Brave Fencer Musashi

"Perhaps the best action rpg for Playstation"

Brave Fencer Musashi is an action rpg developed by Square. Some may argue that the games selling point was its demo of Final Fantasy VIII. Some may say that the game is too easy. Those people are wrong. Brave Fencer Musashi is one of the best action rpgs for the Playstation.

Brave Fencer Musashi opens up with the Allucaneet Castle under attack from the Thirstquencher Empire. Because the situation the princess of Allucaneet summons a hero to save them and retrieve the sword Thirstquencher is after, Lumina. The hero they summon is just a boy, whose name is Musashi. They explain the situation to him and he refuses at first, but the princess tells him he can't go back to his own world until he saves Allucaneet Kingdom. With that said, Musashi agrees to help and thus the adventure begins.

Musashi plays like an action but the only difference is that you have a HP and MP bar and when you hit something numbers appear on screen. This is what an action rpg is. As you progress through the game Musashi's stats will grow as you travel, fight, and gain new abilities. Combat in this game is pretty easy to get into. Musashi has a basic five hit combo but as you progress he can learn several new techniques. As you make your way through the game you may come across legendary armor that gives Musashi new abilities like double jumping. Not only that Musashi has the ability to copy any enemies special attack by absorbing their powers. Although that won't change the game much it does add some variety. There are some places where you are required to have a certain ability or solve a puzzle. Musashi is a pretty linear game. There is only one town in the whole game and everything connects from that town. In the town you can have Musashi buy food, have special items looked at, or you can even buy toys for Musashi to play with. Musashi even needs to sleep to be at full power. That adds a touch of realism to the game. Throughout the game Musashi will be helping the townspeople while on his quest. The objectives in this game are also really easy to follow. You will be doing things like riding a mine cart to saving a dog. To the more difficult ones like finding your way through a forest maze. Overall, this game will give you plenty to do.

Musashi's graphics look pretty good as well. The game is played from a overhead perspective so it is easy to see everything around you. The game has nice lighting effects when it goes from day to night. The town looks great and so do the environments. However, everything else doesn't look that great. The townspeople lack the amount of detail Musashi has. So do the enemies in the game (except for the bosses). Other then that Musashi has pretty descent graphics.

Musashi has great voice work and music. The voice acting in this game was performed very well. This is perhaps the best voice acting that I have heard on a Playstation game. It really does make the game that much more enjoyable. The music is also really good. The quality is almost as good as a Final Fantasy game.

This game doesn't have much replayability. After when you finish the game you can go back and play through the last part again but there is no point (other then to just see the ending). However, you can go back through and find all of the longevity berrys and Bincho fields in the game. Longevity berries raise Musashi's HP level and Bincho fields raise his MP level. You do get something special if you find all of the berries but not for the Bincho Fields. That was a little disappointing. It would have been nice if you could earn a alternate ending but you can't. After you finish this game once you won't have a reason to go back and play it. However, the game is fun and if you like action games and rpgs then this game belongs in your collection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/29/05