Imagine you live in another world, on the continent of Forsena. As ruler of one of Forsena's six empires, you want to unite the entire continent under your rule. Of course, there are five other emperors, all of whom want to unite Forsena under his or her rule. So you round up your knights and summon your zombies, golems and dragons, and they round up their knights and summon their zombies, golems and dragons, and we have a Brigandine, a strategic RPG made by Atlus.

Brigandine has elements of the classic game Risk. You control castles at which you must place reinforcements, consisting of monsters and knights controlling them. When you are attacked, or you declare an attack, however, the games goes to a battle screen similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. When you start a game, you chose one of five empires to play as, some of which are harder than others due mainly to geographical factors. Your goal, quite simply, is to conquer the entire continent within fifteen years.

The map screen portion of the game is turn based, with each turn having two phases during which each empire gets a turn. In the first phase, the organize phase, you position your parties, which consist of one knight as a commander, and one to six summoned monsters. After each empire completes the organize phase, each empire has an attack phase, during which it declares its attacks on enemy castles.

When your empire attacks or is attacked, the game enters the battle screen, which is a hexagonal grid. (If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can also watch CPU vs CPU battles) Each side can have up to three parties, which means there is the potential for up to forty-two combatants at once. You have control of each of your units, both humans and monsters, and you have the option to move, attack, cast spells, etc. When one unit attacks another, you see a 3D close-up of the attack. This is a very cool feature when you start playing the game, but it does get old and really slows down combat. Fortunately, it's a feature that can be turned off. You win a combat by defeating each of the enemy's knights or by forcing them to retreat.

Both your knights and your summoned monsters gain levels and can eventually change to higher classes, gaining new strength and special abilities. The classes of knights and monsters and their associated abilities should be familiar to most RPG fans. Low level knights start off as priests, fighters and scouts, and become higher classes such as Paladins, Samurais and Necromancers, among others. Monsters start off as Dragons, Demons, Zombies, Giants, etc., and become Phoenixes, Tiamats, Vampires, Satans (yes, that's correct), and Bahamuts.

The graphics in Brigandine are a little bland, but adequate. There is no fancy introduction, which seems to have become almost standard, but that's something I can live without. The battle screen is nothing spectacular, but it is easy enough to distinguish one unit from another. The close-ups of attacks are well done, and each knight has his/her own portrait.

The cry that a knight lets out when defeated is priceless, but this is about the only thing that stands out about the game's sound. None of the other sound effects really add much to the game. The background music is a little annoying, but not horrible.

This game has plenty of replay value and can either be very easy or very challenging. There are three difficulty settings, and some empires are harder to use than others. At higher difficulty levels, the computers AI in combat is better, and computer-controlled units will tend to make better choices concerning which of your units to target. One thing I haven't noticed, that I've seen in other games and I have never liked, is the "let's all gang up on the human" philosophy.

I found Brigandine to be a very absorbing game. It is easy to spend large chunks of time playing this game, as some of the bigger fights can take over thirty minutes. Fortunately, there is a way to save during fights (a very nice feature), rather than only on the map screen. The game is fairly easy to learn, but it is still complex, and it requires a lot of thought. Getting higher level characters and monsters is hard enough that it makes finally getting them something special, and it seems like there is always a better way of organizing and utilizing your forces.

Brigandine does not seem to have any glaring weaknesses. The sound and graphics are a little bland, but they are still adequate. There are plenty of options, but I would like to have seen more in-game help, detailing what various monsters and attacks do. The story (each empire has its own story) is not the least bit compelling, but story in this genre of game has never been a big deal to me. Unfortunately, there is no multi-player option, which would have added a lot to this game.

Obviously, this game is not for everyone. If you do not like most strategic RPGs, you won't like this one either. If you are a fan of games like Risk, standard RPG's or even table games like Magic: The Gathering, I would recommend Brigandine. I found the game to be challenging, addicting and fun.