Langrisser

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Leading lords and ladies of Langrisser I, II, and III

Langrisser is a series of Turn-Based Strategy games that is mostly Japan-only. They were published by NCS and developed by Career Soft, the latter of which went on to make the Growlanser series. The main series of Langrisser games is made up of five installments, many of which have been ported and updated a bewildering number of times. From a gameplay perspective, Langrisser is similar to games like Fire Emblem, but what sets Langrisser apart is its sense of scale. In a typical Turn-Based Strategy game, the player commands around twelve fighters per battle, while in Langrisser, there are hundreds of soldiers on the player's side alone, organized into battalions which are led by more powerful commanders. While ordinary soldiers fight in groups, commanders can single-handedly mow down scores of enemies in a single turn.

The main series games are set in a Medieval European Fantasy world, and most take place on a continent called El Sallia (later games introduce a second continent). El Sallia's history is not so much a series of conflicts as one long knock-down, drag-out war where everyone is fighting everyone else. Constantly. To make matters worse, there's an ongoing feud between the dark god, Chaos, and the goddess of light, Lushiris. Starting with Der Langrisser, the remake of Langrisser 2, the many of the games feature multiple story paths which allow the hero to ally with each of the factions. Der Langrisser was especially good at making all the different groups seem sympathetic. Langrisser 3 adds Relationship Values and Romance Sidequests to the mix as well, which reappear in all the games to follow.

Titles in the Langrisser series:

• Langrisser - Sega Mega Drive (1991). Released in English under the title Warsong in 1992. Also released on PC Engine, PlayStation, Saturn, Win9x and Win Me/2000/Xp.
• Langrisser II - Mega Drive (1994). Received an Updated Rerelease titled Der Langrisser on Super Famicom, which became the basis for versions on PC-FX, Playstation, Saturn and Win9x. Also there is a Win Me/2000/Xp version based on the original Langrisser II.
• Langrisser III - Sega Saturn (1996). Also released on PC and PlayStation 2.
• Langrisser IV - Saturn (1997). Also released on Playstation.
• Langrisser V: The End of Legend - Saturn (1998). Also released on Playstation.
• Langrisser Millennium - Sega Dreamcast (1999).
• Langrisser Millennium WS: The Last Century - Bandai Wonder Swan (2000).

So far, only a few games have been translated into English. In 1992, Treco released Langrisser stateside under the title of Warsong, and a fan-made translation of the PC version exists. There is also a fan-made translation of the SNES remake of Langrisser II, Der Langrisser, which probably deserves a page of its own. As the subtitle of Langrisser V suggests, the series concluded right around the time Sega abandoned the Sega Saturn. NCS went on to produce the Millenium spinoff series without the input of the main series development team, with unfavorable results.

Tropes used in Langrisser include:

• Beauty Equals Goodness: Just like another famous TurnBasedStrategy series out there.
• Beleaguered Assistant: General Wiler to the King of Caconsis.
• Bleached Underpants: The series' character designs are by noted ecchi and hentai artist Satoshi Urushihara, who also worked on more recent series Growlanser. The man is fond of reusing his character designs in his more adult art.
• Blob Monster: The slimes that show up in the fourth mission in Langrisser, which are resistant to physical attacks. You're not actually trying to beat them... you just need to stay alive long enough for them to retreat. They are, however, weak against fire, which is used by Chris' guardsmen when she and Sir Thorne come to rescue you at the halfway point.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Happens to Rachel in Langrisser IV.
• Costume Porn: The character designs. Costumes are lavish, hair is over-the-top, and considering that Satoshi Urushihara is the man behind them, porn is an ideal word for it.
• Crutch Character: Volkov in Langrisser. His units can mow down any enemy troop while only suffering minimal casualties (even in the case of type mismatches). He also gets a Plotline Death at the end of Chapter 5.
• Cyborg: McLaine, one of the characters from Langrisser IV, is converted to this due to Gizlof's experiments.
• Different As Night and Day: In Langrisser IV, the Tomboy and Girly Girl twin princesses: Shelfaniel is a White Magician Girl, and Angelina is an Action Girl.
• Dub Name Change: Ubiquitous in Warsong.
• Emotionless Girl: Lambda, one of the heroines from Langrisser V, starts out as this.
• A Father to His Men: General Valk and General Lanford in Langrisser IV.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Rachel, one of the heroines from Langrisser IV, is said to have extraordinary magic power, which Gizlof later uses to power his superweapon. However, in terms of gameplay, she is mostly relegated to being the party healer.
• A God Am I: Gizlof's main goal in Langrisser IV.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Angelina is secretly jealous of her sister Shelfanil, who is beloved by everyone for her kind nature.
• Heroic Lineage: Throughout the series, the protagonist is one of the "Descendants of Light" who have the capacity to wield the Sword of Plot Advancement, Langrisser. This is subverted with Landius, the hero of Langrisser IV.
• Humongous Mecha: In one of the paths in Langrisser IV, Gizlof brings this out in the final stage as a hidden card against the heroes. Destroying it nets you a bad ending since it is piloted by Rachel.
• Mad Scientist: Gizlof.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: This happens to General Valk and General Lanford in Langrisser IV.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: The Langrisser sword. It's name is German for "lung ripper".
• Not Blood Siblings: In Langrisser IV, one of the hero's potential love interests is his adoptive sister.
• Oddball in the Series: Langrisser III introduces new gameplay mechanics, but most of them get rolled back in the games that follow.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: The Mooks under you all only have one hit point each (with a couple of exceptions), which is part of what makes the hero characters...
• One-Man Army: Every hero under your control will probably kill at least a hundred enemy soldiers over the course of the game. Yes, even that healer/caster in your back line.
• Plant Person: In Langrisser V, female lead Lambda has the ability to communicate with plants.
• Redheaded Hero: Present in I, II and V.
• Red Shirt: The Civilians being protected by Chris in Scenario 2 of Langrisser have zero attack power, and are rather swiftly killed off by the roving barbarians on the map.
• Stripperiffic: ChainmailBikinis and leotards for all! See Costume Porn and Bleached Underpants entries above.
• Sword of Plot Advancement: The Langrisser.
• Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: Staple gameplay mechanic. Langrisser I uses soldiers > archers > cavalry > soldiers. Langrisser II and the games that follow switch to soldiers > spearmen > cavalry > soldiers.
• Too Dumb to Live: Those who have played Langrisser IV should know that the King of Caconsis is a colossal idiot who gets himself (and his country by default) into trouble at every possible moment. It is a miracle that 1. his two daughters do not take after him at all, and 2. the whole country has not been run to ground.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: The King of Caconsis and his hot daughters Shelfanil and Angelina.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Shelfanil from Langrisser IV.

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Der Langrisser provides examples of

• Beware the Nice Ones: Hein is just the cute plucky sidekick, right? Except that his two best class-change paths lead to him becoming either a wizard on the level of Jessica or Eggbert, or the game's foremost Magic Knight, with access to healing spells, support magic, an awesome summon, and a formidable sword attack.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Light Path almost isn't this, but then the Fridge Horror regarding the Demon Tribe's fate sets in. The Independent Path is more straightforward: it ends with Elwin having unified El Sallia under his banner, saved the Demon Tribe from eons of persecution, freed the world from the manipulations of Lushiris and Chaos, and finally brought about an era of peace. However, he's had to kill many good people to do it and lost the woman he loves because he killed the goddess she worships. The ending is probably the happiest on the global scale, but it's tragic on a personal level for Elwin and those he cares about.
• Black and Gray Morality: The Goddess of Light is a racist, The Empire is a bunch of ruthless conquerors, the Demon Tribe are led by a psychotic monster, and even if you avoid all of these, you're still a backstabbing Lu Bu who racks up a massive body count in the name of peace and justice.
  • Gray and Grey Morality: Light vs. the Empire vs. Independent. Chaos is the "black".
• Black Knight: Lance.
• Broken Aesop: Done intentionally here, where the only path that isn't racist still involves the unification of the continent through force of arms.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Independent path requires you to backstab every faction you work with. Betraying the Empire, in particular, is portrayed as something done solely for your own power rather than for the good of everyone.
  • The problem being that every path shift seems to shift Elwin's personality dramatically and instantly.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the Independent path, you get to kill Lushiris, who is a goddess. It's not even very hard, since by that point in the game, you'll be insanely powerful yourself.
  • You can do the same with Chaos in one of the Light endings, though it's Eggbert who finishes him off.
• Elite Tweak: This game has a lot of these. One of the biggest is how you can start Elwin off as a Warlock, which requires only a tiny fraction of the experience that other classes need to level up, allowing you to get your first class change near the beginning of the second scenario.
  • Further compounded by the fact that one of the quiz paths leading to Warlock allows Elwin to start with obscenely high stats (31 AT - 21 DF). Considering that Der Langrisser is about the easiest game ever made, it's really just a wee bit silly.
  • Most characters' class development paths have "best practices" that are usually easiest to determine by reading a guide.
• Fantastic Racism: Everyone treats the Demon Tribe as if they were Exclusively Evil when that is simply untrue. Some of them were subjected to More Than Mind Control by Bozer, but for the most part, they only supported Chaos because everyone else treated them like crap. This actually makes the Light path seem really horrific if you think about it, as it implies the continued marginalization and possible genocide of an entire race just because Lushiris never liked them, and they have funny ears.
• Hazy Feel Turn: Light to Imperial. Even more so, Light to Independent taken as a whole.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: Necessary for the Independent path.
• Hero Antagonist: Depending on which side you take... well, really, most of the NPCs. Leon is among the noblest of the characters despite fighting for The Empire.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Independent Elwin. He's gone through a lot of messy Character Development that has left him murderously cynical of all the factions' goals and methods, and now he's fighting so that everyone in El Sallia can finally live in peace.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: The motivation for the Empire's heroes.
• Order Versus Chaos: The premise behind the story, at least in theory; the Empire doesn't care about the struggle between Lushiris and Chaos except as it affects their interests, and Independent Elwin wants them both taken down.
• The Starscream: Elwin towards the Kaiser in Independent and Chaos paths.
• Ubermensch: Elwin in the Independent Path.
• Villain Protagonist: Elwin in the Chaos Path.
• Worthy Opponent: Leon (and to a lesser extent, Vargas).