Or rather, my friend does. He describes it as a turn based strategy set on a hex grid. It's in a fantasy setting and he specifically mentioned fairys and unicorns. I know it's not a lot to go on, but any help is appreciated.
Master of Monsters is the only hexagonal strategy game on Playstation I've ever heard of,
but if he's incorrect about it being hexagon-based it could be something like Eternal Eyes. Only other games that come to mind are Wild Arms 4 and 5 on PS2, but those are more traditional Jrpg encounters fought in a hexagonal movement thing.
I'm pretty sure that's what you are looking for (my best guess anyways). In sceenshots, you don't always see the hex lines, but the game has them by design (possibly removable via options).
Hard to find game too; expect to pay a premium price if you want a physical copy.
Cool
I love guessing games (especially when I know the answers).
I missed out on Brigandine, but maybe I'll find it one day for a reasonable price (probably not); or just go the emulation route too (as it may make a decent PSP game).
Also, since Master of Monsters was mentioned, this is my favorite review of the game:
It's very rare that a game comes along that not only deserves ridicule, but actually invites it. Master of Monsters: Disciples of Gaia is such a game. It's so uniquely terrible that its shortcomings are difficult to catalogue. Which, to me as a reviewer, is an irresistible challenge...
Therefore I present fifty-four (give or take) reasons why Masters of Monsters is even more terrible a game than you could likely imagine:
You main unit is a spell-casting 'Master'. The choice of Masters has no bearing on the game itself.
Masters regain full spell points if they spend a turn on a tower, effectively giving them infinite use, absurdly powerful spells.
Masters can summon monsters but their summoning pool changes each level. This is stupid.
As Masters gain levels the monsters they can summon increase in power, effectively negating any need to level up your troops.
Each unit has a % chance to hit. It seems irrelevant since it rarely matches the success and failure of an attack.
Most units can attack more than once per strike, but the % seems to be calculated only once, so if the first strikes hits (or misses) so do all the others - even if the % is very high (>90%)!
Enemy AI is dismal. The opponent rarely goes after castles, and often enters his troops into suicidal combat.
The enemy Master doesn't directly attack your troops, even when they are not able to fight back.
The enemy Master rarely uses spells to his advantage. (In fact he rarely uses them at all.)
he first half of the game is way too easy. Steal the enemy castles, undermining his power base, and then leech experience from him for 30 odd rounds.
The second half of the game is even easier. Cast Meteor every turn while sending your Wyrmus circling around the enemy Master for a direct attack.
The final (?) battle is ridiculously difficult, in that the enemy Master is virtually unhittable...
There is no way to get a list of the enemy troops, or view any unit in detail.
Items are either useless or too powerful.
The item inventory doesn't consolidate.
Once an item is assigned to a unit, they can never be given a new item.
The onscreen map is useless, and too big. It cannot be turned off.
Why hide towers?
Cursor movement hurts the eyes, and the speed cannot be adjusted.
The scrolling is an abomination.
The scrolling, cursor movement and the fact that the enemy doesn't steal castles make the size of the map absurd.
The control is amazingly shoddy. Sometimes you have to push the buttons twice to get them to register.
The L1 and R1 keys should be used to advance to the next unmoved troop. Unfortunately they almost always go back to the Master.
If you turn off battle animations (which you will) you will not see battles resolved, and not know who took damage.
The 'camera' doesn't move to the enemy units when it is their turn.
Units must be moved before they can attack, even if the enemy is already adjacent.
Units cannot attack and then move afterwards, they must always move first.
No units have spell attacks (even 'magic using units').
No units have ranged attacks.
Units cannot heal themselves, or other units.
Occupying towers is mind-numbingly slow.
There is a limit on how many units you can control, but troops cannot be deleted during combat. If you reach your limit but want to summon a new monster, too bad.
When you can delete troops (after combat), it is easy to do so accidentally.
The manual says that unit names can be changed. They cannot.
A bug: manipulating the save/load system allows you to cast two spells a round.
A bug: earning experience from killing a monster when your Master's level is above 99 crashes the game.
Winning a map results in no graphical reward (arguably a blessing for this game).
It's *always* the same. They may have well made the game one big unending battle.
Load times are terrible, and the save/load interface is a torture.
Special graphics comment I: The graphics would have been terrible on an SNES.
Special graphics comment II: The combat scenes are the worst in any strategy game ever made.
Special graphics comment III: The 'black fog' item graphics almost induces vomiting in the viewer.
Special graphics comment IV: Some spell graphics look suspiciously like random data.
Special graphics comment V: Some 'animations' (and I use the word tentatively) are missing frames, and others jerk like spastic dolls.
Special graphics comment VI: The troll looks like an oversized Gumby.
The cutscenes are arguably worse than the story, which reads like someone scratched it down while on the john.
Music is terrible, and never changes.
Voice acting is Italian Porno-film Quality; easily the worst I've heard in any game.
There is a lengthy (and very boring) exposition toward game end that cannot be skipped.
The registration card in the manual lists 'M2' in the "systems you own" list. M2 was never released.
(The above point makes me wonder if I am just dreaming that this game was actually released?)
Multiplayer Master of Monsters does nothing but expose a second poor soul to this torture.
The game is not even as good as its Genesis prequel!
This game was released after Tactics Ogre, and Final Fantasy Tactics, and Shining Force 3...
But.
That's right - but. Perhaps the fact that Master of Monsters has absolutely no redeeming features is what led me to actually start enjoying it! The ridiculous ease of the game, even at the so-called 'hard' difficulty level (55. The three difficulty settings seem to make no difference at all) was vaguely entertaining. My army of unstoppable god-monsters carved their swathe through enemy after enemy, and the challenge of the game eventually became not to beat the map, but to beat it as quick as possible. My record was on map #19, where I defeated Fortuner in only three turns.
On map #20, while I was celebrating (cough) this achievement did the fatal bug first reveal itself. I refer to criticism number 36. I had quite easily reached level 99 with my master, and after mindlessly casting another explosion spell the game crashed when it tried to grant me a level. Such a bug seriously threatened my chances of beating the game, especially since it would be virtually impossible to continue without my Master ever getting experience.
Experimentation (why do I do this - why did I even play it again?) showed me that I could still play - the bug only manifested when the experience was earned by killing a unit (as opposed to casting a spell). So I cautiously advanced to the final battle (my Master's level was in hex now - A0) where it all ended.
Turns out my experimentation was in vain, and A0 (level 100) is the highest level you can obtain in the game. So I have a save game with my Master at level 100 with 99 experience points which crashes every single time she does anything at all. A game-killing bug.
Which, even if you were to dismiss numbers 1 through 55, is as good as any to proclaim from the mountains that Master of Monsters quite easily sweeps away the competition to emerge as the worst RPG ever.
Review by RPGcritic (Robert Schmitz) from the Workingdesigns (now defunct) website
So, Master of Monsters on PS1 is probably a terrible game. I did enjoy the Genesis game though.
Xelyx wrote:It was Brigandine. Thanks for the help. I might try it it on a ROM myself.
Bad news if you wanted to pick it up because it's one of the most expensive games on the PS1. I don't remember it being Hex based though. When I found it I only played it for a few minutes to check it out and haven't had time to dig into it because it seemed like a game you would want to put some hours into. Still can't believe I found it for 2 dollars at a thrift store. It really reminded me of the SNES ogre battle.
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