Brigandine Abyss feels like a marriage of the Dynasty Warriors Empires franchise and Fire Emblem. It mixes map control with TRPG gameplay and six different story campaigns to maximise replayability. In practice, though, how well does this mix work?
One thing that’s been true of the TRPG genre is that while it often simulates war, it gives players very little freedom. Core franchises in the genre, such as Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics, have had strict story campaigns for players to follow, and limited which characters that could be accessed at any point in the story.
Therefore, the premise of Brigandine Abyss is easy to fall in love with. A large-scale TRPG set on a massive world map lets players campaign however they like, with plenty of freedom to recruit units based on the areas they control. It offers a rare sense of freedom in the genre, and fans of macro-scale strategy games will feel right at home.
The units are varied, and the strategies and approaches the player can take to develop are vast. Will you focus on spreading out all over the map, or will you focus on strengthening your frontlines? All of these options seem intriguing at first. With not just a story mode, but six entirely different story campaigns, the recipe seems endlessly replayable. However, while Brigandine Abyss is a fun game, it sadly doesn’t take long to see where it stumbles.
The units lack any customisation, even more than many early games in the genre. Not even the story leaders offer any significant choices in how to build them. This is meant to be offset by the player having an endless number of units, which on paper seems like a good solution. However, this is where the story mode gets in the way of what Brigandine Abyss strives to be.
In theory, story mode is highly bare-bones. There are fewer than half a dozen scenarios in each campaign, but they still act as hard limits on when the player is expected to reach a certain level of power with their main units. “Main units” is said because each story battle allows only three battalions. If they spend time developing side troops instead, they can be in for a rude awakening when they get softlocked in later missions.
As a result, players will likely spend most of the game with the same 18 units, many of which share the same class because that’s what they had access to at the start. This makes battles feel repetitive and dull at times, and it reduces the options the premise seems to encourage.
The saving grace, though, is that the game offers six different story campaigns, and each one starts with different units. Each of the six playthroughs feels distinct enough that, despite most battles taking place on the same maps, the approaches vary widely and the starting faction matters. Overall, it is hard to stay upset at Brigandine Abyss for encouraging players to use the same units throughout the story campaign, since there are plenty of campaign options, which can be played simultaneously.
Also, for those looking for that freedom mentioned earlier, there is a mission mode that plays more like what one would expect from a Dynasty Warriors Empires title. Brigandine Abyss stands out because players can choose what sort of experience they want and how to enjoy the game. However, it does neither according to the genre standard.
Over the years, the TRPG genre has moved more toward micro-level unit development, something Brigandine Abyss doesn’t fully support. In contrast, strategy games have leaned more toward macro control and map development, a system that is also highly watered down, with few choices beyond sending units on quests.
The weird part is that, for fans of both genres, it actually works out well despite these flaws. It creates a strangely balanced experience where neither the planning phase nor the combat phase takes up too much attention from the other. If it didn’t make these compromises, Brigandine Abyss would likely have been far too much of a mental overload to play.
The result is a game made for fans of both strategy games and TRPGs, and that is fine. Brigandine Abyss offers six campaigns with different themes, plus a more traditional strategy game mode. It is definitely not a game for everyone, particularly not beginners to the genres. Still, it owns its niche and makes compromises that fans of both genres may accept as needed for a more cohesive experience.
