Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia Review (Nintendo Switch)

Review code used with many thanks to Renaissance PR

Brigandine The Legend of Runersia is the second game in the Brigandine series. With the original being a Playstation One game. The Legend of Runersia largely keeps to the gameplay system of its predecessor.

Showers of Mana

Brigandine The Legend of Runersia LadiesGamers.com — A Classy Woman

The world of Runersia is made of six nations. All but one of whom embody a trait represented by their brigandine. These five pieces hold a mana stone and give the wielder tremendous power. As the fighters of this world are Rune Knights who use mana to summon monsters that obey them. When Norzaleo is attacked by their neighbor, all the other countries decide to take up arms and claim the continent for themselves.

For my playthrough I picked the United Islands of Mierlva made of former pirates with a great ego. Which I immediately knew was the right choice as the leader Stella, started drunkenly beating a merchant with his wares.

Organize Your Troops

The goal of the game is to take over every base in Runersia to unite the land under your rule. There are two major phases of gameplay and during the first you’ll prepare for battle or future moves.

During this phase you may summon more monsters and attach them to specific troops. The more forts you have the greater your pool of mana will be, as each turn you have monster upkeep costs each season. Which is more of an issue if you start losing territory. Both Rune Knights and their monster troops can be given equipment which you’ll come across when successfully completing quests. As your troops, monsters included, level up they’ll be able to upgrade or change their class.

Units that aren’t on quests or moving can defend a fort if it’s attacked. As only bases right next to each other can be attacked it’s best to have troops stationed in each point of defense whether you meant to expand soon or not. Otherwise you can send them to move, but remember they won’t be able to defend or attack in the next phase. The levels of your starting units vary wildly with some so low you wouldn’t risk putting them in a fight. Thankfully you can send troops out on quests where you might be rewarded with experience, items or a new unit.

Casting A Hex

During the attack phase you can choose to send up to three Rune Knights (and their monsters) to attack an adjacent enemy fort. Once your decisions are confirmed, battles will be determined by total Combat Power. Meaning if you and the enemy decide to attack each other the one with the highest score will be on the offensive, while the weaker team will be on their home turf to defend it.

The combat itself is fairly standard sprg style, with some rules I found similar to Langrisser, but on a hexagonal grid. The grid creates a zone of control where units have restricted movement through opposing troops. Units can also be surrounded giving the attackers increased accuracy.

Turn order is by Rune Knights and their monsters can be commanded during that turn. Rune Knights have varying classes like berserker, bishop and such while monsters are unique class types. Different attacks have various areas of effect such as a straight line of four, or all adjacent units. Meaning the opportunity to use particular skills might not be available unless you can risk hitting your own team. With monsters the attack options can be terrain based, such as a sea serpent’s water storm that hits all units in water within a two hex radius. Certain skills and all magic can’t be used if the unit has moved prior. Other than that there’s mostly typical classes, counter attacks, buffs, and status effects. EXP is given from fighting and not just defeating an opponent making it a bit easier to level up your weaker monsters.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

If a Rune Knight is defeated they will retreat injured meaning during the next season they’ll be unable to fight. Enemies may choose to retreat rather than risk injury. Any of their monsters will attempt to flee with them but sometimes are left behind, meaning if you win that monster will be yours. The same can apply to you if you retreat. Not only can your monsters be captured but if they lose all their HP instead of retreating they will die. Battles however have a turn limit, which makes the usually two turn trek towards your opponent especially annoying. If units are still fighting on the map by the twelfth turn the defending team wins, unless the attackers have occupied the castle hex.

There is an autobattle option though I wouldn’t use it if there’s any monsters you don’t want to lose. You can choose to retreat, though if you’re defending that means you’ll lose the base. Still if it’s a fight you really can’t win that’d be the better way to go as you may have multiple battles in one phase.

World War Runersia

While all this happens the other nations will fight against each other as well. There are three difficulty settings which impact the AI in combat and can impose a deadline to take over Runersia. However it also affects the opponent’s behaviour during the organisation phase and how aggressive they are to other nations. If you’re not sure about handling the conquering part of the game it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start on a lower difficulty even for just for a few turns to get a better idea. Of course you should do the separate tutorial and put guides on but it can be a bit of an infodump.

Even if you choose to play as the same nation again there can be differences as the enemy will not behave exactly the same. When I attacked one base on my second turn, and somebody else as the same team did so the units stationed there were different.

Upon beating the game you’ll unlock challenge mode. You can pick any ten Rune Knights that you’ve unlocked through your other playthroughs and you only start with one base. There’s also objectives with deadlines to be completed or else you’ll lose the mode. This is best suited for those with a couple playthroughs under their belt, but is a great way to get even more mileage out of the game.

Partly Poor Presentation

The illustrated art is amazing but it seems like the visual budget was spent on it. In-between seasons you’ll be given some story scenes based on your chosen nation, and any units you successfully recruit will also get a little back story. Over the art are portraits of the characters talking which unfortunately are stagnant, facial expressions may change but each character has only one pose. Occasionally there is minimal animation in scenes. Depending on the units on both sides there might be a unique conversation at the start of battle, some of the funnier ones being the enemy commenting on the automaton Umimaru. Otherwise there’d be a generic line. Voice acting is Japanese only. The soundtrack is fine, neither offensive or particularly memorable though I was occupied during battle.

The in battle appearance is acceptable but the maps can seem a little sparse and samey. Though as you spread through the continent you’ll come across different terrains. Like the swamps in the Holy Gustava Empire’s territory. The leaders of each nation have an in battle appearance, while any other Rune Knights are only shown with a class model. While there’s a lot of characters it does make the game look lower budget. Which is difficult to consider as the American price is between budget and full retail. In Australia it’s only a couple dollars away from a full price game. I didn’t have much in the way of technical issues but it did crash once in the save screen. Thankfully there’s an autosave.

Overall

Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia packs a continent’s worth of gameplay for strategy fans. As you have six different sides to play as and the challenge mode. Which is just enough to make up for the lower budget looks. Though I find it hard to tear myself away from the team with the robot. Asides from that the only thing I’d like to see in this game is an ability to customize difficulty options more.

Final Verdict: I like it a lot!