Thank you NIS America for sending us this game to review!

This is my first time playing a Langrisser game, as the series dates back to the early 1990s. They were published on quite a few systems back then, including Sega, Nintendo, NEC PC Engine, early PlayStations, and even Windows. Not all of the versions made it to the Western market, but several did.

Langrisser is a turn-based tactical combat strategy game, with role-playing game (RPG) elements, where you increase the power of your heroes as you go. Some compare the series to early Fire Emblem titles, though I don’t have enough experience with those games to confirm or deny that. The combat reminds me quite a bit of Advance Wars, which is what initially attracted me to the games to give them a shot. While it took quite a while before I got hooked on the gameplay, I did eventually really enjoy it.

Everything about the game, from the graphics, story, and the turn-based tactics combat are all fairly simple, but with enough subtle depth to make it enjoyable. In Langrisser I, you are quickly introduced to Ledin, Narm, and his father’s kingdom of Baldea that is under attack. After choosing to escape or assist in defense, you begin a journey that leads to an ultimate battle of good versus evil, where you wield the sword Langrisser to shut the evil away for good – or at least until Langrisser II.

In the original Langrisser, the story was linear – there were twenty or so levels, and that was it. In this version, they backported some of Langrisser II’s features – and this includes branching story arcs. How you make these choices varies, though in Langrisser I it’s mostly up to your success in battle. For example, a character living or dying may trigger a story branch, but not always - only if it's one of the predesigned options. In some cases, if you win too quickly, some choices may be locked out for you. There are eight endings in this version of Langrisser I.

In Langrisser II, you play the role of Elwin, and the story is much more fleshed out than the relatively simple story offered in Langrisser I. Taking place in the distant future after the events of Langrisser I, you are given quite a bit more flexibility on how to turn the story, as you have not only outcome-based choices, but actual, menu-style choices that impact what your character might do. You can be either the hero of light everyone wants you to become, or you can even join the evil you were supposed to be fighting. I have only played the ‘good guy’ path that led to Ending A in this game. There are a total of thirteen endings available here.

As you can see, the play variety, but especially the replay value is quite extensive. And you don’t even have to start over if you find yourself on a path you don’t want, either. You can actually retry any mission you like, resetting your progress on the mission – but not with your characters, so grinding to power them up is actually really easy, even without New Game+.

Each character has personal growth in each game, and you can choose to utilize New Game+ in order to keep all earned character levels, items, and gold if you choose to do so by starting the game over with everything from your previous playthrough. Each enemy you defeat earns experience, and each level you gain, along with the MVP of that level, gains CP. These are ‘Class Points’, that you can spend to upgrade your class, and you have a branching class structure that can power up your character in different ways. Each character also has different natural gifts; while almost everyone can learn some magic, others tend toward physical, leadership, or magic classes in their overall tree. Even though many mid-level tree options are often shared, level five classes are always limited to certain characters.

Class upgrades not only do things like upgrade base stats of your heroes (so they do more damage, have more hit points, and so on) but they usually unlock new spells, skills, and unit types. Skills are passives that you can choose two of for each character, to help define their role in battle. Many of the more powerful ones can buff up nearby units within your command range, or give your hero unit significantly more power. Skills are a key way of defining your role on the battlefield, along with whatever class you choose, though in most cases, just pick the highest level class, and make your skills count. See, even if you have reached your peak level five class with a character, unlocking lower level classes (but not activating them) can still have benefits, as more variety in spells, skills, and unit types can always come in handy.

While it is theoretically possible to solo some missions (probably) with just your heroes, your real bread and butter of combat comes from your recruited units. Each character can hire as many as their current class allows, with classes typically ranging from 2-6. (Two is just one fairly unusual class; most are 4+.) Each recruit costs money, and you can only use them for that level, so use them to their fullest – I noticed no penalties for heavy unit losses, as long as you win in the end. Whenever a hero is defeated, all of the units under their control disappear as well – both for you and your opponents, so plan carefully.

Early units, like infantry, don’t hold a candle to the far more powerful later units, like those available on four and five level classes. Each unit has an attack and defense stat, along with movement range. Other hidden differences exist, including how marine units can move much farther in water and much less on land, with the reverse for land units. There also appears to be some strong and weak relationships between unit types, though I do wish these differences were far more clearly laid out in game. There are also ranged units, with archers and witches having a range of two, while ballistae have a range of three. These are also not well represented in game, and I learned them through trial and error. I do wish this aspect was done better, too.

Since all combat takes place on a simple grid system where you move each unit, as you gain more and more of them turns do tend to get longer. If you don’t want to move each of them, they do have a default general strategy that you can fall back on, though you do have to command all heroes. For example, if you want your units to simply follow you, move your hero, and leave the rest – their default action is to just get as close to their hero as possible. They sometimes will attack if an enemy is nearby though, so do be careful or they could mess up your best laid plans.

Overall, combat grew on me over time as I played the game more and figured out more of the hidden nuances. I do wish that they did a better job of explicitly explaining more of them, or at least had some kind of quick reference available as to what units are strong against other types. I usually just bought the most expensive units available with the highest combined attack and defense stats and called it a day. The one exception is marine and sky knight units – those both have really useful situational value that means if a level has water, bring a brigade of marine units, and always have some flyers around, as they can really move around the map quickly. I also found them handy when I wanted to pick up the two hidden treasures on each map (they are sparkling, so not hidden, but you don’t know what they are until you pick them up). Otherwise? Royal Lancers, Gryphons, and Nix are basically unstoppable, if their commander has enough troop boosting skills and are in range.

The other wildcard are the magic user classes. While they can’t really survive without help, their ability to eventually cast large, area of effect spells dealing massive damage (or healing) in their range can easily turn the tide of battle. Unfortunately, your opponents know this too, so you better take out those enemy mage classes quickly!

It helps a lot that most of the music in this remaster is really solid. Stage music in particular is generally great, at least in the ‘Remastered’ soundtrack I chose to stick with. Some tracks use orchestrations, others synth, and others hard guitar riffs. None of the tracks are bad, but some tend to get stuck in your head, and not always in the good way. Other tracks have garnered compliments from people eavesdropping or walking past while it was playing. Overall the soundtrack is great, and it’s nice that you can buy it via DLC.

Graphically, the remastered art is good, but unremarkable. While you can choose to use some of the classic art if you wish, not every character or enemy has a classic portrait, and the lower resolution backgrounds look jarring against the remastered battle sprites, which you can’t switch out. I’d say stick with the fully remastered art if you prefer consistency, which this definitely delivers. I will say that in some cases, the classic art does look better; it just looks out of place.

Technically, the game uses a 2D vector-style art engine that scales perfectly with resolution, kind of like some Flash-based games do. I don’t really mind that art style at all, though some do. I kind of like how sharp it can look on a large screen, and even at 4K resolution, everything scales up and looks great. The system requirements are extremely light; even my Intel integrated video was able to render the game at 4K without much slowdown on my i5-1035G7. It also plays flawlessly in my experience in Linux using Steam’s Proton compatibility layer; I played it for over an hour with no errors or crashes. The game supports gamepad and keyboard controls (which replace gamepad buttons); mouse is sadly not supported.

From an appropriateness standpoint, it’s relatively clean with some notable exceptions. Combat is not bloody, and though hero characters do occasionally die, they just as often do not when defeated (it’s story driven). They just either poof and explode or poof and teleport away, depending on how it serves the plot. Attacks are not directly controlled, but you just choose which enemies attack what, and the game determines the outcome. Enemy monsters vary from humans and beasts to demons, undead like skeletons and vampires, to magical creatures like dragons and elementals. On the flip side, there are also angels as friendly troops (or foes). A good goddess and an evil god are also part of the story and plot, playing various parts depending on the path you choose.

Most (but not all) females in the game, whether friend or foe, seem to find modest dress something to be avoided. As such, many show of significant cleavage, or various other parts of the (non-nipple) breast. Midriffs and belly buttons are also on display. Various enemies also show off large portions of the female form, with no nipples or private areas on display, but little else left to the imagination. Foul language is present, though relatively minor, with curse words like ‘d*mn’, ‘h*ll’, and ‘b*st*rd’.

Having long been looking for another game to scratch that long-lost ‘Advance Wars’ itch, Langrisser I & II certainly did do that, and for that I am grateful. I found that my enjoyment of the game took me a lot longer than I anticipated, and most of Langrisser I was fun but somewhat unremarkable for me. It really picked up in Langrisser II though, and if my schedule allowed, I wish I had the time to play through some more endings. There are also tons of achievements, and they all seem interesting and fun to try to accomplish. My overall feelings on this game are that it took a bit too long to ‘hook’ me, but once it did, I enjoyed it immensely. So, if you are willing to put the time in, there is something good in there, but I would also say it’s not a ‘must play’, either. If you think this kind of game is something you will enjoy, then I would say you’re probably right – as long as the appropriateness issues don’t give you pause.