Well, it’s taken a while, but at least it’s here. This is the sequel to the cult PSone title Brave Fencer Musashi by Squaresoft that was never actually released in the UK. Where Brave Fencer was Square's first real attempt at an action-RPG, here, Samurai Legend takes the ideas laid down in the first game and expands on them.
Musashi Samurai Legend (MSL) is aimed at a market that’s not to keen on the idea of a full-on, stats-based RPG and tries to disguise all of the scary numbers and status bars under a fantastically colourful shell and jumpy platform gameplay. Don’t be to put off by this though, as it does have some merit. It’s never going to fully win over the hardcore RPG'er, nor those that aren’t fans of the genre - and herein lies some of the game's niggles.
The main premise here is that Musashi has been called from his dimension by Mycella, a princess who is in dire need of help to save her world from the evil corporation Gandrake Enterprises, who are robbing the planet of its resources. Mycella has summoned Musashi thinking him to be the hero of legend, much to Musashi's surprise, and only for the princess to be kidnapped into the bargain!
Now that Musashi is here, it is his task to rescue the princess and awaken the 5 swords of the land. Each of the fabled blades has an elemental attribute and a land assigned to it (I’m sure you can guess what they are), and here is where the main body of the game is played out. As Musashi explores the land he will encounter all kinds of variations on ninja, robots and bugs, all sticking with the great "over-the-top" manga style of the game (see below). By defeating enemies, Musashi gains experience points that can be distributed as the player sees fit, once Musashi levels up. Here is a main difference between the action-RPG and a traditional one. The process is very simple. A menu shows a few options of whether the player wants more strength, magic power etc etc. It works well but it won’t be in depth enough for some. Throughout the course of the levels, new items and "parts" can be found, as well as new members to the world who have been encased in magical spheres to protect them from the evil corporation. Once these folks have been found, they open up new features and shops in the main game hub area. A nice touch, and incentive enough to backtrack through previous levels and areas to discover new characters.
Battles are fairly basic, and can be a touch tiresome at first, but this soon opens up nicely once an ability has been learnt, which actually steals the moves and special attacks from enemies. Musashi has a "Focus" meter that can also be upgraded, and it also acts as a form of ‘lock-on’. As the player holds the R1 button to "focus" on an enemy, the relevant bar fills up. If the bar reaches "full" before an enemy attacks, an exclamation mark appears and the player must push the ‘square’ button before it disappears. It’s split-second stuff, but once achieved, Musashi then learns that attack for himself. There is a catch here though! - As you’re learning this enemy move, you need to be hit by it first, so countless amounts of energy can be lost before obtaining a certain skill.
I really need to mention the wonderful graphical style at this point. Being dubbed "Manga-Shading" which is essentially a modified version of cell shading, MSL has a fantastic look to it. With huge, bold outlines and vivid colours the game really stands out from the pack. The only games in the genre that match it in terms of graphical style would be Level 5's "Dark Chronicles" and or "Dark Cloud". The game has a great cast of characters, even if a little clichéd. You've got your main bad guy (Gandrake) with his long black hair, a talking cat as a mentor, your usual tank-like, meat-headed bruiser sorts, and snivelling, do-gooder princesses! Musashi on the other hand is rather unique, well, in the hair department at least. His hair reminds me of the scarf Shinobi wears in the latest remakes - it flows behind him looking almost as if it has a life of its own. It all adds to the general charm of the game and puts a smile on your face at the same time. A special mention needs to go the character design of the bosses, with some great touches and personality shining through. The animation is slick and fluid, but the game can suffer from a bit of slowdown on occasion during scenes that have quite a few things going on at once, and it never really affects the gameplay.
While the music is hardly awe-inspiring, it is pleasant enough, and never gets on your nerves... Unlike the voice acting... Oh yes, it’s almost like voice actors around the world didn’t even attempt to learn from the unintentionally amusing atrocity that was Resident Evil 1. I kid you not, some of the alleged “acting” here is just as cringeworthy. The characters of Musashi and Glogg being especially bad. It’s about time game publishers realised that the majority of gamers buying products like this are likely to be anime fans, or just fans of Japanese games, so why not leave the original Japanese voiceovers in and use subtitles? Botched voice acting is just madness...
And so that concludes Musashi: Samurai Legend. Rather a mixed bag as far as both RPGs and platform action games go, and never quite reaching the pinnacle of either game type. While MSL does have its faults, it also looks great and is good fun, even if it can’t make up its own mind about what it’s trying to achieve.
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