Musashi: Samurai Legend PS2 Review

Square-Enix is behind a lot of the success of the Sony Playstation 2 with their releases of the Final Fantasy series and other role-playing games that irk many to buy every title they release. This time though, Square-Enix has delivered a game outside their normal genre. Musashi: Samurai Legend is an action-adventure title that Square-Enix quite exactly hasn’t excelled in. This isn’t the first in the Musashi series as this is a follow up to 1998’s Brave Fencer Musashi. It caught on nicely to be revered by many but would Musashi Legend: Samurai Legend attain the same type of following?

Gameplay

The game starts with a conflict between Princess Mycella and Rothchild Gandrake. Princess Mycella is about to summon a fighter to her aide but ninjaroids break in and try to stop her attempt. Ninjaroids work for Gandrake so it’s easy to identify the antagonist of the story now. Gandrake is out for the normal world domination but must go through the Princess and her people of Antheum (town/city she hails from.

This isn’t the furthest extent Musashi goes to though for the plot. A young teenager and his sensei are working on some new fighting styles. His sensei, a cat, pretty much puts forwards the teenager’s life in pushing him to venture the world. He ends up at Antheum to learn of the devastation from Gandrake. From there, I bet you can fill the voids and figure out the story. Musashi must battle with Gandrake, help out Antheum and seek his destiny of becoming a stronger fighter.

It is a straight up action game so you can predict most of the game revolves around tedious fighting. I’ve come to expect this type of fighting with action titles. Almost like a hack-n-slash game, there’s not enough depth in Musashi: Samurai Legend to make it noteworthy. Square-Enix does try to throw in some elements not found in other action games such as riding on a motorcycle.

For an attempt to try and spice up the game, you can steal enemy skills. This is accomplished by attacking the mobs and filling up the focus meter. After focusing for so long, you have to hit the square button to capture the move. After that, the skill is at your disposal for the rest of the game. They’ll of course be attacking you and if the timing and focus is off, you’ll have to start over. No simple task at times.

Musashi: Samurai Legend isn’t apart of the top echelon action games but its certainly going to entertain those who love Square-Enix games. It has all the trademarks and common traits located within their games so I don’t think fans will find any trouble jumping right into this. If you aren’t a fan of the series, you may want to look elsewhere as the fighting is bland and tedious when compared to current games such as God of War, Devil May Cry 3 and so much more that are innovating the genre.

Graphics

The graphics within the game do have their own unique look. They are outlined in black since they would easily blend into the backgrounds otherwise. The backgrounds themselves are nicely done but they aren’t the sight to behold like in many cases with role-playing games and other action games. The framerates do tend to glitch up and slow down. This isn’t nice to experience when you are battling and focusing. The charm of the game is all located with the cute and sly animations. Otherwise, Musashi isn’t a beauty to behold in any other case unless you love the manga cell shading of the graphics.

Sound

Voice acting is mediocre at best and what you’d expect from a game as such. If you have ever played an eastern action oriented game, you know what you are in for with the voice acting. The characters are slightly over the top and too serious for their own god. The music isn’t bad at all and sometimes saves the game from being awful during some occasions since you’ll be bored out of your mind with the fighting not too long into the game.

Lifespan

Not much will be bringing the player back for another play through. The puzzles in the games are simple and easily to overcome at any given time. Side mission are included but none that vary the game enough from being driven into the usual run-of-the-mill action game. It’s linear all the way through and you can predict the end of the game before you even reach the quarter mark of the game. There’s not a whole lot here in terms of content, story, and gameplay that will continue to bring you back. It may be a chore at times to play Musashi.

Overall

There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before. Nothing innovative or new brought to the genre so it’s not exactly a step forward in the video game industry. It’s all about entertainment; to step away from reality and hopefully play through some fun experiences with Musashi. I’d recommend you rent this if you want a weekend of some Samurai action but it’s not worthy of a purchase unless you strive to collect all Square-Enix games.

7 out of 10