LANGRISSER
- HIKARI NO MATSUEI
Fantasy empire simulation.
DAMIEN
McFERRAN wrote: An updated conversion of a Megadrive/Genesis game (released
in the West as Warsong). This version features prettier visuals, better music
and animated cinemas. The game is a turn-based strategy title, similar to Nintendo's
Fire Emblem series. You play the role of a young prince fighting to regain his
future kingdom from an evil invading Empire. Starting with a group of generals,
you can assign various troop classes (foot soldiers, archers, knights, etc)
to each one under your command. Each unit is moved around a grid landscape.
Combat takes place on a separate 'action' screen, where you witness both sets
of troops beating the seven shades of crap out of each other. As your generals
progress and 'level up' they increase in experience, and when they reach level
ten they can change classes (Lord, Knight, Dragon Knight, etc). Each character
has several possible 'progression trees' which ups the already considerable
replay value. There are over 20 missions, and some of these missions can take
a good hour to finish, so that gives you some indication of just how much gameplay
there is here. However, the action is fast-paced and always keeps you entertained.
The only version to be given a Western release was the Genesis 'Warsong', and
this was ignored completely. The series has seen five sequels in Japan on machines
like the SNES, Saturn, Playstation and Dreamcast. However, I still consider
this title to be the best. Well worth picking up if you can locate a copy. 5/5
