Squaresoft unleashed what appeared to be a brawler-esque action-RPG with Brave Fencer Musashi, but the shallow combat and frantic scenes of its opening chapter are misleading: Theirs is de facto an action-adventure game that takes on many forms, graced by Square's elaborate production and a cheeky sense of humor. To start with, Musashi's flippant remarks and the caricatures surrounding him give an original twist to the format, defining a sort of over-the-top version of Alundra (and Link's Awakening by extension) as the former works a variety of odd-jobs around town. Variety is also the keyword for its gameplay. Far from just fighting and exploring, their dungeons contain all sorts of clever scenarios, utilizing bits of 3D platforming, Zelda-like tools & puzzles and some tough minigames, before concluding with tense (if occasionally unfair) boss battles. Its systems are equally as diverse, and the most unusual of the bunch: Skill mimicry a la Kirby, use-based stat exp and (above all) an in-game clock that affects everything from shops, area access, villager behavior, objectives, unlocks and even a fatigue system. If gameplay polish is not exactly their strong point, they at least excel at cross-pollinating genres and mechanics.

Progression is more of a mixed blessing - however. While getting lost is very likely - mainly due to the camera's short range and the lack of a permanent map, they offer a lot more clarity in terms of tasks and item usage, often guiding/instructing the player via menus or NPCs. In other words, there's difficulty in 'where to go' but rarely in 'what to do'. Only the final dungeon veers into truly vague and frustrating territory, and that's enough to end the playthrough on a sour note. But for the most part, each of these ideas coalesce into a lively, sprawling work that - in a sense, acts as a bridge between the RPG-spoofing of Mother and the incendiary whimsy of Disgaea.

Gameplay: Very good
Story: Somewhat childish but good
Music: Quite good
Replayable: A little bit
Streamed: Yes

When the game permits itself to show the player a fun, bombastic setpiece sequence, its latent charm and creativity finally takes centre stage. Really cool moments that make the fullest use of the environments and hardware to reinvent the way you have to tackle obstacles.
The overwhelming majority of the game, however, is hamstrung by the worst controls imaginable and sprawling sadistically vague world design. This cast and world is so great! But Brave Fencer Musashi throws itself into cryosleep for hours at a time between the moments that absolutely slap. I don't want to say this game peaks in the first thirty or so minutes, but you can kinda safely only play the prologue and come out more positively than if you otherwise finished it.

BFM is a game that obviously had a lot of heart put into it, but is ultimately let down by its own ambitions. Knowing this game's status as a cult classic and one of the more underrated games under Square's belt, I had always been looking forward to finally giving it a try. Well, upon finally getting through it, it's a shame that my thoughts end up being pretty negative for the most part. But to start, I'll address the positives.

As I said, a lot of love clearly went into crafting this game. The game's art direction is brimming with childlike whimsy and Saturday morning cartoon vibes. The voice acting is surprinsingly solid for the time; often times even hilarious, but authentically so. And I briefly stated in the beginning that it had ambitions. These include things like a day and night cycle (including specific days of the week), healing foods that can spoil if kept too long, a system of copying enemy abilities to overcome certain obstacles, etc. These things are cool and all in theory, as they make the game feel unique in its own right. But while variety is the spice of life, it's things like this that make the game much more cumbersome than they ought to be.

I played this game shortly after having completed my first playthrough of Threads of Fate (also made by Square) and I couldn't help but draw comparisons to it. Threads of Fate was by no means an amazing game imo, but it had enough charm and decent combat to keep me entertained. BFM certainly shares that whimsical charm with Threads of Fate, but many things it tries to accomplish, I just feel Threads did better. The combat for one just feels really stiff and uninteresting here. I decided to try avoiding engaging in combat relatively early on with the regular enemies and I ended up getting a nasty surprise later on as the bosses just became way too difficult due to being underleveled. Funny enough, I didn't think level mattered much in this game until then because it's got such a weird leveling convention (Mind, Body, Lum, etc). I didn't really know what any of these meant when looking at my stats.

As I also mentioned prior, you do have the ability to copy enemy abilities, which is required to navigate certain areas. This really is a pain, though, because you need to charge up your sword in order to throw it at an enemy and extract their ability. It sounds simple in theory, but the fact that you can only face one way while charging up is incredibly annoying because often times the enemy will be moving around and you can't properly line up your shot and end up taking damage from them in the process. It seems like a minor nitpick, but this was a problem I had early on and it was foreshadowing what was truly to come. All I can say is: My oh my, does this game have some really sadistic design choices. But first, a bit of sidetracking.

Again, bringing up the possibility of your items spoiling, this is quite silly, because there's really no point in buying almost anything other than cheese in this game, which is the only item that actually improves its healing properties the more time you keep it in storage. On the subject of time, the day and night cycle that was implemented means that certain events relating to the story can only be completed at specific times and in rare cases, even a specific day. It forces you to either go rest at an inn for however long or just let Musashi sleep on the floor until its the right time to get up. For such a cartoony game, they sure added quite a handful of real life inconveniances to its logic. Now, moving on from my side rant, what is it that makes me say this game is sadistic?

The main issue here is its difficulty due to questionable "dungeon" design and dodgy controls. It started off fine. I was even enjoying my time with the game for the first couple of chapters (though still not necessarily thinking it was a particularly great game). The real problems began when they started adding more platforming. The controls feel janky enough as is, and now you're forced to perform some often tricky jumps with a less than ideal camera angle and sometimes unresponsive controls. It made a lot of areas feel grating, but at the very least the bosses at the end of each chapter were interesting and often enjoyable. I did mention earlier that I seemed to hit a severe difficulty spike in the later stages of the game with the bosses, but granted, they would have been way easier if I had taken the time to engage in combat more to level up. But then again, if the devs wanted me to grind, then they should have made the combat more engaging.

If I had to make one more nitpick, it's that the game lacked level variety. With some of the backtracking you have to do, this can get quite annoying, especially when dealing with the overhead view which can get nauseating after going around in circles trying to figure out where to go. BFM is a cute game that deserved better gameplay, and while the story wasn't anything to write home about, I still enjoyed its personality and charm despite often finding myself completely defeated by its challenge and jank.

Really soulful ARPG from Square. It's pretty awkward at times but has so much personality. I really like the time progression system even if it led to some annoyances, I like the immersive feeling of knowing how long an area took my hero to complete, and that aspect is something pretty largely ignored in most RPGs.

Chapter 3 is a bit of a low point, with a lot of really difficult platforming right before you unlock a powerup that really helps you with platforming, but everything else is pretty fun and Chapter 6 is a particular highlight, with a really awesome final dungeon.

Overall once you can get past some of it's PS1 jank, this game is really good and well worth playing, even the story has some interesting beats (though seriously wtf was the point of Kojiro lol)

Not a bad way to spend a couple days.

Well, it managed to be an experience to say at least. I feel like I could've appreciated this game more had I played it when it first came out, but I never did and now over 20 years later it's showing it's age pretty badly.

Mushashi starts out really solid, the first chapter is truly a blast to play through. There's some basic high-action platforming, easing into the game's unique assimilation-mechanic, cool robot boss and a kickass soundtrack. However, after the tutorial ends you find yourself in a somewhat open world with day/night - cycle, exhaustion bar and a goal to save the world.

Now, the RPG elements didn't bother me that much. They were hindrances at times, but it was easy to play around them and the game didn't really punish you for taking some prolonged tlc breaks. It kinda left them feel pointless if I'm completely honest, but at least it was nice to have an option to skip the time until the village's fishmonger does his midday butt-scratching and progresses story.

What really annoyed me was the platforming. Musashi really suffers from the early 3D-platforming with stupid camera angles and confusing hitboxes. On top of that, every time you jump in this game, the character does this little slide upon landing, which can sometimes throw you off the platform completely. Then, just as you're ready to pass on the game, it gives you double jumping, which makes platforming so easy you wonder if the devs realized how janky it was and decided to give you a break.

Musashi also really drags during the middle parts, especially in chapter 4 and 5. The story introduces new characters for the sake of introducing new characters to the plot and the fetch quests are really starting to grind at that point. Fortunately the last level brings it all around with the same type of action you saw in the first chapter and manages to make the game end on a high note. Musashi also has a banger of a soundtrack worth checking out.

An immensely cute and sassy Zelda-esque style adventure featuring a little purple haired samurai and a lot of goofy characters. The game hits the ground running, introducing all your mechanics and your main villain in a nice 5-10 minute opening. One of the core mechanics in this is the ability to absorb your enemy's abilities and use them yourself, which is both beneficial for combat and puzzle solving.

The game is quite slow and platforming is not its strong suit. It often likes to backtrack on specific events to do them multiple times which feels like padding more than actual progression, which I find very tedious.

However a lot of its frustrations and long stretches of running around are ammended by having fantastic presentation, (mostly) decent boss fights, and humor that's so immensely part of 1990s anime dub culture that it carries the game into its cult classic status. A unique little gem of a game that deserves a look if you need a fun action-adventure for a weekend.