Musashi looks very, very different.
Remember Brave Fencer Musashi? It was a pretty neat Adventure game on the PS1, with a few experimental ideas, like an in-game day and night cycle, added to a traditional adventure formula in which you gathered new equipment to access new areas. While a few things had aged, it's still a great game by today's standards. Enter Musashi - Samurai Legend, one of the more obscure releases from Square Enix as well as a pseudo-sequel to that charming little PS1 game.
This Musashi is hinted to be the same one, albeit older, as the one from the first game... even if they look nothing alike. Long story short, Musashi gets summoned to another land, and once again he must gather the five elemental swords, this time requiring the aid of each of the blade's maidens to unlock their power, in order to defeat the big bad that plagues the land. The story is serviceable, but nothing to write home about, and the art direction is.... weird, it's pretty distinctive, but not all that appealing. Musashi looks like a dork, but oh well! The game tried a bit too much to be like the previous game, the same five swords, a forest level with a little islet surrounded with water, a forest that requires specific directions not to get lost in, a mine stage... a lot of the game feels very familiar, and the franchise hasn't earned the right to have recurring themes yet.
The ninjas look mean, but the combat is so slow.
You'll be surprised at how little the game has changed. That said, the game is no longer a fully inter-connected world, but rather, it's divided in about five different stages as well as a town hub in which you can interact with NPCs... NPCs that must be rescued, just like in Musashi 1, except that your rewards aren't, well, as rewarding. That said, civilians are much easier to find this time around, you probably have to try very hard to avoid finding them, and they'll offer their services, like letting you purchase food, appraise items or temper your Katana to make it stronger.
When exploring other lands, Musashi will come across various enemies, and once again he has access to two different swords. Square is your weak Katana, while triangle uses your equipped elemental sword. Your triangle attack is slow and useless, so you'll never, ever press the triangle button, save to save citizens from their sphere-cages. Combat is a very simple affair: Hold R1 to target them and just mash the square button. Just like before you can steal powers from your enemies, by targeting them until a gauge fills up, and then countering with the square button just as they hit you with their ability. Abilities are kept for ever now, so you can just pick the one you want and use it with circle... but combat is so bland that you'll only use them on bosses... not because you need them to, but because they deal damage faster. At least, defeating enemies earn you experience points, and you can choose which stat to favor with bonus stat points each time you level up
The Arena features a few exclusive enemies.
There're a few novelty vehicle stages thrown in, in which you'll just travel forward and have to defeat enemies or break obstacles... they are rather lame and boring, but at least they aren't annoying. There's also a weird carrying mechanics... Each of the five chapters have at least one moment in which you'll have to carry the chapter's elemental maiden on your arms, and you can attack while holding them, while being slowed down. I've no idea why these sequences are in, they are not fun, they are not funny, and even if they are not annoying they add absolutely nothing to the game.
As you advance through the game you'll earn the aforementioned elemental blades, each one has a spell that can be used in battle or to solve very, very simple puzzles. They are more like obstacles than anything else, really. See fire? Use the Water sword to put it out or freeze magma to use as a platform. See a Switch or a cracked rock? Use the Earth sword. It's very mechanical, and there's very little thinking involved. You probably won't get stuck at any moment... albeit when the game does a poor job at telling you where to go next. Like the moment you rescue the Earth Maiden, the game tells you to rescue her... but you're not supposed to get her out of the forest, rather, take her deeper into the forest.
Get ready to fight a lot of robots and a lot of ninjas.
Musashi - Samurai Legend is more disappointing than anything else. Exploration is very limited and somewhat unrewarding, combat can be rather dull, and it has some very lame ideas thrown into the mix. That said, it's not a bad game, everything does work, even if it's nothing special. Truly, the worst part about the game is being a sequel to a great game, so you come at the game with certain expectations that it just can't match up to. They should've made puzzles more interesting, make the combat, heck, the entire game faster and get rid of the dumb carrying sequences. Exploration too should've been better, this is an Adventure game after all, hide the NPCs better and make them more rewarding to find, make me actually want to rescue them.
When it's al said and done, at least the game isn't a total blunder. There's a lot of squandered potential, there're a lot of things that could've been worse, but what we've got is a passable little game that makes your wish you were playing the PS1 original instead.
6.5 out of 10
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