When discussing the early success of tactical RPGs, many will reference Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, and maybe even Disgaea if they’re hipsters. However, one series within this genre that captivated me, even at an early age, was Brigandine. The series offered genre fans more control over their units by introducing a fantasy region run by multiple factions, each with a playable campaign in which their resolve will be tested. I was way too young at the time to understand the consequences of my actions, as you prepare units, invade opposing countries, and understand how to keep your citizens safe, but it wasn’t as complex as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so I managed.
The modern approach to this genre has seen a decline as players tend to want fast rewards and more streamlined ways toward strategic success. I’m not sure how a game like this could find interest beyond its core audience, but to thrive in today’s gaming climate, I feel like this series needs an initial win before we can see what these devs can do. I got to play a few early matches of the upcoming Brigandine Abyss, and I really appreciate developer Abglobe’s willingness to match the series’ strategic depth while also opening the door to new players, allowing them to witness an epic. Let’s just hope this team can stick the landing.
Demo Impressions – Two Campaigns, Two Perspectives
The Brigandine Abyss demo I played let me experience the opening chapter of The Story of Gran Dragnica and Scarlet Will. Surprisingly, each character has an individual campaign that intertwines with the others, but they appear to each be independent, with unique cutscenes and story requirements to progress. This demo gave me a clear idea of the complexities at play as we meet Largo and Garnet across their respective scenes. While Largo’s has a more action-forward quest, Garnet’s campaign opened with more objectives that asked you to simply run away.
The setup has the six nations standing against the Neo Abyssloa Empire. The empire is built around tyranny, cruelty, and conspiracy, but what I appreciate so far is that the resistance doesn’t seem to be presented as one clean heroic front. Each nation has its own beliefs and reasons to fight, which gives the story a bit more room to explore the messier sides of war.
Tactical Combat – Hexagonal Grid & Quality-of-Life Improvements
Brigandine Abyss’ approach to its tactical combat mirrors early entries, but there are a few quality-of-life systems here that make it a bit more approachable to those who wish to speed up actions or quickly end a turn when all actions are taken. In practice, there’s very little friction against the player to navigate complex menus or understand the systems early on, as units are given to the player to understand general weaknesses and how units use turns.
Battles take place on a hexagonal grid, which gives positioning a different flow than the square-based tactical RPGs many players may be used to. Space matters, but so does understanding threat range, height, terrain, and movement restrictions. The game asks you to pay attention to where your units stand, especially since leaders are tied so closely to their squads. If a leader goes down, their whole squad is forced to retreat, so there’s a real cost to rushing in just because one unit looks strong enough to take the hit.
Leaders, Monsters & Squad Composition
Leaders and monsters make up the center of each squad. A leader can command several monsters, and each monster fills a different role depending on its strengths, range, skills, and placement. Some are built for close-range pressure, while others give you better options from a distance or support the party through recovery and status effects. The formation system also adds a little more thought before the battle even starts, since each leader determines how their monsters can be arranged.
What makes this more interesting is that the monsters aren’t as disposable as they might seem in the early fights. An added benefit is the system that allows a leader to join with one monster in their squad and gain that monster’s support ability. These are the kinds of effects that can shift how you approach a fight, especially when movement and elemental matchups already matter so much.
Stronghold Management & Long-Term Strategy
Outside of battle, strongholds seem to be where a lot of the long-term strategy comes from. Materials can be used to level up strongholds, which then provide bonuses to your units. Leaders who aren’t fighting can be sent on explorations to bring back resources, money, and experience points, which is a smart way to make unused characters still feel relevant. You can also hire additional leaders and monsters at strongholds, giving players more ways to fill out squads or prepare for the next push across the map. None of this sounds completely unfamiliar for the genre, but that’s also the point. Brigandine has always been at its best when you’re between battles, staring at your roster, second-guessing your next move, and convincing yourself that one more defensive choice will somehow keep everything from falling apart.
Mission Mode – 24 Nations & Unique Objectives
Mission Mode could end up being a strong reason to stick around beyond the main campaigns. Instead of only focusing on the six nations in Story Mode, this mode lets players choose one of 24 nations across the continent and complete unique objectives. Those can include unifying the continent, strengthening strongholds, collecting specific items, collecting monsters, gathering allies, repaying debts, and defending territory. The mode will also include short stories with characters from each nation, which should help it feel like more than a detached challenge mode.
Final Preview Verdict – Release Date & Platforms
The main concern right now is polish. Brigandine Abyss doesn’t look like a project with endless resources, and that may limit how far its presentation can go. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t vision here. The combat has a good flow, the systems seem layered without feeling hostile, and the story structure has enough intrigue to make me want to keep moving through each campaign. There’s a lot that can still move the needle in either direction, especially once the game opens up and asks players to manage more units, more regions, and more campaign threads at once.
I’m not ready to say Brigandine Abyss will pull this series into a wider spotlight, but I’m more curious about it now than I was before playing. There’s a thoughtful strategy RPG here, one that respects the older design language of the series while trying to reduce some of the friction that might scare off new players. It still needs to prove that its campaigns can maintain momentum and that its larger systems can remain engaging across dozens of battles. Still, for now, I want to see more, and for a series like this, that’s a good first step.
Brigandine Abyss is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam on August 26, 2026.
