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Sure, I'm happy to do some comparison updates, though I can't promise a regular update schedule or anything. But I'll do some as I get around to it.

Hell, I'm not doing anything tonight, so I'll get part of it done right now.

Comparison of Langrisser 2 and Der Langrisser
Mini-Update 1


I might quickly start off with a synopsis of the history of the translation of L2 and DL, since it is interesting by itself. I was (very loosely) involved in several stages of it and still remember it well.

Langrisser was translated as Warsong all the way back in 1991, but no other games in the series ever received an official translation. Roll onto 1997, when Final Fantasy 5 was fan translated, being arguably the first really big game to receive a fan translation that could be applied directly to the ROM. Before long there were several groups getting in on the translating game.

One such hacker who went by the online name alamone developed some tools for Langrisser 2 and Der Langrisser. They could rip out the script, allow you to edit it (into English), and then would reinsert it. The tools were never finished and he only ever got a translator to do the menus and first two levels of Langrisser 2, and eventually he got bored of the project.

Around this time I stepped in and offered to find some translators, but alamone wasn't interested in the project anymore and just told me to do what I liked with the tools. I somehow got in touch with a guy from a translation group called Hiryuu Honyaku and cobbled together some translators. It took a couple of years but they translated the script and I did a rather poor job of editing it all into something readable. The tools were never finished, so several important parts of the translation were never completed, including the ending sequence.

While this was happening, some other interested fans decided to form a group called Warui Toransu do the same for Der Langrisser. The tools for DL were rather more complete than for L2 but still had some issues.

D, a fan who still maintains the El Sallia wiki, and who I believe was actually involved in the original FF5 translation (under a different name), eventually picked up the Der Langrisser project almost a decade after alamone first worked on it. D wrote his own tools, and with the aid of a small team completed the translation to far superior effect. He also helped M.I.J.E.T. who similarly wrote new tools for L2 and completed that translation as well.


With that story out of the way, let me give a bit of context for Langrisser 2 and Der Langrisser. Langrisser 2 is the official sequel to Langrisser/Warsong. Der Langrisser is something of an extended edition to Langrisser 2. It follows roughly the same story, but with a number of modifications or extra features. Many of them haven't been covered by MonotoneMorgan yet so I won't discuss them all this update.

Der Langrisser is unarguably the superior game, in pretty much every way. It's got more freedom, the graphics, music, and general gameplay is nicer, and on the whole it's a lot more polished. That said, L2 has a couple of things going for it. The only one I'll mention this update is that it's generally harder. This is down to three reasons. Firstly, there is no character creation in L2, so you can't create an insanely strong pirate. Secondly, the enemies tend to be abit stronger and your allies a bit weaker than in DL. And thirdly, the AI is more reckless in L2. Whereas in DL the enemy generally won't attack if they are worried about taking damage, in L2 the enemy will often attack if it is confident it can cause damage, irrespective of how much it will take in return. While this does mean enemies will often blunt themselves, it also leaves you with chinks in your line more often than you expect. And if the enemy can take your commander out, it'll hone right on in.


So, with all that said, let's get to the comparisons. I'll just cover the first three scenarios of L2 today.







Unlike DL, where the intro scene is done in the "in-game" engine, L2 has this incredibly dramatic cutscene instead.









Then some of the most important characters flash past.

I won't do this for most scenarios, but I notated the scenario description for the first one, just to provide some context.

Weary from his solitary journey, Fighter rested for a while at a small village in Salrath. Fighter got along well with the locals, especially a young magician named Hein, who soon became a good friend.

One quiet day, Hein burst into the inn where Fighter was staying. In a fearful tone of voice he informed him that the Rayguard Empire was attacking the village and that Liana, one of Hein's childgood friends, was in danger.

Seizing his sword, Fighter went to try and rescue her.


Conditions

Victory
-Baldo defeated

Defeat
-Baldo escapes to bottom-right corner of map
-Death of Fighter

As you can see, it is pretty much identical to the first mission for Der Langrisser.



Here we are hiring troops. First thing to notice - Fighter is not a Pirate this time around. Since there is no character creation, we are stuck being a Fighter, which I guess is fitting. A standard Fighter will have bonuses of A+0 and D+2, so Fighter's A+1 and D+3 is pretty good.



Hein is a Warlock, with terrible defence but excellent troop bonuses. Also, check out how tiny his experience bar is! He is seriously easy to get levels for.



You can also purchase items from the shop in L2 as well.



The troop placement screen is much more primitive than for DL.

Scenario 1



The mission is pretty much the same as for DL, except the map layout is a bit different. Fighter starts off inside the house this time, which is annoying since it takes a couple of turns to get everyone out.



Here's Leon, still a Knight Master, though a damn kickass one. In DL his stats are A44 D33, so he's marginally stronger here.



Laird is a Magic Knight, rather than a Highlander in this game. I think he may get a class change to Highlander later.



The dialogue is different, but in the same spirit as for DL. This is probably just due to translator preferences.



Liana looks a little blank-faced in this game. Also she has glowing red eyes for some crazy reason.



Rather than Ridel and Evanze appearing to defence the village, a generic guard and priest show up instead. It's somehow less dramatic when a nameless ally dies, so DL's version is definitely an improvement.



In terms of attacking, some changes are immediately obvious. First of all, Hein's attack is fucking terrible in L2. Whereas in DL he launches fireballs that strike the enemy before they reach him, in L2 he lobs a delayed blast into the air, the enemies all reach him and take a swing, and then finally the ball comes down and slaughters them. This attack ended up leaving Hein on 4 health, which makes it not worth doing. Warlocks generally shouldn't attack soldiers at all in L2 unless they are badly injured. By contrast, any standard ground fighter has the sword blaze attack that Pirate Fighter had, making them more effective in L2 than in DL.



The other major change is that, visually, the ten troops are represented as five. It's kind of strange. Effectively there are five troops with two health each. Sometimes when you have two health it will be a single unit who attacks twice, other times it will be two individual units that attack once. I'm not sure why this decision was made (Langrisser 1 definitely had ten troops show up on the screen) but it was removed for Der Langrisser.



It might sound like it's purely cosmetic, but it isn't. For example, when you attack archers in close range combat in DL, all ten get a chance to fire their arrow before the soldiers reach them. In L2, all five units fire two arrows, but the second takes so long than they end up under attack before they get a chance to fire it. Any units which get killed don't fire their second arrow.



Baldo is still a dick in L2.



Unlike DL, where Leon and Laird are happy to fartass around for a while, Leon is fucking vicious in L2. He tears through the pikemen without even blinking. The problem is he brings one group of Royal Horsement with him which are just devastating. Honestly, look at those stats, and those bonuses. The pikemen never stood a chance.



Laird's group don't fare quite as well.



Still, they slowly work the pikemen over.

Also, in this game Laird looks fucking ridiculous. Honestly, he looks like a woman from a murder mystery.



This is only the third turn. The Town Guard is getting fucked up bad.



Here's Leon's attack, which looks pretty awesome. Basically he runs so fast it leaves a visual trail behind him. All the pikemen die.



Yeah, I screencapped it too early. Trust me, they all die bigtime.



This isn't going to last long. The priest is putting in a brave healing effort, but it's all in vain.



Pretty soon, Leon's men break through and slaughter the priest.



Back in the battle, where the dialogue is even less refined than in DL. Just like in DL, Fighter and Hein first deal with a generic fighter, then move onto Baldo who is trying to escape.



Laird finishes off the town guard. If I'd been a bit faster we could have kept him alive, but without him having a name, it doesn't seem so important.



I wipe out Baldo only a turn before Leon was set to reach our troops again.



Just like before, Loren comes to save the day, though his stats are a bit weak. He had 34 defence in DL. Leon could honestly wipe him out in two turns flat.



Scott is here as well, but notice that rather than riding a horse, in this game he's a level 1 fighter, and a pretty terrible one at that.

The reason for this is that there is no such thing as a mounted first class in Langrisser 2. To get on the knight path, you have to get a class change. Likewise, there is no first class flyer commander.

Scenario 2



This scene was an end-of-mission cutscene in DL, but here it's actually the start of scenario 2.



Day breaks, and Zorum comes to take Liana. This entire mission was complete cut from Der Langrisser, so Zorum's first appearance came later in that game.



In L2 his gimmick is that he keeps referring to himself as "The Mighty Zorum" or "The Great Zorum" all the time. Without Morgan to play off he's pretty bland. Also, he's a Lord, which is a second level class, but his stats are fucking terrible for a Lord. Seriously, look at that shit.



The mission objective is to simply flee out the back of the castle, but when we do we are "ambushed". Of course, this ambush sucks because there are only two commanders with inferior troops to our own three commanders.



I'm not kidding on Zorum's gimmick, by the way. Continuously repeating "The Great Zorum" is pretty much all he's got going for him.



Unfortunately for The Great Zorum, his abysmal ambush fails and we get away.

Scenario 3



Hein throws in a bit of sexism just for fun. Liana's response is to apologise to Hein for being a member of such a pathetic gender.

Tactically, this scenario is identical in every sense to the second scenario for DL. The only noticable difference is that Zorum keeps going on about how THIS TIME he's going to defeat you.



However, once all the commanders are wiped out, fucking Vargas appears He's waaaay too powerful for us, but the scenario doesn't end, which is a pretty cool touch. A turn passes and it honestly makes you think you're going to have to face him.



Soon enough, though, a mysterious knight appears!



The mysterious knight is very clearly Cherie. Her sprite, shown down the bottom, makes that obvious. Once again, she's not a flyer in this game because there are no first-class flyers, but at least she's a very high level, only one kill away from a class change (where she can become a flyer).



Vargas freaks out over the phalanxes, which are upgraded pikemen. We haven't seen them yet in DL but they are pretty powerful. Nonetheless, Vargas shouldn't be worried because honestly, he could just leave his horsemen behind and kick Cherie Mystery Knight's ass all by himself.



Unlike DL, where Cherie thinks strategy is boring, here she's all about the strategy. Even though her strategy was to confront a general who has double her attack power.

The scenario still doesn't end at this point, which leads you to believe that we might still have to face Vargas.



However, a turn later, Cherie moves closer and Vargas chickens out. Cherie then vanishes, and hilariously, Fighter, Hein and Scott assume the knight is a man and keep talking about "his" power, even though the sprite showed it clearly to be a girl.



Hein receives a level up, and we see another major different in L2 - there are three class choices rather then two.



Class changes work exactly the same in L2 and they do in DL, but instead of only being able to choose the two adjacent classes in the tree, now you can choose the three adjacent classes. It allows for a bit more freedom, though it also means you can completely change a character's style which can make the dialogue a bit strange sometimes.



For example, if you turn Hein into a Lord he'll still try to recruit Jessica as a mentor later on even though he's clearly not a magic user anymore.

Anyway, that's all for today, but I'll post another mini-update whenever I get around to it. Back to you, Momo!!