A Little Something For The Fantasy Strategy Die-hards

There was a point, several turns into my demo of Brigandine Abyss at PAX East 2026, where I was convinced I was toast. My units were struggling to stay alive against the enemy’s onslaught, my battle lines were fraying, and my heroic leaders were barely clinging to the most vital sections of their health bars.

Granted, it’s a high-pressure environment when you’re playing a Brigandine game for the first time, in front of Masaru Saito, the producer of Brigandine Abyss. There are three main Brigandine games in total: the upcoming Abyss, its 2020 predecessor The Legend of Runersia, and then 1998’s Brigandine. It was this gap in time I wanted to dig into during my time playing Abyss and talking with Saito, to examine what has endured about this particular corner of the turn-based strategy space.