Almost two years ago, Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia made its debut on the hybrid console Nintendo Switch, finding a very positive opinion from users and critics. While portability may be a great thing for some games, now the title developed by Happinet arrives on the platform that probably suits him best, that is the PC via Steam.
Brigandine is a turn-based strategic role-playing game, which will give the player the opportunity to take control of one of the six nations (actually five plus one tribe), each of which will be equipped with unique units and powersin an attempt to unify the whole kingdom under one banner.
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia, six kingdoms at war
The land of Runersia she has been blessed with the gift of mana, energy that can greatly enhance people’s abilities. Beyond this, five mana stones of immense power, they have been found, taken over and transformed into pieces of armor, one for five of the six rulers. But men are always men, and power often leads to war. With the aim of unifying everything Runersia, the six sovereigns declare war on each other.
The incipit is not the most imaginative but it is enough to justify the plot and above all the mechanics of the game. At the start of the game, we will be called to choose one of the six powers that we would like to control, each of which will have its own peculiarities. They will immediately catch the eye beautiful artwork of the protagonists, really made in an excellent way. We can go out of sympathy or something else (obviously I have chosen the only country without Brigandine), and after a short tutorial we will be called to enter the heart of the war.
The gameplay of the title is divided into two main stagesthe organizational one and the combat one, at the end of which one will have passed season in the match. During the organizational phase, as the name suggests, we will be called to take care of all those logistical choices to better prepare for the fights to come, and here Brigandine it really offers a lot of room to improve our troops or study different strategies.
In our territory there will be several fortresses, and our units can only be moved between those under our control. We will have available heroes And knights (different for each of the armies of the game), each of which will have a host of monsters under its command. This is the first peculiarity of the game. The reign of Runeresia and its mana made it possible for the knights to control these fearsome creatures, and the title carries it very well into the game mechanics.
In fact each knight it will only be able to command a certain number of monsters according to its power (Rune Power); each creature will have a cost to be commanded (Magic Cost) and the total sum cannot exceed that of the knight who commands them. Different units, different Rune Power, different strategies, and given the high number of monsters present, will be really many. Also during the organizational phase, we will have the possibility to summon monsters through the consumption of some resources, in order to increase our ranks between one battle and another.
Other possible actions during this phase will be that of move our troops between the different fortresses to prepare us to attack or defend a territory, e send on a mission our knights; in the missions we can both receive experience, necessary to raise the level of the unit and consequently improve its parameters, or obtain something very useful equipment. These are only the most important actions, but Brigandine really offers much more.
The calm before the storm
Once the organizational phase has been completed, we will proceed with the attack phase, which will be activated both in the event of an invasion carried out or received. In both cases the victory condition will be that of annihilate the troops enemies. Only two opposing and neighboring territories will be able to proceed to the attack phase, and this does nothing but give a lot of importance to the organizational phase and troop movement: will we have strengthened our defenses well? Will our attackers have enough strength to conquer?
Once engaged in battle, the view will switch from the map to the battlefield, with hexagonal boxes in which we will place our units. Here comes another mechanic related to the lore of Brigandine and its monsters, that is, that which, to carry out our commands except only for movement, the creature must be within range of its rider. This really adds a lot of strategic depth to the combat phase.
The rest will proceed like the most classic of the genre, with units that will be able to use their own skills or attacks to get the better of the enemy. There will also be a very important variant given by the type of ground, which will significantly change the parameters of the units if they have it as their preferred terrain.
Collateral damages
What if a drive goes KO in battle? The monsters will disappear forever (although there will be a way to bring some back to life), the knights will retreat for that battle while if our ruler is defeated we will have lost the contest directly. Contested and not game, as this will only end if we no longer have domains under our control. Let’s recap:
Our sovereign is defeated:
- That battle is automatically lost.
One of ours knight is defeated:
- The unit along with all its monsters will retreat and be available for the next battle.
A monster is defeated in battle:
- The monster is lost forever.
Let’s say the first few games in Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia they will not be exactly friendly, but once you have learned to manage the very important organizational phase well, the battles will really be able to give satisfactions.
Technically
The title of Happinet is certainly a very valid exponent in the market of its genre, and it looks really good even at the graphic level, with an excellent general design of units and monsters, all enhanced by truly excellent artwork and very functional and never chaotic menus. not an easy undertaking given the many information present. Some animation could be revised but this does not affect the game in the least.
The soundtrack, although not epic, manages to contain an excellent dubbing in Japanese, some very evocative tracks and as a whole it fits very well with the title.
Gameplay is the heart of Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia, which will take some time to master but which will really give you satisfaction. A highly recommended title if you are looking for a deep and rewarding strategy.