Warsong

"Definitely one of the most underrated games of all time."

This is a real gem of a strategy RPG on the Genesis that never really received any credit outside of Japan. Despite its pretty poor graphics this game is has excellent game play, catchy music and heck you can even play through it a few times if you feel like it.

Graphics (5) The graphics in this game are definitely not the greatest. They would be considered outstanding however if this was a football or baseball game developped by a British company. But hey, this is only 1991 so who would expect much anyway?

Sound/Music (9) This game may not have the brilliance of a PS4, FF7, FF6 or FFT but the music is very catchy and it definitely grows on you. The death screams aren't too bad either. Supposedly they were different in Langrisser, the Japanese versions. Anyone know? Please E-mail me.

Gameplay (10) Where this game definitely shines. The battles are fun and have quite a bit of depth. Its nice that you can take the easy way out and stack your main character. However, I suggest you balance your characters. You will be rewarded when you finish the game as you get to find out... actually I won't tell you. Just don't overtrain Garret and try to keep as many characters strong enough to survive as possible.

Replay (6) There are some people who will fall in love with this game and may just play through it over and over again and try different strategies to play through this game. Others may only want to play it once and be satisfied and never play through it again.

Challenge (8) This is not an extremely hard game once you know exactly how to play but it's an interesting challenge to try keeping all your characters alive to get... well never mind, I can't spoil this game for you as this isn't a walkthrough and I definitely want this published.

Story (8) Being that this is a very strategy-based RPG, story is not all that important. This game has an interesting story that really suits it despite the campy dialogue. I like the fact that it doesn't truly end and hints of a sequel. There were numerous sequels and remakes released but because of a lack of interest here, they were never released. Too bad.

Overall (8) Like I said before this is a very underrated game. It is nice to see that it finally got its due in EGM when in the latest issue (July 1999 at the time this review was writtem), it was called one of the classic Genesis games of 1991 along with Streets of Rage, Toejam and Earl, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Its too bad that this game didn't do well over here because it is a real gem, its sequels are definitely 24-carat diamonds. I should know, I'm playing Langrisser 2 and a partially Der Langrisser using emulation, but I did play Warsong on a real Genesis so I finished i legit (without state saving).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 02/22/01