gustavans lost their trump card since they don't even have a Brigandine.

 

[Puukko]

Poor Tim, he'll just have to go back to his incest harem.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Alright, I'm 10 hours into the game. I think I have a good grasp of the game, though I'm certainly no master. This game is pretty easy to pick up but it'll take a while to master it. First things first, I don't know why but I thought that the season timer there in the corner of the strategic map was the turn limit, which is what led me to taking very hasty actions.



Certainly I managed to get things done and even wipe out an enemy Nation, but now I'm in a position where I can't expand anymore because all my RKs are spread thin guarding the frontlines. I do have extra Knights but it'll take a while to train them and their units to be more than just fodder, something that I'd be sure to do while I'm invading other Nations on the side and with more leisure as I know that the turn limit is more lenient than that.

I guess the main goal of the game is to kill (or capture) the enemy Nations' best monsters as downing an RK will only make them flee from battle. Monsters are the most important resource in this game and it presents an interesting dynamic to how the game works. You could lose battles but it could still be a massive win for you if you manage to snipe a very powerful enemy monster as the high level monsters form the backbone of the squads. Thanks to how retreating works in this game it adds a whole lot to the tactical and strategic aspects of this game. When an enemy Rune Knight is downed they retreat and take all their monsters that are alive with them, so even with a weaker army it's conceivable to just beeline for the RK and take him out to cripple the enemy. It'll win you the battle but future battles will still be a challenge if they are holding on to their high level units. You have to weigh your options whether it's worth the risk to take out tough units or try to send them packing so you don't take losses yourself. There's also a chance that a monster will be left behind when an RK retreats, which means that you get to keep it for yourself. The chance is increased if the monster is not within the Knights sphere of influence that the monster has been attached to so it's not enough that it's close to another friendly Knight. Charmed enemies will always join you if a monster is charmed when their RK retreats. There are some other tricks you can do but I'll leave it for now as I have hopefully illustrated that t he game does a good job at marrying the tactical battles with the war strategy.

On the strategic layer you send your RKs on quests to collect items for your other Knights and monsters as well as recruiting new Knights and consumables to increase stats. Also a good idea to have some RKs who train up new troops as you're likely to lose a lot in combat and save scumming is lame. Actually losing a unit isn't too big of a deal unless they are level 10+. Losing 5 low level monsters is nothing if it meant taking out an enemy's level 20 monster.. Knights who quest or train can't defend however so beware that you need to have troops on standby on all the castles that border enemy castles. You spend a lot of time on the strategic layer shuffling troops, summoning monsters and questing but I find it to be quite enjoyable. Especially before I end the turn as I weigh risk of sending a valuable knight on a quest to train so that his troops don't just sit collecting dust without getting experience, because an enemy assault is not guaranteed unless the castle is completely empty.

My initial disappointment with the maps has also lessened. Yes, they are pretty plain looking (but at least everything is readable, so that is nice). But despite that I feel like the tiling with the various bonuses/maluses does give the maps the kind of depth that is satisfying to exploit, and hurts when the enemy uses them to their advantage. It's worth your time to bait the AI into attacking you where you have more favorable tiles for your monsters. I also like that each castle has a static map design. It gives the world a nice sense of immersion.

One of the interesting choices in combat is that you can only use your basic attack if you move. Magic and all other special skills can only be used if you didn't move. This gives positioning before engagement a really heavy focus. You can cripple the enemy army a lot if you get your casters in a spot where they can wreck havoc on the enemy army when they clash, but you also need to be mindful so that they don't get killed because of how squishy they are. It's an interesting rule that makes the combat dynamic more fun for me. I'm not really good at positioning in these games and quite often I'm on the receiving end, but it feels really neat when you succeed. Especially when you are able to bait the enemies into spots where you have monsters already waiting on tiles that give them either statistical advantages or even access to special abilities (Mermaids can charm enemies if they are on water, Sea Serpents can do some insane AoE with a gigantic range that does a lot of damage and has a high stun chance, but this hits friendlies as well).

Monster unit variety is not super high, but I think there's enough for it to be interesting. Especially since there really aren't any throwaway monster units so what you have are all usable depending on your squad composition. Even the innocent Imp might seem kinda meh at first given how easily they can die, but the Silence spell they can cast with a 1-4 hex range can be stupidly devastating against enemy casters. Gremlins (Imp upgrades) can do some very respectable damage with Thunder and they can also grant extra turns to other units, which is awesome utility for such a cheap unit. Ghoul is also one of those that look like a terrible shitunit but the Revenant is already a decent melee fighter who heals a bit each turn (and also when they hit enemies) but their final upgrade turns them into a Lich. Each monster has their pros and cons that give them their own unique flavor that feels satisfying when you exploit it to their strengths.

Some things that less good about the game: there isn't much music. What's there is really good, but it would've been nice to have more tracks. Each Nation has their own theme that will play on the strategic map which is nice.
Apart from aesthetic flavor I haven't noticed much that separates the 6 Nations from each other. Some are easier because they start with less border conflicts and some harder because they have lots of borders to defend immediately, but there doesn't seem to be anything that's uniquely exclusive to them that you can't replicate with another Nation, at least none that I have noticed. One Nation doesn't have a titular brigandine, but in terms of gameplay it doesn't mean too much, Each brigandine is the same item, a chest piece armor with +15 def, +15 HP and the same status immunities. The only difference they have is a different elemental value. Would've been cool if the brigandines were unique. Maybe someone more experienced can let me know if there's more to the brigandine than what I've seen, because I've found chest armors that are way better than the brigandine.

Those are my sleep deprived thoughts. I guess this post could be treated as a buyers guide for anyone reading the game and is on the fence as I wasn't really intending on reviewing the game so much as I just wanted to mention some of the things I really enjoy about the game and the few things that I found a bit disappointing. Overall I think it's a really neat game that I'll definitely play a lot.

 

[somerandomdude]

It's a pretty casual game difficulty wise, which is typical for these JRPG games. To find an actual challenging one is a niche within a niche.

It's obvious that in your very first battle, you can bait the enemy AI right into your formations, it could be a line, a C, or a V. And you got units at the front of the line which are either extremely tanky, and/or have breath attacks (dragons, etc), they'll pile in and you get to clap em. Ranged, casters on the 2nd and 3rd rows. On higher difficulties, all you need to do is send out 1 unit as bait, it could be a trash tier unit, just something that has high mobility, and suicide it, and once you engage the AI, it will rush you down. Feed them right into your wall of lizard lords (top tier lizardmen units) and dragons, or liliths (top demon unit, has meteor spell).

If you actually factor in questing, and all the boatloads of stat potions you get, you can beef one unit up to be really powerful, even strong enough to solo a full lineup, like 3 enemy knights + 18 units, 21 against 1.

Also, there's a few broken units, specifically the Roc (the giant birds) got a roar AOE that always inflicts faint (it's not supposed to), and they got a mid-tier cost, so if you're unsure, and want some fresh units and monsters to fit a new army, you can't go wrong with just stuffing Rocs on them.

 

[Vorark]

Nice, reminds me a lot of Dragon Force, except the hex grid for combat.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Completed the game a few days ago, took me around 26h. Was pretty fun, though there are still things that feel a bit obscure. Questing is the biggest thing that I don't fully grasp yet. I thought that the reward icons on your Knights had to correspond with the quest reward icons so that you could get that type of item, but that doesn't seem to be the case. seems like the Knights quest reward icons just add to the existing pool of possible rewards. Also I'm not sure if it's just my like but questing in regions also seem to affect the element of gear you get, i.e I quested a lot in Tim Gustav's land and got a shitload of Dark element gear. I also only got a single monster unit upgrade item the whole game, and that was right before the final battle. I didn't quest with any level 20+ Knights so maybe that's something I should've done to get those monster upgrades. I really would've liked to have gotten a tier 3 Lizard and Serpent, but next time I'll try to figure out how this stuff works better. Last thing I didn't fully grasp was that each capital city had 3 quests but one of them is locked as ???. After conquering all the castles I got a popup explaining that I can now quest there, but when I tried they were still locked, and I'm not sure what kind of rewards you can get from them (and what's the point if I already have all the castles?).

Anyway, good fun. I'll do a Tim run next, though that will probably be in a few weeks. Here are some of my thoughts on heroes I used:
-Snipers are amazing.
-I like the Dark Knight conceptually, but using his unique ability takes some extra setup that feels clunkier than just using the Paladin (Paladin gets a heavy single target nuke, Dark Knight gets a 1 hex AoE attack that will then boost his Attack and Defense). I think in the future I should pair up Gremlins with Dark Knights because of their React spell, which I'll get to in a moment.
-Lancers are kind of cool. Didn't really use them much but their passives and active abilities are awesome. Next time I'll be sure to use one.
-Pick was a really strong hero Norzaleo hero. He starts at level 1 and has super low HP and defense so probably best to train him up a bit with quests, but he becomes an excellent nuker and utility hero with high Int and good spells. His passive ability requires you to pair him up with Elena, but I really recommend that this is done since he'll then get an extra 10% int and regen 10% MP each turn.

Some of my favorite monsters:
-Imp/Gremlin looks like shit if you just look at the low cost and thing it's a cheap chaff unit, but the utility and power a Gremlin brings is quite high. They can do decent damage with spells, but React is an impressive utility spell that allows a unit to act twice during a turn. Obviously pairing such a cheap unit with good utility is a good idea with any Knight, but next time I'd be sure to pair up a Dark Knight with one just so I can have an easier time using Dark Storm.
-Lich is one of my favorite units. Quite difficult to get him since you need a Ghoul > Revenant at level 20 (unless you get lucky with an item that lets you force monsters to evolve), but it's worth it. He's really strong at melee thanks to his hp regen on attack and passive 10% HP regen each turn. He also has a decent ranged nuke but his special ability is reviving any killed monster unit as a zombie for the remainder of that fight. So if you kill a tough enemy monster you can turn it against them.
-Nightmare is ridiculously good, and having one on each Knight is not a bad idea. Weakness and Magic Down can really help you take down those high value targets, plus they can Heal and cure status effects. A lot of bang for your buck as they only have a mid range cost and the upgrade is available at level 10.
-Demon/Angel powerful Dark and Light casters. Demon's can tele enemies away as well as turn fliers into ground units and debuff agility (easier to hit, takes more damage). Angels can heal and do powerful single or AoE nukes.
-Phoenix was just a nice flyer unit to have. Decent damage, heal each turn so they have nice survi, and they have some healing and a fire spell.

Honorable mention:
-The Golem line. I actually didn't get one to be very high level as they all died as Iron Golems due to me treating them as expendables, but next time I'll try to get at least one Mithril Golem. They have good stats and their lack of any innate element means that you can tune them to be strong against any kind of enemy provided you have the correct monster equipment.
-Didn't really have any luck with the Gigas. On paper is seems like a cool tank unit since it can cause faint and attack/defense debuffs when it attacks, which is offset by the fact that it's squishier than the Golem. But their accuracy sucks so much that it's not reliable enough for my tastes. There's a spell called Halo that guarantees a hit, but I don't think it's good action economy just to have a single unit babysit another just so they can hit with normal attacks. Their final unit upgrade gives them some really awesome skills and passives (including 10% more accuracy) so maybe I can make this unit work if I find the right equipment and/or get some agility potions to feed it.

Closing thoughts: having a better grasp on questing will unlock unit potential a whole lot more, I think. Items do a lot to increase the power of your Knights and monsters so it's not something you should sleep on. Also as I previously mentioned there was an item that forces a monster to advance into the next tier. This item has a lot of abuse potential. A higher tier monster has better stat growths so if you can, say, get a level 1 monster to tier 2 or even 3 you can end up with a real beast due to their accelerated stat growth.

 

[somerandomdude]

Ok, so the base game is pretty easy, but the challenge mode is a bit better. You unlock the challenge mode after beating the game, and there's also custom campaigns. I just beat challenge mode, and unlocked USSR Murder Fox.

You permanently unlock rune knights once you recruit them, and they can be assigned to any leader in challenge mode, or in custom campaigns.

In challenge mode, all your knights are level 1, and you gotta hit certain acquired base thresholds within a certain number of turns, and you got 20 rune knights, tops. It's fair, the same applies to your opponents, and they also start out initially with weak rune knights and units.

The key for winning the challenge mode and getting the unlocks was to milk the timer bar out on number of bases acquired, even if you could take them sooner, use that time to level up your units and do some quests with the rune knights who aren't stationed.

Since it's not very efficient to have 3 rune knights with every army, you had to figure out how to get by with 2, or in some cases 1 really strong unit. Right out of the gate, going with 3 knight armies as good, and once they level up, and you get more/better monsters, you could take 2 armies of 3 and make 3 armies of 2, so you could attack/defend more positions, and then put green rune knights + monsters in with more experienced ones, and then split them off and make more duo-armies. You'll end up with some absolute killers, like level 30 vikings with some lizard lords and gremlins at some point, and you can solo with those.

Also, mage/priests/bards are better at holding their positions than going on offense, because the enemy rushes you down when they attack, so you can hold a city with a less robust army that strategically plays to its strengths. The enemy AI will feed right into meteors and geno thunders, and holy words, and Roc faint AOEs, every single time.

Offensive melee units like Vikings and Swordmasters are better at attacking, because you can actually spearhead an offensive with those types of units. Swordmaster is pretty much untouchable by melee attacks if you park one on a forest. You can park right in their face, and they'll *miss* and get counter attacked. If an enemy leader unit rushes down your swordmaster, the fight is already over.

Also, enemy leader units that started out really strong in the regular campaign start at level 1 in challenge mode, so previously huge threats like Rudo can be taken out way easier, because Rudo has to level up in challenge mode before he's OP, and that's not guaranteed. The AI will spearhead an offensive with their leader units, even in hard mode/challenge mode, and you can use that to your advantage. Like level 14 pirate girl rushing down a level 24 Lizard Lord is going to get deleted, but that doesn't stop the AI from repeating that over, and over, and over again.

In challenge mode, you also get rewards including gear/items/monsters periodically, so be sure to use anything good. I got a few missing links as rewards, and I used those to make level 1 lizard lords. I also got some other misc tier 3 monsters from rewards which I made use of.

 

[somerandomdude]

Useful google spreadsheet for the game, covers a lot of stuff, I found the questing tables really useful so you know which items you can get from where. This is especially useful in challenge mode, where you're limited to 20 rune knights total, so you don't have a huge amount of people to quest with, so you really need to pick the right spots.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...pz_db_ZNaA7xwPazKwJoHDqhIY/edit#gid=469161403

I can tell you Tilam Valley for Scintillant Ice Axe, Azure Scale Manifers, Azure Scale Cuirass, and Jade Gem, champion medal (class upgrade item for lizard lords) is very good. The axe and armor is BiS for Lizards, and while the Jade Gem isn't perfect for a lizard, it's serviceable with the 10% crit chance boost. So it's pretty easy to T3 gear lizards, because they get the full loadout from 1 location.

There's also exp boosting accessories, but they're quite rare to get these. It lists the spirit medallion at 2 different locations (+50% exp, and is tier 3) on the quest item list, but I think one of these is wrong, and the other is for the knight or monster. I had to spam quest 40+ units in regular mode for at least 20 turns just to get one of these, so it's probably not even worth trying for at all in challenge mode.