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BRAVE FENCER MUSASHIDEN —by Geir Friestad
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With the monumental FINAL FANTASY series, as well as the occasional other title, Square has easily conquered the RPG-market on the PlayStation. Now, with the release of BRAVE FENCER MUSASHIDEN, the time has come for them to dip their toes in the waters of 32-bit action-RPGs, and Square's future is definitely looking bright. BRAVE FENCER MUSASHIDEN takes place in
the relatively peaceful kingdom of Yaquinik, which one day is attacked by
the neighboring kingdom, the LeCoir Empire. LeCoir's ultimate goal was to
steal Reygund, the sword of light, which was well known from the 160 year
old story known as the Legend of Musashi. Not being able to defend
themselves, the peaceful citizens of Yaquinik were in great danger and it
was decided to summon a legendary hero to help them...This is of course where you come into the picture. Playing the
part of the legendary two-sworded hero, Musashi (Obviously based on the
famous samurai Miyamoto Musashi, who developed his own two sword
technique and wrote THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS.), you
have to retrieve your powerful Reygund sword and save Yaquinik from the
evil LeCoir Empire.Playing the game is a rather straightforward affair early on.
Tiny Musashi, a mere three feet tall (a fact almost everyone in the game
comments on, much to Musashi's annoyance!), follows a linear, isometric
path through the lush polygon-landscapes. This is merely an introductory
stage, though, and the game quickly becomes a lot more complex and
nonlinear after Musashi retrieves his legendary Reygund sword. At that
point, the game lets you roam freely around the fully
3D, polygonal countryside. And boy, does it
look good!Beautiful graphics have always been a strong point of Square's
PlayStation games, and BRAVE FENCER MUSASHIDEN is
no different. The environments are initially somewhat disappointing, as
the game restricts you from exploring much, but all this changes as soon
as you get to the towns. Merely describing the towns won't do them
justice; the sheer level of detail and design is awe inspiring. To top
it off, the towns and countryside are populated by a wealthy selection
of well designed characters, who all add a lot to the atmosphere of the
game. The characters themselves are to a large extent enriched by
audible dialog provided by a cast of highly skilled voice actors.The accompanying music and sound effects are also of the high
quality we more or less expect from Square. And although none of the
music is particularly memorable, it works really well within the context
of the game and, thankfully, never gets too repetitive or annoying.In terms of gameplay BRAVE FENCER
MUSASHIDEN is comparable to Nintendo-based efforts such as the
ZELDA games and, perhaps in particular, the
recent GANBARE GOEMON 5. MUSASHIDEN milks the comedy angle for all it's worth,
and in that respect it shares a lot of common ground with the fifth
GOEMON game, although MUSASHIDEN's brand of humor is not quite as campy as
that of GOEMON; it more resembles the humor of
Bandai's TAIL CONCERTO.But BRAVE FENCER MUSASHIDEN adds a
couple of interesting elements to the action-RPG
genre which make it stand out. One of them is the system referred to in
the game as "Get-In," which is basically a fancy name for skill stealing.
The Get-In system lets Musashi charge up his sword and use it to borrow
certain skills from his enemies, which more often than not must be used
to solve a problem.The other new element MUSASHIDEN brings
to the genre is a real-time clock. The clock, which you have no control
over, affects the amount of sunlight there is to light up the level (at
night you only light up your immediate surroundings with your lantern)
and what music is played. Interestingly, some missions and events are
also tied into the clock, and can only be carried out at certain times
of day or night. Naturally, this adds a lot to the depth of the
gameplay.In the end, it's not particularly hard to recommend this game.
It's genuinely funny as well as challenging, and considering that the
game also comes with playable demos of EHRGEIZ
and FINAL FANTASY VIII,
it provides real value
for your money. One word of caution, though: there is a LOT of Japanese
dialog in this game, and an understanding of much of it is necessary to
play the game in a satisfactory manner. The game will be released
domestically later as THE LEGEND OF BRAVE FENCER
 Rating: ***1/2 out of 4 |
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