Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena

About Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena

Brigandine (1998) is Hearty Robin's PlayStation turn-based strategy game of conquest on the continent of Forsena, in which Rune Knights lead troops of dragons, ghouls and pixies to take enemy castles.

Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena in Depth

The player rules one of six nations and aims to conquer the continent by capturing enemy castles while defending their own. Troops are led by Rune Knights, human or elven commanders, and made up of monsters such as dragons, ghouls and pixies, with RPG-style statistics; knights can change classes, and monsters can be promoted to stronger forms. A knight's Rune Power limits how many monsters can join their troop. In the preparation mode, each turn is a month: players reorganise troops, summon monsters with mana generated by their castles (monsters also cost mana in upkeep), equip items and send knights on quests, unplayable events that remove them for a few turns with good or bad results. They then send troops to attack adjacent enemy castles.

Battles are fought turn by turn on hexagonal grids, with up to three troops a side. The attacker has twelve turns to defeat every defending troop, and a troop is beaten when its leader falls or retreats; if a nation's ruler falls, its whole force withdraws. Monsters outside their leader's Rune Area grow weaker and are more likely to be captured, and slain monsters are lost for good. Units and spells carry elements, with red opposing blue and white opposing black. The war begins when General Zemeckis, accused of treason, overthrows King Henguist of Almekia and renames it the Esgares Empire.

Making Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena

Hearty Robin developed Brigandine for the PlayStation and released it in Japan in 1998, and Atlus published it in North America the same year as Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena. Primarily a strategy game, it also borrows the character growth of tactical role-playing games, with knights and monsters levelling up and changing class or form. In 2000 Hearty Robin released an expanded Brigandine: Grand Edition in Japan with multiplayer for up to six players, a playable Esgares Empire with its own story scenes, new knights, classes, items and monsters, simpler and faster 2D battle animations, a reworked soundtrack, an anime opening and a final boss once the continent is conquered. Twenty years later Matrix Software developed a sequel, The Legend of Runersia, published by Happinet for the Nintendo Switch in June 2020.