Spoiler-ish discussion of the Langrisser 1 Remake story branches

pik

Thanks to Kensaki's ripped files, we can get a good impression of what the branches in the Langrisser 1 remake are. Previous promotional material hinted at something along the lines of Langrisser 2's Light/Empire/Independent/Chaos paths, but the demo shows a plot with 8 final branches, A_H paths.

In the game files there is a .csv file that describes what characters are available to select for each level, which gives a better structure of what is what. It may be placeholder, or out of date, so it may not represent the final game. There's some very odd parts of it that make me think this file predates some final changes?

Obviously, some spoilers are ahead. I think this stuff is interesting, and I'm fine knowing structural stuff like this before playing a game without feeling totally spoiled.

A&B are the traditional light path. The slight branch near its end is a slight change to the party roster.

C&D are the first branch, just after the halfway mark of the game, while Langrisser 2 branched at about the 1/3rd mark. Unlike Langrisser 2's Empire path, this doesn't really piss off your main party members. Rias and Leticia are main party members for most of this, while the final branch determines where you get Lance and Betty or Digos. The plot looks like it uses several Langrisser 2 maps imported into Langrisser 1.

E&F are the "independent" path. This is basically the adventures of Ledin and Betty, with some sporadic additions. I can't tell at all what differs on the final branch between E&F. Files make it seem like the same party on the same maps.

G&H are the Chaos path. This pisses off some of the original party members, while ones like Taylor stick around. For some of the missions you get Bozel, Nagya, and Nicalis, but their presence is WAY diminished compared to Rias, Leticia, and Betty. Like E&F, I can't tell what the difference between G&H is.

So overall there are four main branches that rapidly split in the game's second half. Of those four branches, one of them has a fairly substantial sub-split, while two of them have very very minor splits. Not as elaborate as the Der Langrisser splits, but does roughly double the number of truly distinct scenarios/stages in the game.

Senka

Okay cool, I figured it wouldn't be nearly as elaborate or huge as in Der Langrisser but still substantial. I'm glad I guessed right.

pik

Also, some notes on the length:

Main/Original branch: 20 missions. The final sub-split is the last 3 missions.

Empire->End: 9 missions. The sub-split at the end is 4 missions.

"Independent": 8 missions. Sub-split is 3 missions, but they look "the same" as far as I can tell from the document.

"Chaos"; 6 missions. Sub-split is 4 missions, but again they look the same. Same map, characters, and chapter description. Could just be a placeholder, though.

There are 58 scenarios in the files, but 43-to-47 might be the more conservative estimate. There were not any "new" maps maps made for the story branches, but 6 maps from Langrisser 2 get used.

Ayra

Thank you very much for this in-depth look at the Langrisser 1 branches!

That sounds quite substantial, actually. It's a welcome surprise for sure!

The "adventures of Ledin and Betty" sounds pretty strange, but I guess it does make sense that they want to give star treatment to the new character in one of the paths.

To get to Independent, do you first need to arc through Empire -> Chaos -> Independent, or can you get there "directly"?

pik

I think they all branch off of the Empire path. It is the same structure as Der Langrisser basically. Empire forks into independent, which forks into Chaos as the smallest of the four main branches.