Review for Langrisser I & II Remake. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 18/04/2019 The version for PC came out on 10/03/2020 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 13/03/2020 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 13/03/2020
The announcement of Langrisser I & II Remake - two classic Tactical JRPGs - was not received with particular enthusiasm. The announcement trailer was full of concerns, mainly due to the new graphics sector, reminiscent of mobile titles such as Fire Emblem Heroes or the mobile Langrisser itself. With the game finally in our hands we can say how actually the technical sector of these remakes is actually rather lazy; however the game that lurks below the technical limits (which we do not find particularly serious anyway) remains of excellent workmanship, thus leading Langrisser I & II Remake to be a title that all in all we recommend to fans of tactical JRPGs.
Deepening the already introduced problem of technical laziness, visible from the start of the software, it is clear how each menu, hud and artwork represents the minimum necessary to be able to pass itself off as a modern remake of the original SNES games, without any particular inspiration. However the menus are very intuitive and immediate, which makes us quietly overlook the fact that they are rather bland. Where the title could instead improve a lot was in the HUD and in the management of the battle: Langrisser I & II Remake does not take the good example of Fire Emblem Three Houses, and remains in its woody classicism, without allowing you to bypass some rather useless intermediate menus.
This means that if you want to attack it is not possible to do it with a single input, but you must first place your "pawn", then select the attack command and finally select who to attack. This can be a very basic and apparently unimportant example, however when commanding decide units, always having to go through 3 menus to decide what to order becomes quite heavy.
The character models are another element that was strongly criticized in the announcement but we feel we disagree on this. We find that super deformed sprites have their own charm, and help not to burden the screen too much with useless information; after all, one of the strengths of these titles is precisely having battles with many characters in motion at the same time, so having a battlefield free of useless artifacts is essential.
What we do not appreciate is the very minimal variety of soundtracks, which alternate the usual two or three tracks per game with some small variations in the case of particular bossfights.
At the beginning of the review, however, we said how, all in all, we recommend Langrisser I & II Remake and the reasons for this statement are many. First of all, even with the technical defects kept in mind, the two titles are very fun and boast a very solid gameplay base. Langrisser I & II Remake contains two absolutely valid tactical JRPGs, in which in addition to the main characters we will be able to command dozens of armies of different, whose type, number and position will be chosen by us, adding a strategy layer not to be underestimated. Several times we have found ourselves being rewarded for taking the time to think about which support armies to deploy, or in some cases we have been punished by the decision to bet everything on a certain type of army that can little against any unanticipated ambushes.
In fact, another element that we greatly appreciated in the two titles is just how they introduce unexpected elements within the missions, such as ambushes, arrivals of reinforcements or tertiary armies that can be joined at any moment, thus leading to always be cautious. on their moves. The character customization system is quite simple, as you can expect from a game of the SNES era, however the classes are all useful and quite varied, so even without having so much quantity, the two Langrissers certainly have a lot of quality.. The game balance is also surprisingly well designed, with pretty good medium difficulty and few circumstances in which enemies seem to have disproportionate amounts of HP compared to commandable characters.
All this could be further embellished with a good narrative, but unfortunately this is not the case. The plots of Langrisser I & II Remake are pretty basic, simply consisting of battles against the classic evil empire and against the demons freed from the empire that stole the Langrisser sword that locked them away. All very basic and hasty, fortunately the games do not try to bore you with long dialogues and exposures but they recognize the simplicity of their nature, relegating the cutscenes to being simple interludes at times quite nice.
One last thing to highlight is how Langrisser II is only a "more of the same" by Langrisser I. The sequel is just a new level compilation, slightly more difficult than the first, with no real additions, so much so that even the classes and evolution trees remain identical. It would have been nice to have a little more, but all in all we liked the “more of the same”, since we already enjoyed the first chapter very much.
Langrisser I & II Remake is a title that, outside of a lazy technical sector, is really excellent. We recommend the purchase to anyone who is a fan of the tactical JRPG, especially if you are in abstinence due to the sadly few titles available on this generation consoles. Thanks to its simplicity we can also recommend the title to anyone interested, as long as the focus of interest does not lie in the narrative.
► Langrisser I & II Remake is an RPG-Strategy-Turn-Based-Tactical Game developed and published by Kadokawa Games for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 18/04/2019 The version for PC came out on 10/03/2020 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 13/03/2020 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 13/03/2020
