Brigandine is a culmination of the best of what SIM games have to offer.
I surpose the greatest thing about this game is that, there really aren't very many games out there like it at all. Some reviewers may compare it to the likes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Nobunaga's Ambition, Langrisser Millenium or even Dragon Force on the sega saturn. All of those games have their fine points and somewhat few similarities to Brigandine, but no one game is alike Brigandine in its entirety, and its gameplay feel and design.
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Positive points about the game:
**(I believe 5 or 6) Multiple starting areas to choose from, each with a different story and set of UNIQUE characters/ leader units (each with their own story description page), subordinate units, and different creature setups for each country, which makes for a different game every time. -This reason alone, makes the game playable at least 5-6 times if you enjoy the gameplay the first time through. North King of Norgard (the icy cold northern lands)
East Femaie Arch Bishop of the eastern religious lands, which are isolated to only two enty points due to a natural mountain barrier.
South East - Iscalio - Ruled by the Crazy King who seeks to cause Chaos throughout the entire continent by conquest and then inciting even more wars.
South West - Caerleon - Ruled by the Calm Magician King Cai, many magic users, and the strongest paladin in the game.
Mid West - Ruled by the (Prince) son of the Assasinated king that started this whole war, he seeks to unite the continent once more for peace.
Middle Ground of the map - Ruled by the Head General of the Late King that was assasinated, who staged a coup, and was pushed to do it by some demon.
** (creature + Character growth system) Basically if you keep your generals/ their creatures alive while winning battles for awhile, they will start to level up and become stronger, some have 2-3 class upgrades depending, as well as special item upgrades from questing. Generals (units that control the creatures) can also take different leveling paths to gain different skills throughout their leveling path. (max lvl is 30 for players)
**Questing system --- Even though I felt they could have made it more interactive with more generals involved, they did a decent amt, it is a fun way to have that ' random X' factor in a game, which the main control attribute is luck. Furthering the feel that every game will not be exactly like the last game you played. You can gain items, equipment, attribute upgrades, new recruits both creatures and generals, and unlock other story elements through questing.
**Alot of Characters in this game are very memorable, sure there are a few that aren't, but isn't that what makes the ones that are stand out? Famous Generals with their pet creatures that start out with actual names.
OKKK.. Time for the negative points (basically things they could have improved upon) (IT IS A PLAYSTATION ONE GAME, So keep that in mind)
**** #1 - Speed of playing, There are ways to make this game go faster, but even at its fastest pace, its still could be much faster than it is. = to play it as fast as possible, turn all extra visual settings, such as watching creations (who cares after the 1st viewing), watching battle scenes (again same reason), and everything else from chat lines to battling, hold down to R1 or spam R1 or R2 to make the lines go faster.
REMAKE this game 6x faster and it would make me piss in my pants with joy.,
*** Could have added a bit more story to each countries, however it does have a start and end for all of them, just needed a bit more meat, or just more generals for each country.
**** Make a bigger map, with even more countries, more generals/leaders to start from, and well maybe even a few more creatures, with more upgrades.
******If they were to make a new game, they could sharpen up the graphics, but its not that bad, its got timeless graphics like starcraft:broodwars imo, its all about the friggin gameplay and it owns.
******Thats really... about it. My first review.
I know I couldn't recall all the names of the starting leaders, but come on ;) u can look it up in the summary, i'm just giving you guys a idea of what the game is like.