The reach of pulp’s influence is through everything. There isn’t a single piece of pop culture that doesn't have pulp fiction's finger prints on it. If there’s detectives, mobsters, magic or monsters, it has roots in pulp. Lucky for us, that gives us a teeming buffet of entertainment delicacies to talk about and shine lights on. But, speaking of magic and monsters, I want to briefly hoist my absolute favorite retro fantasy videogame.
Brigandine: Legend of Forsena was a strategy RPG that came out of Japan in the late 90’s. An obscure title but a coveted gem among those who had the pleasure of playing this masterpiece. So much so that if you want to get your claws on a physical copy, expect a pricetag upwards of $300 USD. However I'm sure it’s available in rom format, for folks who want to give it a spin in current year. In 2021 they released a sequel called Brigandine: Legend of Runesia for Nintendo Switch. I personally hated it. It felt like a mobile game knockoff with none of the grandness of the original. Even with the dated graphics, the original stands as the superior game.
Story of the game is typical epic fantasy fare. A continent in turmoil as separate kingdoms choose sides and struggle for control in the power vacuum left by the evil warlord Zemeckis dethroning rightful heir Prince Lance after his father dies. Beside the occasional brief dialogue, the story is mainly an aesthetic backdrop giving flavor to the setting. The focus here is the game itself. You choose between five lords and go on to claim new territory, raise more armies of monsters and recruit new generals. All in a quest to unify the realm and become king before dreaded Zemeckis engulfs it all under his tyrannical boot.
Pretty run of the mill story wise but gameplay reminds one of a blend between Romance of the Three Kingdoms and a tactics game like Final Fantasy Tactics or Vandal Hearts. But with a dash of monster summoning as you would find in Monster Rancher. Brigandine was a wonderful mix of several unique mechanics amalgamating into an unsung masterpiece.
In the beginning you choose between 5 unique rulers. Prince Lance, King Cai, merchant Dryst, wolflord Vaynard or priestess Lyonesse. Then after you beat them game can select Zemeckis for a higher difficulty replay. Each ruler has their own skill set and perks and have unique starting generals. As you gain control over more territory, you gain a larger amount of magic per turn. This magic is used to summon new monsters for your growing army. Each new territory has the ability to summon different monster types. Everything from ghouls, vampires, golems, giant scorpions to dragons and angels.
The mechanic that gives this game endless replayability is the evolution of your units. As you conquer your way through Forsena and your minions gain experience, they get access to evolution trees. This makes for a massive variety of strategies and play styles. Level up, evolve, learn new abilities and equip legendary gear.
Because there’s little in the way of resource management outside of magic points, it makes kingdom maintenance less of a chore for players that don’t like the complexity of 4X type games. But as your kingdom grows into late game stages, keeping track does become a challenge.
Combat itself is standard turn based sprites on a hex map. Different terrain gives advantages or disadvantages to different units. Despite being an old game, the AI is well designed. It’s not easy to trick your opponent into obviously disadvantageous situations. They’ll hold positions, surround you, wait you out or even make a strategic retreat.
The graphics are clearly dated now. But when this game came out the visuals were really impressive. When units clash, it cuts to a full landscape battle animation. What I personally enjoyed was scale of the monsters themselves. The big monsters really looked big. Between the 3D battle animations, SFX and epic music, this made for truly riveting combat sequence that never got stale.
With the reasonably large but not obtuse map, Brigandine's campaigns were long enough to give the feeling of satisfying length. I tend to avoid many strategy games now because they’ve become so massive that victory feels unattainable without an insurmountable time sink.
Brigandine: Legend of Forsena was a legendary videogame relic that an unfortunate majority of players missed out on due to the lack of marketing in the west. But there’s a Chinese proverb, “The best time to play Brigandine was when it came out. Second best time is right now”. So instead of dropping $60 on yet another AAA disappointment. Fire up your emulator and see if you can find a version of Brigandine: Legend of Forsena.
It’s a game that has galvanized its throne in my top 3 all time favorites for many years and I know you’re going to love it.