Langrisser I & II finish their long march to PC in early 2020
Mega Drive forever.
The excellent Langrisser strategy-RPG series by Masaya is finally making the hop from Mega Drive to PC after 28 years as a console exclusive. Due out early next year, Langrisser I & II is exactly what it sounds like on the tin; a bundle of the first two games in the series from the early '90s, remade for modern systems by Chara-Ani. These remakes have been out in Japan for a while, but yesterday NIS America announced that they'd be localising and bringing them to PC. Below, an announcement trailer and a first peek at its big, messy Advance Wars-meets-Shining Force battles.
Masaya aren't the name they once were, but the Langrisser games remain some of the better strategy-RPGs of their era, and arguably the Mega Drive's best. These are games about big, messy high fantasy battles, with hero units being directly controlled and their following regiments of grunts following automatically. When troops clash, the battle animations look a bit like Wargroove, minus all restraint. Rather than take turns, the two sides just collide, smacking the damage numbers out of each other. Cute little soldiers will die by the hundreds, and you probably won't feel bad.
This being NIS America, I'd expect a relatively bare-bones localisation. They've already confirmed that it will feature subtitled Japanese voice acting. I've got my fingers crossed that the text holds up. Both the trailer and the game's official site feature original '90s character art (featuring dewy eyes, sparkles everywhere and enormous shoulder pads) and the more restrained (and bland, in my opinion) remake designs. I gather that the original art was available separately as DLC in the Japanese release, but I'd not be surprised if it was included as standard in the PC version.
Langrisser I & II are due out on PC early 2020, and published by NIS America.