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[综合] Langrisser【英文】

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发表于 2008-2-14 14:07 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式
作者:Kurt Kalata
原文:http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/langrisser/langrisser.htm
简介:一篇刊登在国外网站上的梦战介绍与回顾,以西方人的视角看梦战。语言简易平实,有兴趣者可试着译下。


 楼主| 发表于 2008-2-14 14:10 | 显示全部楼层

By Kurt Kalata

 

The strategy RPG genre has been gaining steam slowly in America. While most Westerners were introduced to it through Sega's Shining Force (in the 16-bit era) or Final Fantasy Tactics (in the 32-bit era), it's been a mainstay in Japanese video gaming since Nintendo's Fire Emblem was introduced for the Famicom in the late 80s. One of the most popular out of all of these was Masaya's Langrisser series. While the first game was brought out in America way back in the Genesis era (retitled "Warsong"), the rest of the games never left Japan, mostly due to the low-tech quality of the graphics and general unpopularity RPGs at the time. While the series essentially died off with the Saturn (not technically - more on that later), Langrisser has remained one of the greatest strategy games in video gaming.

 

What sets Langrisser apart from others of its kind is its tremendous scale. Most similar games have you controlling between five and ten single units. By comparison, in Langrisser it's not uncommon to control over thirty units at one time, fighting against scores of enemies on a single map. The main characters are extremely powerful units dubbed "generals". Each general commands a Battalion of generic soldiers, and the two share an important symbiotic relationship with each other. Soldiers are relatively weak, but are available in great numbers and relatively dispensable. Keeping your soldiers close not only keeps the general safe, but awards them with a stat bonus, allowing for far more efficient combat. It sounds like it's a pain to keep track of all of these units, but you don't have to move them all individually - if you leave them be, they'll automatically set up a defensive formation around their leader. All generals have healing abilities for both themselves and their troops, which is yet another advantage of keeping them close. Killing enemies yields not only experience points (which are applied to the troop as a whole, rather than individual characters), but also yields cash to recruit additional soldiers or buy equipment for your generals. This is another important part of the strategy - if you kill a general, all of their troops will die automatically. But eliminating them one by one and saving the leader for last, while more dangerous, will lead to greater rewards. After gaining enough levels, you have a choice to promote a general to higher classes, so you have some role in their character development.

If managing such a huge army weren't enough, most scenarios have you fighting alongside several computer guided NPC characters. Certain installments let you give vague orders to your compatriots, but they tend to do dumb things anyway.

 

Much like other strategy games, there are three primary unit types that have various advantages and disadvantages over each other like rock, paper, scissors. Terrain bonuses also play a heavy part in strategy, as hiding in forests or mountains give you incredibly advantages over fighting out in the open. When you engage in combat, the game switches to a zoomed in side view depicting the battle (much like Military Madness or its spiritual successor, Advance Wars.) Regular soldiers charge at each other, clashing until they fall. Generals attack with magic spells that tear through regular warriors. While they're fun at first, most of the games let you turn these sequences off, as they make the long battles seem even more drawn out.

All of the games revolve around the holy sword Langrisser and its counterpart, the Alhazard. Each Langrisser game is also populated with a huge cast of characters, both good and evil. There's quite a bit of dialogue in battle, which makes it all the more frustrating that it was never translated from Japanese.

 

These characters are brought to life by the beautiful illustrations by artist Satoshi Urushihara, notable for anime such as Legend of Lemear and Plastic Little, and infamous for hentai like Ragnarok City and Front Innocent. Urushihara has a specialty for designing attractive, scantily glad girls with wistful doe eyes and impossibly pert breasts, but he doesn't stray away from creating stylish male characters with overflowing spikes of vibrantly colored hair, suited up in stylishly bulked-up armor. They're some some of the most detailed character portraits ever seen for any video game, and certainly far better than anything seen in the 16-bit era.

 

Langrisser's other main star is its primary composer, Noriyuki Iwadare. Famous for composing classics such as Lunar and Grandia for Game Arts, Iwadare's music is full of heavy synth rock, with far more energetic flavor than the brooding orchestrations from the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics.

 

The true Langrisser series includes five games, originating on the Genesis/Mega Drive, and ending on the Saturn/Playstation. The Dreamcast installment is largely considered a bastardization and goes unacknowledged by most fans.

Langrisser (Saturn)

Langrisser 2 (Saturn)

Langrisser 3

Langrisser 2

 楼主| 发表于 2008-2-14 14:12 | 显示全部楼层
Langrisser / Warsong - Genesis / PC Engine Super CD / Playstation / Saturn / PC (1991)


American Genesis Cover

Japanese PC Engine Cover

Japanese Saturn Cover (Dramatic Edition)

The original Langrisser wastes no time getting started - in the first battle, you're thrust into the shoes of prince Redin (Garrett in the English version.) Under attack from a warring kingdom, you must escape with your life, band together with your old friends and allies, and fight through over twenty scenarios to take back the crumbling kingdom of Baltia.

Characters:

Redin/Garrett
The hero of the game, a prince thrust out of his own castle.

Chris/Mina
A young cleric who grows quite fond of Redin.

Narm/Sabra
One of the major generals of your fallen kingdom, she helps Redin escape at the beginning of the game.

Volkov/Balderov
Volkov is your bodyguard for the first several missions. He's overpowered, but don't let him steal the experience from Redin, because he's not around for too long...

Jessica/Calais
A powerful warlock that fights for your kingdom. She appears in several Langrisser games and does not appear to age.

Tira/Tiberon
A powerful ex-pirate that tossed away his pillaging aways allied with Redin's faction.

Since this is the first in the series, Langrisser is somewhat unrefined and rather clunky. In the 16-bit versions (Genesis and PC Engine) each character can control up to eight soldiers, which litters the battlefield quickly. The Genesis version also lacks the ability to turn off the fight scenes, making every battle an extremely drawn out affair. Thankfully, you can save your game at any time.

While Treco was awesome enough to translate the Genesis version and bring to America, it didn't survive some alterations. Nearly all of the names have changed, and most of the character artwork was changed slightly. While everyone still has the wildly varied hair colors typical of anime, their faces were redrawn to make them seem more Western. I'd wager that Garrett's looks a tiny bit better, but the females ended up getting the short end of the ugly stick.

Even by 16-bit standards, the graphics are pretty unimpressive, especially when stacked up to the likes of Shining Force. The Genesis version fairs the worse, obviously, although it does have an option to zoom out the battlefield to get a better view without the need to scroll. The 32-bit versions are also lacking the graphics department, although the redrawn character portraits are quite nice. The visuals on the Saturn version do look a little bit better and benefit from a high resolution, although the difference isn't really noticeable unless you put them side by side. The PC Engine version has some decent cutscenes, while the 32-bit CD versions some full motion video, although not very much.

The Genesis and PC Engine versions are pretty much the same game. The 32-bit versions feature the streamlined gameplay from Der Langrisser, the major difference being that the number of units each general can command is lower, making for much faster battles.

The soundtracks in the Genesis and PC Engine versions are excellent, although the latter benefits from enhanced CD audio arrangements that sound vaguely reminiscent to Ryo Yonemitsu's work on the Ys series. The Playstation and Saturn soundtrack is completely different from the 16-bit versions, and while it's also very good, the Playstation synth sounds noticeably weaker than the Saturn's.

MP3s

Battle 1 (Genesis)
Battle 2 (Genesis)
Battle 1 (PC Engine)
Battle 2 (PC Engine)
Battle 1 (Saturn)
Battle 2 (Saturn)

Warsong (Genesis)

Warsong (Genesis)

Warsong (Genesis)

Langrisser (Saturn)

Langrisser (Saturn)

Langrisser (Saturn)

Langrisser (PCE)

Langrisser (PCE)

Screenshot Comparisons

Genesis

PC Engine

Playstation

Saturn

Artwork Comparisons Warsong vs Langrisser

Japanese

American

Japanese

American

Redin

Garrett

Narm

Sabra

Jessica

Calais

Chris

Mina

PC Engine Intro

 楼主| 发表于 2008-2-14 14:13 | 显示全部楼层

Langrisser 2 / Der Langrisser - Genesis / PC-FX / Playstation / Saturn / PC (1994)


Japanese Cover

Japanese PC-FX Cover


Langrisser 2 (Mega Drive)

Langrisser 2 came shortly after the success of the original and was initially released for the Mega Drive. The game opens as an army of intruders invade a small village in search of a game named Riana. Her childhood pal Hein isn't too happy about this, and after enlisting the help of his friend Elwin, the son of Redin from the first game, to protect her from evil. But what does this army want to do with this girl? How does this tie in with the empire of Rayguard and their quest for the holy sword? And who is that sinister looking doppelganger of Riana? The cast of Langrisser 2 is quite a bit larger than before, and features a few faces from the original.

Characters:

Elwin
The hero of the game, son of Redin.

Riana
A young woman that the imperial army is desperately after for some reason.

Sheri
This knight leads a squadron of fairies - which, despite sounding a little lame, leads your first airborne units.

Hein
Hein, as you can probably tell, is a dorky little mage. Fairly useless in combat, but he's the first person to use magic.

Leon
Initially an enemy, Leon will become one of your greatest allies if you join the imperial cause (in Der Langrisser, anyway.)

Imelda
Fighting next to hotties like the warrior Imelda is one of the perks of joining the imperial side.

Rana
Pretty obviously Riana's twin sister, she's initially part of the evil side. Whether she falls to the light or the dark depends upon your actions.

The graphics in the Mega Drive version are definitely quite enhanced over the original, featuring super-deformed soldiers in the battle and much nicer portraits that look closer to Urushihara's drawings. The music is once again excellent, in spite of the weakness of the system's sound chip. There are also a few new units, including a summoner to bring various beasts to fight on your side. Other than the aesthetic enhancements and the increased difficulty, Langrisser 2 doesn't change much from the original, although it really didn't need too.

Despite the number of ports of Langrisser 2, the only "true" version is the Mega Drive one. Masaya later ported the game to the Super Famicom and PC-FX, dubbing the game "Der Langrisser". In addition to the enhanced graphics, the balance was greatly altered so that less characters were on the field at the same time, eliminating much of the clutter. Your characters initial statistics are also determined by answering a series of questions, much like Ogre Battle, - this has since become standard for the series. And while the plot is pretty similar, the maps are entirely different. The PC-FX, being on a CD, benefits from animated cutscenes and voices, although the only major difference is a "hard" mode after beating the game that has a completely rewritten script. According to those who understand it, it's quite humorous. All of the versions feature a cameo by the Choaniki characters in a hidden stage, the Muscle Shrine - while the ambiguous strongmen from Masaya's shooter series are quite difficult, beating them will yield one of the most powerful summons in the game.

However, the biggest addition to Der Langrisser is the ability to choose several paths to the end of the game, allying with different factions or electing to fight against them all. Each results in a different ending, and the number of possible scenarios are huge. The difference is substantial - there are around twenty five or so scenarios in the original Langrisser 2, while the four different paths in Der Langrisser add up to over seventy five. Sometimes they're just small variations, but it leads to incredible amount of replay value, with different characters and ending.

The Playstation and Saturn versions, despite being named "Langrisser 2," are really ports of "Der Langrisser". The graphics in the Playstation port are nearly identical to the Super Famicom version, other than some redrawn portraits. Once again, the Saturn version looks a bit cleaner and redraws some of the tiles to look a little nicer (especially evident in the battle scenes) but the overall improvements are minor. The Saturn also has slightly superior music over the Playstation. Both have full motion video cutscenes that are far more plentiful (and higher quality) than the ones in the first Langrisser.

MP3s

Battle 1 (Mega Drive)
Battle 1 (Super Famicom)
Battle 1 (PSOne)
Battle 1 (Saturn)

Langrisser 2 (Mega Drive)

Langrisser 2 (Mega Drive)

Langrisser 2 (Mega Drive)

Langrisser 2 (Saturn)

Langrisser 2 (Saturn)

Langrisser 2 (Saturn)

Langrisser 2 (Saturn)

Langrisser 2 (Saturn)

Langrisser 2 (Saturn)

Screenshot Comparisons - Overhead

Mega Drive

Super Famicom

Playstation

Saturn

Screenshot Comparisons - Portraits

Mega Drive

Super Famicom

Playstation

Saturn

Screenshot Comparisons - Battle

Mega Drive

Super Famicom

Playstation

Saturn

 楼主| 发表于 2008-2-14 14:14 | 显示全部楼层

Langrisser 3 - Saturn / PC / Playstation 2 (1996)


Saturn Cover

Artwork

Langrisser 3

Masaya decided to reinvent the wheel for Langrisser's first 32-bit outing. The result was met with disapproval by fans everywhere, although the changes aren't necessarily terrible. Instead of commanding each unit on the battlefield, you're only given control over the generals. After setting a destination for your general, your characters and the enemies move simultaneously. When they collide, the screen zooms into the battlefield, where you can give specific commands to each squad member, or just let the computer take over. You're then treated to a pseudo-3D rendition of the battle. I say "treated" rather sarcastically, because the graphics in these segments are godawful. The sprite based characters are too pixellated, and the battlefield contains almost no detail, just sparse, low-res textures. The camera can't keep up either, darting over the battlefield almost randomly, and the framerate varies greatly depending on the action. The action is pretty frantic, and it's fun to see your generals unleash their special attacks and send hordes of soldiers fly to their deaths. It seems like Masaya wanted to imitate the grand-scale mini-wars found in Sega's Dragon Force games, but they just didn't know how to do it right.

Like all Langrisser games, there are tons of characters on the battlefield, and these battle segments slow things down even more than previous installments. They can be turned off, which removes much the micromanagement strategy that you needn't worry about most of the time anyway. But since the game is so streamlined, and so much of the game out of your control, it really feels like you're removed from the battle. The basics are still mostly the same, except the class system has been overhauled. You never promote characters, but instead you can assign them different classes at the beginning of each battle. Naturally, the more levels they gain, the wider the possibilities.

Langrisser 3 is actually a prequel to the first two games, as it details the creation of the first Langrisser sword, and the origins of the Descendents of Light.

Characters:

Dyhalto
Forefather to Redin and Elwin, Dyhalto has a golden mane that would put any Akira Toriyama character to shame.

Ruin
One of Dyhalto's best friends, and a decent fighter early on.

Tialiss
Your typical girly mage character, who happens to have an extraordinarily thin neck. Her father is killed early on, so she joins with Dyhalto. Her kawaii voice makes me want to punch someone.

Rifani
Rifani travels with her loser compatriot Pierre, and gets ambushed by enemy soldiers before Dyhalto helps them out.

Luna
Luna is a steadfast warrior - the only way to impress her is by fighting your battles efficiently.

Frea
Princess Frea actually fights against you, but you can still bag her if you play your cards right.

Sophia
A priestess at the Shrine of Light, which is a job that apparently does not require much in the way of clothing. At least the other girls kinda sorta wear armor.

Langrisser 3 also introduces a love system similar to the Sakura Taisen games - depending on what you say and do to your female compatriots, their feelings will change about you. At the finale, you'll end up together with the one you've impressed the most. While the multiple paths of Der Langrisser are gone, there are still two major endings depending on various choices you've made throughout the game.

The music is also a bit lacking, both in instrumentation and composition. There's a wide variety of songs, at least. It's just another one of those factors that, like the rest of the game, just isn't quite up to par with the rest of the series. Once you get used to the overhauled system, it's still plenty of fun - it seems like an unnecessary attempt to simplify things, and the end result is a bit awkward. Langrisser 3 is the only game of the series to be denied multiple ports - other than an odd PC release in Korea, it only came out on the Saturn. A limited edition comes with a hologram cover and a small fanbook featuring interviews with the voice actors, but nothing terribly exciting. It was also re-released for the Playstation 2, although barely upgraded. Oddly enough, some of more scantily clad female characters were given more clothing.

Langrisser 3

Langrisser 3

Langrisser 3

Langrisser 3

Langrisser 3

Langrisser 3

Langrisser 3

Langrisser 3

Langrisser 3

 楼主| 发表于 2008-2-14 14:15 | 显示全部楼层

Langrisser 4 - Playstation / Saturn (1997)


Cover Artwork

Artwork

Langrisser 4 (Saturn)

After fans were disappointed in the deviation with Langrisser 3, Masaya returned to its classic formula for the fourth installment. Langrisser 4 begins with a simple rebellion - the lord has taken a unsettling interesting in the small town of Gotaal, and raises the tax rate, intentionally sparking an outrage. The game begins with the heroes, Landius and Ricky, fleeing for their lives as their town is wrecked for their obstinence. They watch helpless as their friend, Rachel, is stolen away. In the midst of running, they become entangled in a neighboring battle between the Kingdom Caconsis and the Regenburg Federation. The plotline is far removed from the first three games, although it does tie together with Langrisser 5.

Characters:

Landius
The hero of Langrisser 4, Landius was orphaned at a young age. Taken in by a neighboring family, he grows up with Ricky and Rachel in a peaceful village.

Ricky
Landis's friend refers to him as "aniue", a very respectful term for "big brother", although they aren't related. Ricky looks like a refugee from a CLAMP manga, and is fairly useless until he's leveled up. He also carries a torch for Shelfaniel.

Rachel
Rachel also refers to Landis as her "oniichan" or "big brother", although it's meant to be more cutesy than out of respect. Per usual Langrisser protocol, Rachel is whisked away at the beginning of the game and needs to be rescued. Rachel is your stereotypical healer.

Angelina
A young princess, Angelina is a tough warrior who fights on a flying horse and is protected by fairies. Her and her sister travel along with a strategist named Wheeler - who is a total wuss, but you never get to control him anyway.

Shelfaniel
Angelina's twin sister, Shelfaniel is the primary magic user in Langrisser 4. That jester's outfit is more ridiculous than it is cute.

McClaine

McClain runs into Landis and Ricky as they;re escaping at the beginning of the game, and lends a hand to a worthy cause. He's actually a cyborg (?!?!) who's lost his memory, and wants to unleash vengeance upon the person who turned him into such a monster.

Once again, your decisions influence which girl you'll nab at the end of the game. There are also three different paths through the game depending on your alignment, which is determined in by various actions you take in battle. The paths aren't as drastically different as they are in Der Langrisser, but it still allows for a bit of replay value.

New to Langrisser 4 is the "judgement" system. Instead of each unit's turn coming around in the same order, its speed determines how often it can move. If this sounds confusing, it just means that faster characters get more turns than slower characters. Additionally, spells take varying amounts of time to cast, which can also offset the turn order. It tends to get a little bit confusing when the soldiers move faster than their general, which makes it hard to keep them together. It doesn't seem like a big deal at first, although it does subtly alter the overall strategy.

While the graphics still aren't great, they've still improved over the prior installments. The awful battle scenes from Langrisser 3 have been scrapped in place of the classic fights, although they take an awful long time to load up on the Saturn version - they're actually disabled by default, popping up only for important scuffles. While it's not a huge revolution, it is a superb refinement, and is regarded by many as the best of the series.

Langrisser 4 for the Saturn also had a special edition package which comes in a nice little cardboard box. In addition a fan book similar to Langrisser 3's, included are three little pins of Rachel, Shelfaniel and the logo. It's nothing extravagant, but it's usually not much more expensive than the regular edition. Also keep your eyes open for the Anikis, who show up again.

After both Langrisser 4 and 5 had been released on the Saturn, Masaya bundled them both together and released them for the Playstation, dubbing them "Final Edition". A lot has changed the port - the biggest is that Langrisser 4 now uses Langrisser 5's battle system. In addition to the half-step character movement, this also means that soldiers move at the same time as your commanders, and you can move after attacking. Additionally, the number of units each commander can have has been expanded, and you can mix and match unit types. For the most part, this makes the Playstation version a bit easier than before. The graphics are mostly the same - battle sequences load much faster than the Saturn version, although they're letterboxed and missing the cool flame life meter effect. And once again, the music also sounds relatively crappy in comparison. Since the Final Edition is hard to come by, you're probably best sticking with the Saturn version, unless you really love Langrisser 5's battle system.

MP3s (Saturn version)

Battle 1
Battle 2

Langrisser 4 (Saturn)

Langrisser 4 (Saturn)

Langrisser 4 (Saturn)

Langrisser 4 (Saturn)

Langrisser 4 (Saturn)

Langrisser 4 (Saturn)

Langrisser 4 (Saturn)

Langrisser 4 (Saturn)

Langrisser 4 (Playstation)

Screenshot Comparisons

Saturn

PSOne

 楼主| 发表于 2008-2-14 14:16 | 显示全部楼层

Langrisser 5: The End of a Legend - Playstation/Saturn (1998)


Cover Artwork

Artwork

Langrisser 5

The last true Langrisser game, the fifth installment picks up shortly before the conclusion of the fourth game. Sigma and Lambda are two cyborgs who awaken from their slumber, only to find that their underground home is under attack. After regrouping, the two begin their journey to find their creator, Gizarof, one of the villains from the previous game. Their goal is simply to find out why the frilly evil overlord Rainforce wants them dead. Of course, they get entangled in greater battles, most of which involve Langrisser 4's cast. There are only six playable generals in Langrisser 5, which is a little on the slim side.

Characters:

Sigma
The hero, Sigma carries a blank, cold stare. As this might suggest, he's not very personable and doesn't talk much, but he does look damn cool.

Lamba
Sigma's partner (and maybe more, if you play your cards right) has the same problem expressing emotions that Sigma does. She's your magic user.

Alfred
Most of the Langrisser games need a dork companion, so that's why Alfred's here. He eventually morphs from a whiny little bastard to a proud knight.

Brenda
Brenda is a a strong knight who takes an interest in Sigma's and Lambda's cause, and eventually helps them out.

Clarette
A rather flaky pegasus knight who, like Alfred, eventually matures as the story progresses.

The battle and movement system gets a complete overhaul in Langrisser 5. Instead of each character moving a whole square, you can take half-steps, giving greater control over your positioning. While it allows you to attack diagonally, it's also rather difficult to precisely position your units. As a result, the interface just feels rather clunky. The Judgment system from Langrisser 4 is back, although this time, your general and troops will move at the same time, which makes it much easier to keep everyone together. Additionally, it is possible to move, attack, then move again in the same turn. This allows for a lot of hit-and-run tactics, allowing your troops to get close to the enemy then retreat back into the healing range of the general. On the other side of the coin, if you move too far, your unit won't be able to attack at all. While it provides an interesting change of strategy, it's a little frustrating to be able to move next to an enemy unit, but not be able to attack them, considering to gameplay flow of practically every single SRPG ever made.

The character sprites have gotten even larger, although the graphics still aren't anything spectacular. However, several cutscenes feature large, gorgeous portraits. Naturally, the female characters are introduced with a leering shot at their legs, which slowly scrolls up past their bust and eventually up to their face. The music is also pretty strange, having developed an even stronger electronic feel.

While arguably not as good as its predecessor (the general consensus seems to be that battle system is a little funky, a sentiment that I agree with), Langrisser 5 is still a fine way to bring the series to a close.

The PSOne port, as usual, has slightly weaker music, but is otherwise pretty much the same as the Saturn version. It also offers a difficulty select, which should put to rest any complaints about the Saturn one being too easy.

MP3s (Saturn version)

Sigma 066
Brenda
Splendid Commander

Langrisser 5

Langrisser 5

Langrisser 5

Langrisser 5

Langrisser 5

Langrisser 5

Langrisser 5

Langrisser 5

 楼主| 发表于 2008-2-14 14:17 | 显示全部楼层

Langrisser Millenium - Dreamcast (2000)


Cover Artwork

Langrisser Millenium

Langrisser Millenium

Langrisser Millenium is not a Langrisser game. It is, in fact, a filthy charlatan, masquerading as an installment in one of strategy gaming's finest series. Most of the crew at Careersoft had gone on to work on the Growlanser series by the time that Masaya made Millenium, so there's not even involvement on the development level. Satoshi Urushihara's artwork has been replaced by character artwork from Kaishaku, another semi-popular manga/porn artist (also known for Steel Angel Kurumi.) The artwork is actually quite good, although the crappy looking character models don't quite capture the look effectively.

Characters:

I won't talk about the music, because it's all garbage. But the visual and aural disparity between Millenium and the rest of the Langrisser games isn't really the problem. The problem is that Millenium is an entirely different game, one which mimics the Sega Saturn classic Dragon Force, and a very crappy one at that. At the beginning of the game, you pick on of the five characters above. Each one is the leader of a kingdom and has their own plotlines. There are no scenarios here - it's a real-time strategy game where you're given a map, and told to simply conquer as many towns as possible. You gain additional characters as you go along, and separate troops can be formed, so you can have multiple contingents spreading throughout the map.

Whenever you meet up with an opposing unit or try to take over an occuped space, battle ensues, and this where the game just falls completely apart. These battles also unfold in real in real time, and are intended to meld action and strategy. You take four units into a skirmish, but you only control the main character. At the beginning of the battle, you choose which formation for your squad to move in. During the battle, you can tell them to attack or defend, but that's really about it. As for the main character, you control them directly with the pad, and can choose which enemies to fight. Unfortunately, the control is terrible, as everything moves at a snail's pace, and the actual melee combat is sloppy and requires no strategy at all. So if the action element is pathetic and the strategy element practically nonexistent, what's the point?

There's really nothing positive that can be said about Millenium, except that it really makes Langrisser 3 look really good. Just stay far, far away.

Langrisser Millenium

Langrisser Millenium

Langrisser Millenium

Langrisser Millenium

Langrisser Millenium

Langrisser Millenium

 楼主| 发表于 2008-2-14 14:18 | 显示全部楼层

Langrisser Millenium WS: The Last Century - Wonderswan (2001)


Cover Artwork

Langrisser Millenium WS

Langrisser Millenium WS

It's incredibly unfortunate that this portable title shares the same name as the Dreamcast title, because Langrisser Millenium WS: The Last Century is a completely different ordeal. In fact, it's actually a true Langrisser game, as the gameplay is pretty much the same as the first or second game of the series. The graphics aren't anything spectacular, of course, and unit movement is made a bit difficult due to the black and white screen, but Kaishaku's character designs still look reasonably decent on the small screen. Still, having some actual animation on the battlefield couldn't have hurt things.

The game stars a young boy named Shion. When his family is attacked by a group of bandits, his mother unveils her identity as a warrior and proceeds to kick ass. Being completely blown away, Shion ventures with his mom and a sexy pair of twins on the usual quest for truth and justice. Considering that this is the only portable Langrisser game, it's not too bad of an effort.

Langrisser Millenium WS

Precursors to Langrisser: Elthead and Gaia

Langrisser is one of the finest strategy RPG series out there. It has the depth that Shining Force lacks, but doesn't require the obsessive perfection that Fire Emblem demands. And unlike FF Tactics or Nippon Ichi strategy games, the focus is more on strategic thinking than building up levels or skills. The only real problem with it - other than the fact that only the first one was ever translated into English - is that it's too epic for its own good. You play certain levels, and it takes several minutes of sitting and waiting - waiting for the computer to think and move, or waiting for your characters to move across the map. Although efforts were made to trim the number of units in battle, it still feels like many battles simply comprise of doing nothing. But for those who are patient, Langrisser will prove to be a classic.

Links

IGN Review: Langrisser Millenium Quite accurate review of this terrible game.
Anime Archive - Langrisser Lots of scanned artwork, much of which was nabbed for this article.
Mobygames - Langrisser Usual decent Mobygames link.
Der Langrisser Shrine Focuses mostly on the SFC game.
RPGFan - Langrisser 5 Nice review.
PC-FX World - Der Langrisser A look at the obscure PC-FX version.

发表于 2008-2-14 20:38 | 显示全部楼层
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Archiver|手机版|虎纹猫家园

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