A look back at: Langrisser II

Yep, another one of those Japan-only games, unless you count Der Langrisser, but then again I like the original versions of games more often.

So Langrisser II equals more plot, more action, more scenarios, more character interactions, basically it does what Warsong decided not to do. More units to use and actually making the archers a ranged unit are pretty nice changes, along with upgraded versions of standard fare, so having gladiators and phalanxes and dragoons makes them much stronger than expected. There's more classes to utilize, and much better opportunities for leveling up. Warsong didn't even allow for a proper level up after finishing scenarios, at least not that I'm aware of. Of course, make sure they are the right classes, I made a heinous mistake in letting Elwin have a knight class when that made him weak for a few scenarios, especially Scenario 16. Yes, this game does get significantly harder than Warsong did, despite having better mechanics. There's even bonus scenarios in the game which are super hard to come by and even harder to actually complete.

So yeah, more character interactions. This actually means that Langrisser II removes the permadeath mechanic altogether, which is pretty nice. Elwin, the hero, naturally cannot fall at all. Lots of images of characters, and you can see them bloodied up when you defeat or lose them like in Growlanser games. The fact that this strategy game manages to make many of the characters on the enemy side interesting is great. They are recurring, which I'm not really a fan of, but we see quite a bit of how they develop, just as much as the main protagonists. And yes, we do see the Langrisser again, in which four characters, three heroes and one villain, are only eligible to take.

Surely enough, some character archetypes are still present in this one. Liana and Lana are pretty much like Mina from Warsong, Elwin is of course like Garret, and Lester is a lot like Tiberon. Two characters actually return for this game. One is Jessica who is actually Calais from the previous game. The other is Bosel, who was only known as Ganelon in the last scenario of Warsong. Apparently these two characters, along with the Langrisser as usual, are recurring throughout the secluded franchise. The rest of the cast is unique, but remarkable for what this game offered. As hard as it was, I will admit I enjoyed it. And I still look back at Langrisser II almost primarily because of its excellent Genesis soundtrack. There are tons of great tracks here.