Brigandine is a Wonderful Strategy Game on the PS1

Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena is a strategy RPG for the PS1. There is a sequel to this game which changes the subtitle. Initially I thought it was a remaster or remake, but it is a direct sequel.

I remember owning this game when I was younger but didn’t spend much time with it. I bought it at the same time as Tactics Ogre and Kartia. It was a stroke of luck that all three were at the store I went to. I bought them in either 1999 or 2000 when PS1 games were starting to drop in price.

This turn-based game plays like a Koei strategy game but has more RPG elements. Specifically, it has a similar setting to Gemfire, and it has the player summoning monsters to use in battle. It is a very cool idea!

TLDR: It is a Wonderful Strategy Game that has gotten better over time.

Narrative

The game takes place on the continent of Forsena. Six countries make up the continent, and they have been fighting since before the events of the game. The opening cutscene tells the player that a rebellion has taken place in the Kingdom of Almekia, and the country has been renamed the Esgares Empire.

Five of the six factions are playable right away. You can play as the Esgares Empire if you have a cheat code. Here are the factions:

• New Almekia is led by Lance. He is the prince of Almekia and fled to a neighboring country.
• Leonia is led by Lyonesse. This country tries to remain neutral but gets pulled into the fighting.
• Norgard is led by Vaynard. This is an aggressive country that is seen as an enemy of the other countries. Before the events of the game, they had tried to invade the rest of the continent.
• Iscalio is led by Dryst.
• Caerleon is led by Cai. If you play as New Almekia, this country will ally with you from the start. I’m guessing it works the same if you play as this country.
• The Esgares Empire is led by Zemeckis. He is one of the big bad guys and is the cause of the events in the game.

You can play as the Esgares Empire if you have a cheat code. On the select screen, you have to press Start, L2, and R1 at the same time. Then, begin a new game to play as the Empire. This campaign has no plot, but you might get some character development.

Each country has its own plot and several subplots for certain characters. I like the way the developers did this. It adds some replayability to the game. It is nice when a game does stuff like this.

The stories are pretty good. While I didn’t play through all of them, I have a reason to try each. This game has so many little stories that it would take me months to see them all. Many of the characters have stories with each other. You’ll often stumble into them by chance, and learning more about them is always a pleasant surprise.

This adds depth to the Rune Knights. They aren’t simply faceless generals with no personality; they have friends, families, and reasons why they choose to fight. It makes the game’s world feel more alive.

Gameplay

The gameplay is pretty good, but it can be a little slow for some people. It reminds me of a few games, some of which I like and some of which I don’t. The combat is a little like Warsong, and the overworld screen resembles Gemfire.

Each of the characters in the game is a Rune Knight. They act as generals, and they command a group of monsters. You can summon new monsters each turn, and the type of monster you can recruit depends on two factors.

The first is where your characters are located. Each town has a different group of monsters to choose from. This is pretty cool and adds some strategy to the game.

The second factor is how much Mana you have. You get more Mana each turn, depending on how many towns you have. It is almost like they are paying taxes in the form of Mana.

There are two phases to each turn on the world map. The first is the Organize phase. This is where you:

• Summon Monsters
• Change the makeup of your units
• Move units around
• Check which town you might want to attack
• Send your Generals/Rune Knights on quests

Next is the attack phase. This is where you can order units to attack enemy locations. It is similar to how you move units. Once this phase is over, the battle scenes take place.

On the battle screen, you assemble a party of one to three Generals/Rune Knights. I like this because it means you can’t just overwhelm enemies with numbers. It also lets you customize your units.

Each Rune Knight has an allotted amount of room for monsters. I think this is related to mana, but who knows? I have the manual, and I couldn’t find an answer to my question in it. It is very obvious when you get to the status screen when you want to change the makeup of each unit.

Not every Rune Knight is the same, and they aren’t all knights. Here is a breakdown of the classes for the Rune Knights:

• Fighter – Cavalier, Samurai, or Berserker
• Barbarian — Cavalier, Samurai, or Berserker
• Mage – Sorcerer, Druid
• Priest – Bishop or Monk
• Ranger — Grappler
• Ninja – Ninja Master
• Scout – Lancer or Archer
• Enchantress – Sorceress or Mystic
• Cleric – Rector

That’s not all, though! There is a second class change, and here is a breakdown of that:

• Cavalier — Paladin
• Samurai — Shogun
• Berserker — Avenger
• Sorcerer — Wizard
• Druid — Necromancer
• Bishop — Cardinal
• Monk — Guardian
• Grappler — Champion
• Lancer — Valkyrie
• Archer — Artemis
• Sorceress — Witch
• Mystic — Sage
• Rector – Saint

It isn’t just the Rune Knights that get class changes or upgrades. Your monsters can also be upgraded. All of the monsters can be upgraded once. Here is a list of those:

• Angel – Arch Angel
• Unicorn – Pegasus or Nightmare
• Gryphon – Holygriff
• Demon – Arch Demon
• Ghoul — Vampire
• Hell Hound — Fenril
• Dragon – Red or White Dragon
• Giant – Gigas or Titan
• Scorpion – Death Needle
• Hydra — Tiamat
• Merman — Triton
• Lizard Man – Lizard Guard
• Mandrake – Man-Eater
• Centaur – High Centaur
• Pixie — Fairy
• Wyvern — Coutal
• Roc — Phoenix
• Clay Golem – Stone Golem
• Jinn – Djinni, Efreeti, Maria, or Dau

Ten Monsters have a second upgrade. Here is a list of those:

• Arch Angel — Seraph
• Arch Demon – Satan
• Vampire – Vampire Lord
• Red Dragon — Salamander
• White Dragon — Fafnir
• Gigas — Loki
• Titan — Thor
• Triton — Poseidon
• Coutal — Bahamut
• Stone Golem – Bronze Golem

If that wasn’t enough, three Monsters have a third upgrade. Here is that list:

• Seraph — Lucifer
• Satan — Lilith
• Bronze Golem — Talos

Unless the manual and the class change chart that came with the game are wrong, that should be it. These upgrades and class changes are based on the character’s level. This is probably a good time to go over the combat system.

Like many of these games, there are a few factors to keep in mind during combat. A character’s level, the terrain type, and elemental alignment. I didn’t notice a big difference when it came to the direction of an attack. If it exists in the game, it is probably more of a factor in the higher difficulties.

The elemental alignment system is a little odd, and it doesn’t always apply to each character. While all the Monsters align with one of the elements, not all the Rune Knights do. Here is a brief explanation.

There are five alignments. Some are strong against others, and some characters can be aligned to multiple elements. Here is a breakdown:

• Red – is opposed to Blue
• Blue – Is opposed to Red
• Green – No opposing Element
• Black – is Opposed to White
• White – Is Opposed to Black
• No Color – Neutral and no opposing Element

Monsters and Rune Knights have three alignment slots. It is possible to have a character aligned to three elements, including opposing elements. These play a factor in how much damage a character takes and deals.

According to the example on page 36 of the manual, opposing elements deal 20 to 30 percent more ( Red attacking Blue and vice versa) and receive 20 to 30 percent less when being attacked by the same element (Red attacking Red). The more aligned a character is to one element, the more damage it does to the opposing element.

Of all the Monsters and Rune Knights, only four are non-aligned. This is one of the features that feels half-baked. Like there was supposed to be more to it. The system adds some strategy to the game but really affects things when you start going through some class changes.

The gameplay is very good if you like strategy and tactical RPGs. Combat is a little slower in Brigandine than other RPGs in this genre. It is similar to how battles play out in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games, which probably confused many of the reviewers back in 1999 and 2000.

Visuals

Brigandine looks okay for a game released in 1999. There are two versions of the first game. If you imported the Grand Edition, the opening cutscene is replaced with an anime cutscene, and the 3D graphics are replaced with 2D sprites. I would’ve preferred this version of the game.

Back to the original, it looks okay when I compare it to other games released at the same time. The 3D models aren’t bad, but they aren’t great for the time. They look fine and get the job done.

You only see the 3D models when you summon monsters or during the fight scenes. On the world map, you don’t see the characters. When you shift to the battle scenes, you see some great 2D sprites.

There is a problem with this. It can be a little hard to tell friend from foe at first. Each character is given a number inside a colored ball associated with the different kingdoms. Here is a quick list:

• New Almekia (Red)
• Leonia (Light Blue)
• Norgard (Dark Blue
• Iscalio (Yellow)
• Caerleon (Green)
• Esgares Empire (Purple)

It doesn’t take too long to figure it out, but it is worth mentioning. I can see someone being a little confused by this at the start. This isn’t the only game with this problem; It is the only thing I can see as an issue for some players.

I wish we had gotten the Grand Edition of the game. Seeing the anime cutscene and the 2D sprites on the battle screen would be awesome. For a PS1 game released in 1999, it doesn’t look out of place or bad to me.

Reviews at the Time

I looked at three reviews for Brigandine. The highest score was 8/10, and the lowest was 3/10. The reviews came from GameSpot, PSX Nation, and IGN.

IGN’s review is pathetic. They gave the game a 3/10, and I don’t think the reviewer played it. They summarized the story for a game that doesn’t exist; seriously, it is terrible. Then, the reviewer compared the game to Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics, which are probably the only two games the author has played.

The IGN review is one of those things that has to be read to be believed. It seems the reviewer didn’t know what he was getting into and immediately hated it. When you write this tagline, “Atlus releases a Chinese water-torture simulator,” I just can’t take your review seriously.

GameSpot gave the game a 6/10, and I need to say that this isn’t a bad score for 1999 or 2000. A 5/10 was considered average. The reviewer didn’t have any major issues with the game but felt it wasn’t as good as the other games on the market. Brigandine competed with Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Kartia, Vandal Hearts, and many other games. It was a crowded field for Strategy/Tactical RPGs.

PSX Nation gave the game an 8/10. This review was painful to read. I’m not sure where the author got some of the information for this review. They do compare the game to Final Fantasy Tactics, which isn’t a fair comparison.

It seemed like some of the reviewers found the game’s story too complicated, which is odd because it is fairly straightforward and different for each faction. For two of the reviewers I looked at, they just made up a story for the game and then critiqued it. The game tells you what is happening in the opening cutscene, so I don’t understand the issue.

I’m unsure if IGN’s review was originally in English. Something about it feels off to me. I had a similar reaction to the PSX Nation review. Both articles had a strangeness to them that reads like a bad translation or someone trying to sound more important.

They also wanted to compare the game to Final Fantasy Tactics, which was probably the only game in this genre that they had played before. GameSpot was the only one who brought in other games to compare this with, and I think Brigandine is closer to Ogre Battle and Master of Monsters than it is to Final Fantasy Tactics.

8.5/10. This isn’t for everyone. If you liked Ogre Battle, Ogre Battle 64, or Master of Monsters, you’ll probably like this. If you were expecting something like Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, or Fire Emblem, you’ll probably be disappointed.

Pros

• Decent Graphics
• Fun Gameplay
• Lots of Replayability

Cons

• A little Slow
• Might be too Complex

Conclusion

I like this game more now than when I was in high school. Back then, I didn’t have enough patience to figure this game out, and I was more interested in playing Kartia or Tactics Ogre. While I was very critical of IGN’s review of the game, my review from 1999 would’ve been just as terrible. I probably would’ve gotten the story right, though.

When I played Brigandine for this review, I found a wonderful strategy game that reminded me of so many other games I enjoyed. This is one of the games that made me smile while I was playing. If you take the time to learn the game, you’ll find a great strategy game.

If you like this post, please check out my other reviews, such as Secret of the Stars and Cosmic Star Heroine.