"Thank you Square Enix"

A few years ago Squaresoft now known as Square Enix released a action RPG named Brave Fencer Musashi years later a sequel has come our way and unlike other reviews who bash the game this review will do nothing but praise the game and thats because this game is amazing.

For those of you who played Brave Fencer Musashi you will feel right at home with Samurai Legends because not much has been changed. You can learn abilities from enemies by locking onto them and filling up a focus gauge and then by pressing the Square button when the (!) mark appears. This can become quite annoying when the enemy you are trying to learn the skill from never uses the skill so you will be taking a few needless hits unless you're highly skilled like me and know when to move out of the way (yes that is self praise). Some of the skills you learn from enemies require MP and some don't the ones that require MP are skills that require you to use the O button instead of a combination of buttons.

The controls are done very well and right from the start I had the hang of things. It helps alot to have good controls in this type of game considering the Platform elements which have been added. Jumping from place to place and avoiding harmful elements in the environment are made easy with great controls unlike other games of it's kind where the controls are enough to make you want to break your system. I do have one concern about the controls and thats the controlling of the camera. Controlling the camera is easy however when in a boss battle the bosses are so gigantic that the game tries to fit them into the whole screen and by doing this screw up the camera and making it do weird things. This can get very confusing at time when the camera is out of control and you've lost your sense of direction. I have to admit I died a few times because of this little flaw.

There are some graphical problems with the game such as frame rate problems and like previously mentioned fitting gigantic bosses into the camera view but besides those little flaws the cell shaded magna graphics are done beautifully. However when in a close up view of a character you can notice these thick black lines that surround a character this looked extremely cheesy but what else do you expect from cell shaded graphics. Beautiful level designs and beautiful backgrounds make this game pleasantly fun to just look at.

There are a few extra things in the game you can do for fun like stated before you can collect enemy skills. These have no effect on the game and are not needed but if you are a hardcore gamer like me then you need to collect everything. Another side quest is cards. You can collect cars just like you could in the first game as of right now however I don't know if they do anything besides just being collectibles but they are there to collect. And finally there is the mini-vehicle games. If you have played Final Fantasy VII then these will look oddly familiar It's funny after all these years Squaresoft can't come up with a new bike design, anyways like in Final Fantasy VII there are vehicle mini games that you can do. The point of the games are to slash down as many enemies as you can before you get to the end. A reward you get is amount of money depending on what enemies you killed and how many. Currently I've only come across one of these mini games but I've heard there is more scattered in the game.

The sound of Samurai Legend is nicely down but the voice acting is down right horrible. For starters I've noticed that the mouths of characters don't move when they are talking and add to that horrible voice acting you have a pain in the ass. However the sounds of the game are beautiful even Musashi's groans and grunts are down very well with the horrible voice acting. Plus the background sounds are just as nice. It's relaxing sitting back listening to the water flow through the river or here the Driller enemies drilling away in the ground. Add in come cool sound effects for spells and you've got some very nice sound effects.

There are many different items in the game for you to equip and or use to heal HP or MP. HP and MP healing items can be bought from stores around town but they are fairly expensive and considering the amount of money you gain in this game is very little usually you won't be buying anything. You can also buy Accessories to equip on yourself to raise your stats. Many of the accessories are like the items and are really expensive so usually you will just be using the items you find in treasure chests. As for weapons you only get 6 total swords that I am aware of however one of the swords can be powered up by the Blacksmith. The Katana is the main weapon the one that doesn't change, yes Samurai Legends is like Brave Fencer Musashi in the way you have two swords equipped at all times; a fast weak one and a slow strong one. The Katana which can be powered up is the fast weak one and the other 5 swords are element swords, the same swords which you have to find to progress the story. Each of the 5 story swords has a special skill which will help you break down boulders or raise a certain pillar stuff like that. Put it this way, if you don't have the special swords then you won't be able to get anywhere in the next area.

Samurai Legends follows a basic storyline with not many twists or anything but instead you are basically to find the swords and power them up which powers up your city as well. Your city is that of a flying whale, yes very weird. It has the typical bad guys and the heroes who will help you. It's the pretty average storyline nothing that will blow you away.

To end this game is alot better then what other reviews are giving it. They have to be comparing it to a game of it's kind which game that is I don't know because it must be pretty damn amazing if it would make them bash this little gem like they have been doing. A great game that will keep you occupied for approximately 20 hours or so. Add in the new game plus and you can play the game over with all the cards you collected from the previous game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/21/05