Langrisser
An overview of the Langrisser Series.
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Series Overview
Langrisser is a series of strategy games created by CareerSoft? and published by NCS/Masaya (the former games division of Nihon Computer Systems). Others involved include Treco, X-nauts and Extreme Inc?.
From the release of Langrisser III for the Saturn in 1996 onward, the following has been Masaya's description of the story of the Langrisser universe (with some grammatical fixes of course):
In ancient times, people had to battle in order to survive.
Their battle for an affluent Kingdom became a legend.
The legend is knows as..... Langrisser.
The series of games has long been revered as one of if not the greatest military strategy series ever. This is attributed mainly to its excellent music, wonderful voice acting, replay value, and artwork.
Langrisser is an event driven simulation role-playing game (SLG). The system of play revolves around the recruitment of mercenary troops to act under the commanders you control. As the game progresses and you gain more battle experience the commanding units can "class change" thereby allowing them to recruit new mercenary units. These class changes allow you to control the development of a unit to make them more effective or less effective in combat against enemy units. Certain paths will lead to a concealed class or "secret class" that is only attainable on that path of development.
Mercenary units play a central role in the game. A wise selection of mercenary units can either make or break the outcome of a scenario. Mercenary units are obviously given orders by one of the commanding units, hence when they are in the commander's zone of control they receive a "bonus" that allows them to have increased attack power, defense, or tactical knowledge making the more effective against the enemy. The colored portion of the screen around a commander is their range of command and any mercenary units in that zone under that commander's control will receive whatever bonus is associated with that character.
The game is essentially a turn based engine in which one moves the commander then mercenary units of their choice and when all units have been moved or when the commander chooses, the turn ends. However some of the games feature a real-time environment in which the order of the units you can move is determined by their agility and they must be moved in that order or they are forced to pass their turn of combat.
From Langrisser III and on the Heroine selection system was introduced. This system allows you to end up with a different heroine and thereby a different end depending upon your interaction with them during the game. To keep track of such interaction a "love point" system was established. The love point degree moves up or down depending on how you act with and around the ladies. When you reach a pre-set friendship degree the hero will eventually confess his feelings and that will determine the outcome.
In Der Langrisser, Langrisser III, and Langrisser IV a branching story route was implemented. This allowed you to change which side of the wars you supported and could lead you down the path of battling former comrades in the name of Chaos. It added a great deal of customization to the games and some very interesting and radically different endings. Whether the storyline branches or not and how it branches depend on the kind of character you choose to be. Things like killing all the opponents in a scenario when the objective isn't to kill everyone plays a role in the development of who you are.
The difficulty level isn't exceptionally high in most of the Langrisser games and a beginner could play it. However the challenge comes from the different paths you can choose (try going the Independent route in Der Langrisser, Erwin and Hein vs. the world is not an easy feat).
Story Overview
(Note: May contain spoilers)
The story focuses around the eternal conflict between the forces of good an evil and how the agendas of the gods conflict with and tear apart the lives of man.
Millennia ago, Alhazard, a dark blade, was forged by Chaos, the dark god of destruction and turmoil who seeks to keep the world in endless imbalance. With this blade, Böser, the dark servant was made to lead the demonic armies against humans. In those days, the world had developed magical machines to amplify the power of the pilot called Guyframe?. There were automated Guyframe?, but their power was less than a tenth of a piloted unit. A piloted unit had strength that could smash even the gods.
As the tide turned in favour of the demons, a new strength was needed. Noble fighters from around El Sallia fought the demons and together, created a blade containing the holy strength of Lushiris, the goddess of light, to oppose the demons. As Böser was bound to Alhazard, so Sieghart was bound to Langrisser. Retitled Elthlead, he led a crusade against Böser's minions in the regions around castle Baldea for over a hundred years.
The men and women present for the creation of Langrisser became recognized as the descendants of light, and the sword would only accept one of them or their descendants. None without that destiny could wield it.
A kingdom was established in Baldea that would be led by the descendants of light for generations to come. However, an Emperor in the south laid siege to Baldea castle and captured the Langrisser. While the king battled to the end, the young prince escaped with his sword master and guardian to gain strength in the countryside and to seek the aid of Lord Hawking of Salrath.
The prince fought back against the emperor and defeated him, reclaiming Langrisser which had been in his family line's possession since the time of Elthlead. But when the prince returned to his castle, a new evil had awoken. With Langrisser once again in the hands of a descendant of light, the demons awoke in Velzellia and began their march on the humans.
The prince battled Böser and his minions, but not before Böser used the power of Alhazard to summon the dark lord, Chaos, back into the world. With the help of a former captain in the emperor's army and Lushiris's hand, the prince defeated Chaos and Böser. As he fell, Chaos vowed he would return one day after turmoil was restored to the world.
Peace returned to the land and the country Kalxath was established in the hills south of Baldea. But with Chaos's death, Böser obtained a new mission - to throw the world into the greatest conflict possible to create the environment needed for Chaos's return.
Several hundred years later, after Baldea had fallen into ruin, an ambitious mercenary rose to power seeking to unite all of El Sallia under his rule to finally end the wars. With the help of his court magician, he claimed the dark blade, Alhazard, and forged and alliance with Böser and the demons to gain the power needed to realize his dream.
Through a twist of fate, the last living descendant of light of the Baldea line was drawn into battle against this empire to protect a young girl. The conflict between Langrisser and Alhazard tore apart the countryside and brought destruction to all villages unfortunate enough to be caught in it. In the end, light prevailed and Langrisser and Alhazard became one forming the Sage's Crystal?.
The crystal ascended into the heavens where it stayed for 200 years. But conflict was brewing across on the continent of Yelles. An ambitious young sorcerer with a secret past made a pact with another ancient, dark god. A god who had battled Chaos to near standstill in the old days. That god was a member of a lesser tribe of ancient demons, and was named Gendrasil?.
Gendrasil? stole the Sage's Crystal? from the heavens, throwing the wheels of fate into motion once again, awakening the servants of Chaos and Lushiris. With the knowledge of the ancient god, the magician's power grew ever stronger, becoming a great general in the Federation. He constructed a new, piloted Guyframe? in the fashion of the old and built a cloning laboratory where he cloned not only himself, but descendants of light and even Langrisser.
In the continent of Yelles, there were no descendants of light to be found, but a pure hearted man who's life forever changed the day the magician came to his village was accepted by the sword and defeated Chaos. Chaos' defeat was no accident. The magician had only used him to weaken Gendrasil? with whom he merged into the Guyframe?. With the help of Lushiris's servant and Langrisser, the young man destroyed the magician in a great battle.
But the magician's legacy did not end there. In a secret floor of his laboratory was a massive cloning facility where he had begun cloning descendants of light and other key figures as well as the Langrisser itself. The cloning factory was severely damaged when the leader of Crimsonia and the commander of its knights laid siege to it to retrieve Alhazard and fix their ship.
However two of the clones escaped. With the magician dead, however, they lacked any orders. They sought Lushiris's servant to discover their destiny. But the leader of Crimsonia had saved a third clone, a super-soldier created by the magician to unleash Langrisser's full power. However, he was "reprogrammed." Instead, he absorbed all of the swords power into himself causing it to shatter.
The leader of Crimsonia formed a pact with the demon tribe to use Alhazard. But the demons had ulterior motives and wished to revive Chaos. The leader of the demons had other motives still and wished to become a new god himself. He broke the pact with Crimsonia and shot down their ship as it was about to take off. But Jessica intervened and stole Alhazard before he could retrieve it.
The clones travelled to Crimsonia in pursuit of its ruler where they discovered Crimsonia had been demolished and all that remained was a lone ship orbiting the moon. That ship was the true resting place of the ancient god, Chaos. The clones faced off against him, wielding the cloned Langrisser. While they destroyed Chaos forever, the cloned Langrisser shattered from the strain.
With the true Langrisser broken and Alhazard having lost its power from Chaos' death, so ended the legend.