Musashi wasn't to bad, but it wasn't great either. This game could of
been alot better if it had a more fully developed story, and about 3
more dungeons. I liked the graphical style alot though, but the
controls were a little frustrating and the lack of save spots was
annoying. This isn't as good as the original, but even that game
disappointed me when I first played it, so take that with what you
will.
This game in alot of ways reminds me of Megaman X: Command
Mission. The characters are artfully cel-shaded, the game is split in
chapters, you always report back to one town, the music is similar,
short quest and each chapter follows the same storyline pattern.
----------Battle System----------
Musashi Samurai Legend is a Action / Adventure / RPG quite similar
to Kingdom Hearts. You hack and slash your way through a hord of
enemies until you reach your goal. The enemies are either
predeterminedly place or randomly regenerate. The boss fights are huge,
and can last a long time. Each one has a different pattern to killing
them, so they throw some variety at you. I hear people on this site
saying the boss fights were easy, but that's only true if you stock up
with a ton of health items, if you really want a challenge you try to
beat one of these suckers without restoring your life. If you die
during a boss fight you aren't penalized at all, actually I think you
are rewarded with full health and magic and all the items you used are
restored.
Musashi can equip 2 swords and an accessory, the accessory can
give his various ability boosts, while the first sword is your main way
of attack, which can be upgrade a few times. The 2nd sword is your
final blow in a combo attack, or you can use the triangle button to
just swing it, but it’s a slower attack. The 2nd sword also has a
special magic attack that comes with it. These attacks help you defeat
bosses in their strategies, or bypass blockades in the dungeons that
once prevented you from advancing in the game. Musashi will also gain a
few items that will also advance him in the game, for example one item
that will make him double jump, or another that allows him to climb on
certain walls.
The major selling point to the original Musashi was he could learn
the enemies attacks. This time around however he can learn them for
good, but it’s a little harder to get them. To learn the enemies
attacks you need to lock on them and wait for your meter to reach the
end, then wait for them to attack you, then you have to hit the square
button, then actually perform the move before you actually have it
saved.
Atleast in every chapter you have to save a Maiden, and for some
reason they're all to lazy to walk, so Musashi has to carry them out of
the dungeon. Since he's holding a Maiden while trying to escape, he
obviously can't use his sword, so what does he do? Uses the Maiden as a
weapon, yep. He can however throw the Maiden in the air and use a spin
attack with his sword, but he would rather use the Maiden, that can't
even walk, was trapped in a pod for who knows how long, as a weapon.
The dungeons feel like scrap left over from a Kingdom Hearts game,
except they're a little longer and have more puzzle solving elements to
them. They're kinda long, but you always end up backing to them a few
times. Backing once is alright if you unlock new areas like this game
does, but you have to backtrack for stupid reasons a few times without
doing much new other than to collect something and run back.
Another familiarity from the original is you have to find all the
towns people. The thing that annoys me about it in this one is they're
WAY to easy to find, and there's only 28 of them. Everyone is important
though, but that's no excuse to make it this easy. The best part about
the original was figuring out how to find the towns people.
----------Characters / Story----------
Musashi is a 'hip' 'cool' bellyshirt wearing teenager with hands
the size of Donkey Kong. He was summoned by the Princess to rescue the
kidnaped Maidens and get the 5 swords needed to revive their town and
put a stop to some bad guys. This is pretty similar, if not the same to
the original Musashi. There's one princess you have to save atleast 3
times. The story is oddly paced, the dialog is embarrassing and the
game follows a generic pattern that gets old after the 2nd time you do
it.
----------Graphics----------
The characters and enemies are cel-shaded in a very strange way,
but I love it alot. My only complaint with the characters style is
Musashi looks stupid in a bellyshirt, and no ones mouth moves at all.
The dungeons and town are fully CGI, there's really nothing BAD about
the graphics, but there's nothing great either. The dungeons have a
decent amount of length to them, but there's only a few in the game.
The game opens with a flashy anime cutscene, but that's the only one
you'll see in the game.
----------Sound----------
Only about 1/4 of the dialog is voiced out, maybe even less than
that. Musashi's voice is really grating and so is most of the other
characters, some of the worst voice acting I've heard in a game in a
long time. The music is decent, laid back keyboard / ambience driven
music similar to the stuff I heard in Megaman X: Command Mission.
There's also some surf music to be found aswell.
----------World Map----------
The world map is a linear straight line where you connect the dots
to advance much like Super Mario 3 or more closely Final Fantasy:
Crystal Chronicles. To open the world map you have to talk to the mayor
of the 'town' and it will open where you guide a giant whale to the
destination you want to visit. There's only a few places to go, and you
basically open one new area a chapter. There's only one 'town' but its
more like a 3 story Mall. Where do these people sleep? I don't know.
You can only save in town and no where else. There are checkpoints in
the dungeons but they can get long where you might need to save, so you
better play this game if are fully prepared to give up an hour of your
day straight.
----------Time to Complete Game (last save after credits)----------
15:05
After the game is done with you save it, and restart the game. I'm
not sure if it’s a new game plus or not, but there might be some new
secrets with it.
