When then Square Co. released Brave Fencer Musashi on the PlayStation six years ago, the game wasn't even on people's radar the way that other games from the company are - there wasn't much hype and people didn't realize just how good the quirky action RPG was. Once it made its way into the blood stream of console gamers everything changed and fans realized that the spunky little samurai was one cool cat.
Square Enix plans to bring Musashi back (in style and in spirit - it's not the same character as the first game) in November in an all new action adventure role-playing game, and from the hype coming out of this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo that took play in L.A. in May, the game is very good indeed. Musashi's new action RPG promises to deliver what made the original game so wonderfully fun, along with some new features, a whole new game world to crash through and a new graphical style that should have fans of the little samurai chomping at the bit to snap up this game when it is released later this year.
While the story hasn't been completely fleshed out, the basic premise is that this new Musashi character (named after the famous and legendary dual sword wielding Japanese Samurai) finds himself transported to another world and ends up fighting a pitched battle against a variety of monsters. The game serves up a brand new world, a whole new cast of characters and lots of varied backdrops and settings. Beyond that we don't know much but from what we can surmise from information on the game, it will feature the same kind of whimsical settings and humor that made the first game so much fun..
Produced by the legendary Takashi Tokita and directed by the equally legendary Yoichi Yoshimoto - with art by Final Fantasy series artist Tetsuya Nomura (and featuring the talented development team behind the first game, Musashi Samurai Legend further chronicles the exploits of the little warrior as he embarks on an all-new adventure set in a world that looks like it might borrowed some artistic elements from Dark Cloud 2. The new game uses a graphics engine technique created by Square Enix called manga shader. Manga shader is similar to cel-shading but instead of letting the game system render shadows, the system implements hand-drawn shadowing. This allows for some pretty interesting and unique graphical style that makes it stand out as more than just a mere cel-shaded game. The world itself is bright, colorful highly detailed as a result.
As we mentioned earlier, the game world itself is reminiscent of Dark Cloud 2 in some respects because it combines traditional RPG style visuals with objects, NPCs, enemies and other world bits that are technological in nature. The game features a variety of mechanical enemies, objects and transportation like steam engines, motorcycles and flying ships - just to name a few. Some of these objects are functional and players will be able to use them while engaging in combat. The game also brings traditional Japanese architecture and settings into the mix, lending to the overall world, which is a melding between traditional and slightly fantastical. Musashi's personal and visual traits seem to remain intact, complete with his wildly electric looking hair-do and garb - a style that is representative of having Final Fantasy artists on the team.
Finally (in the visuals department) it should be noted that Musashi will feature opening cinematics created by legendary animation firm GAINAX (who is responsible for such anime as Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water), which should be the icing on the cake.
The game itself is purely action role-playing with a heavy emphasis on the latter - as was the case with the first game in the series. Musashi's fighting style remains relatively intact, with a few small tweaks to make it more interesting. For example a new dual blade "cutting" system has been added that balances the heavy attack of the Great Sword with the a lightening fast attack with the Katana.
The gameplay itself is pretty standard stuff - sword-slashing action, occasional jumping, etc. But beyond that, the game adds a few interesting features that add some flavor into the mix. Once of those elements is the ability to steal attacks via the "duplication" system, which lets players obtain attacks from enemies using a slightly twitch based process: players lock onto an enemy and wait for a small meter to fill in preparation and when the enemy engages its special attack players must hit the right button to capture it. While the system is pretty straightforward, mastering it will obviously take some practice. Unlike the previous game, you can steal more than just one special attack and stack them accordingly for later use.
Another keen gameplay mechanic is carrying. Players can lift friends and foes and travel with them, even when faced with combat. The ability to carry is an important part of the game as our pint-sized hero will find himself rescuing a lot of friends from dungeons and other hazardous hot spots and physically carrying them to safety. There are two attacks you can execute while carrying someone or something: through the person in the air and get a quick spinning sword-slash at the enemy, then catch them; or a throw the person in the air and deliver a more devastating attack, catching the person thereafter. The latter is a bit more drawn out but can be quite powerful against enemies. Fans should be happy with this slightly amusing style of attack, because there's nothing more enjoyable than using a person as a distraction to kill more monster..
On the character development end of the spectrum, players will find that the system is light but effective, with the ability to gain some stat boosts and other interesting goodies. The key make-up of your character is hit points, magic points, Strength, Defense, Focus, Luck and Duplication. We're not exactly clear on how the system works yet (ie: whether players get points when they level up that they use to upgrade stats or if some other system is in play).
