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Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia
Released On: Jun 25, 2020
76
8.3
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
76
55% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
45% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
76
55% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
45% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Having not played the original Brigandine, I don't know if this new one does justice to the legacy of the original. I do know that original is well-respected (and quite rare, therefore expensive), but I'm comfortable saying this: developer Matrix Software has done something special with Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia, and this effort deserves to have a legacy all of its own. The Switch is by no means short on great tactics experiences, but Brigandine might just be the best of all of them.
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is an excellent strategy RPG with all the classic elements of the Brigandine series paired with modern gameplay mechanics. The entire experience is well balanced and addictive across many battles and phases and it is made better through the excellent character writing featured in each campaign, even if some interactions are a bit dry. If you ask me, this is a must-play SRPG for any Switch owner.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 68 User Ratings
8.3
81% Positive
55 Ratings
55 Ratings
9% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
10% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 68 User Ratings
8.3
81% Positive
55 Ratings
55 Ratings
9% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
10% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
Brigandine has that formula that no other turn-based strategy games ever pick up upon, a formula that itches the need for map domination and local large scale battle tactics (story is just secondary), sure it had predecessors of similar gameplay system but I think Brigandine hit the spot for me.
And in this modern Brigandine title Legend of Runersia that formula is still ever present, while story, quests and character storytelling is not as plentiful as the previous Brigandine game, it still has enough in the story department to keep you invested.
But the bulk of why you play Brigandine is the game itself, the hexagonal turn based battle system on a rather large scale battle ground featuring tons of mythical beast and monster along with their commanders of many different classes, and then after the battle, comes the war, you need to capture all of your enemy country domains and claim the whole map to yourself, what happens next is for you to play out.
Legend of Runersia obviously is 20 years older than its predecessor and in many categories like graphics, art style, and voice acting plus some quality of life added features it is definitely enjoying modern improvements, while keeping that good old Brigandine formula in tact.
While it is not exclusive to Nintendo Switch, the handheld gaming device is a perfect console to play this gem on the go.
Definitely one of the best turn based strategy rpg around that everyone should experience playing.
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Nintendo Switch
Great game, Like Risk and srpg mixed into a fun war game, Tons of replayibility, I wish there was more music tracks but what's there is terrific all in all a worthy sequel worth the 20+ years of waiting.
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Nintendo Switch
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is a really fun game. The Risk-like strategy gameplay is quite enjoyable and makes sitting through the six campaigns a breeze. Both on and off the battlefield, there is a lot to tinker with, giving you the freedom to play the game by your design. The battles can take a little long, though it never really bothered me. That being said, the models and story could definitely be a bit better. Nothing reaches below par, but some polish would've made this adventure even more memorable.
There’s a beautifully detailed game just waiting to be explored inside of this sequel to a forgotten cult classic, one that will have hardcore RTS fans in their element if they can overlook a clunky campaign flow and dive deep into its many layers of strategy. Fortune favours those who are bold and prepared in Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia.
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia was a fun experience, and with six different campaigns to explore, there is plenty of room to replay and enjoy multiple playthroughs. This game definitely scratches that strategy RPG itch, and even offers an adjustable difficulty to match just about any player’s desired challenge level. The Switch could certainly benefit from more proper strategy RPGs in its library and Brigandine feels right at home. Fans that enjoy planning out total domination should certainly check out this one.
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is a firmly average game. The strong plot and interesting artwork are tied to a gameplay system that loses its welcome by the end of one playthrough, never mind six. It's still enjoyable for that one playthrough, but it's difficult to imagine going through the same gameplay over and over again. If it hits for you, then there will be a lot of content to enjoy, but otherwise, Brigandine is not varied enough to keep you going for more than a single playthrough.
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia isn’t a truly dire or bad title, but it’s the sort of thing that you’re either going to love or hate, and that feels like a pretty big ask for the game. It was a title I found very exciting in concept, but found myself increasingly disappointed by the more I played it. Be fairly warned before you try it – but also don’t be surprised if it becomes something that some people just will not stop talking about, even with its flaws.
I don't expect the game critics would understand. Brigandine is a game that gets better as you play more of it, as you understand the playable nations' different situations, motivations, and struggles. Moreover, the game mechanics are definitely not in the realm of "instant gratification" like so many games nowadays.
Thus it requires many many hours (we're talking at least tens, to hundreds) just to understand and appreciate, which I don't expect most casual "gamer" critics could do sadly, I expect they just go in and play like, half a run using 1 country...? just to understand the mechanics and "criticize" the game.
But considering these limitations, I'd say this game has done well enough!
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Nintendo Switch
In general, absolutely love it!
1 ). Game description (to go straight to my verdict, skip to Number 2 below)
In this game, there are 6 different nations at war for territory on a large continent. Each nation starts with its own territory, Ruler, Rune Knights (generals) and Units (monsters). The monsters have to be paired with the knights to be brought to battle. Each knight can bring multiple monsters depending on their Magic Pool (monster-controlling capacity). Naturally, more powerful monsters require more portions of the knight's capacity pool.
Imagine Final Fantasy Tactics, but each Knight is also a pokemon trainer, and your 6 pokemons go to war with you side by side--kind of.
Both Knights and Monsters have different classes (such as wizard, archer, paladin,etc for Rune Knights; centaurs, hydras, unicorns, etc. for the monsters). They can level up and gain more powerful forms (e.g. unicorn evolve to pegasus at lv.10, Mage can change class to Wizard at lv.20) and can be equipped with items.
Finally, you then command the Knights to battle for other countries's territory, and with each territorial gain, you gain more Mana each turn (the currency), which will be used to feed the monsters you have (called Upkeep) and summon new monsters, as Monsters can die if defeated in battle. You finish the game when you conquer the whole continent, and each Nation's storyline unfolds as your territory grows.
2 ). Verdict:
a. Gameplay: 10/10
b. Story: 7/10
c. Music: 8/10
d. Visuals: 8.5/10
3 ). Verdict description:
a. Gameplay (10/10)
Very intense strategy gameplay! If you are new to the series, you will, most certainly, learn the ropes the hard way. Expand recklessly and you will spread yourself too thin to defend your territory. In battle, your generals will get focused and injured. Precious monsters will die or even be captured by the enemy (idk which one is worse!). However! once you manage to figure out the knacks of each monster type, each knight class, and their abilities; it would get much better. You will then be able to customize your own roster of knights & monsters depending on your playstyle, and you will thoroughly enjoy "strategizing" and thinking as a general would, which is exactly what a good SRPG Gameplay should be!
In terms of gameplay, there is no other game like it, which is insane considering it has been 20+ years since its original release! The Brigandine games could very well be their own genre, just like the way Pokemon is. It is a medieval/fantasy-themed war simulation game at its finest.
Suggestion:
- Add more depth to the tutorial to ease newcomers to play (e.g. tutorial for each monster type?)
2 ). Story (7/10)
Unfortunately, the story falls short when compared to other RPG Games. It is an improvement from the 1998 game but still not enough depth, and the "twist" comes too late and we don't really care with the parties involved for it to make enough impact.
There is another layer of the story which are hidden behind the "flavour-text" description of each Rune Knight (which are awesome by the way), but they rarely come to life through cutscenes or interactions.
Suggestion:
- More engaging whole story
- Make the "flavour-text" more alive, maybe add more stories when questing certain knights together, or make it possible for the questing knight to meet their relative at another country if they are also currently on a quest. RPGs are centered around the characters. Good RPGs often go through painstaking ways to deeply show each character's story. Brigandine has 100 characters, so adding more side stories to more characters would be very very welcome!
c. Music: 8/10
Great music, but they can't hold candles compared to the original. Sorry. The original (TLOF, not GE) are just so good, so maybe the bar was set too high here, thus 8.
d. Visuals: 8.5/10
Wonderful art design for each character, designed by an experienced character designer. Beautifully drawn and NOT overly sexualized. The knights' clothing wonderfully match their country of origin, so we can get a feel of a country's character from the way the knights look.
The map is more detailed compared to the original game, and it beautifully reflects the terrain of the battlefield; and what kind of quest would be available at each base. There are no longer cutscenes during attack/magic, but they are replaced by beautiful short animations which reduces loading time.
Some people say that the characters are too sexualized but I disagree... Except for the shinobis (which I guess are just the way they are designed..they are a tribal society after all), the women actually have layered and covered clothing common to the medieval/fantasy genre.
Suggestion: Is it too much if I ask for cutscenes during attack/magic just like the original? It can make the monsters and knights more "alive".
Overall, still 10/10 because to me SRPGs are more about the gameplay!
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Nintendo Switch
EDIT 06/12/20 (update "Titans and the Iron Front"): The great game becomes even greater after free update!
Here's a little bit about what we got:
1. Two new high LVL monster types.
2. Better AI (Guard Castle Hex mode)
3. Auto mode and a number of quality of life functions that improve playability, such as a vanage items UI, Info panels, options settings, and others.
4. Custom difficulty mode witch allows you to customize up to 8 in game settings. Plus now we can play game on the highest difficulty without any time limit! (it gives us almoust infinity game if you want it to be!).
[link omitted per site rules]
P.S. Btw the developer directly hinted that there will be further updates and perhaps even full fledged DLC! ;-)
Original Score 9: I would really like to give this game a maximum rating of 10 out of 10. But unfortunately I can’t force myself to do this despite the fact that I am a huge fan of Brigandine and consider LoF one of the best tactical games on consoles. My score is 9 and only because it is Brigandine (although to be honest, I would put LoR no more than 7).
Let's start with the good:
- The mechanics of the game have been preserved, and it still remains as attractive and exciting as it was back in 2000.
- Very detailed and good ingame tutorial.
- The history of the world as a whole is not bad, although the plot in the first game was better, imho.
- Beautiful 2D art, but some drawings are worse than others.
- Some great and epic music tunes.
Now about the bad:
- There are much fewer classes and upgrading branches for rune knights. Many rune knight classes was cut out without replacement.
For example - martial artist class character in LoF was represented by Ranger ➜ Grappler ➜ Champion and 2nd one Priest ➜ Monk ➜ Guardian.
LoR have only one class Monk ➜ Grappler ➜ Champion.
Also, the developers did the same with monsters. They cut many monster types and their upgrade trees. Some branches of monster upgrade tree generally look very strange. For example all five dragons type (each with their own element) evolve in the only one final version ancient fire dragon!
- The complete lack of lore text descriptions of game items (weapons, armor and etc) is a big omission because it would add more depth to the world of Runersia.
- The complete lack of unique quests with text description, not counting those where you find new knights.
Why couldn’t developers add some quests, to find some unique relics that would give bonuses to your entire nation? Or quest which must be done with specific knight (s) in specific strongholds to find some unique monster, or piece of some legendary equipment. These quest could be pretty rare, but this would add even more interest to the game and give it some cool secrets to find.
- The design and graphics of knights and monsters 3D models are pretty generic and bland. In addition to bad graphics, when your knight or monster turns into a new class, it remains almost the same, only the color palette changes!
The overall feeling that the developers had a strictly limited time frame and pretty small budget. It feels like the game was left unfinished in terms of the amount of content. I really hope that the developers will please us with an improved version of the game (Grand Edition) and fix all the flaws and fill in all the gaps.
P.S. Some critics and players want to see multiplayer gameplay options in LoR but I think its impossible, simply because in even with 3-4 players game match, just think about, how long will it take to wait your turn. ;-P
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Nintendo Switch
This text does not contain spoilers
And that's just a short review, not all parts of the game, and it's just a summary.
The first negative point of the game is the lack of multiplayer and online mode. The point that has had the greatest impact on the experience of this title.
The second weakness is the lack of an attractive gameplay. Although the gameplay of this game is admirable for the early hours, but gradually nothing attractive has been added to the gameplay and we are faced with a repetitive title.
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Nintendo Switch
Remarkable soundtrack, character development, good story-driven game... Yeah, that's the original Brigandine. Unfortunately, Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia doesn't live up to the previous title. The soundtrack is almost non-existent, character design is beautiful, but also overly sexualized. It is a good strategy game, but it ends there. It doesn't show any progression, besides some graphic update, in comparison to its previous title. I waited for almost twenty years to play this game, but it is just a disappointment.
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Nintendo Switch
Summary An Endless Fantasy WarGrand Strategy Simulation. Conquer the continent in this grand strategy simulation game The continent of Runersia is home to six major powers with more than 40 bases, 100 knights, and 50 types of monsters. Select a ruler, compose your platoons of knights and monsters, and march to claim enemy bases. The player ch...
Rated T
for Teen
Platforms:
- Nintendo Switch
- PlayStation 4
- PC
Initial Release Date: Jun 25, 2020
Developer:
- Matrix Software
Publisher: Happinet
Genres:
