Brandish

"Not bad for eating up some extra time."

It doesn't suprise me that a lot of people don't know about this game, first of all its made by Koei, not exactly one of the most popular 16 bit developers around, second it must have been a pretty small release cause I had to hunt around for a while trying to track this game down, its not a collectors item as far as I know, and for a tittle with, what I'm assuming, is a small (or no) following was pretty tough to find. The only way I heard about this game was by stumbling upon it in my friends snes collection, because of the neato cover art I asked what it was, he said he had never played it before (and didn't care to) so he offered to lend it to me and, I (of course) decided to give it a whirl. What I found was a pretty decent dungeon crawl that burned away a lazy weekend or two.

Graphics: 6/10
Pretty bland for most of the time, the in game overhead graphics are pretty dull, boring colour schemes and limp looking sprites with stiff animation are the order of the day. Now what raises the score a little bit is the inclusion of some real purdy cinemas and assorted still pictures thrown in for good measure, on a whole they are quite nicely drawn and, do well to break up the monotony giving Brandish a little more flavor in its visual palette. Now I know full screen cinemas are common place now-a-days but it was not to common in the 16-bit age, so I thought they'd be worth mentioning.

Sound: 7/10
While the soundtrack isn't in the same league as say FF2(4), it has some supirsingly nice tunes. When you go shoping and during the cinemas the music carries the feeling of the game quite well. Some of the tracks that play duing gameplay tho are a little iritating and tend to loop a little to soon for my liking. The sound effects what few there are, are pretty much non-existent with only the ocaisional beep and clang here and there.

Control: 6/10
It takes getting used to, thats putting it mildly. Its pretty darned freaky at first but once you get your head around it (whadya mean attack and defend is the same button!??) It becomes second nature. The menus while rather ugly are simple to use and a snap to brezze through.

Gameplay: 7/10
Unlike the control the gameplay is pretty basic, its sort of like a sluggish action RPG, explore the floor your on kill the baddies, get the treasure and move on, getting little snippets of the story as you go along. While nothing mind bending happens here, the game is what it is. If you're expecting a ''Zelda'' you'll be more than a little disapointed.

Story: 6/10
This would have gotten a slightly lower score if not for one thing, role reversal! Instead of playing the down troden student out to avenge the death of your teacher, you actually get to play the killer with the student of the teacher coming after you. This isn't a huge thing but it was kinda nice to be the bad ass instead of the all righteous student (even tho Kain: Blood Omen eventually did this better). Asides from this interesting little twist a lot of the story is rather predictable with some pretty shallow characters and a lot of dungeon crawling to stumble upon story bits. Nothing revouloutionary here.

Fun: 7/10
Brandish is not exactly a top notch RPG, with its iffy controls, bland game graphics, and sometimes slow paced gameplay, it would send most gamers runing away screaming at first glance, but in like so many cases before it, the persistent gamer with a little time and effort will find charm and gaming goodness within this cart. It wont appeal to all, but those with a little extra time in between the next ''big release'' could certainly do worse.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/01, Updated 10/27/01