Image via Happinet and NIS America
When Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia launched in 2020, I’ll admit: I was excited to see the franchise return after decades, but figured it was a one-off. But hey, we’re happy to be wrong here at Siliconera! That game had some promise, but it needed more development time and a visual overhaul. (Oh, and some replayability.) So does Brigandine Abyss deliver?
For Brigandine newcomers, which we’d imagine is a lot of people: it’s a hex-based strategy game, with overworld base management and a set map. The style is JRPG-adjacent, but the mechanics only occasionally touch on familiar ground there. Units level up and have equipment and MP for spells. It’s closer to Heroes of Might & Magic than Final Fantasy, but compared to that game, the overworld is simplified and the combat maps are larger.
Brigandine has always been about not just the fight, but also deciding when and how the fight will take place. Abyss is no different! There are generally multiple turns before you make combat with your opponent, which can be tedious when all you’re doing is dashing straight ahead. Thankfully, the maps in this game offer more to consider in this phase.
We’ll generally scout the battlefield, seeing which of the three enemy leaders is easiest to take out. (That’s because each leader carries a batch of units, and those units go away when the leader does.) Then, it’s about finding the route to that leader with the most cover or best choke point. We recommend using the ninja class’ “Position-Swapping Jutsu” or the octopus unit line’s pull attack to get the leader into a vulnerable position, and the phoenix units to bypass the enemy’s defensive lines and inflict flanking debuffs. But there are other options!
Image via Happinet and NIS America
Runersia’s biggest weakness was in its monotony. Battle maps were largely featureless, and what you did each play was mostly the same. Abyss tackles this problem on multiple fronts. Maps now have meaningful elevation, barrier and water features, usually giving the advantage to the defender. They’ll also mesh well with the units available in that base. For example, not only is the dragon home a chasm that’s tough to traverse for non-fliers, but also the holder of the base can upgrade to give dragon-related buffs.
On a larger scale, you don’t have to just play the same campaign over and over. There’s still a Story Mode, with a small selection of factions to choose to take out the big bad and save the world. (If you’re a narrative-first player, we honestly can’t endorse this; the writing is vapid and the characters are one-note. The cutscenes are also distractingly cheap.) But Mission Mode adds a bit of variety. There’s one for each faction. Pick the mage school? Your goal isn’t to conquer all, it’s to add 50 magic user leaders in your team. Or maybe your leader’s in debt to the shopkeep and has to pawn a lot. In addition to different strategies, this also lets you have a shorter play, a much-needed thing when the full campaign is multiple dozens of hours.
Visually, we’d say Brigandine Abyss is an upgrade, but there’s room to improve. It certainly feels like someone involved had the thought that making the game look 20 percent more like Fire Emblem would lead to more giving it a try. The main character designer is Niji Hayashi, who’s done a lot of work on Fire Emblem Heroes, and when you look at some of the art, that influence is abundantly clear. There’s not-Sothe, not-Cordelia, even not-Shigure and not-Laurent. Generic units also look a lot like FEH’s generics. Outside of character art, there’s also a Fire Emblem touch to the level-up screen (which takes way too long given the number of units you have) and the cut-in animation for critical hits.
Image via Happinet and NIS America
Technically, though, it feels like it needed more time. The map graphics feel really crunchy and aliased. The end of your turn is a one-second pause and then a cut to black with no animation. Menus don’t close for ten seconds while the game plays an audio clip of the shopkeeper over a static PNG. We tested the Switch 2 version and were curious about mouse support, but this game’s mouse sensitivity is so low that it’s unusable. It’s a lot better than the last game, with its muddy textures and drab environments, and the “generic anime” coat of paint improves on that.
Brigandine Abyss is out now for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC. It’s developed by Adglobe and published by Happinet and NIS America.