So, I mentioned in comments last time that I translated the PSP remake of this game, but what I failed to mention is that I never played the SNES version before that -- the PSP version was my first experience with Brandish. And it's kind of fascinating to see some of the subtle differences. One such difference is the way those invisible pits are handled. In the PSP remake, they do NOT get marked on your map unless and until you fall through them... however, there's an item added to the game, "iron ball," that you can buy cheaply in stacks of 10 or 20 from basically every shop, and the item's sole purpose is to drop in front of you to see if there's a pit. If there is, it'll open up and fill in on your map; if not, you'll just lose the iron ball. I learned quickly, however, that you don't even need an iron ball for that -- you can literally just try to drop any item in front of you. If there's a pit there, it won't let you drop it; if there isn't, it will. You can then open the map and mark it as a pit yourself (as the PSP version allowed you to make your own markings and edits on the map). The PSP version also featured "Retry Bread," which basically saved your progress to memory at the very moment you ate it. If you died, you could choose to quick-continue from the last Retry Bread point instead of your last save. A bit pointless, but I liked the idea, since it was quicker to eat Retry Bread than it was to save to a memory stick (which is probably why they included it!). The biggest difference, though, was a whole second quest where you play as Dela (Alexis in the English version). It's basically "hard mode," and features a lot of enemies and items that don't exist in the regular game -- such as the Map Eater, which is an insanely difficult enemy that tracks you across an entire floor, ERASING YOUR MAP as it approaches. So even if you're on the other side of the floor entirely, you'll know it's coming just by opening your map and looking for the swath of empty map squares. It's honestly kind of terrifying, and I really love the implementation! They also introduced H.Poison and M.Poison in the second quest, which -- as the names imply -- do the opposite of H.Potion and M.Potion, reducing your HP or MP by a set amount. The names are so similar, you really need to pay attention, and it kind of makes you extra paranoid -- but then, as one extra twist, there are actually undead/unkillable enemies in the game that can move anywhere and just serve as huge pests that constantly get in your way... but the one thing that can block their movement is H.Poison. If you drop it on the ground, it serves as a barrier, preventing them from moving past. So if you save up your H.Poison, you can actually barricade those undead enemies in dead-ends to keep them from pestering you for the rest of your time on the floor. Really, the PSP remake of Brandish is just superb all-around. If this is truly now one of your favorite SNES games, I urge you to try getting your hands on it, as it really is everything a good remake should be, preserving the entirety of the original game while making significant quality-of-life improvements and adding tons of extra content for good measure.
Yes you had mentioned that! I was wondering if I'd see you back again and I'm glad you stopped in again. I'm glad to provide a bit of insight into the SNES release for you. So there are steel balls in this version of the game, but I was always so short on inventory space carrying around 1000 swords I never used that I didn't bother to keep any around. That's a good point though. In this version, when you walk past a pit, it populates on your map for you (thank goodness)! I can't tell you how many times I wanted to reach out and draw on my maps so it's cool that the PSP version allows for that. I wonder how item dropping into pits works in this version... I never thought to try that. Retry bread sounds delicious, haha... that's a great innovation. Quick saves are a godsend. Thankfully saving on the SNES was pretty instantaneous. And there's a second quest? WHAT that's awesome!!! I booted up my cart again to capture some footage for the review here and from what I recall, there's no NG+. That's really cool. I'd love to play that! I'll have to try to track down a copy of the PSP game. And this game did have the M/H Poison as well. I remember the first time I used one of them and I was so confused. I usually livestream games so I wasn't paying super good attention and let me tell you: I scrutinized every single other item I picked up after that and immediately dropped it if it was one of those two. That's a lesson I refuse to learn twice! Thank you very much for all your work on the remake. I'm sure it's brought this game to a lot of new people that never had the chance to try it on the SNES, or were just not interested in pushing past the control limitations at the time. I look forward to it!
@@hungrygoriya Ah, whoops! I haven't played Brandish since 2015 or 2016, so I couldn't entirely recall if H.Poison and M.Poison were in the regular game or not. I think maybe it's just the undead enemies who can be corralled by them that only appear in the second quest, along with the Map Eater (which appears as a floating eye enemy, so I believe I went with "Unbeholders" for their name in the final release). And yeah, the second quest is definitely exclusive to the PSP remake -- Falcom made quite a point of pushing that in their marketing. Dela controls much like Ares (the main character's name in the original Japanese), but relies a bit more on magic than he did, and her armor also physically changes the outfit on her model and consists of cutesy things like cat ears and such (because of course it does!). Her quest is also VERY VERY DIFFICULT, with the aforementioned new enemies as well as a TON of rolling boulders -- Falcom really, really went a little crazy with those in Dela's quest. ;) Does the original game have a casino as well, or is that also exclusive to the remake? Because in the remake, there's a hidden casino very near the start of the game, and a non-hidden casino toward the end of the Dark Zone. I wish it were easier for you to play the remake in English, but at this point, I'm not even sure how you'd be able to -- we released it as a digital-only title due to the PSP already dropping heavily in sales by the time we got to it (physically producing it on UMD in 2015 would not have gone well, sadly!), but as a result, it's now... gone. The PSN store for PSP titles no longer exists anywhere in the world, AFAIK (unless it still exists in some capacity for Vita, but I think even that might be gone at this point?). So in order to play the game in English, aside from finding a system that's already got it downloaded, I think the only available option is literally the ol' ARR ME MATEYS one, sadly... Of course, you can buy it in Japanese on UMD, but that version will play in Japanese.
@@Wyrdwad I do recall the map eater enemy because it angered me in the monster GI tract area I think? But yeah, no undead that I came across. The second quest does sound great... I LOVE when character clothes change when you get new equipment. It's such a fun novelty and I'd like to play it for that, along with all the other reasons you mentioned sometime. I found Brandish pretty easy going mostly, save for some of the bosses and due to my inaction on purchasing magic when I could eventually afford it. I'd love to dabble more with the magic side of the quest for sure. If there were casinos, I definitely missed them both. It's possible, but I also tried to be pretty thorough while searching. Now I'm curious! And I do have a PSP hanging around, but I have no idea how to get online with it. I've never thought to try! I was looking at UMDs awhile ago just to see and yeah, only Japanese copies were out there. I'll look into seeing if I can get a copy just to have because it sounds like something I'd like to pick up and play once in a while. Thank you for all this info!
@@hungrygoriya I played a fair bit of this on PSP and it really is a lovely remake! Having the camera actually rotate when you turn instead of snapping immediately took the edge off the game's infamous controls.
I've been meaning to check out the PSP Brandish. Honestly, the lack of animation when the world rotates is what scared me away, but i think I'll give the SNES ones a shot.
I was reading about this game, it was originally released for PC-98, which makes tons of sense. This aesthetic was popular for games for it, and it had more screen real state. You had the map with you all times, and your inventory. The environment turning made more sense because the game had a more corridor-adventure feel, rather than an action-rpg, and 3D was coming hot. See, there's a frame that your character turns before the environment which helps to orientate. However, this is almost unnoticeable in the SNES version. IMO, this SNES version is the most aesthetic pleasing. My theory is that it was pushed to look more like an action game, but wasn't tested enough. Map and inventory were considered "distracting", and the game was made faster to be more action feel, but the main mechanic wasn't made with these changes in mind.
I had no idea about these differences. It's not surprising that there'd be some changes made, but it's unfortunate that they didn't make more considerations around that main mechanic. Thanks for sharing!
A nice review for this underrated dungeon crawler, I've played sequel first but I was just as impressed with first once I played it after completing the former. Suprisingly, I was never bothered with the unique control scheme although it took time to get it used to. Regarding the sequel, I hope to see you love it just as much as the first as it's a massive improvement over the first game: graphics, music, gameplay, story gets even more expanded, more interesting character and worldbuilding interactions and even more fiendish mazes and puzzles.
@@hungrygoriya I am currently working my way through your review playlist and drowning in nostalgia. As a fellow PC rpg fan, I would point you to SepTerra Core. It was a turn based game I played a lot on my uncle computer. Can't tell you if it is actually good as I am pulling from my rose tinted memories, but it may be worth a look.
@@vikeif You know, it's funny you mention SepTerra Core because I've started that game in the past but never finished it. I really do need to sit down and play it through, and I've been thinking about that one a lot lately. You might just get your wish!
One thing that really stuck with me during your play through was how well and quickly you mastered the controls. I still had no idea where we were, but it didn't matter cause you were confidently at the helm driving us through the dungeon. This game was a delightful little gem with so many interesting elements which you've really captured here in your video, and in the experience watching you play it live on stream. Thank you for this video!
Too kind, my friend! I worried people might not enjoy being along for the ride with this game on stream just because of how confusing it would be, but my pitch to people was always this: just look at the compass. It's right there!!
You're videos made me so excited that both times I've discovered your videos and started to watch them I've spilled juice all over my desk! 🤣 I really love it how you're covering some of the more obscure SNES games; Upon playing through the entire library, I felt like there were *many* games for this console which deserved more credit - including this one! 🔥🔥 Love your content - keep up the *amazing* work!!!
Oh no! I hope nothing was damaged in the spillings! Thanks so much for your kindness. I'm really excited to get to play some of these games finally. I didn't grow up with an SNES, and it's been awesome sitting down with some adventure games. Those are the games I like the most! Brandish is definitely one of my favourites on the console, without question.
There's such a difference between watching streams of a game, and seeing a review. I never thought much about trying this game, but I dare say this gives me some vibes of games that I love, ie Solstice, etc.. and is making me (gasp) consider giving it a whirl. It is a beautiful game and the exploration definitely looks rewarding. Nice work, Grumbles.
Ooooo well, I for one would really enjoy seeing someone else at the helm for this game. I think with how much you enjoy puzzling, you'll appreciate Brandish quite a bit! And thanks so much :) I'm glad you liked the video!
Fun fact about this game's legacy: it's protagonist Varrik showed up as the player character in a very famous Earthbound ROM hack called The Halloween Hack. Made by a certain developer by the name of Toby Fox...
Toby seems to be a very big fan of the Brandish games. He ripped the SPC files for the soundtrack of both Brandish 1 & 2. Megalovania seems to riff on the final boss theme of Brandish 2. And the zooming-out falling animation from Deltarune Chapter 1 seems to be a clear nod to the mode 7 falling animation in this game.
@@RT55J Very interesting! I haven't played Deltarune yet but I did enjoy Undertale a lot. I usually wait until the excitement for stuff dies down before I jump in but it's cool that there's a link. I'll have to see if he's ever talked about Brandish online... I'd love to hear more about how it inspired things from his point of view.
@@hungrygoriya For the hack, for Undertale or for Brandish? Cause, not sure about Brandish, definitely not for Undertale (some shared themes and insane theories aside) and well, on the Hack itself there's some spoilers rampant, tho one of them's an alternate title for said hack and also the means to get the true ending,
Indiana Jones and the Perpetual Monotonous Exploration. I just found your channel and I love it, digging through the backlog. Most of my rpg love started around the ps1/2 era. I love finding my way back through the annals of retro history and find new things to try! Thanks!!
Perpetual monotonous exploration is what some of the best games are made of! Thanks for checking out the channel. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it and finding some new things to try out. Happy adventuring!
"We are going to make a dungeon crawler game, but we only have enough money for the protagonists forward facing sprite." "Say no more, fam, I got this."
Maybe they had a thing about hiding Varik's face. If you look at the box art, Alexis is prominently featured and he's just tucked away and barely visible a little further down. I had no idea he was there for the longest time, haha
@@hungrygoriya They really should have gone with a "chosen one" style of story. That way the world would metaphorically and literally revolve around the protagonist. :-P
this was a game that took me some time to enjoy it. but the PSP remake is what i recommend to most people since i know most would struggle to get into this version. but the 2nd game on SNES that got fan translated is a huge improvement and i had way more fun with it. very good coverage on this classic falcom game
Huh. So, _Brandish_ is a first-person dungeon crawler like _Might and Magic…_ but shown from a top-down perspective. That doesn't sound _that_ bad… It looks okay, at the very least, and the music sounds nice. Also… that Dark Zone area reminds me of some old user-made _ZZT_ games from ages past. _Invisible ping-pong paths._ Always fun. Always a great party trick.
It's honestly not bad at all. I think people get spooked by the controls, and rightfully so since they look terrible when you're not actually the one playing. It's actually quite fun and the automapping definitely helps a lot.
You're very welcome! I hope you like it if you do try it out. I thought I'd hate it after the first night with it, but once I figured out what the game needed from me, I enjoyed coming back to it until it was finished.
I played through this one a couple of years ago just in a quest to finish the adventure games on the SNES. It was not great but not abhorrent. I felt as if a handful of small changes could have made it a fantastic experience. The worst thing predictably is that rotating camera angle. It took me a bit to figure out what was going on and a bit more to adjust to it efficiently. I think if you polished off the frustrating parts, you would end up with Brain Lord on the SNES. It’s a decent title if you’re not familiar with it :) Another thorough review!
Thank you very much! It's definitely not something that everyone will enjoy, but once you get your head around what the hell's going on, I think it gets to be pretty fun. I have Brain Lord sitting on a shelf somewhere around here waiting to be played. It's definitely something I'm interested in trying out!
Thanks so much for covering this title! I remember seeing it on the shelf at my local Babbage’s back when I was in HS. One thing that kept me from picking it up was the price. It was something like $60-$70, and never went on sale. That was a lot of money for a game back in the 90’s, especially with the other heavy hitters out at the time like Lunar 2, Chrono Trigger, Demons Crest, Lucia 2, Beyond Oasis, and FF3, just to name a few. I see what they were trying to do with this to make it a little different, and it seems to rhyme with Shining in the Darkness (to me, at least) with an overhead action component. It’s almost like the developers should have waited for the (3D) hardware of the PS1 to make what I think they were trying to accomplish happen. Great content as always, and I appreciate the attention to detail with the box art and instruction manuals!
I can see the price being a limiting factor back then, and even now in the current retro market. Shining in the Darkness is one of the only other dungeon crawlers I've played and I felt some similarity to that as well. A controller with more buttons and a console with a little more power might've brought this to next level awesomeness, but I still think it was okay for what it was after getting over the frustration of the default controls. And it's my pleasure! Thanks for leaving a thoughtful comment!
I have seen this game mentioned often and always thought "how could anyone have thought this is playable", once again, your hard work and dedication has revealed and incredible and clearly playable gaming experience that just needed a bit of explanation :-D.
Awww thanks! There's rarely a game that angers me so much that I give up on it and Brandish was worth the time. I had many laugh out loud moments at spontaneous deaths to things that came out of nowhere. Thank goodness I'm someone who saves often, haha
I loved this game and it's sequel as a child. My cousin had it but never talked about it but I spent a good deal of time with it. I also came to the fortress underlevelled on magic defense but figured out a quick way to increase magic defense by sleeping intentionally in the range of magic attacks. I saw the control scheme as a reference to old dungeon crawlers in which players would literally turn slowly each pace in a labyrinth, just done in a bird's eye view. My favorite song is the headless theme and I love the covers I've heard of it. And while this game has had such negative viewpoints from others, I loved how instantly recognizable Toby Fox used Brandish references in Undertale. It made that game even more enjoyable with those influences. I have to say that the sequel was also fun but I only played it through once with a translation patch to completion and never again.
I liked Brandish quite a bit and I'm glad yourself and so many others enjoyed it too. I definitely need to get the sequel and try it out sometime. I'll be curious to see how it compares to this, but I've heard nothing but good things.
2:07-3:23 That aspect of the controls sounds unnecessarily difficult. Of course, there was one SNES game I tried (that wasn't an RPG) that could qualify as worse: Bombuzal/Ka-Blooey. The U.S. release uses a 3D isometric perspective on a grid, but the controls are directionally challenged because the movements are inverted. What is more insulting is that the Japenese version of the same game on the Super Famicom had a "2D Mode" where players could see where to go, but that option wasn't available in the SNES version.
@@hungrygoriya The game is actually a port of an Amiga title, but it's really frustrating. And in both the SNES and Super Famicom versions, the level music is the same. All the time. It doesn't even change depending on how far players get. And it has that tacky "early SNES licensed game" sound quality that is heavy on electric bass, cowbell, keyboard, and an annoying synthesized voice sample. It's definitely worthy of a (negative) review.
I really enjoyed playing this game in the early and mid 00's. My main trick to inventory management was to use unbreakable swords (including a broken sword at the start) unless I was facing a boss and selling all but the most powerful equipment (the Dark Sword/Shield/Armor being the exception) that I had. This allowed me to always have room for tools and such.
That was also my strategy once I found the unbreakable swords! My mind was blown when I learned that they existed, and they're all I used pretty much exclusively after that, except for some higher-powered stuff that I found late in the game that I'd burn through for tougher boss fights. It worked well!
Good review. I feel like Brandish bizarre camera was an attempt to combine action RPG with dungeon crawler. Its structure of "one giant dungeon divided into floors" also reminds me of dungeon crawlers of the time (Wizardry, Dungeon Master). I quite liked playing this game but I really fell in love with its sequel Brandish 2, which expands on the first episode in every way and has one of the best RPG soundtracks I ever heard. It was released on the PC98 and the Super Famicom and both versions received fan-translations.
I've been eyeing a copy of the second game to apply a patch to and enjoy sometime. It's rare to enjoy something this much and for there to be more of it! I'm very excited!
I would highly recommend playing the second game on the snes, it was translated a decade or so ago and it is plain fantastic. Some people liked 1 better but 2 was really good, it introduced villages, other environments and believe it or not the music got even better. You could also dual wield shields for supreme defense or two weapons if you wanted. Sadly magic was about as useful as it was in the first game, minus of course the barrier spell and the double damage one.
I'm definitely curious to see what Brandish 2 is all about someday. A lot of folks have also mentioned the PSP remake. More Brandish is a good thing in my books!
There's something both hilarious and relatable to me about you ending the game with your money maxed out and also saying you didn't buy most of the spells because of how expensive they were. I did the exact same thing when I played this game with my dad as a kid, though I did go back at the end to buy them just to see what the spells did.
Yeppppp, haha it's funny playing these games never knowing what you might need. My worst fear is spending out my cash and then realizing I have to buy something mandatory for 1 million dollars!
Brandish is one of my favorite games and I'm a big fan of anything falcom. Knowing that and knowing Toby fox loves this game I was surprised barely anyone has heard or played this game. I own the psp version and I absolutely enjoyed it even though im kinda stuck as of writing this but besides that I wish more people know of falcom and also these older titles like this and xanadu next for example. This game is the dungeon crawler I love and I just can't find other games like it.
Have you played the sequels? I haven't yet, but I've heard they're excellent. There's nothing else I've played since or before this that's felt quite like Brandish. It's definitely special! I didn't make the Undertale connection until after someone mentioned it to me here in the comments, but I love it!
@@hungrygoriya I haven't played the sequels since I can't read Japanese and I'm not good with pc yet to try and get a patch for them. I mainly buy Falcom games when they have official western releases because of the limited knowledge I have with pcs at the moment. I still am playing the first and im on the fortress 3rd floor.
@@hungrygoriya also brandish is what I think of a rougelike that I like even though it has no permadeath. Dungeon crawling games like this I really like too. Xanadu next I'd say is similar but different and is made by falcom of course.
I played the PSP remake last year and I think it's a great game if you can get your hands on it. It wasn't listed in the store on my PS TV, but I was able to buy it from my PS3 and then download it from my library on the PS TV. (The camera rotates smoothly instead of instantly, which makes it less disorienting.) There are fan translations for both the PC-98 and SFC versions of Brandish 2, though I haven't tried either yet. I would love to see Falcom remake the rest of the series in the same style, or even just localize them.
I hope they'll localize the rest one of these days. I will try to see if I can find it on the PSP online store. A few people have mentioned it's available digitally that way! I look forward to more Brandish in my life!
Thank you for this: Brandish was one of those games that was always peripherally on my radar (I would always see it at the local rental store), but I never really got around to it. Seeing it here, and hearing your breakdown of it makes me want to give it a shot!
Such a great review! I hardly see anyone praising the snes version. Though it was frustrating at times I still had a lot of fun with it. I first found out about Brandish when I had done research on Toby Fox when I was obsessed with Undertale (don’t worry, I’m not a stan or anything) but I had found Varik’s character really interesting, and it’s a shame that some of the other games haven’t gotten translated. I know that the snes and pc98 versions of the second game and the Dark revenant were, but not the other ones. This series needs more attention. Though I doubt it would happen if Falcom made anything else for the series, as they are very fond of constantly making Ys or Trails games.
I had no idea about the Undertale connection until someone mentioned it here in the comments, but I guess a protagonist falling down a hole and trying to get back out to their world again is a glaring similarity that just went totally over my head. I'd like to play more Brandish as well, and I've been eyeballing the sequel. I'd love to try Dark Revenant as well. It sounds like there's a lot of awesome stuff packed in there that makes it a lot smoother/deeper than the original. The more Brandish, the better!
Excellent review! This is one I remember seeing advertised in game magazines all the time...but I just never grabbed it for some reason (even though I was a HUGE rpg anything fiend). I remember downloading the psp version years ago and never getting a chance to play it. Maybe this review is my wake up call to push it to the front of my backlog.
Hello happy to see you replay here is an update \i finished the game and totely its one of the best rpgs i have played and the last 3 towers wher kinde hell to go through infact i needed to use a go through wall cheat becouse i lost one of the keys i obtaind whan i was orgnizing my inventory i droped it somewher in level 5 or 6 or 7 in the fortress and didnt feel like going everywher to finde it but all and all its still was great and now i moved on to the seacond game and its really going well and i will hopfully beat it after my finale exams are done wich will be in one month
It seems like a game that as you invest your skill over time it pays off. I like the idea that if you get hit it increases your strength Stat, I'm learning more about the differences between CRPGs and JRPGs and I enjoy things like that where there isn't a one Stat to buff - that different stats can be used in different ways. Comings from the old Fallout games and now seeing it in games like Cyberpunk 2077 - goes back to the D&D aspect of, "Ok, HOW do you want to do that?" and not just one way, I appreciate that. This also looks in the vein of the old SNES/Sega games (well it IS an SNES game after all) of as you play more the game looks graphically more and impressive. I am adding this to my Hungry recommended backlog. Great review! Also my next Retro game is to replay and maybe finally beat The Legend of The River King
Yeah it's definitely fun and something different than your usual generic levelling up all stats with experience. I think you'll have fun with it if you do give it a go. It's fairly laid back and easy going. I hope you enjoy Legend of the River King! That's coming up on my list as well and I've been looking forward to it for a long time. Enjoy!
You make a convincing argument that there is a lot here that makes the movement worth it. Honestly, the longer I stared at the gameplay, the better it looked. Wouldn't mind giving it a try! The art if anything looks REALLY nice!
Thanks a lot for this video since this is one of my favorite SNES games. There is a lot of charm in this game that a lot of people seem to miss. I find myself agreeing with you on a lot of your videos as it seems you are willing to look for positives over minute negatives and dwelling on them. This is the kind of perspective I think reviewers need to have, at least in my opinion, so that people can find games that are catered to the kind of fun they are looking for. Also, I know you don't really do PS1 games, but I reallllyyy hope someday you will take a look at Alundra as it feels like an SNES game that just happens to be on PS1. You tend to do harder games and I think you would really like it. (Not to mention give it a fair shake instead of writing it off as "too hard".)
That's very kind of you to say. I do like to form my own opinions about games even if they come along with a sour reputation. I think it's important to be honest but also personal. I can't objectively review a game and decide for everyone what it'll mean to them, but only what it means to me and my own experiences. I'm glad that comes across here. I've had Alundra in my collection for a long while but I just haven't gotten around to it. That thought about it being an SNES game on PS1 was my first impression of it when I saw it in a review video a long time ago, and primarily the reason I bought it. It looks like it has a very intriguing plot as well. I look forward to playing it some day.
This is my favorite game on the SNES. Second to Brandish 2: The Planet Buster and then there is Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals. Ok I have a lot of favorites but I'm so thankful you reviewed this game and liked it. Brings me great joy!
It was so much fun! It's one of my favourites now as well. I'll see if I can find a way to play Brandish 2 one of these days. It's translated I'm assuming? And Lufia 2's coming up on my list of things to play in the next few weeks. I'm very excited about that as well! Hooray!
@@hungrygoriya Oh yeah it's translated. You be shocked how many Brandish games there actually are. Most prefer the PSP version since it's in 3d and it really is awesome. But I like the SNES the most. There is actually a part 3 as well as 1 and 2 on the PC-98 whatever that is lol. I'll tell you something pretty cool about Lufia 2. So there is this island with a Casino on it. It has lots of Casino mini-games like Black Jack and the like. But what is most important that nobody will tell you is you can win and purchase secret monsters. These monsters are very good and can be added to your party to fight with you and have some helpful abilities. It will make the game easier because Lufia 2 is very tough in the later stages, at least it was for me when I was young lol.
@Hungry Goriya I admire and tip my hat to you for finishing this game!! I couldn't. Sat down with this game and within an hour, packed it back up and took it back to the store, and I've finished BrainLord! Never picked it up again and never will.
Well, I've heard from a few folks that there was a remake that brought in some good quality of life changes with the controls and gameplay as well as some extra content, IF you feel intrigued and want to try that out instead sometime. This version's certainly not for everyone!
This somehow came across to me as a console attempt at a pc roguelike, with a lot of console RPG thrown in. Im actually a PC gamer, and I see a lot of "PC stuff" in Brandish. (Except for I havent PC gamed since my husband bought me a switch for xmas. FF12 FOR THE WIN! Favorite console RPG of all time, and the last FF worth playing. Rebeating it for the first time since '07. And the re-release holds up really well even after 16 years. And I can play it anywhere cuz switch! 😍) Buuut, Im not here to rant about how awesome FF12 is. (even tho I just did, oops) I dont know if I'd like Brandish. I cant tell. The flipping walls are weird. But the game looks...unique. And when youre an old jaded gamer like me, whos played literally thousands of stereotypical turn based RPGs, unique is good. And like a Roguelike, kind of. And I love Roguelikes. Also I do like the automap. And I like the map key in the manual referring to "weird walls". Everyone needs a few weird walls in their life. 8:37 and 8:53 I laughed. I'm always amused by the "shop in the middle of nowhere with a shopkeeper surprised someone arrived" RPG trope. Why would you put your shop out in the middle of nowhere where youre shocked to have a customer? I like games with the healing mechanic where you can find a quiet corner and heal. IIRR, the 90s Yses (Yss? Whats the plural of Ys anyway?) had that. Maybe? I might be thinking of some weird PC engine jRPG But breakable weapons + tiny inventory...hm. idk. Im an item hoarder in almost any game I play. Thats usually a dealbreaker. Same for you are stuck on grid movement but some enemies are not. But, seriously I really dig your reviews. Like I said before, I too am an OG female gamer whos been a gamer since my dad bought an apple IIe when I was about 4 and gravitate towards RPGs and action RPGs. Im more PC based, but I love 90s jRPGs So, if you say its worth a shot, Im trying it!
I agree with you about the PC feel. I think its original release was on a computer called the PC-98 so I'm not surprised the interface didn't translate smoothly to console. It's definitely a different experience I haven't seen anywhere else so that alone to me was intriguing. I'm not sure if any aspects of the game are randomized at all. It does have a lot of good features and funny quirks, especially in its written materials. I love looking over boxes and manuals and the little details are usually pretty charming. I think you're right about Ys games. If you stand still in some places you can recover health slowly. I really appreciate that feature! And thanks so much for the kind words about the reviews. I'm glad to bring these games some attention, and if you do end up trying Brandish, I hope you have fun with it.
Nice! The PC 98 series was the Japanese equivalent to a mid-80s-late 90s IBM or IBM clone PC running a version of DOS that accepted Japanese character input (and then windows 95/98). Pretty much ubiquitious among Japanese PC gamers of the era. Ive never played on an original (being a cascadian and all, they werent common aroubd here. Although since my aunt taught in Japan - I was one of the few US kids who had access to an actual Famicom/FDS) but I do have an emulated one on my gaming PC. My Japanese reading isnt that great though, and I gravitate towards RPGs. So, I have to play with a japanese to English dictionary handy. But, if you can read Japanese at all its a platform totally worth checking out.
If you enjoyed this kind of thing, you may have fun with Brain Lord for SNES. Its a top down dungeon crawler with a very heavy focus on puzzle solving. Its got the mid 90s Enix goodness and is a personal fave from my days as a young'un
This one needed to grow on me as I had played it after discovering the old standbys of Chrono Trigger and FFVI. I even recall Nintendo Power not exactly being nice about its graphical shortcomings on the map; something to the effect of "this roleplaying experience isn't pretty". But once you work past its rather unfavorable first impression it does become a solid if sometimes unforgiving experience.
Yet again another fantastic review. Very well made and very interesting to watch and listen too. And, another game I've never even heard of. Just when you think you've seen all there is to offer someone (like you) throws another fantastic looking game your way) Thanks! I love how this game looks and the story is very cool. I will defo have to give this one a go one day. - What are the save options like in this game. Can you save anywhere? Thanks again, and I love your reviews, so keep them coming x
You know it's funny because I ended up with this game by accident. I had a bunch of stuff to trade at a convention and the person brought this game out, all minty and nice, and swayed me to trade him for it. I hadn't even heard of the game before that moment and took a chance, and here we are. I'm glad I did! The saving situation is that you can save anywhere, but there's also a feature where if you accidentally save in a troublesome spot (like a spawn point or something) there's a way to move your character somewhere different so you don't lock up your game permanently. If I'd encountered that kind of problem I would've included it here, but thankfully (for once) I didn't end up getting myself into trouble! And thanks for the kindness. I have no desire to stop any time soon!
@@hungrygoriya Thats really cool. Its sometimes good to take a chance on these little known games, espicially if they come recommended like that. It does look cool. Thanks for the reply on the saving, sounds good to me. Will defo give it a go now. Cheers! x
Great review! This convinced me I need to try this version. I really like the PSP remake (was actually my first professionally-published review for the now-defunct Front Towards Gamer), and I've been curious about the 16-bit original and its sequels, but always heard it was an inaccessible mess.
Thanks very much! I'd say give this one a little time to click for you and it should be just fine to play. I do need to try the remake one of these days.
For whatever reason, this reminds me of Brain Lord, an interesting top-down action-adventure with an emphasis on puzzles from the guys who gave us The 7th Saga.
Thanks for the video HG. I was thinking at the beginning nah I’ll just play Diablo but I’m glad I watched the whole video because this game looks like it has a lot of style and charm, I”m not sure if that’d be enough for me with the controls. It looks like I’d enjoy the game if I could get into it, but I think it needs more brone.
Nice review! I never hear anyone give much praise to this game, so it's interesting to hear about what it does right for a change. The default controls being bad reminds me of Golden Axe Beast Rider. Once I switched the controls in that game it suddenly became 10 times more playable. I guess this is just my weird brain at work, but when you describe it as a dungeon crawl/RPG hybrid, my immediate thought was: isn't dungeon crawling the main ingredient of RPGs? Having grown up with Phantasy Star, Sword of Vermillion and the Bard's Tale, the idea of an RPG without dungeons to trawl through is baffling.
I only speak the truth. I don't know that I've heard of Golden Axe Beast Rider before, but I'd love to see what that one's all about. And you might be right about most RPGs going hand in hand with dungeons. I guess when I say a dungeon crawler, I'm meaning it from the perspective of most of the game taking place in a dungeon, like Shining in the Darkness or one of those first-person explorer games where you rarely see the light of day. You're right though!
Beast Rider was the last time they made a Golden Axe game, back on the 360/PS3, so more modern than the games you usually cover. It bombed so hard Sega hasn't touched the franchise since. It had a very defensive combat system where you would be surrounded and have to dodge and parry your way through the fights. Everyone (except me) hated it. About a year later, Batman Arkham Asylum came out with a very defensive combat system where you were surrounded and had to dodge and parry your way through the fights. Everyone praised it for being so innovative, and amazing, and simply the coolest thing ever. Now don't get me wrong, Arkham Asylum is better in every conceivable way, but it still kinda bugged me... Beast Rider's default controls put doge and parry on the L and R buttons, and when I moved them to the X and Y buttons it was much smoother going. My brain just couldn't handle switching hands for the defense buttons. Might be my personal problem, though. As for dungeons, I'll just say that the earliest editions of Dungeons & Dragons, the world's first (formally published at least) RPG, advised new players that the first thing they would need to do is make a dungeon.
Ah, Brandish. I loved playing it years ago but doubt I ever could do it again. It's actually a port of a PC98 title, you know? A literal port, not any loose port like the Evo SNES version was. Maybe it played way less clunky on a PC98 than on the SNES. I'm surprised you didn't mention that one "puzzle" in the Caves are. The room where you have to "Use" a torch to progress since it's actually a lever. I do not recall any hint for that, and I was stuck for ages because I did not think the game would change rules like that so suddenly. Funny you used the punch for the first 2 hours, since that's actually the optimal way to play. Punching increases your Strength more than using weapons, and since you're low on cash and fighting weak enemies with no unbreakable weapons, it's just better to go with the fists. And speaking of enemies, who's the sadist who put those bats as the first enemies in the game? You're already struggling with the controls, and the first thing you meet is a fast enemy that can pass through you to attack from other angles, while you're probably still trying to learn how to turn. They're not the only troll enemies either, as the whole Headless Golems boss is a gankfest that i'd be surprised if anyone survived on their first try. The lack of diagonal movement makes it like a horror movie until you can kill one and open a path. I'm also surprised the music didn't stick with you! The shop theme and ruins theme are some of my favorites, and "Synchronicity" is a song I wish played more often with how it feels so fitting for exploring a dungeon. The Fortress theme isn't that great on the original, but you gotta look up the PSP version's Fortress OST. It's somewhere between disco and 80s rock in a way that weirdly fits. Like Varik is completely exhausted after the Dark Zone, but he's giving his second wind to push himself to the end, not even letting himself be bothered by the meaty walls. No stopping now!
I usually try to keep the details in the reviews broad so I don't give away too much about how to solve some of the game's puzzles in case people want to play it themselves, so that's likely why I left the example you mentioned out. I hear ya though... sometimes Brandish innovates in ways that aren't really predictable, but that was part of the fun for me personally. Those bats are just the absolute worst. I hated them in the area with all the islands that you have to hop between. Some of the worst bats I've ever seen in a video game. The only ones that are worse are from The Battle of Olympus! The music's really good but if I try to think about the tunes from Brandish right now, nothing comes to mind. I think it's great for exploring, but it immediately left my brain after I finished each area. I'll have to check out the PSP version's OST sometime. I'd love to play that version if it were available!
Haha, I remember recommending this to you a bit of time ago. Going by your tastes, I thought you might like it, but with Brandish, you especially never really know if someone will :p I'm really happy you enjoyed it. The game has a really cool story and a generally oppressive and depressing vibe I find really intriguing. The game does a good job at conveying how hopeless it is down there, but your character keeps persevering...if the player does. Brandish 2 starts out with a similar quality, because you're thrown in a prison and anyone who manages to escape (of course, it's very dangerous) is deemed innocent. But overall, I find that the other Brandish games don't convey that hopelessness quite as well as the first. The music in Brandish 2 is quite a lot better than 1, however. The opening prison theme is REALLY good. I listen to it all the time :p You should try Brandish: The Dark Revenant out sometime. It's a VERY good conversion and I think it's a lot more welcoming because the control scheme is set up better, as is the camera movement. The camera works the same, but there is at least a bit of an animation to the turns so it isn't nearly as disorienting as that one frame skip that is used on the SNES and PC versions.
Yeah you really just have to play it to know, but I'm glad I enjoyed it! I'd really like to play Brandish 2 sometime, but I did love the hopelessness of this game. It seems like you're up against an insurmountable obstacle but bit by bit, you make progress. I'd love to give The Dark Revenant a try. Someone here in the comments actually worked on it and from what I've heard about it, it'd be worth playing through.
Had this one growing up got stuck on the puzzle where you have to hit the switches in a order based on north/south/east/west ; came back when I wasn’t a stupid kid and figured it out.
Choosing the GBA version to be the avatar of Doom was pretty great. Great review. I haven't watched your video on SNES games you found underwhelming, after I saw the list contained games I love because I am afraid I'll be convinced by your arguments.
To date, GBA Doom II's the only Doom I've experienced! Just trying to keep it honest, haha And yeah, I don't bring up anything that's too contentious, but I have had a lot of people agree with what I've mentioned there. It's more just not feeling as enamoured with games as everyone else. I did like most of them but just not as much as the rest of the world, apparently. If you need to skip it, I totally get that!
That wall rotation I describe with the Japanese expression of "kimo" (gross), usable on technical systems like that indeed. Feels like their ideal game could not quite be imagined, like they needed a Virtual Hydlide like operation a generation or two later. Did not know Falcom were involved in this but enemies not following the rules you have to stick to - there it is, the way I got to know the modern Falcom. Lovely art of its era.
I know there was a remake on the PSP and I wonder if it'd be better to try that way, but yeah... the SNES felt like a big limiting factor for Brandish's reception. And the art is just lovely... I loved all the different shops and characters so much!
I've always been on the fence about picking this game up for my PC Engine collection because of the unconventional navigation but after seeing this review I think I'll take the plunge on it.
This game sounds like it has good conveyance, I'll have to give it a try. I've seen the game's name before, but have never tried it before. Thanks for the review.
Really interesting backstory for this game! I definitely need to use that as a plothook for a D&D adventure. I also really miss that fantasy anime artstyle, its sad that its been lost in the current design of things.
@@hungrygoriya Oh its an anime from the 80s-90s, I'm not sure if they had any games from back then. There's a spin-off game that came out recently called Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth that captures that art style pretty well, I haven't played it myself, but it looks fun if you're into Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
@@Blazbaros OH I knew it sounded familiar, but I had no idea what it was. Thanks for clarifying! And good to know about Deedlit. I loved Symphony of the Night so it sounds right up my alley!
Seems like an interesting game. Would be nice if you can move your guy in a more conventional way and use the L and R buttons to rotate the map. It's getting pricey in the after market, of course. I could emulate it, but I probably wouldn't have much time to play through it these days...
It's a good one, but I agree: the controls are a bit disorienting. When you're playing it's not so bad, I promise! I think it would be one of those games you could put down for a while and come back to later as long as you don't abandon it partway through a big puzzle or something. I could see playing a few floors every once in a while and not forgetting too much between play sessions.
I played this game all the way thru many times. Funny how things didn't seem so bad and time consuming. Guess i was used to level grinding from the original Dragon Warrior. Spending hours apun hours to teach that next level or to be able to afford the next better weapon and armor. Anyone familiar with shining in the darkness has to remember the erea near the end of the game where if lucky enough get crystal ooze to fight. And if your really lucky being able to defeat one before it runs away. The equivalent of a mettal babble on steroids.
I don't recall saying this game felt like it was time consuming... I liked the exploration and usually if I held out, I'd find new armour or weapons without any trouble without having to buy them. Isn't money finite here? I don't recall gaining any extra from random encounters and thought you only found it in chests. And yes, I loved Shining in the Darkness! You got so much experience from those slimes. I fought a few, and one fight with them crashed my game for no reason and I had to reset. I lost a ton of progress. How could I forget them?
I couldn't get beyond the way the levels have to be rotated when I first tried this game back then while my other gripe at the time was, "this blonde girl is so much cooler looking and she's front and center on the box, why can't I play as her!?" Now all these years later... I still stand by those personal criticisms. 😅
Hahaha you can barely see the guy on the front of the box. It wasn't until I sat down to do this review that I saw him tucked away mostly behind the title. So funny! I think you can play as Alexis in the PSP version? I may be wrong but it might be an option.
You know, I had watched this video day one just shortly after it had came out but sometimes I just like to wait to comment after the dust has settled 🙂. This was a great video. A game I had seen in lists and all but never knew anything about until you shared it. I'm not sure if I could wrap my head around the room rotation but I suspect given time it would become ok. I'm sure someone has pointed out but there is a Japan only sequel for the super Famicom I saw.
Thanks so much! I'm very glad you enjoyed. This game does take a little getting used to but that compass straightens out any confusion as long as you consult it regularly. Without the automapping and the compass, this would've been an impossible game! I've heard of the Japanese sequel as well. Apparently there are a few games that are related to Brandish and also got translations, so that's great to know!
Brandish is just *so cool* I love that it got to keep it's Japanese aesthetic with almost no compromises for it's international release, and it's lore and story go way above and beyond for the time period it was released in. If there were a Brandish anime, I would watch the heck out of it. And as I mentioned a while ago, I did snag the PSP remake of this game. I'm definitely even more excited to get into now, and I'll let you know of any really significant differences I come across!
I'm pretty enamoured with it. I know someone did mention some censorship with some of the scenes, but I think the story's mostly intact at least. I'd also watch a Brandish anime (speaking of which, I want to finish watching the Ys one, and I need to check out ZIllion's as well)! They went deep with the story and I thought it was really well done. I just played Soulblazer recently, and that's the only game whose plot seemed as dark and cool to me as Brandish's did. I do recall our conversation about the other releases and my PS3 sounding like it might get launched into space whenever I turn it on, so I hope that your time with the PSP remake is time well spent. I have no doubt it will be. Others in the comments here have mentioned it fixed up quite a few things, especially with how you interface with the world. I'd love to hear more about it when you get into it. Thanks once again for a thoughtful comment!
@@hungrygoriya Wow, I had no idea there was an Ys anime! I'll definitely have to check that out! And I honestly hope the original SNES Brandish, alongside Soulblazer and all of its sequels, can get modern rereleases some day soon. I feel like the Switch's SNES online app would be the perfect place for that
@@HybridAngelZero Yeah! I have a DVD or two from the Ys one but only got partway through. And I agree: it'd be nice to see many more of these games come to light on the Switch. I'm sure people would be more inclined to try some of these games, especially on a portable system!
It's easily a favourite of mine on the SNES. It just takes a little getting used to! Some other folks here in the comments swear by the default controls too.
@@hungrygoriya now what I think would have been interesting is to keep a standard movement but also have the option to rotate the walls. Seems like it would cut down on disorientation and still allow for the secrets and puzzles afforded by the rotation system
Looks very cool! If you liked this, you would love Lagoon. It's very similar game but a little more pretty, and has anime cut scenes and a beautiful music track. Unfortunately it can be beated in a day. Little known fact is that Lagoon is sneaky remake of YS1 on the super nintendo. If you play them both it becomes quite obvious. Both are great games and very fun.
And I've been meaning to mention, did you know there was a Drakkhen 2? You wouldn't know it by looking at it, but it does exist. The combat is completely different and it's 1 character adventure, but once you get to the overworld you can tell they're related.
I wish they would remake the other Brandish games that never made out of Japan. Brandish 1 was remade on the PSP as Brandish: The Dark Revenant. In some ways Brandish reminds me of Brain Lord, have you played or done a LP of that?
Yeah! I heard there were a couple of other games in the series to try. Maybe we'll get a Brandish collection one of these days or something. I'd love that. I haven't played Brain Lord yet, but it's referred to a lot on this game's box along with Breath of Fire. I have it though, and it's on my list of things to try someday.
I'll need to give that a try sometime. The rotation wasn't terrible once I got the buttons changed. It was pressing the D-pad and turning that was making me angry more than anything else!
I really like the box art for this game. I know it's a little superficial, but that is the first impression you get for a game, and the box art for this game has a very strong Record of Lodoss War energy, which I really enjoy. The cutscenes and NPC art do fufill that style, but the in-game graphics are a little dry in comparison. It's not quite a fair criticism, tho. I think I'll give this game a shot, and I'll remember to change that control scheme the first chance I get!
I haven't played Record of Lodoss War but you're not the first person to mention that game! I had a look at the art for it and I agree completely. I hope you enjoy the game if you play it. It's quirky and a bit tedious at times, but I really liked it!
This is the 3rd video I've watched on this channel since finding it this morning. I'm loving them! The creator will probably never see this, but hopefully they feel happy with their awesome work and I thank them for the both brutally honest reviews of all the games I grew up with as well as for the wonderful trips down memory lane 💖.
Hearing about some of this game's weird quirks makes me wonder how much I'd like the Mystery Dungeon games if I hadn't been introduced to them as a kid through the GBA Pokemon ones. I realize they REALLY casualized the heck out of DX for the newest release, but...yeah, no, I'mma hold out hope for a proper new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game will someday be made...just, not on the Switch, as Pokemon as a whole hasn't been too great since the 3DS days, minus some side games. (...Arceus is a side game, don't @ me)
Well that was an interesting game. I didn't know that one. Not certain what to think about it though... might have to rewatch before deciding lol. Though, I think you should give the game, Fatal Labyrinth a try on the Sega Genesis. Mmm, I think you'll find it quite fun.
If this felt at all disorienting to watch, it's much easier when you're the one behind the controller. I can't say enough how fun and rewarding the exploration is here in Brandish. I've definitely heard of Fatal Labyrinth but don't currently own it. I've played Dragon Crystal on the Master System, which is supposed to be similar, but I haven't ever come close to beating it!
@@hungrygoriya You need fatal labyrinth for sure. great replay value. my friends and I often load it up at board game parties still. maybe I'll give this game a shot. the turning isn't all that bad. kinda like Contra 3's up down levels. or some old pc games I have no memory of their names lol
@@hungrygoriya I think the biggest thing that would get on my nerves would be the movement restriction. That's the one main thing I hated about the overhead dungeons in Golvellius (along with the forced forward movement) the inability to turn and attack.
@@joecapone3rd It's definitely not conventional but you do get used to it. Golvellius was a lot meaner because if you couldn't keep up, you got booted back out of the autoscroller sections. This is a lot more forgiving at least.
The dark rooms with pits is definitely something inspired by Shin Megami Tensei and one of the most sinister things ever introduced to the genre of dungeon-based RPGs
Seeing this game is having an effect on me as an Undertale, fan, seeing all the things that inspired Toby Fox from the shop menus to to falling down animation is amazing to say the least. Brandish may not be popular but its effect on the world is felt.
Undertale was a wonderful game! And yeah, falling down somewhere and trying to figure out how to leave again while being pursued totally ties right in! I hadn't made that connection!
I sorta wanna play this, but I feel like the rotation would give me a headache. I think it would be better if you got to see the dungeon rotate Mode 7 style rather than just "flash! Its rotated" Funny thing is apparently one of the Japanese PC versions actually does the kind of thing I'm asking for, but somehow the SNES does not.
I'll say this: it's worse watching someone else play than it is playing it yourself. I tried my best to keep the gameplay footage as stable as possible because it's quite jarring unless you're the one behind the controller.
Such a criminally underrated game! Everything about Brandish feels unique - gameplay, storyline, artwork, soundtrack. Too bad people couldn't get past the game mechanics, they ended up missing a true gem. Have you played Brandish 2? It's my favorite of the series, too bad it didn't get a remake yet.
It was so much fun. I loved the pacing of the battles and the exploration here. I haven't had a chance to play Brandish 2 yet, but I'd definitely like to!
This game had a lot of great things going for it in the visuals department. Shining in the Darkness had a similar aesthetic that I'm also very fond of.
The psp remake simply improves every aspect of the game. I haven't played this version. The L and R rotates the camera and I don't recall the dark zone being that tedious. The music stands out more.
I'll have to check out what some of the differences look like. Anything that would ease how you interface with the world would be welcome. I haven't played many PSP games, but I'm curious to see what that music might be like on a newer console.
This seems like a fantastic dungeon crawler - and the strange controls almost seem like a third person version of a Western grid based blubber. I would definitely recommend games such as Eye of the Beholder if you like actiony dungeon crawlers with puzzles! Also thinking about your enjoyment of Ultima IV and world building in this game… have you ever played Ultima Underworld? You might enjoy that one :)
Oooo Eye of the Beholder! I've seen a few people streaming that and it's always something I think I'd like as well. Wasn't it also released on the SNES or is there a better version to play? And I haven't tried Ultima Underworld yet. I usually need some space between my dungeon crawlers but I'm just about due for another soon.
@@hungrygoriya Eye of the Beholder is also on Sega CD, where it has mouse support, assuming you can get a Genesis mouse. Not sure what version is the best, but my wild guess would be PC.
@@japanimationman4442 That's a pretty informed wild guess... I will check into what the Sega CD version's looking like. I had no idea that the Genesis even had a mouse, so I learned something new today. Thank you!
@@hungrygoriya I would say playing on the gog version is probably the easiest way - not sure about the most accurate to the original experience though. I get the feeling you’re into original hardware.
I think the only video I ever saw on this one was a SNES Drunk review some years back but it was a brief one that didn't go into this level of detail as I recall. I had heard of this game but still never played it. I know of it because it's a Falcom game and as a fan of the YS and Legend of Heroes series I've seen this come up in searches of Falcom games. The look of the game is fantastic as it was originally a computer game on the PC-9801 that was known for great Sprite art and atmosphere. And God I hate invisible pits! Phantasy Star 1 on Master System has them in the dungeons of the 3rd planet and made me hate them for life.
Yes, and if I recall, SNESDrunk didn't enjoy his time with Brandish nearly as much as I did! Understandably... it's not for everyone! The art and the narrative for this game really drew me in way more than many other games I've played from this era. It's such a dark and dreary place to be and it sounds like it should be made into a show or even a song of some kind. And yes, Phantasy Star 1's pits are so mean... I played PS before I started mapping my games with graph paper and I had a hell of a time with them too. Myau's abilities to fix them was useless until you actually knew they were there, and I wasn't going to inspect every single step in front of me!
So, I mentioned in comments last time that I translated the PSP remake of this game, but what I failed to mention is that I never played the SNES version before that -- the PSP version was my first experience with Brandish. And it's kind of fascinating to see some of the subtle differences.
One such difference is the way those invisible pits are handled. In the PSP remake, they do NOT get marked on your map unless and until you fall through them... however, there's an item added to the game, "iron ball," that you can buy cheaply in stacks of 10 or 20 from basically every shop, and the item's sole purpose is to drop in front of you to see if there's a pit. If there is, it'll open up and fill in on your map; if not, you'll just lose the iron ball.
I learned quickly, however, that you don't even need an iron ball for that -- you can literally just try to drop any item in front of you. If there's a pit there, it won't let you drop it; if there isn't, it will. You can then open the map and mark it as a pit yourself (as the PSP version allowed you to make your own markings and edits on the map).
The PSP version also featured "Retry Bread," which basically saved your progress to memory at the very moment you ate it. If you died, you could choose to quick-continue from the last Retry Bread point instead of your last save. A bit pointless, but I liked the idea, since it was quicker to eat Retry Bread than it was to save to a memory stick (which is probably why they included it!).
The biggest difference, though, was a whole second quest where you play as Dela (Alexis in the English version). It's basically "hard mode," and features a lot of enemies and items that don't exist in the regular game -- such as the Map Eater, which is an insanely difficult enemy that tracks you across an entire floor, ERASING YOUR MAP as it approaches. So even if you're on the other side of the floor entirely, you'll know it's coming just by opening your map and looking for the swath of empty map squares. It's honestly kind of terrifying, and I really love the implementation!
They also introduced H.Poison and M.Poison in the second quest, which -- as the names imply -- do the opposite of H.Potion and M.Potion, reducing your HP or MP by a set amount. The names are so similar, you really need to pay attention, and it kind of makes you extra paranoid -- but then, as one extra twist, there are actually undead/unkillable enemies in the game that can move anywhere and just serve as huge pests that constantly get in your way... but the one thing that can block their movement is H.Poison. If you drop it on the ground, it serves as a barrier, preventing them from moving past. So if you save up your H.Poison, you can actually barricade those undead enemies in dead-ends to keep them from pestering you for the rest of your time on the floor.
Really, the PSP remake of Brandish is just superb all-around. If this is truly now one of your favorite SNES games, I urge you to try getting your hands on it, as it really is everything a good remake should be, preserving the entirety of the original game while making significant quality-of-life improvements and adding tons of extra content for good measure.
Yes you had mentioned that! I was wondering if I'd see you back again and I'm glad you stopped in again. I'm glad to provide a bit of insight into the SNES release for you.
So there are steel balls in this version of the game, but I was always so short on inventory space carrying around 1000 swords I never used that I didn't bother to keep any around. That's a good point though. In this version, when you walk past a pit, it populates on your map for you (thank goodness)! I can't tell you how many times I wanted to reach out and draw on my maps so it's cool that the PSP version allows for that. I wonder how item dropping into pits works in this version... I never thought to try that.
Retry bread sounds delicious, haha... that's a great innovation. Quick saves are a godsend. Thankfully saving on the SNES was pretty instantaneous.
And there's a second quest? WHAT that's awesome!!! I booted up my cart again to capture some footage for the review here and from what I recall, there's no NG+. That's really cool. I'd love to play that! I'll have to try to track down a copy of the PSP game.
And this game did have the M/H Poison as well. I remember the first time I used one of them and I was so confused. I usually livestream games so I wasn't paying super good attention and let me tell you: I scrutinized every single other item I picked up after that and immediately dropped it if it was one of those two. That's a lesson I refuse to learn twice!
Thank you very much for all your work on the remake. I'm sure it's brought this game to a lot of new people that never had the chance to try it on the SNES, or were just not interested in pushing past the control limitations at the time. I look forward to it!
@@hungrygoriya Ah, whoops! I haven't played Brandish since 2015 or 2016, so I couldn't entirely recall if H.Poison and M.Poison were in the regular game or not. I think maybe it's just the undead enemies who can be corralled by them that only appear in the second quest, along with the Map Eater (which appears as a floating eye enemy, so I believe I went with "Unbeholders" for their name in the final release).
And yeah, the second quest is definitely exclusive to the PSP remake -- Falcom made quite a point of pushing that in their marketing. Dela controls much like Ares (the main character's name in the original Japanese), but relies a bit more on magic than he did, and her armor also physically changes the outfit on her model and consists of cutesy things like cat ears and such (because of course it does!). Her quest is also VERY VERY DIFFICULT, with the aforementioned new enemies as well as a TON of rolling boulders -- Falcom really, really went a little crazy with those in Dela's quest. ;)
Does the original game have a casino as well, or is that also exclusive to the remake? Because in the remake, there's a hidden casino very near the start of the game, and a non-hidden casino toward the end of the Dark Zone.
I wish it were easier for you to play the remake in English, but at this point, I'm not even sure how you'd be able to -- we released it as a digital-only title due to the PSP already dropping heavily in sales by the time we got to it (physically producing it on UMD in 2015 would not have gone well, sadly!), but as a result, it's now... gone. The PSN store for PSP titles no longer exists anywhere in the world, AFAIK (unless it still exists in some capacity for Vita, but I think even that might be gone at this point?). So in order to play the game in English, aside from finding a system that's already got it downloaded, I think the only available option is literally the ol' ARR ME MATEYS one, sadly...
Of course, you can buy it in Japanese on UMD, but that version will play in Japanese.
@@Wyrdwad I do recall the map eater enemy because it angered me in the monster GI tract area I think? But yeah, no undead that I came across.
The second quest does sound great... I LOVE when character clothes change when you get new equipment. It's such a fun novelty and I'd like to play it for that, along with all the other reasons you mentioned sometime. I found Brandish pretty easy going mostly, save for some of the bosses and due to my inaction on purchasing magic when I could eventually afford it. I'd love to dabble more with the magic side of the quest for sure.
If there were casinos, I definitely missed them both. It's possible, but I also tried to be pretty thorough while searching. Now I'm curious!
And I do have a PSP hanging around, but I have no idea how to get online with it. I've never thought to try! I was looking at UMDs awhile ago just to see and yeah, only Japanese copies were out there. I'll look into seeing if I can get a copy just to have because it sounds like something I'd like to pick up and play once in a while. Thank you for all this info!
@@hungrygoriya I played a fair bit of this on PSP and it really is a lovely remake! Having the camera actually rotate when you turn instead of snapping immediately took the edge off the game's infamous controls.
Brandish first person remake when
I've been meaning to check out the PSP Brandish. Honestly, the lack of animation when the world rotates is what scared me away, but i think I'll give the SNES ones a shot.
I promise if you spend some time with it, it gets really fun. The exploration is definitely worth the trouble of getting a handle on the controls.
I got this for a song in the 90s when a rental place retired it. I really enjoyed it.
There's something very relaxing about combing over every inch of a dungeon like this.
I was reading about this game, it was originally released for PC-98, which makes tons of sense. This aesthetic was popular for games for it, and it had more screen real state. You had the map with you all times, and your inventory.
The environment turning made more sense because the game had a more corridor-adventure feel, rather than an action-rpg, and 3D was coming hot. See, there's a frame that your character turns before the environment which helps to orientate. However, this is almost unnoticeable in the SNES version.
IMO, this SNES version is the most aesthetic pleasing. My theory is that it was pushed to look more like an action game, but wasn't tested enough. Map and inventory were considered "distracting", and the game was made faster to be more action feel, but the main mechanic wasn't made with these changes in mind.
I had no idea about these differences. It's not surprising that there'd be some changes made, but it's unfortunate that they didn't make more considerations around that main mechanic. Thanks for sharing!
I just found your channel from this Brandish video, I love all the old RPG content! Liked and Subbed!
Glad you found me :) Thanks for having a look around.
Always glad to see new YT videos from you!
A nice review for this underrated dungeon crawler, I've played sequel first but I was just as impressed with first once I played it after completing the former. Suprisingly, I was never bothered with the unique control scheme although it took time to get it used to.
Regarding the sequel, I hope to see you love it just as much as the first as it's a massive improvement over the first game: graphics, music, gameplay, story gets even more expanded, more interesting character and worldbuilding interactions and even more fiendish mazes and puzzles.
I love your voice and style of review. The "punched them back to hell" line being dropped so dry like that killed me.
Thanks very much! My sense of humour's pretty dry so you can expect more if you check anything else out around here.
@@hungrygoriya I am currently working my way through your review playlist and drowning in nostalgia. As a fellow PC rpg fan, I would point you to SepTerra Core. It was a turn based game I played a lot on my uncle computer. Can't tell you if it is actually good as I am pulling from my rose tinted memories, but it may be worth a look.
@@vikeif You know, it's funny you mention SepTerra Core because I've started that game in the past but never finished it. I really do need to sit down and play it through, and I've been thinking about that one a lot lately. You might just get your wish!
One thing that really stuck with me during your play through was how well and quickly you mastered the controls. I still had no idea where we were, but it didn't matter cause you were confidently at the helm driving us through the dungeon. This game was a delightful little gem with so many interesting elements which you've really captured here in your video, and in the experience watching you play it live on stream. Thank you for this video!
Too kind, my friend! I worried people might not enjoy being along for the ride with this game on stream just because of how confusing it would be, but my pitch to people was always this: just look at the compass. It's right there!!
You're videos made me so excited that both times I've discovered your videos and started to watch them I've spilled juice all over my desk! 🤣
I really love it how you're covering some of the more obscure SNES games; Upon playing through the entire library, I felt like there were *many* games for this console which deserved more credit - including this one! 🔥🔥
Love your content - keep up the *amazing* work!!!
Oh no! I hope nothing was damaged in the spillings!
Thanks so much for your kindness. I'm really excited to get to play some of these games finally. I didn't grow up with an SNES, and it's been awesome sitting down with some adventure games. Those are the games I like the most! Brandish is definitely one of my favourites on the console, without question.
There's such a difference between watching streams of a game, and seeing a review. I never thought much about trying this game, but I dare say this gives me some vibes of games that I love, ie Solstice, etc.. and is making me (gasp) consider giving it a whirl. It is a beautiful game and the exploration definitely looks rewarding. Nice work, Grumbles.
Ooooo well, I for one would really enjoy seeing someone else at the helm for this game. I think with how much you enjoy puzzling, you'll appreciate Brandish quite a bit! And thanks so much :) I'm glad you liked the video!
Fun fact about this game's legacy: it's protagonist Varrik showed up as the player character in a very famous Earthbound ROM hack called The Halloween Hack. Made by a certain developer by the name of Toby Fox...
Sans is officially a Brandish OC
Oh really? I haven't played The Halloween Hack but I've heard of it. Is it big spoiler territory to look it up?
Toby seems to be a very big fan of the Brandish games. He ripped the SPC files for the soundtrack of both Brandish 1 & 2. Megalovania seems to riff on the final boss theme of Brandish 2. And the zooming-out falling animation from Deltarune Chapter 1 seems to be a clear nod to the mode 7 falling animation in this game.
@@RT55J Very interesting! I haven't played Deltarune yet but I did enjoy Undertale a lot. I usually wait until the excitement for stuff dies down before I jump in but it's cool that there's a link. I'll have to see if he's ever talked about Brandish online... I'd love to hear more about how it inspired things from his point of view.
@@hungrygoriya For the hack, for Undertale or for Brandish? Cause, not sure about Brandish, definitely not for Undertale (some shared themes and insane theories aside) and well, on the Hack itself there's some spoilers rampant, tho one of them's an alternate title for said hack and also the means to get the true ending,
Indiana Jones and the Perpetual Monotonous Exploration.
I just found your channel and I love it, digging through the backlog. Most of my rpg love started around the ps1/2 era. I love finding my way back through the annals of retro history and find new things to try!
Thanks!!
Perpetual monotonous exploration is what some of the best games are made of! Thanks for checking out the channel. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it and finding some new things to try out. Happy adventuring!
"We are going to make a dungeon crawler game, but we only have enough money for the protagonists forward facing sprite."
"Say no more, fam, I got this."
Maybe they had a thing about hiding Varik's face. If you look at the box art, Alexis is prominently featured and he's just tucked away and barely visible a little further down. I had no idea he was there for the longest time, haha
@@hungrygoriya
They really should have gone with a "chosen one" style of story. That way the world would metaphorically and literally revolve around the protagonist. :-P
this was a game that took me some time to enjoy it. but the PSP remake is what i recommend to most people since i know most would struggle to get into this version. but the 2nd game on SNES that got fan translated is a huge improvement and i had way more fun with it. very good coverage on this classic falcom game
I'm really curious about Brandish 2! I'll see if I can find the PSP game and give that a whirl sometime. More Brandish is a good thing!
@@hungrygoriya i hope 3 and VT will get translated one day. but yes id like to see you cover the 2nd game someday
Huh. So, _Brandish_ is a first-person dungeon crawler like _Might and Magic…_ but shown from a top-down perspective. That doesn't sound _that_ bad… It looks okay, at the very least, and the music sounds nice.
Also… that Dark Zone area reminds me of some old user-made _ZZT_ games from ages past. _Invisible ping-pong paths._ Always fun. Always a great party trick.
It's honestly not bad at all. I think people get spooked by the controls, and rightfully so since they look terrible when you're not actually the one playing. It's actually quite fun and the automapping definitely helps a lot.
The cover art reminds me of the designs for Record of Lodoss War. They could easily be Parn and Deedlit.
Someone else said this to me a long while back as well. I haven't played Record of Lodoss War, but I'll take your word for it!
Excellent review! I've got to try Brandish out some day. Thank you for highlighting the good features and the sticking points.
You're very welcome! I hope you like it if you do try it out. I thought I'd hate it after the first night with it, but once I figured out what the game needed from me, I enjoyed coming back to it until it was finished.
"unintentionally punched everything straight back to hell"
ok that's a great line, ha
Who amongst us hasn't decided that we want more mightiness for ourselves. 😛
Really enjoying your reviews! Thanks.
Hey thanks so much for checking out the channel!
I played through this one a couple of years ago just in a quest to finish the adventure games on the SNES. It was not great but not abhorrent. I felt as if a handful of small changes could have made it a fantastic experience.
The worst thing predictably is that rotating camera angle. It took me a bit to figure out what was going on and a bit more to adjust to it efficiently. I think if you polished off the frustrating parts, you would end up with Brain Lord on the SNES. It’s a decent title if you’re not familiar with it :)
Another thorough review!
Thank you very much! It's definitely not something that everyone will enjoy, but once you get your head around what the hell's going on, I think it gets to be pretty fun. I have Brain Lord sitting on a shelf somewhere around here waiting to be played. It's definitely something I'm interested in trying out!
Thanks so much for covering this title! I remember seeing it on the shelf at my local Babbage’s back when I was in HS. One thing that kept me from picking it up was the price. It was something like $60-$70, and never went on sale. That was a lot of money for a game back in the 90’s, especially with the other heavy hitters out at the time like Lunar 2, Chrono Trigger, Demons Crest, Lucia 2, Beyond Oasis, and FF3, just to name a few.
I see what they were trying to do with this to make it a little different, and it seems to rhyme with Shining in the Darkness (to me, at least) with an overhead action component. It’s almost like the developers should have waited for the (3D) hardware of the PS1 to make what I think they were trying to accomplish happen.
Great content as always, and I appreciate the attention to detail with the box art and instruction manuals!
I can see the price being a limiting factor back then, and even now in the current retro market.
Shining in the Darkness is one of the only other dungeon crawlers I've played and I felt some similarity to that as well. A controller with more buttons and a console with a little more power might've brought this to next level awesomeness, but I still think it was okay for what it was after getting over the frustration of the default controls.
And it's my pleasure! Thanks for leaving a thoughtful comment!
I have seen this game mentioned often and always thought "how could anyone have thought this is playable", once again, your hard work and dedication has revealed and incredible and clearly playable gaming experience that just needed a bit of explanation :-D.
Awww thanks! There's rarely a game that angers me so much that I give up on it and Brandish was worth the time. I had many laugh out loud moments at spontaneous deaths to things that came out of nowhere. Thank goodness I'm someone who saves often, haha
Honestly I was shocked people hated this game but I have the psp version.
I loved this game and it's sequel as a child. My cousin had it but never talked about it but I spent a good deal of time with it. I also came to the fortress underlevelled on magic defense but figured out a quick way to increase magic defense by sleeping intentionally in the range of magic attacks.
I saw the control scheme as a reference to old dungeon crawlers in which players would literally turn slowly each pace in a labyrinth, just done in a bird's eye view.
My favorite song is the headless theme and I love the covers I've heard of it.
And while this game has had such negative viewpoints from others, I loved how instantly recognizable Toby Fox used Brandish references in Undertale. It made that game even more enjoyable with those influences.
I have to say that the sequel was also fun but I only played it through once with a translation patch to completion and never again.
I liked Brandish quite a bit and I'm glad yourself and so many others enjoyed it too. I definitely need to get the sequel and try it out sometime. I'll be curious to see how it compares to this, but I've heard nothing but good things.
Brandish has a lot of style. I've always loved the cartoon like cut-scene storytelling similar to Brandish or Ninja Gaiden etc.
It brings a ton of character to the story! I agree!
2:07-3:23 That aspect of the controls sounds unnecessarily difficult. Of course, there was one SNES game I tried (that wasn't an RPG) that could qualify as worse: Bombuzal/Ka-Blooey. The U.S. release uses a 3D isometric perspective on a grid, but the controls are directionally challenged because the movements are inverted. What is more insulting is that the Japenese version of the same game on the Super Famicom had a "2D Mode" where players could see where to go, but that option wasn't available in the SNES version.
Oh interesting... I didn't know about Bombuzal/Ka-Blooey. I'll have to check it out.
@@hungrygoriya The game is actually a port of an Amiga title, but it's really frustrating. And in both the SNES and Super Famicom versions, the level music is the same. All the time. It doesn't even change depending on how far players get. And it has that tacky "early SNES licensed game" sound quality that is heavy on electric bass, cowbell, keyboard, and an annoying synthesized voice sample. It's definitely worthy of a (negative) review.
I really enjoyed playing this game in the early and mid 00's. My main trick to inventory management was to use unbreakable swords (including a broken sword at the start) unless I was facing a boss and selling all but the most powerful equipment (the Dark Sword/Shield/Armor being the exception) that I had. This allowed me to always have room for tools and such.
That was also my strategy once I found the unbreakable swords! My mind was blown when I learned that they existed, and they're all I used pretty much exclusively after that, except for some higher-powered stuff that I found late in the game that I'd burn through for tougher boss fights. It worked well!
Good review. I feel like Brandish bizarre camera was an attempt to combine action RPG with dungeon crawler. Its structure of "one giant dungeon divided into floors" also reminds me of dungeon crawlers of the time (Wizardry, Dungeon Master). I quite liked playing this game but I really fell in love with its sequel Brandish 2, which expands on the first episode in every way and has one of the best RPG soundtracks I ever heard. It was released on the PC98 and the Super Famicom and both versions received fan-translations.
I've been eyeing a copy of the second game to apply a patch to and enjoy sometime. It's rare to enjoy something this much and for there to be more of it! I'm very excited!
I would highly recommend playing the second game on the snes, it was translated a decade or so ago and it is plain fantastic.
Some people liked 1 better but 2 was really good, it introduced villages, other environments and believe it or not the music got even better.
You could also dual wield shields for supreme defense or two weapons if you wanted. Sadly magic was about as useful as it was in the first game, minus of course the barrier spell and the double damage one.
I'm definitely curious to see what Brandish 2 is all about someday. A lot of folks have also mentioned the PSP remake. More Brandish is a good thing in my books!
There's something both hilarious and relatable to me about you ending the game with your money maxed out and also saying you didn't buy most of the spells because of how expensive they were. I did the exact same thing when I played this game with my dad as a kid, though I did go back at the end to buy them just to see what the spells did.
Yeppppp, haha it's funny playing these games never knowing what you might need. My worst fear is spending out my cash and then realizing I have to buy something mandatory for 1 million dollars!
@@hungrygoriya Breath of Fire and its G.Bar shenanigans continues to haunt the human race.
Brandish is one of my favorite games and I'm a big fan of anything falcom. Knowing that and knowing Toby fox loves this game I was surprised barely anyone has heard or played this game. I own the psp version and I absolutely enjoyed it even though im kinda stuck as of writing this but besides that I wish more people know of falcom and also these older titles like this and xanadu next for example. This game is the dungeon crawler I love and I just can't find other games like it.
Have you played the sequels? I haven't yet, but I've heard they're excellent. There's nothing else I've played since or before this that's felt quite like Brandish. It's definitely special!
I didn't make the Undertale connection until after someone mentioned it to me here in the comments, but I love it!
@@hungrygoriya I haven't played the sequels since I can't read Japanese and I'm not good with pc yet to try and get a patch for them. I mainly buy Falcom games when they have official western releases because of the limited knowledge I have with pcs at the moment. I still am playing the first and im on the fortress 3rd floor.
@@hungrygoriya also brandish is what I think of a rougelike that I like even though it has no permadeath. Dungeon crawling games like this I really like too. Xanadu next I'd say is similar but different and is made by falcom of course.
I played the PSP remake last year and I think it's a great game if you can get your hands on it. It wasn't listed in the store on my PS TV, but I was able to buy it from my PS3 and then download it from my library on the PS TV. (The camera rotates smoothly instead of instantly, which makes it less disorienting.) There are fan translations for both the PC-98 and SFC versions of Brandish 2, though I haven't tried either yet. I would love to see Falcom remake the rest of the series in the same style, or even just localize them.
I hope they'll localize the rest one of these days. I will try to see if I can find it on the PSP online store. A few people have mentioned it's available digitally that way! I look forward to more Brandish in my life!
Thank you for this: Brandish was one of those games that was always peripherally on my radar (I would always see it at the local rental store), but I never really got around to it. Seeing it here, and hearing your breakdown of it makes me want to give it a shot!
I hope you give it a try and that your experience with it is positive. I loved it and am looking forward to trying out the sequel someday.
Such a great review! I hardly see anyone praising the snes version. Though it was frustrating at times I still had a lot of fun with it. I first found out about Brandish when I had done research on Toby Fox when I was obsessed with Undertale (don’t worry, I’m not a stan or anything) but I had found Varik’s character really interesting, and it’s a shame that some of the other games haven’t gotten translated. I know that the snes and pc98 versions of the second game and the Dark revenant were, but not the other ones. This series needs more attention. Though I doubt it would happen if Falcom made anything else for the series, as they are very fond of constantly making Ys or Trails games.
I had no idea about the Undertale connection until someone mentioned it here in the comments, but I guess a protagonist falling down a hole and trying to get back out to their world again is a glaring similarity that just went totally over my head. I'd like to play more Brandish as well, and I've been eyeballing the sequel. I'd love to try Dark Revenant as well. It sounds like there's a lot of awesome stuff packed in there that makes it a lot smoother/deeper than the original.
The more Brandish, the better!
Excellent review! This is one I remember seeing advertised in game magazines all the time...but I just never grabbed it for some reason (even though I was a HUGE rpg anything fiend). I remember downloading the psp version years ago and never getting a chance to play it. Maybe this review is my wake up call to push it to the front of my backlog.
I hope you do! It'd be great on a portable system to pick up once in a while and play a bit if you don't have a ton of time to give to it right now.
Awsome review at the time of typing this im at floor 3 of the fortress and hey can we get a review of the seacond game?
When I eventually play it, definitely! Good luck on your adventure!
Hello happy to see you replay here is an update
\i finished the game and totely its one of the best rpgs i have played and the last 3 towers wher kinde hell to go through infact i needed to use a go through wall cheat becouse i lost one of the keys i obtaind whan i was orgnizing my inventory i droped it somewher in level 5 or 6 or 7 in the fortress and didnt feel like going everywher to finde it but all and all its still was great and now i moved on to the seacond game and its really going well and i will hopfully beat it after my finale exams are done wich will be in one month
@@gdvanish7145 Oh no! I didn't realize you could drop important items :( Glad you're on your way now though, and all the best to you on your exams.
Wish Brandish 2,3 and VT got a remake
Who knows? Over the last few years, they seem to be bringing over a lot of cool games that never got released in North America before.
It seems like a game that as you invest your skill over time it pays off. I like the idea that if you get hit it increases your strength Stat, I'm learning more about the differences between CRPGs and JRPGs and I enjoy things like that where there isn't a one Stat to buff - that different stats can be used in different ways. Comings from the old Fallout games and now seeing it in games like Cyberpunk 2077 - goes back to the D&D aspect of, "Ok, HOW do you want to do that?" and not just one way, I appreciate that. This also looks in the vein of the old SNES/Sega games (well it IS an SNES game after all) of as you play more the game looks graphically more and impressive. I am adding this to my Hungry recommended backlog. Great review! Also my next Retro game is to replay and maybe finally beat The Legend of The River King
Yeah it's definitely fun and something different than your usual generic levelling up all stats with experience. I think you'll have fun with it if you do give it a go. It's fairly laid back and easy going.
I hope you enjoy Legend of the River King! That's coming up on my list as well and I've been looking forward to it for a long time. Enjoy!
You make a convincing argument that there is a lot here that makes the movement worth it. Honestly, the longer I stared at the gameplay, the better it looked. Wouldn't mind giving it a try! The art if anything looks REALLY nice!
I hope you do enjoy it if you try it out. I'm looking forward to the sequel sometime!
Thanks a lot for this video since this is one of my favorite SNES games. There is a lot of charm in this game that a lot of people seem to miss. I find myself agreeing with you on a lot of your videos as it seems you are willing to look for positives over minute negatives and dwelling on them. This is the kind of perspective I think reviewers need to have, at least in my opinion, so that people can find games that are catered to the kind of fun they are looking for.
Also, I know you don't really do PS1 games, but I reallllyyy hope someday you will take a look at Alundra as it feels like an SNES game that just happens to be on PS1. You tend to do harder games and I think you would really like it. (Not to mention give it a fair shake instead of writing it off as "too hard".)
That's very kind of you to say. I do like to form my own opinions about games even if they come along with a sour reputation. I think it's important to be honest but also personal. I can't objectively review a game and decide for everyone what it'll mean to them, but only what it means to me and my own experiences. I'm glad that comes across here.
I've had Alundra in my collection for a long while but I just haven't gotten around to it. That thought about it being an SNES game on PS1 was my first impression of it when I saw it in a review video a long time ago, and primarily the reason I bought it. It looks like it has a very intriguing plot as well. I look forward to playing it some day.
This is my favorite game on the SNES. Second to Brandish 2: The Planet Buster and then there is Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals. Ok I have a lot of favorites but I'm so thankful you reviewed this game and liked it. Brings me great joy!
It was so much fun! It's one of my favourites now as well. I'll see if I can find a way to play Brandish 2 one of these days. It's translated I'm assuming? And Lufia 2's coming up on my list of things to play in the next few weeks. I'm very excited about that as well! Hooray!
@@hungrygoriya Oh yeah it's translated. You be shocked how many Brandish games there actually are. Most prefer the PSP version since it's in 3d and it really is awesome. But I like the SNES the most. There is actually a part 3 as well as 1 and 2 on the PC-98 whatever that is lol. I'll tell you something pretty cool about Lufia 2. So there is this island with a Casino on it. It has lots of Casino mini-games like Black Jack and the like. But what is most important that nobody will tell you is you can win and purchase secret monsters. These monsters are very good and can be added to your party to fight with you and have some helpful abilities. It will make the game easier because Lufia 2 is very tough in the later stages, at least it was for me when I was young lol.
@Hungry Goriya
I admire and tip my hat to you for finishing this game!! I couldn't. Sat down with this game and within an hour, packed it back up and took it back to the store, and I've finished BrainLord! Never picked it up again and never will.
Well, I've heard from a few folks that there was a remake that brought in some good quality of life changes with the controls and gameplay as well as some extra content, IF you feel intrigued and want to try that out instead sometime. This version's certainly not for everyone!
@@hungrygoriya
Did not know there is a remake. Gonna have to look that up!
This somehow came across to me as a console attempt at a pc roguelike, with a lot of console RPG thrown in.
Im actually a PC gamer, and I see a lot of "PC stuff" in Brandish. (Except for I havent PC gamed since my husband bought me a switch for xmas. FF12 FOR THE WIN! Favorite console RPG of all time, and the last FF worth playing. Rebeating it for the first time since '07. And the re-release holds up really well even after 16 years. And I can play it anywhere cuz switch! 😍)
Buuut, Im not here to rant about how awesome FF12 is. (even tho I just did, oops)
I dont know if I'd like Brandish. I cant tell. The flipping walls are weird. But the game looks...unique. And when youre an old jaded gamer like me, whos played literally thousands of stereotypical turn based RPGs, unique is good. And like a Roguelike, kind of. And I love Roguelikes.
Also I do like the automap. And I like the map key in the manual referring to "weird walls". Everyone needs a few weird walls in their life.
8:37 and 8:53 I laughed. I'm always amused by the "shop in the middle of nowhere with a shopkeeper surprised someone arrived" RPG trope. Why would you put your shop out in the middle of nowhere where youre shocked to have a customer?
I like games with the healing mechanic where you can find a quiet corner and heal. IIRR, the 90s Yses (Yss? Whats the plural of Ys anyway?) had that. Maybe? I might be thinking of some weird PC engine jRPG
But breakable weapons + tiny inventory...hm. idk. Im an item hoarder in almost any game I play. Thats usually a dealbreaker. Same for you are stuck on grid movement but some enemies are not.
But, seriously I really dig your reviews. Like I said before, I too am an OG female gamer whos been a gamer since my dad bought an apple IIe when I was about 4 and gravitate towards RPGs and action RPGs. Im more PC based, but I love 90s jRPGs So, if you say its worth a shot, Im trying it!
I agree with you about the PC feel. I think its original release was on a computer called the PC-98 so I'm not surprised the interface didn't translate smoothly to console. It's definitely a different experience I haven't seen anywhere else so that alone to me was intriguing. I'm not sure if any aspects of the game are randomized at all.
It does have a lot of good features and funny quirks, especially in its written materials. I love looking over boxes and manuals and the little details are usually pretty charming.
I think you're right about Ys games. If you stand still in some places you can recover health slowly. I really appreciate that feature!
And thanks so much for the kind words about the reviews. I'm glad to bring these games some attention, and if you do end up trying Brandish, I hope you have fun with it.
Nice! The PC 98 series was the Japanese equivalent to a mid-80s-late 90s IBM or IBM clone PC running a version of DOS that accepted Japanese character input (and then windows 95/98). Pretty much ubiquitious among Japanese PC gamers of the era.
Ive never played on an original (being a cascadian and all, they werent common aroubd here. Although since my aunt taught in Japan - I was one of the few US kids who had access to an actual Famicom/FDS) but I do have an emulated one on my gaming PC. My Japanese reading isnt that great though, and I gravitate towards RPGs. So, I have to play with a japanese to English dictionary handy. But, if you can read Japanese at all its a platform totally worth checking out.
If you enjoyed this kind of thing, you may have fun with Brain Lord for SNES. Its a top down dungeon crawler with a very heavy focus on puzzle solving. Its got the mid 90s Enix goodness and is a personal fave from my days as a young'un
I was considering Brain Lord for my next stream game but decided to play something a bit lighter first. I'll get to it eventually!
There’s a sequel too! It was only released in Japan but there’s an English patch available.
Yes I've heard about this! I look forward to playing it some day!
This one needed to grow on me as I had played it after discovering the old standbys of Chrono Trigger and FFVI. I even recall Nintendo Power not exactly being nice about its graphical shortcomings on the map; something to the effect of "this roleplaying experience isn't pretty". But once you work past its rather unfavorable first impression it does become a solid if sometimes unforgiving experience.
Yeah, it's not the most beautiful game, and the pacing's a little slower than most, but it's very enjoyable if you like exploring.
Yet again another fantastic review. Very well made and very interesting to watch and listen too.
And, another game I've never even heard of. Just when you think you've seen all there is to offer someone (like you) throws another fantastic looking game your way) Thanks!
I love how this game looks and the story is very cool.
I will defo have to give this one a go one day. - What are the save options like in this game. Can you save anywhere?
Thanks again, and I love your reviews, so keep them coming x
You know it's funny because I ended up with this game by accident. I had a bunch of stuff to trade at a convention and the person brought this game out, all minty and nice, and swayed me to trade him for it. I hadn't even heard of the game before that moment and took a chance, and here we are. I'm glad I did!
The saving situation is that you can save anywhere, but there's also a feature where if you accidentally save in a troublesome spot (like a spawn point or something) there's a way to move your character somewhere different so you don't lock up your game permanently. If I'd encountered that kind of problem I would've included it here, but thankfully (for once) I didn't end up getting myself into trouble!
And thanks for the kindness. I have no desire to stop any time soon!
@@hungrygoriya Thats really cool. Its sometimes good to take a chance on these little known games, espicially if they come recommended like that. It does look cool.
Thanks for the reply on the saving, sounds good to me. Will defo give it a go now. Cheers! x
Great review! This convinced me I need to try this version. I really like the PSP remake (was actually my first professionally-published review for the now-defunct Front Towards Gamer), and I've been curious about the 16-bit original and its sequels, but always heard it was an inaccessible mess.
Thanks very much! I'd say give this one a little time to click for you and it should be just fine to play. I do need to try the remake one of these days.
For whatever reason, this reminds me of Brain Lord, an interesting top-down action-adventure with an emphasis on puzzles from the guys who gave us The 7th Saga.
Right! Brain Lord's mentioned along with Breath of Fire on the back of the box. I'd love to play Brain Lord sometime.
Nice presentation. Thanks!
Thanks for the video HG. I was thinking at the beginning nah I’ll just play Diablo but I’m glad I watched the whole video because this game looks like it has a lot of style and charm, I”m not sure if that’d be enough for me with the controls. It looks like I’d enjoy the game if I could get into it, but I think it needs more brone.
It's a good one if you're into it, but you're right: not enough brone!
Nice review! I never hear anyone give much praise to this game, so it's interesting to hear about what it does right for a change.
The default controls being bad reminds me of Golden Axe Beast Rider. Once I switched the controls in that game it suddenly became 10 times more playable.
I guess this is just my weird brain at work, but when you describe it as a dungeon crawl/RPG hybrid, my immediate thought was: isn't dungeon crawling the main ingredient of RPGs? Having grown up with Phantasy Star, Sword of Vermillion and the Bard's Tale, the idea of an RPG without dungeons to trawl through is baffling.
I only speak the truth. I don't know that I've heard of Golden Axe Beast Rider before, but I'd love to see what that one's all about.
And you might be right about most RPGs going hand in hand with dungeons. I guess when I say a dungeon crawler, I'm meaning it from the perspective of most of the game taking place in a dungeon, like Shining in the Darkness or one of those first-person explorer games where you rarely see the light of day. You're right though!
Beast Rider was the last time they made a Golden Axe game, back on the 360/PS3, so more modern than the games you usually cover. It bombed so hard Sega hasn't touched the franchise since.
It had a very defensive combat system where you would be surrounded and have to dodge and parry your way through the fights. Everyone (except me) hated it. About a year later, Batman Arkham Asylum came out with a very defensive combat system where you were surrounded and had to dodge and parry your way through the fights. Everyone praised it for being so innovative, and amazing, and simply the coolest thing ever.
Now don't get me wrong, Arkham Asylum is better in every conceivable way, but it still kinda bugged me...
Beast Rider's default controls put doge and parry on the L and R buttons, and when I moved them to the X and Y buttons it was much smoother going. My brain just couldn't handle switching hands for the defense buttons. Might be my personal problem, though.
As for dungeons, I'll just say that the earliest editions of Dungeons & Dragons, the world's first (formally published at least) RPG, advised new players that the first thing they would need to do is make a dungeon.
Just finished watching this. Quite enjoyable, HG! (This is Antiprimsatic, hehe! ^_^)
Thanks for hopping over here and checking this out!
@@hungrygoriya Will catch up with the rest of your vids whenever I have the time to do so. ^ ^
Ah, Brandish. I loved playing it years ago but doubt I ever could do it again. It's actually a port of a PC98 title, you know? A literal port, not any loose port like the Evo SNES version was. Maybe it played way less clunky on a PC98 than on the SNES.
I'm surprised you didn't mention that one "puzzle" in the Caves are. The room where you have to "Use" a torch to progress since it's actually a lever. I do not recall any hint for that, and I was stuck for ages because I did not think the game would change rules like that so suddenly.
Funny you used the punch for the first 2 hours, since that's actually the optimal way to play. Punching increases your Strength more than using weapons, and since you're low on cash and fighting weak enemies with no unbreakable weapons, it's just better to go with the fists.
And speaking of enemies, who's the sadist who put those bats as the first enemies in the game? You're already struggling with the controls, and the first thing you meet is a fast enemy that can pass through you to attack from other angles, while you're probably still trying to learn how to turn. They're not the only troll enemies either, as the whole Headless Golems boss is a gankfest that i'd be surprised if anyone survived on their first try. The lack of diagonal movement makes it like a horror movie until you can kill one and open a path.
I'm also surprised the music didn't stick with you! The shop theme and ruins theme are some of my favorites, and "Synchronicity" is a song I wish played more often with how it feels so fitting for exploring a dungeon. The Fortress theme isn't that great on the original, but you gotta look up the PSP version's Fortress OST. It's somewhere between disco and 80s rock in a way that weirdly fits. Like Varik is completely exhausted after the Dark Zone, but he's giving his second wind to push himself to the end, not even letting himself be bothered by the meaty walls. No stopping now!
I usually try to keep the details in the reviews broad so I don't give away too much about how to solve some of the game's puzzles in case people want to play it themselves, so that's likely why I left the example you mentioned out. I hear ya though... sometimes Brandish innovates in ways that aren't really predictable, but that was part of the fun for me personally.
Those bats are just the absolute worst. I hated them in the area with all the islands that you have to hop between. Some of the worst bats I've ever seen in a video game. The only ones that are worse are from The Battle of Olympus!
The music's really good but if I try to think about the tunes from Brandish right now, nothing comes to mind. I think it's great for exploring, but it immediately left my brain after I finished each area. I'll have to check out the PSP version's OST sometime. I'd love to play that version if it were available!
Great video! I'll be sticking to the PSP version because of the more traditional way of navigating the dungeon.
I've heard great things about that version. Very nice!
Haha, I remember recommending this to you a bit of time ago. Going by your tastes, I thought you might like it, but with Brandish, you especially never really know if someone will :p
I'm really happy you enjoyed it. The game has a really cool story and a generally oppressive and depressing vibe I find really intriguing. The game does a good job at conveying how hopeless it is down there, but your character keeps persevering...if the player does. Brandish 2 starts out with a similar quality, because you're thrown in a prison and anyone who manages to escape (of course, it's very dangerous) is deemed innocent. But overall, I find that the other Brandish games don't convey that hopelessness quite as well as the first. The music in Brandish 2 is quite a lot better than 1, however. The opening prison theme is REALLY good. I listen to it all the time :p
You should try Brandish: The Dark Revenant out sometime. It's a VERY good conversion and I think it's a lot more welcoming because the control scheme is set up better, as is the camera movement. The camera works the same, but there is at least a bit of an animation to the turns so it isn't nearly as disorienting as that one frame skip that is used on the SNES and PC versions.
Yeah you really just have to play it to know, but I'm glad I enjoyed it! I'd really like to play Brandish 2 sometime, but I did love the hopelessness of this game. It seems like you're up against an insurmountable obstacle but bit by bit, you make progress.
I'd love to give The Dark Revenant a try. Someone here in the comments actually worked on it and from what I've heard about it, it'd be worth playing through.
Had this one growing up got stuck on the puzzle where you have to hit the switches in a order based on north/south/east/west ; came back when I wasn’t a stupid kid and figured it out.
That was a tough one! I'm glad I'm coming to many of these games with an adult brain, though some game puzzles still wreck me!
Choosing the GBA version to be the avatar of Doom was pretty great.
Great review. I haven't watched your video on SNES games you found underwhelming, after I saw the list contained games I love because I am afraid I'll be convinced by your arguments.
To date, GBA Doom II's the only Doom I've experienced! Just trying to keep it honest, haha
And yeah, I don't bring up anything that's too contentious, but I have had a lot of people agree with what I've mentioned there. It's more just not feeling as enamoured with games as everyone else. I did like most of them but just not as much as the rest of the world, apparently. If you need to skip it, I totally get that!
Dude Brandish on SNES is legend, I rented this game so many times and finally beat it back in the day. So weird but such a fun game.
It's an easy favourite for me on the SNES. I'm really curious about Brandish 2!
That wall rotation I describe with the Japanese expression of "kimo" (gross), usable on technical systems like that indeed.
Feels like their ideal game could not quite be imagined, like they needed a Virtual Hydlide like operation a generation or two later. Did not know Falcom were involved in this but enemies not following the rules you have to stick to - there it is, the way I got to know the modern Falcom. Lovely art of its era.
I know there was a remake on the PSP and I wonder if it'd be better to try that way, but yeah... the SNES felt like a big limiting factor for Brandish's reception.
And the art is just lovely... I loved all the different shops and characters so much!
great review. Keep em coming.
I have no plans to stop any time soon. Thanks so much!
Brandish's camera is why I tend to go for the psp remake dark revenent having a normal 3d camera just works much better and is far less disorienting
Interesting! I don't know much about the PSP release but I'm curious.
I've always been on the fence about picking this game up for my PC Engine collection because of the unconventional navigation but after seeing this review I think I'll take the plunge on it.
I hope you enjoy your time with it! Good luck!
This game sounds like it has good conveyance, I'll have to give it a try. I've seen the game's name before, but have never tried it before. Thanks for the review.
My pleasure! I hope you enjoy your time with it. It's an easy favourite for me on the SNES.
Really interesting backstory for this game! I definitely need to use that as a plothook for a D&D adventure.
I also really miss that fantasy anime artstyle, its sad that its been lost in the current design of things.
I'm personally not drawn into the modern anime look at all, but I'll take this older stuff all day long!
@@hungrygoriya I'd heavily recommend Record of the Lodoss War if you haven't seen it, its definitely got that vibe!
@@Blazbaros I will have to check into that. Is it a console game? Or is there a best way to experience it?
@@hungrygoriya Oh its an anime from the 80s-90s, I'm not sure if they had any games from back then.
There's a spin-off game that came out recently called Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth that captures that art style pretty well, I haven't played it myself, but it looks fun if you're into Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
@@Blazbaros OH I knew it sounded familiar, but I had no idea what it was. Thanks for clarifying! And good to know about Deedlit. I loved Symphony of the Night so it sounds right up my alley!
Seems like an interesting game. Would be nice if you can move your guy in a more conventional way and use the L and R buttons to rotate the map. It's getting pricey in the after market, of course. I could emulate it, but I probably wouldn't have much time to play through it these days...
It's a good one, but I agree: the controls are a bit disorienting. When you're playing it's not so bad, I promise! I think it would be one of those games you could put down for a while and come back to later as long as you don't abandon it partway through a big puzzle or something. I could see playing a few floors every once in a while and not forgetting too much between play sessions.
This makes me appreciate Brandish in a whole new light. Thank you
You're welcome! This is a great little game.
I played this game all the way thru many times. Funny how things didn't seem so bad and time consuming. Guess i was used to level grinding from the original Dragon Warrior. Spending hours apun hours to teach that next level or to be able to afford the next better weapon and armor. Anyone familiar with shining in the darkness has to remember the erea near the end of the game where if lucky enough get crystal ooze to fight. And if your really lucky being able to defeat one before it runs away. The equivalent of a mettal babble on steroids.
I don't recall saying this game felt like it was time consuming... I liked the exploration and usually if I held out, I'd find new armour or weapons without any trouble without having to buy them. Isn't money finite here? I don't recall gaining any extra from random encounters and thought you only found it in chests. And yes, I loved Shining in the Darkness! You got so much experience from those slimes. I fought a few, and one fight with them crashed my game for no reason and I had to reset. I lost a ton of progress. How could I forget them?
Never heard of this game but am going to try it now. Thanks
Good luck! I hope you have a blast with Brandish!
I couldn't get beyond the way the levels have to be rotated when I first tried this game back then while my other gripe at the time was, "this blonde girl is so much cooler looking and she's front and center on the box, why can't I play as her!?" Now all these years later... I still stand by those personal criticisms. 😅
Hahaha you can barely see the guy on the front of the box. It wasn't until I sat down to do this review that I saw him tucked away mostly behind the title. So funny!
I think you can play as Alexis in the PSP version? I may be wrong but it might be an option.
You know, I had watched this video day one just shortly after it had came out but sometimes I just like to wait to comment after the dust has settled 🙂. This was a great video. A game I had seen in lists and all but never knew anything about until you shared it. I'm not sure if I could wrap my head around the room rotation but I suspect given time it would become ok. I'm sure someone has pointed out but there is a Japan only sequel for the super Famicom I saw.
Thanks so much! I'm very glad you enjoyed. This game does take a little getting used to but that compass straightens out any confusion as long as you consult it regularly. Without the automapping and the compass, this would've been an impossible game!
I've heard of the Japanese sequel as well. Apparently there are a few games that are related to Brandish and also got translations, so that's great to know!
Brandish is just *so cool*
I love that it got to keep it's Japanese aesthetic with almost no compromises for it's international release, and it's lore and story go way above and beyond for the time period it was released in. If there were a Brandish anime, I would watch the heck out of it.
And as I mentioned a while ago, I did snag the PSP remake of this game. I'm definitely even more excited to get into now, and I'll let you know of any really significant differences I come across!
I'm pretty enamoured with it. I know someone did mention some censorship with some of the scenes, but I think the story's mostly intact at least. I'd also watch a Brandish anime (speaking of which, I want to finish watching the Ys one, and I need to check out ZIllion's as well)! They went deep with the story and I thought it was really well done. I just played Soulblazer recently, and that's the only game whose plot seemed as dark and cool to me as Brandish's did.
I do recall our conversation about the other releases and my PS3 sounding like it might get launched into space whenever I turn it on, so I hope that your time with the PSP remake is time well spent. I have no doubt it will be. Others in the comments here have mentioned it fixed up quite a few things, especially with how you interface with the world. I'd love to hear more about it when you get into it. Thanks once again for a thoughtful comment!
@@hungrygoriya Wow, I had no idea there was an Ys anime! I'll definitely have to check that out!
And I honestly hope the original SNES Brandish, alongside Soulblazer and all of its sequels, can get modern rereleases some day soon.
I feel like the Switch's SNES online app would be the perfect place for that
@@HybridAngelZero Yeah! I have a DVD or two from the Ys one but only got partway through. And I agree: it'd be nice to see many more of these games come to light on the Switch. I'm sure people would be more inclined to try some of these games, especially on a portable system!
I love this game! it's too bad that the sequel never left Japan.but there are fan translations available for it now at least.
I've heard the sequel and the remake are both worth a look!
The wierd changing camera angles thing gave me a lot of trouble so it mad eme quit. Maybe I should give it another try
It's easily a favourite of mine on the SNES. It just takes a little getting used to! Some other folks here in the comments swear by the default controls too.
@@hungrygoriya now what I think would have been interesting is to keep a standard movement but also have the option to rotate the walls. Seems like it would cut down on disorientation and still allow for the secrets and puzzles afforded by the rotation system
Looks very cool! If you liked this, you would love Lagoon. It's very similar game but a little more pretty, and has anime cut scenes and a beautiful music track. Unfortunately it can be beated in a day. Little known fact is that Lagoon is sneaky remake of YS1 on the super nintendo. If you play them both it becomes quite obvious. Both are great games and very fun.
And I've been meaning to mention, did you know there was a Drakkhen 2? You wouldn't know it by looking at it, but it does exist. The combat is completely different and it's 1 character adventure, but once you get to the overworld you can tell they're related.
Is that Dragonview? I've played it! It's a very fun game!
I"ll keep this in mind when I get around to Lagoon. I haven't played it yet!
@@hungrygoriya Yes that's the name! I knew you would like it.I was hoping for a more true sequel to Drakkhen, but I guess that will have to do.
@@rw277 Who knows? Maybe some day someone will surprise the both of us with a more direct sequel!
I wish they would remake the other Brandish games that never made out of Japan. Brandish 1 was remade on the PSP as Brandish: The Dark Revenant. In some ways Brandish reminds me of Brain Lord, have you played or done a LP of that?
Yeah! I heard there were a couple of other games in the series to try. Maybe we'll get a Brandish collection one of these days or something. I'd love that. I haven't played Brain Lord yet, but it's referred to a lot on this game's box along with Breath of Fire. I have it though, and it's on my list of things to try someday.
Brandish: The Dark Revenant, a remake on the PSP, is a better title in all possible ways. Mostly because the rotation doesn't make your head hurt.
I'll need to give that a try sometime. The rotation wasn't terrible once I got the buttons changed. It was pressing the D-pad and turning that was making me angry more than anything else!
I really like the box art for this game. I know it's a little superficial, but that is the first impression you get for a game, and the box art for this game has a very strong Record of Lodoss War energy, which I really enjoy. The cutscenes and NPC art do fufill that style, but the in-game graphics are a little dry in comparison. It's not quite a fair criticism, tho. I think I'll give this game a shot, and I'll remember to change that control scheme the first chance I get!
I haven't played Record of Lodoss War but you're not the first person to mention that game! I had a look at the art for it and I agree completely. I hope you enjoy the game if you play it. It's quirky and a bit tedious at times, but I really liked it!
This is the 3rd video I've watched on this channel since finding it this morning. I'm loving them! The creator will probably never see this, but hopefully they feel happy with their awesome work and I thank them for the both brutally honest reviews of all the games I grew up with as well as for the wonderful trips down memory lane 💖.
I try to reply to comments as much as I can, so thank you very much for your kindness and for taking a chance on my channel here. I appreciate it!
Hearing about some of this game's weird quirks makes me wonder how much I'd like the Mystery Dungeon games if I hadn't been introduced to them as a kid through the GBA Pokemon ones. I realize they REALLY casualized the heck out of DX for the newest release, but...yeah, no, I'mma hold out hope for a proper new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game will someday be made...just, not on the Switch, as Pokemon as a whole hasn't been too great since the 3DS days, minus some side games. (...Arceus is a side game, don't @ me)
I don't know that I've played anything that would be considered a mystery dungeon. Does Brandish remind you of that kind of gameplay?
Great review. I don't collect for the Super Nintendo (at least not yet). So, I'm not familiar with this game.
Well that was an interesting game. I didn't know that one. Not certain what to think about it though... might have to rewatch before deciding lol. Though, I think you should give the game, Fatal Labyrinth a try on the Sega Genesis. Mmm, I think you'll find it quite fun.
If this felt at all disorienting to watch, it's much easier when you're the one behind the controller. I can't say enough how fun and rewarding the exploration is here in Brandish.
I've definitely heard of Fatal Labyrinth but don't currently own it. I've played Dragon Crystal on the Master System, which is supposed to be similar, but I haven't ever come close to beating it!
@@hungrygoriya You need fatal labyrinth for sure. great replay value. my friends and I often load it up at board game parties still.
maybe I'll give this game a shot. the turning isn't all that bad. kinda like Contra 3's up down levels. or some old pc games I have no memory of their names lol
The controls are based on the original pc9800 control scheme. All the brandish games are pretty great.
Right right... I wonder if it's a little more intuitive on the pc9800. I imagine it must be!
Great review. I ... uh ... tried this game a LONG time ago. Noped out after a few minutes. :D
I hope you'll give it another try someday if it's something that interests you. I love a long dungeon-filled walk.
I don't think I remember ever seeing this one, but looks interesting.
It's definitely worth some time if you like this sort of thing! Thanks for stopping by!
@@hungrygoriya I think the biggest thing that would get on my nerves would be the movement restriction. That's the one main thing I hated about the overhead dungeons in Golvellius (along with the forced forward movement) the inability to turn and attack.
@@joecapone3rd It's definitely not conventional but you do get used to it. Golvellius was a lot meaner because if you couldn't keep up, you got booted back out of the autoscroller sections. This is a lot more forgiving at least.
"Some of my grumblings are missing here" xD
The dark rooms with pits is definitely something inspired by Shin Megami Tensei and one of the most sinister things ever introduced to the genre of dungeon-based RPGs
So mean! I think that was the worst part of the game for me, no question!
Seeing this game is having an effect on me as an Undertale, fan, seeing all the things that inspired Toby Fox from the shop menus to to falling down animation is amazing to say the least. Brandish may not be popular but its effect on the world is felt.
Undertale was a wonderful game! And yeah, falling down somewhere and trying to figure out how to leave again while being pursued totally ties right in! I hadn't made that connection!
Toby also used Varic as the main character for earthbound Halloween hack
Great review on a game not much talk about!
When I finished recording my audio and saw that I'd have a 16ish minute video, I was surprised at how much I did have to say here!
I sorta wanna play this, but I feel like the rotation would give me a headache. I think it would be better if you got to see the dungeon rotate Mode 7 style rather than just "flash! Its rotated"
Funny thing is apparently one of the Japanese PC versions actually does the kind of thing I'm asking for, but somehow the SNES does not.
I'll say this: it's worse watching someone else play than it is playing it yourself. I tried my best to keep the gameplay footage as stable as possible because it's quite jarring unless you're the one behind the controller.
Such a criminally underrated game!
Everything about Brandish feels unique - gameplay, storyline, artwork, soundtrack.
Too bad people couldn't get past the game mechanics, they ended up missing a true gem.
Have you played Brandish 2? It's my favorite of the series, too bad it didn't get a remake yet.
It was so much fun. I loved the pacing of the battles and the exploration here. I haven't had a chance to play Brandish 2 yet, but I'd definitely like to!
@@hungrygoriya please play it, you’ll enjoy it even more!
BTH I started playing Brandish again because of your video :)
@@rafabcarvalho Hooray! I hope you enjoy your revisit!
both games absolutely fantastic...incedible creations..@@hungrygoriya
I miss this art style and general design sensibility so much. It's like I barely discovered it and then it went away :C
This game had a lot of great things going for it in the visuals department. Shining in the Darkness had a similar aesthetic that I'm also very fond of.
It's a shame that the sequel was only released in Japan.
I've heard there's a translation patch available. I definitely want to play it someday.
So, why do the two on the box look like Parn and Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War?
I wish I had a good reason, but I do not.
im thinking about giving this a go on snes
I hope you have a good time with it. I'm watching a streamer friend playing through it right now and it's such a joy to watch as well.
Whar bothers me a LOT in rpgs is limited inventories. An any time heal sounds awesome.
Im a player who loves having tons of poitions around
When I finally realized I could heal anywhere, it totally transformed this experience for me. Otherwise, you're quite limited on inventory!
The psp remake simply improves every aspect of the game. I haven't played this version. The L and R rotates the camera and I don't recall the dark zone being that tedious. The music stands out more.
I'll have to check out what some of the differences look like. Anything that would ease how you interface with the world would be welcome. I haven't played many PSP games, but I'm curious to see what that music might be like on a newer console.
This seems like a fantastic dungeon crawler - and the strange controls almost seem like a third person version of a Western grid based blubber. I would definitely recommend games such as Eye of the Beholder if you like actiony dungeon crawlers with puzzles! Also thinking about your enjoyment of Ultima IV and world building in this game… have you ever played Ultima Underworld? You might enjoy that one :)
Oooo Eye of the Beholder! I've seen a few people streaming that and it's always something I think I'd like as well. Wasn't it also released on the SNES or is there a better version to play? And I haven't tried Ultima Underworld yet. I usually need some space between my dungeon crawlers but I'm just about due for another soon.
@@hungrygoriya Eye of the Beholder is also on Sega CD, where it has mouse support, assuming you can get a Genesis mouse. Not sure what version is the best, but my wild guess would be PC.
@@japanimationman4442 That's a pretty informed wild guess... I will check into what the Sega CD version's looking like. I had no idea that the Genesis even had a mouse, so I learned something new today. Thank you!
@@hungrygoriya I would say playing on the gog version is probably the easiest way - not sure about the most accurate to the original experience though. I get the feeling you’re into original hardware.
@@jobojoe1 You'd be right! I don't mind GOG though.
I think the only video I ever saw on this one was a SNES Drunk review some years back but it was a brief one that didn't go into this level of detail as I recall.
I had heard of this game but still never played it. I know of it because it's a Falcom game and as a fan of the YS and Legend of Heroes series I've seen this come up in searches of Falcom games. The look of the game is fantastic as it was originally a computer game on the PC-9801 that was known for great Sprite art and atmosphere.
And God I hate invisible pits! Phantasy Star 1 on Master System has them in the dungeons of the 3rd planet and made me hate them for life.
Yes, and if I recall, SNESDrunk didn't enjoy his time with Brandish nearly as much as I did! Understandably... it's not for everyone!
The art and the narrative for this game really drew me in way more than many other games I've played from this era. It's such a dark and dreary place to be and it sounds like it should be made into a show or even a song of some kind.
And yes, Phantasy Star 1's pits are so mean... I played PS before I started mapping my games with graph paper and I had a hell of a time with them too. Myau's abilities to fix them was useless until you actually knew they were there, and I wasn't going to inspect every single step in front of me!
For you older folk out there, the art style may seem familiar to you, as it was done by Isotoshi.
Yes, *that* Isutoshi.