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Brave Fencer is almost certainly the most irritating game I've ever played. However, considering the amount of inarticulate rage I directed at the screen as I played, the game left me with a fairly good impression.
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The irritations set in as soon as you can see the game unfold. The game is just primitive graphically. Now, this wouldn't normally be a big concern for me personally, but in this case, it bugged me. Why? Because the poor graphics interfered with the game. All the characters and, more importantly, enemies are badly pixilated. Meaning just this: I couldn't tell what was going on. Although I did get used to it after awhile, I'm sure I fell off more than one cliff because of it.
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How irritating one finds the sound is entirely a matter of taste. This does not apply so much to the music, which is decent but with no particularly memorable tracks, but the voice acting. The voices, I think, are of reasonable quality, but some may not think so. Here's the trick; the Voices are purposely terrible. Yes, the princess is whiny and nasal, Musashi sounds like a cocky ten-year-old, and his 'rival' sounds like a badly dubbed kung fu movie. However, I stick to my belief (especially since every character is similarly bad) that this is all intentional, and all the funnier for it.
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The gameplay is, overall, a fun, quick-paced Zelda-clone. Musashi runs and jumps about, wielding the huge and slow Lumina and the quicker, weaker Fusion. He can also charge attacks, which has different effects. Lumina begins with a simple spin, but as you progress through the game's 6 chapters, it acquires abilities from the Legendary Scrolls Musashi is collecting. These serve primarily as puzzle fodder. Using Fusion's charge attack, Musashi can absorb enemies' attacks, which are evenly split between puzzle and combat function. Musashi gains strength and ability through many means. You occasionally find Legendary Armor, which again is primarily for puzzles and exploration, which give Musashi various abilities. Oddly, none of them increase his defense. Musashi has six main stats: HP, BP (energy for absorbed attacks), Body (strength), Mind (defense), Fus (Fusion's attack power), and Lum (Lumina's attack power). HP is gained by eating Longevity Berries, obtained through sidequests. BP is gained by freeing prisoners (another quest), and automatically after major boss battles. Body levels based on kills, Mind on steps, and Fus and Lum by using the respective swords.
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So far so good. However, Musashi also faces a large amount of jumping puzzles, some nigh-impossible enemies, and the most counter intuitive puzzles I've ever encountered. Example: whilst searching a mine for an underground lake, I find a large gap, with the path visibly continuing ahead and a large fan at the bottom of the screen. I test to make sure the fan can lift Musashi, then float across when the fan is blowing. However, I soon come upon a room with only one other exit, which shortly deposits me at the mine's entrance. A couple hours later, I give up and seek help. As it turns out, the path lies beneath the fan. Yes, under the fan. And this is just the puzzle that stuck in my mind... there are others equally baffling to the sane person.
Compounding this is the game's lackluster controls. Normally, I pay little attention to how the controller moves my digital persona about, but in this case it needs mentioning. As I said above, Musashi contains quite a few jumping puzzles, which I dislike in and of themselves. However, it's worse because the 'Jump' command is unresponsive at times. Also, Musashi ALWAYS runs, and therefore has to skid to a stop. Or, equally often, try to stop and fall straight off a cliff.
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A quick note, though, the game picks up a lot in the final chapter, the major bosses are a good challenge (though they follow the 'observe attacks, use newest ability, smash weakness' pattern), and the final boss, though a tad cheap, actually looks pretty cool.
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The story line is pretty cheesy as an RPG, but as a Zelda-clone isn't unbearable. The kingdom of Allucaneet (pronounced All-you-can-eat) has been invaded by the Thirstquencher Empire while the King and Queen are on vacation. In desperation, the Princess uses the royal family secret, the Hero Summon, to find help. They get a 10 year old named Musashi, who shares his name with a legendary warrior who sealed up an evil wizard with Lumina. Told he can't go home until he saves the Kingdom, Musashi fetches Lumina, but returns to find the Princess being kidnapped. Thinking Lumina alone may not be enough, Musashi decides to find the Legendary Scrolls to power up Lumina while he figures out how to get the princess back. Although a few twist are thrown in during the last chapter (fairly predictable ones, mind you), that’s pretty much the whole game.
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What you think of characters again comes down to taste. Again, by RPG standards the characters are clichéd and never develop. However, they are a rather eccentric crew, and basically serve to keep the game funny in between your hacking of beasties. Put it this way: where else (except, perhaps, the Street Fighter movie) could you find such classic one-liners as "Vhat? I don't vemember killing YOUR parents!"
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Finally, the game is pretty short. My final time was 14 hours, with perhaps half of the sidequests and max levels. The game prompted me for a save after the credits, so there is a replay option, but no added endings or challenge, meaning it's for completists only. All said, the nasty, evil puzzles gave me a terrible impression while struggling through the games mid-section, but the last chapter and the game's humor saved it from a dismal grade.
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