I have been following the return of Langrisser with great interest. The obscure tactics RPG series has been dormant for nearly a decade. Its last entry was on the 3DS. And before that, most of the entries were never localized. A 2020 set of remasters gave players a chance to revisit the first two games, but with some bad art and a few questionable design changes. Now Langrisser is back with a new game and it looks pretty bad.
I held out hope after the teaser trailer was released last week that Langrisser: Sea of Sword might still turn out to be the revival that longtime fans had wanted. It was mostly incomprehensible, except for the big anime titty women at the end.
The one thing it nailed from the ’90s JRPG era was me being thankful no one else was in the room to witness my embarrassment. Langrisser is a grid-based strategy series. It’s all about the gameplay. I decided I’d wait for a proper gameplay trailer to pass judgment.
Well, the gameplay trailer for Langrisser: Sea of Sword is here now, and it’s not doing the game any more favors. Yes, it has the series’ hallmark combination of turn-based map maneuvering and Advance Wars-style multi-unit brawls.
But the rest, from the art to the overworld exploration, looks like a rip-off of Vanillaware’s excellent Unicorn Overlord. The game is also listed as free-to-play on Steam, suggesting it will be some sort of gacha game monetized through microtransactions and gambling mechanics. The anime sex bot cringe is all there, too.
To my surprise, most of the YouTube comments on the new trailer are full of positive sentiments. And look, if it was just any one of these issues, it would be easy to overlook. In fact, even if the new Langrisser was just a cringe rip-off of Unicorn Overlord, I would still be intrigued. Would I pay $60 for this game? Maybe. A free-to-play grind that revolves around scantily clad 5-star pulls? I got too much other stuff to play.
There is already a free-to-play Langrisser game on mobile, after all. Maybe Langrisser: Sea of Sword will secretly be an amazing tactics RPG. I would love to be proven wrong, but I’m not counting on it.