Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is a roleplaying turn-based strategy game, developed and authored by Happinet Corporation, visiting the Nintendo Switch.
In Brigandine, you are taking the function of the country’s ruler, equipped with a bit of armor infused having a mana stone that has been passed down through the generations. These stones represent the ideology of each nation that holds them. They've become known as the Brigandine of Justice, Sanctity, Freedom, Ego, and Glory. War originates to Runersia, as five nations and a tribe have incompatible ideologies. Based on which nation or tribe you control, when you unify the land, the reality of Runersia is going to be revealed.
When you are looking at strategy games, I’m no stranger. I enjoy games different color leaves such as Fire Emblem and Disgaea, in which you control a gang of characters and only best the other players or fulfill an objective. Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia, is no different. Booting in the game, you get the backstory from the continent of Runersia, the mana stones, and also the war on the horizon between your five nations and single tribe.
The nations consist of the Norzaleo Kingdom, the holder of the Brigandine of Justice, the Republic of Guimoule, the holder of the Brigandine of Glory, and the Holy Gustava Empire which holds no Brigandine. Addititionally there is the Mana Salessia Theocracy who holds the Brigandine of Sanctity while the Brigandine of Ego is held through the United Islands of Mirelva. And finally you have the Shinbi Tribe, holders from the Brigandine of Freedom.
When choosing which nation or tribe you need to start as you become information on how many bases they currently hold and just how many knights (your forces you get to control in battle) and also the total number of monsters available. Upon selection, you get to choose your difficulty, which scales from Simple to Hard. Each difficulty tells you the behavior from the enemy AI and also the period of time needed to unify the land of Runersia.
Time passes in Runersia in seasons. You have a group of actions to accomplish and once completed a season passes. I thought it was a pretty neat feature that gives you a feeling of time because the battles rage on. For every season you begin with your organization phase. Here you can move your knights to different bases, summon monsters, or send your knights in a base on a pursuit of equipment and experience. If you move your knights to a different tower, they can not aid troops that you're planning to invade inside the attack phase. Also, any knights that take part in a search will also be unavailable and disappear in the tower through out the season.
Once the organization phase is done, you can commence the attack phase. You are able to attack any number of bases that are adjacent to the base you are attacking from. Each base, allies, and enemies, possess a combat power. This really is calculated by the level and stats of your knights and monsters summoned in the base. You may also see how many knights and monsters you will be fighting. This could change anytime. When you organize your troops at a given base, the same is true your enemy. You are able to attack with one or multiple bases. The base with the highest combat power will initiate the invasion first. Whether or not you win or lose, once all battles are over and also you gain or lose territory, the growing season has ended and you are right back at the organization phase.
In battle, you have your knight and the monsters, they command. If you’re invading a nation, your objective would be to result in the enemy forces retreat by defeating them or taking their castle within twelve turns. Maps that the battles take place on range from medium to large maps. Characters possess a certain mobility score which helps you to know how many spaces you are able to move in a given time.
Battles are simple, however, the sport throws lots of aspects at you when it comes to how you can attack. There's a tutorial that you’re permitted to revisit within the options menu however it could be overwhelming. The way that the character’s strengths and weaknesses are displayed does not help matters either. I discovered myself returning in to the tutorial to familiarize myself using what element was strong and weak to what. Battles felt slow with no matter how well I equipped my characters or leveled them up, I didn't feel powerful. I started the sport on easy on multiple occasions and also the game didn't feel forgiving or hold me in any way.
While the gameplay has me overwhelmed and frustrating, Brigandine is a pretty game with regards to its hand-drawn characters and scenes when conversations are competed. When you can choose different languages to display text, the game’s voice acting is in Japanese. I would spend minutes studying conversations and cutscenes, falling in love with characters and also the lore of each nation and tribe. I wanted many you need to do get that from playing the sport and progressing through the seasons. But sitting through half-hour to 45 minutes battles just isn’t worthwhile.
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is available for PS4 and Nintendo Turn on June 25th, 2023.