Brave Fencer Musashi

"Easily one of the best PlayStation action-RPG games!!!"

I think Square has created a worthy action-RPG to applease all zelda fans, especially to those who don't own N64. Top-selling quality RPG games like Xenogears, Final Fantasy VII, Saga Frontier, Final Fantasy Tactics, Square has created a new awesome action-RPG game, Brave Fencer Musashi.

In fact, Square is the king of RPG developer and has dominated all the RPGs industry. It's has proven that they can do RPGs very well and now their recent Non-RPG, Tobal no 2 and Bushido Blade 2 are really impressive. Squaresoft games are different from other games and developers go for one word-innovation. I am glad to see new things coming from Square. Bushido Blade's one-hit kill, Xenogears's giant gear combat, Final Fantasy VII's limit break and materia combination and now Brave Fencer Musashiden's fusion ability and soon to be coming Final Fantasy VIII's draw command has proven that Square can create new and exciting games all the time. Back to the main topic.

160 years ago, a giant monster suddenly appeared in Thirstquencher Empire, Allucaneet Kingdom's neighbouring country. After easily destroying Thirstquencher Empire, it headed toward Allucaneet, which had a plentiful supply of Binchotite buried beneath the ground. Everything in the monster's path was destroyed, and it is said that many monsters were created by the strange effects the Wizard of Darkness had on the land. Brave Fencer Musashi was called upon by King Allucaneet to stop the evil Wizard of Darkness, a huge creature composed of pure Binchotite, a mystical mineral with mysterious properties from doing destruction to the world and is the only raw material for making Bincholon.

Handed down from generation to generation to the princess of Allucaneet, the Hero Summon spell is a special power used only as a last resort when the kingdom is faced with great danger. It grants the user the ability to summon a hero through incantations made over a specially prepared chunk of Binchotite. The battle between Musashi and the Wizard of Darkness raged on and on. The Wizard of Darkness was a formidable foe, even for a hero like Musashi.

With the sword of Luminescence and the help of five legendary armour Musashi collected, Brave Fencer Musashi could only seal the Dark lumina, the wizard of darkness inside the sword and divided its power into five legendary scrolls, Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Sky and then sealed them within the crest.In order to stop the wizard of darkness from doing any harm to the world, Brave Fencer called upon the five crest guardians to protect the five scrolls.

The storyline is beautifully written, revolving a young hero, Musashi and the Allucaneet Kingdom, call upon to collect the five scrolls and save the princess from the evil Thirstquencher Empire.

The graphics are really awesome, smooth with an ever-changing polygonal enviroment even though they are not as glorious as Zelda. Everything is rendered in textured polygons and the character is well shaded. The enviroment changes from morning, afternoon, evening and to night as time passes. Due to the 24-hour clock, the lightning effects can be a visual. However, there is one problem with the polygonal graphics. There are some polygonal pop-up and tearing, which could sometimes be annoying but still doesn't affect the gameplay.

The voice actors has done very done. Brave Fencer Musashi packs quite an enormous amount of voice-overs and the result is humour, that's the best. All i could say is that the voice is really good.

Brave Fencer Musashi supports analog controller, as well as vibrational function. Control is precise and naviagtion is easy. The level design is simply well done, from anywhere of the point with many hidden paths. That includes dungeons, forests etc.

There are lots of hidden paths to explore but most disappointingly is the fact that there is only one village here. Perhaps Square should take note of that. The game is viewed from a three-fourth perspective view. You can only zoom in/out and the camera is fixed during exploring while the camera can be rotated in the village. Even though the village can be rotatable,it makes getting from one place to another place difficult. It would really be appreciated if Squaresoft could make an overhead angle from the village. Another good point is that Brave Fencer Musashi has little or no loading times.

The musics are really good, even though there wasn't as many, compared to Xenogears and Final Fantasy VII, furthur establishing Square capablities of having quality music. Brave Fencer Musashi also features fully orchestra musics. The ending theme, village theme, raft theme etc are definitely some of my favourites.

Sound effect are quite up to Squaresoft's quality. You can hear the clanking of sword fighting and running water. After all, the Playstation has a very advanced sound chip.

The difference between A Link to the Past and Brave Fencer Musashi is that Link can make use of tools like arrows, hammer he has found to help him in his quest but in Brave Fencer Musashi, Musashi has to assimilate abilities from enemies to help him in his quest such as hop, stun etc. To assimilate ability, hold R1 until the gauge bar is fulled, and then press Square. A green arrow will shoot out and if it hits the enemy, tap Square repeatedly until the gauge bar is fulled and you will learn a new ability.

Instead of finding hearts to increase max HP like Zelda, you need to find Minkus and Bincho Fields that are scattered throughout the game in Brave Fencer Musashiden to increase your HP and BP.

In link to the past, you temper your sword to increase sword level and gains new abilities but in Musashi, you can attach scolls to your Lumina sword to learn 5 different elemental attacks and even learn 6 sword techniques to help you in your quest.

The action figure collection is also one of the best feature too. By defeating a new enemy, you will get to buy the enemy action figure with over 40 figures to collect. Even though it's a new feature, i only wish there were more on this.

There are a total of six techniques to learn, each with special unique skill. For example, the dashing pierce allows you to dash towards your enemy and charge at them.

After you have completed the game, you can save again to do all those unfinished business such as collecting action figures and rescue people which you have not saved. You will first begin with the fusion sword and later on you will obtain the Lumina sword in the spiralling tower.

As far as RPG elements are concerned,there are plenty of interactions in the village, whether it is talking to a villager, buying things, appraise items, buying action figure etc. Unlike Final Fantasy VII or Xenogears, it doesn't have any FMVs or anime for you to watch. With the Final Fantasy VIII demo packed with the Brave Fencer Musashi, it makes the game even a MUST.

Despite not having the best graphics for an action-RPG, RPG elements like having a 24-hour clock, assimilation, collecting action figure make up far more than anyone has expected. Once again, Square has created another worthy beautiful gem. With gameplay that last between 14 to 28 hours, Brave Fencer Musashi will be able to keep you busy until Final Fantasy VIII arrives next year in September. And don't forget about Parasite eve and Xenogears.

My Personal Thought:

The story may look very simple to you. Yeah, a hero saving the world. But, from what i think, the greatest achievement that Brave Fencer Musashi has, is the amount of humour, something which most games have failed to do so. One of the factors that owns to this success is perhaps the voice-overs. And, if you truly enjoy the humourous dialogues, then you will definitely enjoy Brave Fencer Musashi.

Story : 9.5/10.0
Graphics : 8.0/10.0
Concept : 9.0/10.0
Control : 7.5/10.0
Music : 9.5/10.0
Sound : 7.5/10.0
Gameplay : 8.5/10.0
Replay : 7.0/10.0
Challenge : 8.5/10.0
Overall : 8.0/10.0

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/01/00, Updated 12/16/02