Brigandine Abyss Hands-On Preview: A New Kind of Strategy

The world of Brigadine isn't new, but the newest entry, Brigadine Abyss, aims to make a game that new and old fans can enjoy together. It's still got all the classic pieces, but with some nice upgrades to the formula, along with a whole new world for players to learn and explore.

I got to sit down and play one incredibly long round of combat because I didn't imagine the game could be all that tough, but boy, was I wrong. Brigadine Abyss was thrilling once I got the hang of things, and with the size of the battlefield, it took pretty much all the brain power I had left that day to even fight the enemy to a draw.

This Strategy RPG struck me as a bit odd at first, especially after having just played the new entry into the Disgaea series, Disgaea Mayhem. But again, I only got to play through a combat scenario, so I can't say much about the game beyond how combat felt and some of the more intriguing aspects I found myself enjoying.

What is Brigadine Abyss?

The most bare-bones answer is that Brigadine Abyss is a strategy RPG with turn-based combat centered around recruiting allies and attempting to conquer a giant map, Risk-style. I didn't get to see how battles start, but I did experience a combat encounter from beginning to end. You'll start with your troops placed and have an opportunity to move them around a bit.

You get several 'commanders' who run their own units that each come with a handle label, so you can keep track of them. The goal is fairly simple: kill or be killed. You'll go through a combat scenario, swapping blows with the enemy and using abilities and tactical choices in an effort to wipe them off the map and claim whatever territory you're fighting over.

Each unit has a type, and certain types do better against others in a sort of rock-paper-scissors style, although you'll need to plan accordingly if you're hoping to win. The units also fill out various niches like mage, tank, healer, and damage, but also interact in different ways with their respective 'commander'.

For instance, in the demo, there was a character named Largo, a dragon tamer, and he could only activate specific powerful abilities if dragons were nearby. There was clearly a lot of thought that went into the depth of combat in this game, and in the short time I had with it, I could barely understand even a small part.

It wasn't overly complex, but it was definitely more complex than I imagined. With more time and being able to play at a much slower pace, it would've been significantly easier to master combat in Brigadine Abyss. One thing I didn't realize until it was virtually too late was that if you kill a 'commander,' their whole unit goes with them.

The Depth and Complexity

I'm a big fan of games that offer a lot of deep complexity to enjoy, and while this game has it, it might be a little too complex. That may be a result of my short time with a game that's clearly meant to be played slowly and methodically. So I'm not going to hold the complexity against the game, but the standout here was the depth of combat.

It almost felt like playing a war simulation game. You can hide your characters in trees, have them conduct ambushes, or pin them between units, and so much more. The game seemed to be prepared for virtually anything you could do. Well, almost anything. I did manage to find a way to stall out the game for roughly ten turns before I packed it in.

With every unit dead except for one 'commander' for both sides, it became a total stalemate. I managed to hide in a bush and make it so that no attacks could hit me, but I only had a five percent chance to hit them, so we just kept missing each other. It felt like the AI just sort of broke because they couldn't figure out a way to hit me, so they eventually just started passing the turn after moving away from me.

This was after a wild battle that I was clearly losing, but I managed to claw my way back to victory once I understood the systems in use a bit more. It felt great to have that sort of capability thanks to the mechanics the game had on offer. Beyond combat, there is likely to be some kind of story since it is advertised as an RPG.

Brigadine Abyss should be much more reminiscent of the older titles, but with some of the new changes and a new world to explore, it opens up the game to be enjoyed by anyone who might be interested. Once I got the hang of this one, I had a good time, and I'm interested in seeing how things shape up for this strategy RPG as we get a bit closer to release.