Musashi: Samurai Legend

"Give me back the blue-haired Musashi."

Brave Fencer Musashi was a Square game that came out for the Playstation in October of 1998. It featured a little trash-talking boy with giant blue hair who voiced his complaints often, and wasn't afraid to slash opponents who disagreed with his opinions. A wacky cast of characters, a whole bunch of food-based names, and a little RPG flair contrasted with Musashi's "slash them all" attitude. It made the game quite unique for its time. For a while, however, this game had no signs of a sequel, no signs of improvement, no signs of... stepping up those blocky graphics.

Until now.

Musashi: Samurai Legend is the so-called sequel to Brave Fencer Musashi. However, the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" adage works quite well here- they fixed it when it wasn't broken. It definitely gives off a jaded image when compared to the original.

Story: 6/10
The last Musashi's story wasn't that great, but it made up for it with little name puns and touches of humor. However, Square felt absolutely no need to improve on the story for some reason, when they messed up everything else. Blah blah blah, the flying kingdom of Antheum is in distress from giant corporation, magically gifted princess summons legendary hero, hero goes off to kick some corporate ass. However, in the first Musashi this was given a little tweak- the hero wasn't really a legendary hero, more like a pint-sized punk with a nasty attitude to boot. In this Musashi a brown-haired teenager is summoned, and well, he doesn't capture you like the first did.

Anyway, the princess is kidnapped shortly after the summoning by Gandrake Enterprises. The summoning works, however, and a young samurai crashes down to the planet in the form of a comet. A cat who happens to be a master at martial arts discovers him, and trains him for about a week. He then sends the boy off to save the princess, get the five swords of Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void, and pretty much save everyone else's butt too. It's quite a long story so I won't spoil it all for you. It bears a striking significance to Brave Fencer Musashi... but it's a lot more mild. (The game seems to have all adult references taken out of it... literally a kiddie game!)

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are done using what the developers call "manga-shading", and it works quite well. The whole game looks like it came from a manga, and everything is bright and colorful. Musashi has an even weirder hairstyle this time; using the newfound power of the PS2, Musashi's long thunder-like strand of hair dangles and follows him as he walks. A nice effect, if I do say so myself. The camera doesn't seem to give you too many problems, and offers a nice rear view of whatever Musashi is doing. There are bits of clipping problems here or there however, especially with Musashi's hair, and slowdown when too many special effects/enemies fill the screen. This knocks down the graphics score a bit.

Controls: 9/10
Musashi is maneuverable, to say the least; the controls don't seem to get in your way, and you can do a lot of hacking and slashing quite easily, exceptions being those little annoying enemies that are shorter than rocks.

Audio: 6/10
Gone are the moving tracks and the corny but well-used niche music. Musashi: Samurai Legend doesn't really have any striking music, really. Most of it is for ambiance, and most of the time you won't notice it. In the motorcycle-driving scenes, however, there is some strange surf music by the Surf Coasters, and it strangely but satisfyingly fits. As for the voice acting, the only voice that really stands out is Musashi's.

And that's in a bad way.

In the original Musashi, Musashi was voiced by Mona Marshall. She gave Musashi quite a childish yet cynical and sarcastic look on life, and it really held Musashi together. In this Musashi, Musashi is voiced by... well, it doesn't really matter, does it? Musashi sounds like he cracked his head open in a tragic car accident and can't speak right. Seriously. Other than Musashi, no problems seem to occur.

Character: 4/10
This game just does not seem to have a lot of flair. Musashi is your standard hero type with a positive attitude... however, this idea has been done so many times before. Anti-heroes are out, but Square, you should have kept him that way! The princess is no longer a stuck-up prissy woman, and there are no old pawn shopkeepers telling you how much you should leave them alone, nor any sexy backstabbing villains, nor cool-or-cryptic bosses that ripped your head off in style. Square had 7(seven) years and they came up with this?
Pitiful, I say. Pitiful!

Gameplay: 7/10
Ah, here we go. The thing you've been waiting for. Gameplay.

Musashi's goals in life, or at least in this game, are to:
1) Save the kingdom of Antheum
2) Save the stranded people of Antheum
3) Collect the 5 magical swords and the maidens to go with them
4) Get back home

To do this, he comes brandishing your standard katana and by default the Great Oar (from a legend about Musashi...). Anyway, the game is basically a great-big hack-n-slash with RPG elements mixed in. You have your Great Sword Super Attacks, your Clone Moves, and your Loaf of Bread that you bought from the baker.

Anyway, expeditions consist of picking up something for someone, picking up someone (most likely the maidens and/or the princess), beating a boss, or retrieving a sword. The levels are quite linear, so if you get stuck most likely you're just not paying attention.

As with cloning movements, gone is the Fusion sword of yesteryear. This new Musashi works off a different way: focus and counterattack. Target an enemy, and wait until your focus reaches its peak, then let the enemy hit you with an attack and clone it in his face!

It sounds good on paper, but it's not that easy.

Enemies will attack you when you're charging (easily remedied with a swipe of your sword), enemies will hit you with the wrong attack to clone (not so easily remedied, more up to Lady Luck) and enemies will just move out of your lock-on radius and break your focus. This really makes it irritating to copy moves, and not a lot of the moves are really that spectacular- plus, you have to spend MP to use them. There are no more MP-free combos to learn pretty much, and it really hurts the gameplay, because it feels less like you're playing Musashi and more like you're playing Dynasty Warriors.

You can pick up stat-boosting accessories, buy food from people to replenish your HP and MP, and even upgrade your sword, but it always seem like you never have enough space. Often you'll find yourself screwed because you forgot to buy ice cream for your special attacks.

Replay Value: 6/10
As with the first Musashi, the citizens of Antheum have been scattered in escape pods and deserve rescue from out-of-the-way places; there is also a hard mode, and trading cards that you can collect.

Overall: 6/10
Musashi: Samurai Legend has a tendency to lose you; it's just not a very fun game. All the humor (which basically made the first Musashi) has been taken out of it, and with the humor, went the fun.
Worth a rental if you want to try, however.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/05