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Brigandine: Abyss Preview

by Alex Fuller · July 8, 2026

Brigandine: Abyss will offer plenty for strategy RPG fans to sink their teeth into when it launches next month.

After its revival with 2020’s Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia, the strategy RPG series is getting a follow-up in Brigandine: Abyss. Set to be released this August by NIS America and Happinet for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, the game will offer players six full story campaigns alongside special Missions Mode that lets players try out all twenty-four factions in the game. Ahead of its release, RPGamer was able to attend a preview session showing one of the later story missions in one of its story campaigns.

Brigandine: Abyss is set in a new world to previous entries in the series. Hundreds of years prior, the Abyssloa Empire was stopped by the power of the arcane Brigandine; however, a new empire rises, seeking to conquer the world, and it is against this backdrop that the story campaigns are set. The mission shown was from the Samura Clan’s campaign, showing parts of the preparatory Organization Phase and the hexagonal grid-based battle itself, which sees the player’s army betrayed by their allies and fighting on a map featuring a river and multiple bridges.

The bulk of gameplay is very similar to that of Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia, though there are notable improvements and additions, particularly on how the game more closely integrates its story into its gameplay with the addition of the dedicated Event Battles, which includes events before and during combat. Players form an army made up of squads of monsters, each squad commanded by a human leader and engage in turn-based combat. The gameplay loop is divided into the Organization Phase on the world map, where players manage their army — including recruiting, powering up, and equipping new monsters; upgrading bases and facilities; and sending units on optional quests for experience and rewards — as well as decide where to attack and expand their conquered territory while ensuring they have sufficient defenders available in case the enemy decides to attack.

Each squad is limited to a number of Command Points based on its leader, with each of the up to five monsters costing a number of Command Points, so players will need to balance their squads and the monsters within. By levelling up, monsters are able to unlock class upgrades, which increases their stats and grants new skills and passive traits, but also increases their Command Points. Before battles, players can get a look at the map they will be fighting on; for example, a river might encourage use of water-based units. In addition, Event Battles will let players use any of their squads, regardless of where they might be on the map. Most maps will only see players come up against three enemy squads, with players themselves also deploying up to three; however, the story special pits players against six opposing squads.

Based on the preview battle, there is an interesting mix of tactical opportunities and considerations on offer for players. The array of monsters available provides plenty of different types of units that can be used many different ways, even if it pays to be a bit more consistent in strategy and planning within an individual campaign to get the most of each particular unit. Elements such as surrounding foes can play important roles, and there are ample powerful opportunities for units to use the abilities to synergise with and support each other, particular given magic is always guaranteed to hit. Players only need to defeat the leader for the entire squad to retreat; however, it can be more useful in the long run to defeat individual monsters first to gain the additional experience and also to make it more difficult for the enemy to recover for subsequent battles as, like the player, they will need to pay to resurrect any defeated monsters.

Among the notable additions to combat in Brigandine: Abyss is the new Rally mechanic, which lets monsters provide passive buffs on their leader by ceasing to act independently and accompanying the leader. Every unit has its own Rally traits, such as applying knockbacks, adding an element to attacks, granting defensive boosts, an additional action, etc.; Rallying imparts those traits onto the squad and generates some useful synergies. In addition, the game now takes into account height differences for attack ranges and movement, adding greater value to ranged and flying units, also letting monsters move completely independently of the unit leader without penalties to allow them to link up with other squads if desired. Players can also use mercenaries to take on quests on the world map, enabling them to keep their main units on the primary objective in the frontlines.

Brigandine: Abyss will offer plenty for strategy RPG fans to sink their teeth into when it launches next month. The game is certainly not going to be short of content, with its six story campaigns joined by the twenty-four playable factions in Mission Mode, each of which provides its own gameplay challenge and win conditions. A PC demo is currently available on Steam, with a console demo set to arrive on July 30, 2026. The full game launches worldwide on PC via Steam on August 26 (August 27 in Japan), 2026, and for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2 on August 27, 2026.