Langrisser 1&2 Remake: Final Impressions / Throughts

I haven't completed every route in Langrisser 2 yet, but I think I know enough to give my thoughts on it.
Also, if I wait too long, I'm going to have not made a post in a month.
So yeah, here we go.

Oh, and Langrisser Mobile is fun.
BTW, there is no "Phoenix" mode. So yeah... No spoon-feeding here.

First of all, in summary,
It is a satisfactory remake. It gets the job done, but nothing above that. Just an average remake.
However, it is full-voiced, so if you have never played Langrisser before, you are probably better off just buying this remake instead of trying to play the original game.

Also, I need to get some explaining done

1. You can play with the maps, music, and character illustrations in their original form or in their remake form. There are a fair number of options, so you can mix them up, if you prefer the remake version of some parts but not of others. For instance, you can play the "modern" graphic map terrain but the original character illustrations. The original character designs are done by Urushihara Satoshi, the remake designs by Nagi Ryou.
2. If you play using Classic (original) mode, whenever there is a CG, you get a blurred screen with the characters talking instead. Because, of course, there was never such CG in the original version. As shown below, above is a CG scene in Classic, below is a CG scene in Remake mode.

1. Timeline-wise, Langrisser 3 -> Langrisser 1 -> Langrisser 2. 
2. The remake of Langrisser is actually the remake of the "upgraded" version of Langrisser 2. Frankly, this doesn't really matter much if you have never even played it.
3. The story of Langrisser 2 has not really been changed in the remake, but Langrisser 1 got several new routes. AB are the original ones (as far as I know), but you get (CD)(EF)(GH), where each are paired because they are slightly different versions of each other.
1. BTW, Lance's sister is a remake-only character that appears in certain of the new routes. It is kinda funny, but since she is a newly created character, even if you are playing with the original character designs, she still looks different from the other characters, because she is drawn with a more modern Urushihara art style. As shown below, above is old Urushihara, below is newer.

Ok, let's get into details.

...Is what I want to say, but let me be frank.
The remake character designs SUCK. First of all, a lot of the characters don't even look remotely like the original version. The men's armor have all generally shrunk too, because apparently people like Nagi Ryo and Kozaki (Fire Emblem) can't seem to drawn armor to save their lives.
On top of that, even if you ignore the fact the characters don't look similar, the females are especially lifeless.
That said, a few select characters look pretty good.
...Whatever.
You can get a sample of the differences on the official website. You can toggle between Classic and Remake at the top-right.

Did you know that originally, there wasn't even going to be a Classic mode? But after the outrage... or feedback from fans, they made it an option.
Well, I think it is safe to say that anyone who is a fan of the original game and thus Urushihara's artwork would have never bought the remake if there was no Classic mode. And I wouldn't have either, since like I said, the art just really isn't that good.

Yes, I do have to praise the speed of the artist, since he had to draw quite a number of characters and CG... But................. yeah.


Story
Have you ever played the original Fire Emblem or Gaiden?
Just saying, that around that time, the story was just a bare backbone. It works, but there is no complexity.
That is the case with Langrisser 1. Of course, in the remake, you get some more routes, and this kinda fixes that problem. But it is pretty obvious those routes are "remake-only", because Routes AB are the good old Good defeats Bad stuff, but the new routes do stuff like everyone dying or the protagonist going to the dark side and all that weird stuff.
What I kinda found funny is that the new remake-only character, Betty, never survives any route she appears in. The thing is that in her routes, she convinces the protagonist to pretty much just kill everyone in the world and that means killing each other at the end, so even if she dies, it is still a "Happy End" for her.
...Yeah, I think she is kinda like the Chaos heroine while Chris is the Light heroine, but I think she is just kinda crazy too. Oh, and coincidentally or not, Chris also dies in pretty much every route except AB (the original, where she marries the protagonist).

But then as we get into Langrisser 2, you can see the story complexity has greatly increased. You actually have multiple choice questions during the story that affects what route you go to eventually. You have to go through multiple steps through multiple events to recruit certain characters.
In Langrisser 1 Remake, it is obvious how to go to different routes. It is just doing one certain thing.
But now, doing one thing doesn't immediately change your route at times. It might come into affect later.
Much more complex here.

BTW, the Light route in both games are pretty typical Good vs. Evil stories, but the other routes can get pretty messy pretty fast.
Let's just say, it isn't pleasant at times having to pretty much kill the people in your army the next time you play and go the other routes.


In other words, Fire Emblem Fates except the story actually came from people that graduated high school.


System
Definitely the most unique part of Langrisser.
As far as leveling up and deploying characters and all of that stuff goes, it is a pretty typical SRPG.
However, in Langrisser, every character can recruit mercenaries at the beginning of a map. The type of mercenaries recruit-able depends on the character, where he unlocks more mercenaries as he class changes. As far as the remake goes, the mercenaries will never be as strong as the main characters, but they provide decent damage when they win the weapon triangle or when a close-ranged one attacks a ranged one (who have low defense). At the worst, they can be meat shields.
Because of these mercenaries, the battlefields... feel more like battlefields. There are a lot of units on screen at once.
However, if the leader dies, all mercenaries disappear as well.
Finally, it costs money to use mercenaries, but you won't have any money troubles, so you can just summon the most costly each map, so it doesn't really matter.

Also, once you beat the game, you can start from the beginning with all your previous levels/items/etc. from the cleared save file.

The rest of the systems are pretty normal SRPG stuff, I think, and don't really need mention.

Difficulty
This is probably one of the parts I might complain about, but it is a very easy game. There is only one difficulty level, but it is pretty easy.
Depending on the route, you may have to use your brains a little (there are routes where you only have two playable characters, which happens to be my only game-over). But you can generally just charge straight at your enemy and win.
Also, money is not an issue at all. You can return to previous maps to grind for EXP... but you don't need it at all.

However, late-game, you will face more and more mages. And magic in this game really hurts, especially if the magic is supereffective (like wind magic on Flyers). If you are not careful around mages, you will definitely get that cringey moment where they use magic and suddenly your main character loses half his health and his mercenaries mostly just die.
Also, depending on the map, you might be so bombarded by super-long-ranged magic, your mercenaries hardly function because they will all be dead before they reach those enemies. In those cases, you have to bait them to use up their MP before moving on. Bosses regenerate some of their MP, but since they don't save up for their super-strong one, you can bait them into spitting out the MP by sacrificing one or two mercenaries.

Hmm... And that is about it?
I think I covered everything that needs to be covered.
Overall, if you have never played Langrisser before, I think this is a good point to start.
Just don't expect anything too great.

Oh, and Langrisser 3+ remakes pls?