Langrisser I & II Review: Sword of Light

If there’s a niche genre that people love that I’ve tried more times than I can count to love, it’s the sRPG. As the s would imply, the focus on these RPGs is strategy, and if you’re not keen on spending a lot of time with each scenario, you’re going to have a bad time. My latest dive into the genre is with the recently remastered Langrisser series, which most people in the US (even if they’re fans of the genre) haven’t played.

If you owned a Sega Genesis, it’s possible you played the original game under the title Warsong. The game is heavy on sword worship and contains a familiar story of good versus evil with an eternal war due to the incarnations of dark and light. Perhaps unique at the time, the dialogue and narrative feels dated now. But it’s a fun look at one of the pioneers of the genre that time in the US seemingly forgot.

Langrisser has a lot of what you’d expect from one of these games, with ally placement and unexpected enemies showing up at the most inconvenient times and locations. You’ll have the opportunity to build your forces before a battle begins, and choosing the appropriate team can determine how well you do in battle, as the different choices each have strengths and weaknesses (kind of like water > fire > grass to put it simply). There are items to be found on the battlefield, as well as special items to be gained after completing a mission if you meet certain requirements.

One of the more interesting things found in this is the branching skill trees for your characters. Depending on what you go with, you’ll be able to move more, gain different stats and abilities, and it ultimately adds a lot of replay value to the battle experience. Certain scenarios will have options for you to make, and progression is possible even without meeting certain criteria. You’re welcome to revisit past chapters, but you’ll have to proceed through the chapters as normal after, so you can’t just jump around wherever you please. This is a nice way of not only keeping you on the path to avoid wasting time, but for those that choose to do it, you’re typically going to gain more experience and class points to build your warriors. Given that these choices lead to different narratives and endings, it may be worth sticking it through, unless you’re trophy hunting.

The game’s visuals have been updated quite a bit with a much more modern anime aesthetic. While the backgrounds and battle scenes look great, I can’t help but pine for the older character designs. I think keeping the characters looking like early 90s anime would’ve been a lot more fun, but I digress. The second game in this collection is very similar in terms of gameplay, although I’d say the story is a bit more fleshed out, although still along the same lines. I imagine I’m not alone in taking more time with it as well. Another thing I thought was neat about this series was the fact that your troops have a bonus for staying within the commanding officer’s vicinity. While not always possible, they get boosts to attack, defense, and receive healing upon the enemy’s turn ending. It’s a nice balance of risk/reward when it comes to exploring the battlefield and attempting to save everyone.

Sadly, the fight scenes became boring pretty early on into my playthrough. The game lets you skip them, but then you feel like you’re missing out on something as you’re just moving characters around a board slowly. You can speed up the progression of the AI, but this also blows through the text. While most of it is needless battle cries and drivel about fighting in the name of somebody, there’s occasional content you’ll want to see, so it’s kind of lame that the speed comes at a cost. I also found myself choosing commands that were listed because I didn’t know what they did, only to find I basically ended my turn without doing anything at all. A wasted turn in something like this can mean missing out on bonuses, so you may as well just start over, which is not something you want to do if you’re a ways into the battle with how long they take.

If you long for the days of strategy games like Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Arc the Lad, chances are you’ll find a lot of charm in this remaster of a classic series. However, if you’re looking for something easily accessible to get you into the sRPG genre, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere, as even the most basic difficulty option has the possibility of giving you a challenge.

7 out of 10

Pros

  • Choices Determine Narrative
  • Both New and Original Versions
  • Character Classes

Cons

  • Speed of Progression
  • Not for Beginners
  • Generic Narratives

Langrisser I & II was developed by Chara-Ani and published by Nippon Ichi Software, Kadokawa Games, and NIS America. It is available on NS, PC, and PS4. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of Langrisser I & II, check out the game’s official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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