I am super hyped for BRIGANDINE ABYSS, the newest entry in the Brigandine series. That said, I will admit it is a series I do not have much experience with. I have known of its existence, and I do love it when an older game series gets new entries. Luckily, NIS America gave me an opportunity to try out the demo of this entry of the series. Join me in this adventure as we go through BRIGANDINE ABYSS.
Starting Out
At the start of the BRIGANDINE ABYSS demo, you get to choose between two factions. One is the dragon tamer faction, Gran Dragnica, or the justice mercenary faction of the Scarlet Will. The original opening does not change either way. You see a council with one woman asking the king how he plans to change and improve things.
Then, before the king can answer, his advisor steps in front of him to feign answering before he unsheathes his sword and immediately kills the king. The advisor then summons a large suit over himself, aiming to begin the Abyssloa Empire once again. The next section changes based on who you choose. I don’t want to give any spoilers to either route since not a lot of the demo has story in it, but essentially, both routes have a different course of action based on the king’s death.
There are two seasons for each faction in this demo. The first season is more like a tutorial that has your first event battle. The second season is where the meat of the demo comes in. You have multiple phases in a season. The organization phase is about managing your troops, buying equipment, hiring more troops or beasts, training troops, or giving quests to your forces. Then you have the invasion phase, where you can use your troops that don’t have orders to invade and attack bases. There are event battles that take place after an allotted number of seasons. These are basically your story battles.
Combat
The bread and butter of BRIGANDINE ABYSS is its tactical gameplay. You have leader units and monster units. Leader units are named characters, but you can buy generic named characters with classes. Leaders can rally a monster unit. If you rally a unit, it removes it from the map and provides a stat boost as well as a passive ability to the leader.
You can remove the monster from the leader at any point after the turn you rally them. Leaders are strong units, but if they kick the bucket on the map, all the monster units under them also leave. Just because a leader is strong, don’t put them into the bulk of the fire. On the opposite side of that, if you feel like you are being overwhelmed, focus your firepower on the enemy leaders. It is quite a satisfying feeling when your surrounded unit becomes free once the leader is dead and four other units disappear from the map.
The terrain also impacts combat. Higher elevation gives a better chance of hitting and dealing damage. You have access to skills. Some skills require you not to have moved. Other ones you can use after your unit moves. It is important to make sure you figure out which ones are which.
In Gran Dragnica, it also has requirements to be next to a dragon troop or leader to use special skills. It is important to know the strengths of your characters. There are icons next to the skills of your units, too. These icons impact the rock, paper, scissors combat. One beats another one, one loses to another one. Luckily, if you aren’t sure, you will see a summary of the skill before it hits. It will be green power if you are strong against the creature, or red power if you are weak against it.
The Takeaway
The demo for BRIGANDINE ABYSS does one thing for me: it makes me want to play the full game. In that regard, it succeeded. However, it also felt like there wasn’t a lot of substance in the demo, too. I feel like I didn’t even touch the content of the game and just gave it a small glance.
The first season of both routes was incredibly short. The second season had more content, but once you finish the invasion phase, it just cuts out immediately to “Thank you for playing the Demo”. I want to play the game. There are only two seasons of the two routes. It would be nice to have a touch of the mission mode.
BRIGANDINE ABYSS will release on August 27th, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
