By Amr (@siegarettes)

• Langrisser I & II
• Developer: Chara-Ani
• Publisher: NIS America
• PS4, Switch, PC

The tactics genre is having a small revival. With the success of Fire Emblem, the return of Advance Wars-esque strategy through Wargroove and Tiny Metal, and several smaller, but interesting games such as Children of Zodiarcs, there’s a plethora of choices to whet the appetite for the tactics hungry. So what better time to return to Langrisser, a series that’s enjoyed popularity overseas, but stayed quiet in the West? 

Previously localized under the title Warsong, the first Langrisser game remained the only entry available English until the recent 3DS title (which was by all accounts dreadful) and the mobile strategy title. Langrisser I & II returns to that first game and brings over the sequel for the first time, giving each game a new presentation alongside balance changes and quality of life additions. These new additions buff away some of the rough edges, making it easier to appreciate Langrisser’s unique approach to tactics, outside the shadow of Intelligent Systems’ shadow of the genre. 

And honestly? I might just enjoy Langrisser’s take on the genre more than Fire Emblem or Advance Wars. 

Langrisser’s initial systems are immediately familiar. There’s the various rock paper scissors of unit types and a unit strength system that depletes unit ability as they take damage, on a series of square grids with varying geography. What makes Langrisser stand out is the focus on commanders and formations. Instead of worrying about the exact and precise placement of every unit and action, Langrisser focuses more on larger scale tactics involving larger armies.

Commanders are the center of battle, with each going into a fight with a squad composed of a single type of unit. Each commander has a certain specialty which limits what units they can bring with them, with choices that can either enhance their existing strengths or make up for their weaknesses. Units are hired on as mercenaries, meaning you’ll have to balance the strength of your units with the upkeep necessary to pay for future battles. Nearby units will also receive stat boosts from being in a commander’s Area of Command, as well as heal a small amount at the start of each turn.

Crucially, defeating a commander will also wipe out the entire squad, no matter where they’re positioned on the map. Knowing this immediately changes your approach to combat. Instead of battles becoming meticulous campaigns of eradication, you quickly begin to realize the easiest path to victory is to break up enemy formations and kill their commanders. An overwhelming opposition of 20-30 enemies suddenly becomes more manageable after you realize there’s only a few commanders leading them, and they’re too far apart to give each other support. 

Paired with the Area of Command mechanics, this gives battles in Langrisser a sense of ebb and flow, and gestures towards an idea of troop morale. And the large squad focus allowed me to think about battles in terms of larger strategy in a way that I loved. I’d set up pincer attacks, multi-wave assaults and lure enemies into unfavorable terrain. 

I’d set up units in defensive positions to hold the line, or had them fight against stronger opponents, knowing full well that they’d take serious damage. Then I’d have them retreat to safety of my commander’s Area of Command and heal up while a line of reinforcements took their place to fight off the weakened enemies. Or I could have units run into occupied territory, taking a gamble that I’d be able to destroy the commanders and wipe out the squad before the enemies surrounding me wiped out my units. Meanwhile, my commanders would hold their place, keeping themselves safe but still casting support buffs that made huge differences in closely matched battles.

Langrisser’s large scale battles are full of small moments of tactical brilliance like this, and the campaigns naturally introduce these concepts through map design and brief bits of dialogue. Tactics games sometimes become a strict exercise in min/maxing damage taken and dealt, to the point where taking damage in certain situations almost becomes a soft fail state. At their worst points they can feel like a restrictive Chess puzzle, where there’s only one true solution, and battles are more about doing the math to solve it, than thinking through the situation. Langrisser instead almost feels as if it inherits some wargaming influence, giving a little more space for push and pull. 

A lot of these systems were present in the original, so the remake’s contributions mostly come in quality of life changes and visual updates. Menus are snappier, the RPG elements expanded, troop counts increased, maps have gone redesigns to keep the pace brisker, and new dialogue gives more context and does a better job of communicating objectives. You can now skip battle animations as well, or turn them off completely. 

It’s still clunkier than a lot of other modern TRPGs, particularly in the amount of menus prompts you have to perform to move and attack, which had me accidentally losing turns when I picked the Standby command instead of moving. But overall it cuts down a lot of the downtime that made the original’s battles so lengthy. 

The aesthetic updates are a bit hit and miss. The modern anime look loses some of the boardgame-esque charm of the originals’ pixel art, and the modern anime style portraits feel more generic than the originals. Music also varies wildly. Nearly every track of the originals had a powerful, infectious energy and the new guitar driven arrangements sometimes fail to match it. Maybe it’s the mixing, but there’s something crunchy about the originals’ melodies that gets lost in translation. Thankfully, you have the option to use the original music, as well as portrait art by Satoshi Urushihara, the artist who did the original character designs. The old-school portraits give off a very 90’s anime vibe, matching the scenes from the box art of the Mega Drive games. 

Any way you choose to play it, Langrisser I & II are refreshing reminders of the past, while providing an alternative style of tactics RPG that feels genuinely fresh among its peers. Any gripes I have with the remakes’ style vanish when I find myself breaking enemy formations, coming up with risky plays and seeing what messy outcomes result. Its brisk pace kept even failure fun, giving me a chance to try new tactics, or refine existing strategies. Langrisser was buried back in the day, but in this new tactics revival, it deserves to shine alongside its big name peers.