Musashi Samurai Legend

Written by Adam Woolcott  on June 08, 2005

Review: Some legends should be left untold.

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In 1998, Squaresoft's Brave Fencer Musashi was released, spawning a cult-favorite action RPG from a company known for much more traditional role-players. The combination of RPG elements and action-oriented gameplay perhaps wasn't fresh considering the PlayStation was the home of RPGs, but nonetheless the game was well liked by those who played it. In the time since then, games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, and God of War have led a revival of the action/adventure genre, thanks to their speedy, yet strategic and intense take on the genre. Unfortunately, it seems Square Enix didn't take note of these trends in action gaming when delivering the oft-demanded Brave Fencer sequel, Musashi Samurai Legend. Though creative in many ways, from the 'manga-shading' visuals, to the interesting gameplay elements, the plodding and antiqued pace of combat makes Musashi feel like it's still stuck in 1998. If DMC or GoW are too much to handle, MSL might fit the bill, but don't expect anything with the quality of its forebear.

It is a dark time for those who live upon the Anthedon, which can be best described as a whale that can fly. Though originally looked upon with good intentions, the Gandrake Company has shown its true colors, looking to use the powers of the Anthedon residents to rule the world in their own way. To help combat this evil presence, the Princess, Mycella, summons a hero to save the day...hopefully. See, the summoning doesn't bring a legit hero; instead, merely an individual who possibly could become one arrives. In this case, naturally, it's Musashi, who arrives just as Mycella is kidnapped by Gandrake himself for use in his schemes. Discovered by a talking cat master (I can't make this stuff up) who teaches him some important basics, Musashi eventually makes his way to Anthedon and discovers his destiny to save other princesses across the world to grant him enough power to defeat Gandrake. It has its twists here and there but ultimately it's pretty standard fare, though I'm sure you realize that considering you're rescuing a freaking zillion princesses.

As an action RPG at its purest, there's plenty of role-playing elements that you'd find in a turn-based game. Musashi levels up, finds stronger weapons, armor, and accessories, and deals in HP/MP in order to survive. Recovering health is done in a very Kingdom Hearts-like way since health and magic items are dropped frequently by defeated enemies, though they also drop money here and there. Unfortunately the first strike comes from the leveling system; it's an awful, boring level grind that forces you to fight a lot to gain the levels necessary to get through the game. Considering many areas come with respawning enemies, be prepared to fight a lot when you have to backtrack, another thing that comes frequently. The lack of save points, instead replaced with checkpoints since you can only save in Musashi's room in Anthedon, is another bothersome trait for any game that wants to be an RPG, seeing that you could very well lose a lot of what you've worked for in a level and be unable to save for another day.

Musashi Samurai Legend offers a couple quirks to its action gameplay. The first is the ability to 'focus' and copy moves of certain enemies, which you then can equip and use, with your MP as the source. It's easy enough; just lock onto an enemy and build up focus, then you need to block an enemy strike and boom, you've learned an ability. Not every enemy in the game has a move to learn, but when the lockon target is blue, that enemy has something to offer. The other thing is carrying NPCs Ц sure, this is not something new, but in MSL, your saved princesses/whatevers can become vital to accomplishing tasks. They can be used as a weapon, thrown around to solve puzzles, and used to help Musashi execute more powerful attacks. It's pretty fun and adds another layer to the gameplay.

However, even tossing enemies and learning skills can't save the stuck-in-the-past gameplay. Musashi moves and attacks at a snails pace, lacking the finesse or cool factor of Dante or Kratos, even Leon Belmont in Castlevania for that matter. The game just moves at a plodding, antiquated pace from beginning to end, and never feels all that exciting. In a lot of ways, you can just race through an area without attacking, but yet, the game is such a level grind that missing a few fights might cost you valuable EXP to tackle an upcoming boss encounter. Musashi just feels like a sloppy mess of a game, and one that feels like it could have been on the PlayStation in 1998 and fit right in. The concept of this badass samurai guy laying the smack down is one that should be put to use well, and instead of getting a crazy action game like DMC3, we get an action game for those without reflexes. That just doesn't work anymore, and the slow-motion feel of combat is not fun at all.

If only the rest of the game was as polished and as fun as the visual presentation. Using a process called 'manga-shading' that's basically cel-shading reworked to appear more like a manga (an offshoot of anime pretty much), and it makes Musashi Samurai Legend very unique in this regard. Everything is colorful and all the enemies look like comic book designs put into 3D, in many ways. You can easily sense the presense of character designer Tetsuya Nomura, as the characters could have been part of Kingdom Hearts or any of the recent Final Fantasies aside from IX. The framerate is solid though considering the snails pace of the game, this isn't really hard. Musashi does have some solid animations and a large set of them, it's just a shame everything is executed so slowly. On the audio end, the soundtrack is a combination of typical RPG music and funky surf rock that's not used enough, actually. The surf rock really fits with the wacky attitude of Musashi, but never lives up to the potential (a common theme with this game, actually). Voice acting is typically hammy but it seems intentional considering the whimsical, silly feel of the game.