Just as 1987 and 1988 seemed to be the peak years of sidescrolling action/adventure games in the vein of Zelda 2, 1997 to 1998 seemed to be the peak of 3D action/adventure games in the style of Ocarina of Time (though I use both Zeldas here as simple examples, as Nintendo certainly didn't invent either genre). Konami had Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Nintendo had Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Capcom had Mega Man Legends, and SquareSoft had Brave Fencer Musashi. Though it's in a similar genre to those other three games, there is a decidedly SquareSoft twist to the formula, as you would certainly expect from them. This was another game I got relatively far in (about halfway through) as a kid, but I ended up putting it down and just never going back to it for some reason or another. This time I was determined to see the game to its conclusion, though, and in the course of about 13.5 hours, I beat the second game based (extremely loosely) on Miyamoto Musashi I've played in the past six or so months XD

The story takes place in the Yakuinikku kingdom, where while the king and queen are on vacation, they find themselves under attack by the Ru Koaaru Empire. In dire straights, they decide to use the princess's magic to summon the legendary hero Musashi, who had saved the kingdom from the king of darkness over a hundred years ago. Upon his successful summoning, however, they find that he's a bit more pint-sized than they imagined him to be, and with a pretty smart mouth as well. Even though the princess ends up getting kidnapped, Musashi sets off on a mission to save her (even if it's mostly only to let him return home to his own world) by finding the five seals of the five rings (a reference to the real life Musashi) and defeating their five guardians. Very much like Mega Man Legends or Mystical Ninja, this game's story is mostly here to be entertaining, and while it might not be quite as memorable as Mega Man, it still manages to be pretty good fun and packed with silly puns and larger than life, buffoonish characters. It does a fine job of setting the stakes and making the world itself a compelling place to explore and fight in.

And fight in this world you absolutely will, as this is an action adventure game! Unlike Ocarina of Time or Mega Man Legends, however, this is a top-down game more like a traditional 2D Zelda rather than a 3D Zelda. There's enough jumping and platforming to put it firmly into the 3D genre rather than the 2D one, but the overall design philosophies veer harder towards something older despite it coming out in 1998. Not that that's a bad thing, as Musashi uses his two swords (another iconic bit referencing the historical figure) to do various combos and deal out magical attacks using the seals you've broken. There's even a system of hurling one of your swords into an enemy to absorb its power to give yourself a special magic attack! There are also the many villagers and workers in the castle who've been kidnapped and hidden in crystals for you to find out in the world. Not only will they be grateful for you saving them, but every one you save increases your magic meter a little, and some will even craft you special upgrades or teach you new combos~.

However, for whatever Musashi has in flavor and style, it also ends up having quite the amount of baggage trying to juggle and balance all of those different pieces. While the game is solidly enough put together, it's often too focused on gimmicks or just too poorly signposted, and it gets in the way of the adventure and the fun. There are some really annoyingly difficult vehicle sections, a hell of a final gauntlet to the final boss, a money system that's almost useless because there's almost nothing to buy, a really annoying day/night system with almost no meaningful purpose, and some really awkward platforming puzzles you're forced to do several times to pad out the playtime. That's only naming the bigger problems off the top of my head, but that's not even an entirely exhaustive list. This game is most certainly a PS1-era SquareSoft product in how it's entertainingly written and has ambitiously designed systems, but it's also a SquareSoft production in how just how much of that stuff tends to trip over itself as a result of its ambition.

The presentation of the game is very good, as one would expect from a SquareSoft game of this era. The characters are colorful and easily recognizable despite their small sizes, the enemy design is memorable, and the music is quite good too. None of it is my favorite in particular of a SquareSoft PS1 game, sure, but it's all very well done and none of it feels like it's only their B-team effort or anything.


Verdict: Recommended. There's a lot to enjoy in Musashi, but there's also a lot to complain about. This is definitely more along the lines of "cool but significantly flawed" that Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon is than the sort of timeless classic that Mega Man Legends is. If you're into retro 3D action/adventure games, than this is definitely one you should check out, as Musashi definitely does more right than it does wrong despite all its problems. However, if the awkward nonsense that retro games are so often full of bother you to a significant point, then you are likely going to not enjoy your time with this game very much and will feel your time well wasted as a result of trying it.