What Is Langrisser: Dramatic Edition?

The Saturn’s 1998 remake of the first two games, and the door through which most Japanese players met them.

By 1998 the first two Langrisser games existed in several forms, and keeping them straight is a collector’s rite of passage. Langrisser: Dramatic Edition, for the Sega Saturn, is the deluxe one: full remakes of Langrisser I and II for the 32-bit era. Its version of the second game takes the Super Famicom remake, Der Langrisser, as its base, then edits the script again and adds a further branch to the Imperial path, the road where Erwin serves the Empire. Even the remake of the branching game grew a branch.

The Saturn versions in this set were then ported to Windows by Unbalance in 1998, which is why the PC editions of I and II in Japan look the way they do. Around the Dramatic Edition sits a whole family of compilations, documented below, ending in the most collectible Langrisser object of all.

THE FAMILY OF SETS

1997 to 1999

Langrisser I & II · PlayStation · 1997

The first compilation pairs the original game with Der Langrisser, the branching Super Famicom remake, on one PlayStation disc.

Dramatic Edition · Saturn · 1998

This page’s subject: remakes of I and II with the edited script and the extra Imperial branch, the fullest classic versions of both games.

IV & V: Final Edition · PlayStation · 1999

The last two Saturn games ported to the PlayStation, released January 28, 1999, completing the classic series on Sony’s machine.

THE TRIBUTE BOX

Saturn · December 23, 1998

All five, one box

Langrisser Tribute gathered every Saturn Langrisser, Dramatic Edition, III, IV, and V, into a single collector’s package at the end of 1998.

The extras

The games came packaged in a plastic sleeve with a hardcover manual and a telephone card carrying Langrisser art: a phone card, in a game box, as a first-party extra.

Why it matters

It is the classic series’ only complete contemporary set, and the anchor object of the collecting page in this archive.

WHICH VERSION SHOULD A PLAYER WANT?

The honest ladder

For the first game

Dramatic Edition’s remake, or the 2019 remake with its new routes. The Mega Drive original, and Warsong, are for the shelf and the history.

For the second

Dramatic Edition carries the most complete branching tree. Der Langrisser on the Super Famicom is the beloved original form of that tree, and the one with the famous guidebook.

What Is Langrisser: Dramatic Edition?

THE FAMILY OF SETS

THE TRIBUTE BOX

WHICH VERSION SHOULD A PLAYER WANT?

THE FIRST WORD