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Brigandine The Legend of Runersia Game Cover

About Brigandine The Legend of Runersia

Brigandine The Legend of Runersia is a single player tactical role playing game with fantasy, warfare, anime, medieval and others themes. It was developed by Happinet and was released on May 10, 2022. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

A new game based on the 1998 PlayStation game Brigandine, which was remade in 2000 as Brigandine: Grand Edition, that will probably be revealed as part of the 2019 Tokyo Game Show in September.

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Reviews

90%Audience ScoreBased on 719 reviews
story48 positive mentions
grinding8 negative mentions

  • Faithful continuation of the classic Brigandine with deep strategic and tactical gameplay appealing to fans of the original and turn-based strategy RPG enthusiasts.
  • Beautiful hand-drawn character art and expressive portraits, complemented by a compelling soundtrack and Japanese voice acting.
  • Large variety of monsters and runeknights to recruit, with engaging army and unit customization, unit evolution, and meaningful terrain/element combat mechanics.
  • Six nations with distinct storylines adding replayability and strategic diversity.
  • Multiple game modes beyond the main campaign, such as challenge and creative modes, increase replay value.
  • Stable performance and generally well-optimized PC port with controller and mouse support.
  • Sluggish pacing and slow-battle progression that can become repetitive, with some maps feeling too large or unevenly designed.
  • The AI is inconsistent and often exhibits dumb tactics, making battles easier once the player adapts or exploits weaknesses.
  • Simplified or limited monster evolution and class variety compared to the original Brigandine, with some missing or removed monster types.
  • Clunky and awkward user interface, with poor keyboard/mouse controls and cumbersome menu navigation.
  • Quests and item farming systems feel tedious and unrewarding, with low drop rates and poor growth or leveling impact.
  • Story and character writing considered bland, melodramatic, or lacking meaningful interactions, and repetitive dialogue scenes interrupt flow.
  • Missing original battle animations and cinematic cutscenes, reducing battle flavor and immersion.
  • Multiplayer mode absent and diplomacy/economic mechanics minimal or nonexistent, resulting in less depth in grand strategy layer.
  • Some technical issues reported, including occasional crashes, save corruption, and control bugs on PC.
  • Visuals of 3D models and battle animations seen as underwhelming or awkward compared to the impressive 2D artwork.
  • story

    244 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    20% positive mentions, 74% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions

    The game's story features six unique nations with intertwining plots centered on unifying a fractured continent, offering diverse character backstories and lore that add depth to the world. However, many find the narrative bland, repetitive, and poorly delivered, with minimal cutscenes and underdeveloped characters, making the story feel secondary to the gameplay. While some appreciate the added quest-driven story elements and voice acting, overall, the story is considered lackluster and less engaging compared to previous series entries.

    • “The experience begins with a selection of six nations that can be selected, each with a story uniquely its own with a separate overarching plot that leads toward the endgame and the final boss fight.”
    • “From noble monarchs seeking unity to power-hungry leaders chasing domination, the six storylines interweave into a larger picture of a continent fractured by ideology and greed.”
    • “Each rune knight has backstory events that can be uncovered through battles and quests, adding small but meaningful pieces to the overarching world.”
    • “The first thing I noticed was the writing – bland and generic, with minimalist storytelling and contradictory character arcs.”
    • “The writing is much degraded; faster quests are as a consequence quests with no story at all, and the stories of the individual nations are flat and hammy.”
    • “Neither the story nor the characters' goals or interests make any sense, so the story is a 2/5.”
  • gameplay

    148 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    27% positive mentions, 67% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions

    The gameplay of Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is largely praised for its deep tactical battles, faithful preservation and refinement of classic mechanics, and high replay value through multiple factions and campaigns. However, it is also criticized for its repetitiveness, sometimes outdated and simplistic mechanics, a slow pace that may not appeal to all players, and poor explanation of some features. Overall, it offers an addictive, accessible strategic experience especially suited for fans of traditional turn-based strategy RPGs, though it may frustrate those seeking more modern or varied gameplay.

    • “Starting with the general concept of tactical battles as we understand them in most titles in the genre, a few mechanics stand out to me here for bringing the experience from good to exceptional and we’ll focus on these here.”
    • “Hands down one of the best strategy RPGs I have played in my life, simple, refined and balanced gameplay.”
    • “"Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia" is a captivating strategy RPG that stands out for its deep and engaging gameplay, offering a refreshing experience for fans of the genre.”
    • “The game has a lot of depth, but even acknowledging that, the gameplay is just incredibly repetitive, and combat is not engaging enough to justify the hours you will spend repositioning units.”
    • “Gameplay is very repetitive, I lost my interest about halfway through the first playthrough.”
    • “Now the battle mechanics are shallow too, there is no attack of opportunity so positioning is a joke.”
  • graphics

    105 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    39% positive mentions, 58% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, praised for its beautiful hand-drawn artwork and cohesive art style that evokes nostalgia, but criticized for inconsistent 3D models and combat visuals that feel inferior to the original's 2D charm. While the art direction and character portraits are widely admired, some find the in-game models and animations lacking polish or cohesion, with limited graphical options and occasional bugs noted. Overall, the visuals support the game's strategic depth well, though improvements in modernizing graphics without losing the original's aesthetic appeal are desired.

    • “Epic lore that makes every nation feel alive, stunning hand-drawn artwork, and a campaign that feels like playing out a grand saga.”
    • “One of the most striking aspects of this game is its stunning graphics, with rich details and well-designed characters.”
    • “The graphics are... let's just say, I've seen mobile games have better graphics than this, but not including the artwork though because oh my god, every piece I've seen looks to be a masterpiece, the art department went far and beyond on these artworks; I just wished that the in-game models reflected the beauty of their art.”
  • music

    48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 37% neutral mentions, 13% negative mentions

    The music in the game is generally praised as a strong highlight, featuring beautiful, well-composed, classical to medieval-themed soundtracks that enhance the epic and immersive atmosphere. While some find it repetitive or less impactful than previous titles like Legend of Forsena, the soundtrack is widely regarded as enjoyable and fitting the tone of the game, with standout tracks and effective voice acting complementing the overall experience.

    • “The soundtrack is a major highlight—it’s beautiful and very well-composed.”
    • “The soundtrack, composed of sweeping orchestral and choral pieces, enhances the feeling of epic warfare and solemn heroism that defines the campaign.”
    • “Brigandine "formation" music is a total masterpiece.”
    • “Classic hexagon turn based strategy, mediocre music, boring battle cinematic.”
    • “Story is bare bones (which is fine), graphics is terrible, UI is clunky, music is bad, but I could've tolerated all of that if the gameplay weren't so awful.”
    • “The classes are limited, the unit models are awful, and the music is the same for every battle.”
  • replayability

    30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    47% positive mentions, 43% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions

    The game offers strong replayability through its six distinct factions, each with unique playstyles, stories, and strategic challenges, providing hours of varied gameplay and lore exploration. Additional content like evolving monsters and heroes, multiple classes, post-game challenges, and different game modes further enhance this value. However, some players find the late-game grind tedious, which can detract from the desire to replay extensively.

    • “Each monster and hero can acquire experience and evolve; heroes can change classes and retain some spells from previous classes, enhancing replay value significantly.”
    • “This replayability is one of the game's strongest aspects, as each nation offers a completely different playstyle, roster, and strategic dilemmas.”
    • “There is a very high replay value if you enjoy the gameplay, as you can conquer Runersia with any of the six main factions, learn more about the lore of each nation, and explore through multiple playthroughs.”
    • “This last stretch of the game ruins the replayability, so much so that once is enough; after that, you won't even fathom doing the same maniacal grind 5 more times.”
    • “What's supposed to be a significant addition of replayability turns out to be something that you can only acquire after another 70+ hours of the same, grueling campaign.”
    • “The only replayability it has is the different stories for each kingdom.”
  • character development

    20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    45% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 15% negative mentions

    Character development in the game is praised for its passionate and visually appealing character designs, often described as gorgeous and fitting well within the fantasy setting. However, many users feel that character backstories and development lack depth, offering limited player agency and sometimes feeling plain or uninspired compared to gameplay or overall narrative expectations. While the art and design receive strong acclaim, the actual character growth and strategic variety are seen as underwhelming by some.

    • “The majority of the characters are interesting and the character designs are clearly a work of passion.”
    • “Simple gameplay, good animation, great voice acting, and actually has a good character design.”
    • “I absolutely applaud the character design.”
    • “Just the character development and backstory feels so plain.”
    • “Not going for optimal classes seems to punish you unnecessarily, so you don't feel like you have much agency in character development.”
    • “Third, and this is all just my opinion, while the new graphics are nice, it didn't quite capture the charm of the original game; maybe they just went overboard with the character design.”
  • grinding

    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 20% neutral mentions, 80% negative mentions

    Grinding in the game is seen as tedious and time-consuming, especially with quests that can fail or yield poor rewards, and managing character levels to max multiple classes adds complexity. While the battle system and questing offer depth, players may find repetitive grinding and map movement somewhat dull, requiring multiple playthroughs to unlock all content. Nonetheless, the gameplay satisfies tactical RPG fans despite these grind-related drawbacks.

    • “It feels tedious and over-regulated, especially when you consider the time wasted on quests that can fail or yield poor results.”
    • “However, you have to 'unlock' stuff through tedious playing of the game several times doing achievements/quests.”
    • “☐ you'll need a second life for grinding”
  • optimization

    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 12% neutral mentions, 38% negative mentions

    The game is highly optimized, running smoothly even on low-end PCs with minimal stuttering, and performs best with mouse and keyboard controls. Overall, it delivers excellent performance and cool operation across various setups.

    • “The game performance is top notch; I have a hunch even a potato PC can run this game perfectly.”
    • “Good port, optimized, runs cool even on very low-end PCs.”
    • “Stuttering now and then.”
    • “The game being optimized for PC is an understatement; this game plays way better with a mouse and keyboard.”
    • “No other quotes provided.”
  • atmosphere

    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    60% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 40% negative mentions

    The atmosphere is consistently praised for effectively conveying the tone and emotional weight of the game world, with strong aesthetic choices and an exceptional soundtrack enhancing the immersive experience. It builds on its predecessor’s ambiance while adding new features that deepen the mood and strategic engagement. Overall, the atmosphere is regarded as a standout element, often rated highly alongside story and gameplay.

    • “The aesthetic choices effectively convey the tone and mood of the world, creating an atmosphere that complements the strategic depth.”
    • “Highly recommended; soundtrack, atmosphere, gameplay... all exceptional.”
    • “Story & atmosphere: 10/10”
    • “Runersia improves on the systems, but Forsena captured the atmosphere and emotional weight of war better.”
    • “The same atmosphere as the predecessor game, with many new features added.”
  • stability

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The game experiences frequent freezing issues, particularly during the intro scene, impacting overall stability. However, some users report a bug-free experience, indicating inconsistent performance across different playthroughs.

    • “I am requesting a refund because it often freezes.”
    • “Found out that if I click fast enough during the intro scene, I can get the menu to pop up before the game freezes.”
    • “Despite these glitches, the clashes are a lot of fun, especially thanks to RPG elements that allow our subordinates to advance to the next levels, which helps our army constantly develop.”
  • emotional

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game evokes strong emotions by making victories rewarding yet losses impactful, with permanent consequences for defeated characters adding significant emotional weight to decisions. While Runersia enhances gameplay systems, Forsena is praised for better capturing the atmosphere and emotional depth of war.

    • “When a battle is won, your empire expands, but losses are costly—defeated rune knights retreat, and slain monsters are gone permanently, adding emotional weight to every decision.”
    • “Runersia improves on the systems, but Forsena captured the atmosphere and emotional weight of war better.”
    • “This game is fun and emotional in some aspects.”
  • humor

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The humor in the game is mild and situational, offering some amusing character interactions and lighthearted moments, particularly among certain factions like pirates. While not extremely funny or memorable, it adds a quirky charm to the experience.

    • “It is not quite as funny as the 'all your base, are belong to us,' but it makes for some interesting conversations between rune knights.”
    • “I actually think I chose the least obnoxious of the nations because the pirates are at least kind of funny.”
  • monetization

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The monetization is minimal and unobtrusive, offering little incentive for aggressive advertising or in-app purchases.

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Play Times

102h Median play time
103h Average play time
100-202h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 4 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Brigandine The Legend of Runersia is a tactical role playing game with fantasy, warfare, anime, medieval and others themes. Common tags for Brigandine The Legend of Runersia include turn-based, dragons, 3D, trading, magic and others.

Brigandine The Legend of Runersia is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 103 hours playing Brigandine The Legend of Runersia.

Brigandine The Legend of Runersia was released on May 10, 2022.

Brigandine The Legend of Runersia was developed by Happinet.

Brigandine The Legend of Runersia has received positive reviews from players. Most players liked Brigandine The Legend of Runersia for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

Brigandine The Legend of Runersia is a single player game.

Similar games include Disciples: Liberation, Dark Deity, Langrisser I & II, Songs of Conquest, Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga and others.