Musashi: Samurai Legend

"Legend? Not quite. Decent? You bet."

In 1998 Squaresoft made Brave Fencer Musashi, an action-RPG where you play as a little lazy dude with a pony-tail and beat up things. I guess most people were expecting a direct sequel to that adventure... well too bad. This is basically another game, made by Square, using similar action-RPG elements, and very very loosely based on the life of the legendary kengo -- Musashi Miyamoto.

Graphics: 8

The cell shading and framerate is actually pretty decent. Square uses cell shading techniques that really set off that "street-tag" pointy cartoonish look that they've aimed for. I was really impressed.

Sound: 3

Totally uninspired and mediocre. Call me crazy, but to me the soundtrack almost sounds recycled from a plethora of other action games. Not even the japanese rock songs they filtered in set me off. As for the voice-overs... ... they're... abysmal. Everything the actors said sounds like they were speaking through wax paper, and the one thing that bothered me the most was Musashi's voice itself. He sounded like the bizarre lovechild of Disney's Goofy and Fred Savage. Worthless.

Gameplay: 7

Yes, it's standard hack-n-slash, but it's done very well. You can go from standard combos to special moves in moderately rapid succession. Shortly after you begin the game you gain the ability to learn your enemy's attacks. It's quite clever and they pulled it off nicely: You hold the R1 button to lock on to the enemy of choice, then when they attack you, the game gives you a quick prompt to hit the square button, and a text bubble will give you button input instructions, upon completion of the button/direction sequence you will have learned the skill. There's also a card collection side-track and a quest system to move the plot along smoothly.

Story: 4

They really couldn't have tried much. I mean it. It's like "Okay I'm in a strange new world, but that's okay, I'm gonna do whatever anyone tells me without question, just because."

You start out in a wooded area being given a battle tutorial by a talking cat. DAYS later you learn why you were mysteriously put into a foreign world, but it doesn't faze Musashi at all....somehow. You're told that the princess of the Mystics summoned you, but..Oh! she's been captured! So of course you have to go save her. Been there. Done that.

Overall: 6

For the love of the goddess, rent this game first. Even if you loved Brave Fencer Musashi, you may very well choke on this game. The gameplay is pretty strong, but the representation is like a congealed skin on gravy: You know it tastes good, but it just feels wrong.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/07/05