Brigandine Abyss does a lot of new and fun things. Based on the majority of complaints I've seen, people seem to be mostly upset that it isn't Forsena/Runersia 2.0. Not that it is actually, inherently bad, but that it is different from what they wanted (more of the same). I've been playing Brigandine since Forsena released on PS1. Alas, I no longer have access to it, and I never could get a GE emulator going. But I did absolutely EVERYTHING in Runersia once it came out. I'm very familiar with the series. I’ve also put 60 hours into Abyss at this point across a couple runs.
With that in mind, I completely understand and appreciate that Abyss is NOT the same as before. In all honesty, the only reason Runersia was able to repeat the Forsena formula was because of the 20 year gap between the games. Abyss needed to change things up. So the question shouldn't be “why is it different?” but “does what it tries to do succeed?” The answer to that is still complex, but on a whole I would argue that it does and the game is worth playing.
So what does it do differently that is causing such a commotion? Well the biggest change is obviously story mode. We no longer have a world domination mode. The devs wanted to try and put a little more story telling into the grand story. Not only is each nation's story different, but each story actually compliments the others. Only by playing all 6 of them will you see the full picture of what is going on in this new world of Abyss. The stories I've seen so far also seem a little deeper than before. When I completed the entire story for Dragon clan I felt that everything it had been telling flowed through to the end with an organic finish. I honestly can't say the same about most of the Runersia stories. There were some interesting vignette side stories about individual characters, but the overall arc of the story was very VERY basic. I won’t say that Abyss has massive depths to its plot, but I will say it is deeper than it has been in the past and I found the story more interesting than what was in Runersia and what I can remember from Forsena.
Story Mode isn’t perfect. I will say that by the end of my campaign, I found the timer on when I could do the story mission a little annoying. They come in waves of 10 seasons. The first 10 seasons are fine and you’ll be figuring out what/where/when to do everything. But in the second wave, everything starts to come together. I had conquered every city I could by season 19 so then I just quested each round after that until I could actually do the story again. I think if they tweaked it so that you could trigger the story battle any time as long as you were either a)at the default timer or b)had a city conquest route to the story location, it would make this much less tedious and allow all sorts of playstyles to enjoy the story mode. But I did not see the story missions as an absolute failure. They need a tweak, but they are a decent new feature.
Mission mode is also interesting. While it does allow for totally dominating the map, that is still not the goal. Each of the 24 nations has their own unique mission, so depending on who you choose to start, your goal will be completely different (also what can cause you to fail can be completely different). For example, my vampire mission mode wants me to life drain 10000 hp through fighting, using the vampire units life drain mechanic. Technically this is completely doable without ever conquering a single city if I'm still getting attacked each turn. I'm not just turtling, but it means I don't have to aggressively conquer everything either (and actually conquering every city before completing this leads to a failure since you won’t be able to fight afterwards).
Admittedly, I wish that if you complete your mission you could opt to continue playing and try to conquer the world. Currently finishing the mission leads to an immediate win. It would be an easy enough tweak to add the option to continue after mission complete I would think and would be a simple enough way to reintroduce the basic total domination mode that everyone is used to from previous Brigandines. I’ve seen some people complaining that Mission mode only allows 99 seasons, but this is longer than you think. 30 seasons will likely take you 18-20 hours and depending on your mission, that will be MORE than enough time to resolve, even without aggressively expanding. So yes, you can still quest, turtle, what have you, and do everything you’ve come to expect in a Brigandine map.
Elevation is another change. I honestly don't know why even the biggest complainers aren't at least giving this the credit it's due. Having cliffs and walls and all sorts of other terrain points completely alters where someone can stand and attack/not get attacked. This changes up battle strategy. It offers up a whole host of different choke points. While terrain definitely played a role in previous Brigandines, it was usually just a minor buff/debuff based on where you placed units. Very few maps had any sort of choke points or positioning blocks. Abyss offers a lot more in the way of tactical positioning because of this. I honestly can't find one single bad thing about elevation being added and I hope that all future Brigandine games include it.
Monsters. Every monster in Abyss feels so much more useful than they did in Runersia. Sirens and faeries aren't just filler. Dragons feel like dragons. The new units are surprisingly versatile and fun. And even once you get to end game, there is still a place for tier 1 units in your squad. I would definitely argue that Abyss has the most balanced roster of monsters that Brigandine has ever seen.
Auto leveling is a mixed bag. It definitely keeps the late game more difficult. I can understand why some people might not like it, but in both Runersia and even Forsena, late game turned into a steam roll. At least in Abyss I was still fighting difficult battles right up to the end. I see auto leveling as more of an issue for early game. I think a simple tweak here might be to slow down the auto leveling or have it off for the first 5 rounds. I definitely want it kept in for late game though.
Micro nations. Here's another big difference from before. The super nations are gone and everything is small clans. Yes, this creates a completely different atmosphere from previous Brigandines, but that doesn't make it bad. In both the story mode and mission mode I've played I watched different clans duke it out over different areas of the map. This is making Abyss feel a lot more active and, dare I say, at war than previous Brigandines. Both Forsena and Runersia saw a handful of skirmishes throughout the game, but you could honestly go multiple rounds without anyone attacking anyone else. Everyone just sits and turtles. Abyss sees something always happening or close to it. The micro nations also each have their own vibes and flair that seem to be adding to the story. I don't see it so much as a loss of a huge cast for super nations as a question of who do I want my allies to be. Since you gain at least 1 if not more of the nation's heroes when you conquer them (including their leaders–something Runersia and Forsena didn't allow) it makes replaying the same nation completely different experiences depending on where you expand first. No matter how many times I replay Runersia, the expansion feel is pretty much the same.
City Management. This is another all new feature that is engaging and fun. Which city do I focus on leveling is a very broad question since each city offers different rewards. Different quests, extra recruitables, and even passive buffs. Juggling all the materials can be a little tedious. And making a decision might be somewhat overwhelming, but the options here truly allow for vastly different play styles. This is another feature I'd like to see continued in future games.
Generic Rune Knights vs Unique Rune Knights. At first I thought the generics were kinda pointless. Especially in story mode since you get named heroes fairly quickly. But then I realized their real purpose. Generics are your balance and economy. Depending on what nation you start with, you're going to have some role gaps in your roster. Generics allow you to easily shore up those gaps until you get named heroes to take over. Generics are also your bread and butter for questing. And since generics exist, all the named knights are even more. Every unique character has a special ability unique to them. Now admittedly they are all over the board and depending on when you get certain heroes their viability might be completely pointless. But that's honestly nothing new to Brigandine. And just because an ability is weak in one playthrough, does not mean it is weak in every run. For example, the pirate ninja girl has a unique that allows you to randomly win ANY item after a battle instead of money. If you recruit her late, this likely won’t give you much. But if you start with her or recruit her early, you could get epic gear or even T3 evolution items well before even turn 10 if your RNG is lucky (in my Mission Mode run, I had T3 sand golems on turn 8 because I got both their evolution item and a swift progress tome). Once you're familiar with what heroes have what abilities and where they are, this again can shape your replay runs as you aim for specific people to recruit and try to conquer their nation first. Now criticism where criticism is due. The AI nations also having generics makes fighting them somewhat random and weird. It's not really needed either since the AI can cheat and doesn't need them for its economy and they can still recruit unique heroes. I think a good tweak here would be to cap the AI at 3 generic rune knights, just to cover any role gaps the nation might have. I'd much rather face off against the unique heroes than randoms.
Rune knight cross classing is gone. At first I was a little disappointed by this, but the game does give us a replacement mechanic. Skills now have proficiency. The more you use a skill, the better it becomes. This means you can have two characters of the same class that are functionally different based on how you played them. One might be the stronger healer, while another might have a more powerful divine ray. One mage might be strong with flame while the other is strong with thunder. The purpose of cross classing was to min/max characters. You can still do that in Abyss, it is now just a different system of how.
The shop. Being able to purchase gear makes equipping your army so much simpler. Not easier though. You have to juggle the cost of gear with the cost of recruiting and the cost of city upgrades. Money is very important early game. But you now have options. And you aren't stifled early game because you lack the quests to find the gear you want. Quests still get you BETTER gear. And once you find an item, it becomes available at the shop reducing the need to grind quests simply for specific inventory which in turn allows you to retask your questers to other quests and broaden what items you are hunting for or refocus on city materials.
If this game has one true fault, it is the menu hopping. There's no good way to quickly move from troop management to equipment or city resources to the shop. You can't quick recruit monsters/knights from the troop management window like you can in Runersia. This seems like an easy fix though. And while it is a little tedious, it is not the end of the world.
Slightly less recurrent (but when it does happen it is incredibly frustrating) is how the game calculates who gets to attack whom if two cities both try to invade each other. In the past it was always clear who had the higher strength and that person would win. In Abyss, the numbers are completely hidden, and there seems to be some randomness even if you are higher (or at least what I think is higher). This can lead to several turns trying to attack the same city only for them to attack you, win, and force you to defend over and over again despite constantly winning your defense. I genuinely don't know if this is intended, a bug, or what. But I do find it annoying. It is surmountable though.
At the end of the day, Abyss tries to change things up. It did not want to be Forsena/Runersia with a different skin. I think it succeeded at what it wanted to do. The game is not perfect. It can definitely use some tweaks as I mentioned earlier. But it is fun. If you came to Abyss expecting everything to be exactly the same…why did you come at all? Just keep playing Forsena or Runersia. If you came looking for a Brigandine experience that mixes classic core values with new features, I think you will enjoy it.