Oh hey, it’s that game they included for free when you bought that Final Fantasy VIII demo! Seriously, that’s the only reason I own this game. Including demos of highly anticipated games with games that probably wouldn’t do well on their own is a brilliant marketing strategy. I’m surprised more companies don’t do it. I was riding high off of the hype from beating FFVII and FFT within the past year, so the thought of having a playable demo of FFVIII was too appealing to pass up. I played the heck out of that demo, too, to the point that I don’t really like doing the Dollet mission whenever I play the game now.
Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh right, Brave Fencer Musashi. Yeah, this turned out to be a pretty good game. Apparently, Musashi is supposed to be some legendary hero from another time, and Princess Fillet of the Allucaneet Kingdom (Nearly everyone’s name in this game is some sort of food pun, so the name is the kingdom is pronounced like “All you can eat”) has the power to summon the legendary hero to their time to aid them whenever a crisis arises. Apparently, all the royal family of that kingdom possess that special ability, so it’s hereditary or it’s passed down. Anyway, when they summon Musashi into their world, he’s just some little teenage boy who doesn’t have any recollection of being this legendary hero, so the princess is a little disappointed. But regardless, they don’t have much choice, so they try to get him to help them out and save their kingdom.
The story is generally pretty lighthearted but enjoyable. It never really takes itself too seriously, which is nice. It’s silly and it knows it, which is better than being silly while trying to be serious! It does have a couple of serious moments that are pretty good, like where you find out that Jon is actually Colonel Capricciola! I totally didn’t see that one coming either. This may have been the first game I played that had extensive voice acting in it as well. It was often pretty cheesy (“Y’all gonna get a lickin’!”), but it wasn’t outright bad, from what I recall.
The gameplay is where Brave Fencer Musashi really excels though. It’s an action RPG, so there are no random battles, which is nice. As Musashi, you have two swords, Fusion and Lumina (A Ford and a Chevy working side by side, huh? Who’d have thought). Fusion is a small sword that also has the ability to Assimilate, which basically means you can throw it at an enemy and steal their powers, a la Kirby. There are like 25-30 different abilities, too, so you get a good variety. Some of them are situational (like there’s a power that lets you jump higher so you can reach an area you couldn’t before) and some of them grant you special attacks, like a laser. Lumina is a large sword that grows more powerful as the game progresses and you unlock the powers from the various elemental scrolls, and those powers are generally used to help you solve puzzles or open a new area in dungeons. You usually have to use that special power to defeat the boss of the area where you unlocked the scroll, too.
The game can be pretty challenging, too. Some of the dungeons are tough, and it’s got some pretty difficult puzzles as well, like trying to shut down Steamwood before it explodes. The last dungeon is really good, too, and it does a great job of mixing it up so you essentially have to use everything you’ve learned in order to beat it. It also has several good boss fights, especially the last boss. I remember it being a hard fight and dying a whole lot of times before I finally beat it. It was fun though. This is another one of those games I’d like to play through again one of these days to see how well it holds up. Either way, it couldn’t possibly be worse than Samurai Legend Musashi, but that’s a rant for another time!
Bonus Question: Is there a game you bought for a reason other than the game itself?
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