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my-personal-place-to-write-blog · 8 months

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It's been a long time since my last post here, but I was really busy overall. This post is for a sequel of a game that I played at the start of the year and I loved it. So... how is Brandish 2? And how compares to the first game?

Little premise here: I played the original pc-98 version made by Falcom, more specifically the Renewal version that came out in 1995 and this specific version has an English patch that you can use to play the game. I will mention some other things for the pc-98 version later. With all of this said, I can start talking about the game.

Compared to the first game, they added from things (for example new weapons) but overall, the combat system is the same overall. So, this game is still a dungeon crawler, and the camera continues to be in the back of the main character, Ares, which is once again playable here after the first game. And like the first game, you will fight your way through the different dungeon in order to complete them and continue like this till you reach the end.

Like the first game, you can use every means at your disposal, from the tools and the weapons that you pick up in the dungeon (including the equipment as well), to the ones that you can buy in stores if you need them (you can also find said equipment here in the shop).

The basics are the same as the first game but what is new in this game compared to the first one? In this game, Ares can dual-wield swords (or knuckles, one of the new weapon added in this game) or you can use both of your hands to use weapons like the hammer or the axe.

This changes the way that you can handle the bosses (and also regular enemy): I prefer killing them in a faster way or I prefer using just one weapon and the shield together with the armor? The choice is left to the player, and in this sense one of the characteristics of this series comes out: you are at your own in this game, and you need to choose what you want and need to do in order to progress. This game isn’t cruel btw, you can find everything that you need while travelling, you don’t risk running out of resources (especially like I said shops are here in this game - even though there are way rarer to find in this game than in the first one – and also unlimited weapons that you can find. So, you can use these in a pinch if you need them). Like the first game also Ares can use magic with the right ring (which ran out of uses but they don’t consume your magic stats) or magic scroll (which don’t run out of uses but you will consume your magic, so you have to recharge it if you want to continue to use them). The tools are there, you have everything that you want at your disposal, you just need to choose how to use them.

I'm still questioning the full value of this item: it has a specific use when you get it (if you discover it, that is), and after that, it's pretty much useless.

As for the dungeon themselves, I need to mention 2 things immediately: this game is longer compared to the first one and it does have more dungeon, there’s more variety to them compared to the first game but it has a big problem unlike the first one. I don’t really like one of the dungeons in this game (and to be fair, this is my least favourite area in both Brandish 1 and 2 combined).

A in-game map of the Brandish 2 world

First the good: I like most of the dungeons, they are still well crafted one and you have to explore through them. Like I said earlier, there’s more variety to them compared to the first game: Brandish 1 only has 5 areas, Brandish 2 has more areas so there’s more variety to the level design itself (also said areas are - generally – shorter if you compare them to B1, so you can run in a much faster way. On the other hand, this game has definitely more levels in general so this game will be longer than B1 in this sense). In B1 all the dungeons are indoor, in B2 outdoor areas exits and it’s a nice change of pace to explore some of them (especially considering the ost in these games - the ost is really good and you will like a lot of music in it, even in this game that released on the pc-98).

That said, I disliked one area: Castle Wall. More specifically, the indoor section of this area. It’s way too big and it does go against the level design that is common in the series: it just doesn’t work that well. It’s also worth to mention that, when you reach the G section of this place, you need to enter into the Castle itself and if you don’t do that, you’ll get stuck when you reach the tower because you need a key in order to progress there and said key is in the Castle (even though as a dungeon I don’t really mind the Castle itself, just Castle Wall, but this is something worth mentioning and the amazing track of this area doesn’t change this thing).

Castle track

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Castle Wall is just confusing as an area, and this thing doesn’t really happen normally when you are exploring them, and thanks to all of this, I can definitely say this is the worst area in both B1 and B2 combined. This was my experience, maybe someone else (when he’s playing this game) might like this area and dislike something else (for example I know that a lot of people dislike the Ice-Green Zone in this game, personally I didn’t have much trouble with it but at the same time I can see why people might dislike it).

Brandish 2 is a much more difficult game compared to the first one but not unfair, in fact the game will give to you everything you need to progress, and in late game the game will give you 2 specific scrolls that are extremely good. These are the Barrier Magic and Toughen Magic.

These 2 scrolls are absolutely needed to beat the late game bosses, and both items can be obtained for free, or you can buy them at the Fortress (there’s a shopkeeper in Fortress 3 that sells both of these scrolls). The Toughen Magic is really easy to obtain for 3, you just need to open a chest in the Laboratory (Laboratory 3 to be precise), but the puzzle behind the free Barrier Magic might be difficult to do so it’s easier to wait and buy it and the Fortress.

This game also does have an emergency mode: if you hold the ctrl + b button on your keyboard and you load your save file, you can activate this mode. With this, you can teleport where you want at the costs of your stats.

Just some screen that I took as demonstration of this feature.

It can be useful in difficult situation, it’s a tool to keep in mind really, it can help to pass in an easier way some part of the game (maybe to backtrack in a much faster way, for example). This is also helpful when you consider this game only has a single save file slot for saving. You can use this everywhere; you can even save against the various boss in the game and even the final boss if you want to use the option. But you need to be careful, if you use the save in a bad spot it might be difficult to get out in normal ways (and the emergency mode might help you here).

As for the story, this game has a bigger scope compared to the first one. This game wants to tell you how the events in Bundevia unfolds, and this is done well especially considering the period. This is no masterpiece by any means, but you definitely see that they added a lot in this department compared to the first game (which mostly doesn’t have any story besides the lore around the place and Ares and Dela’s encounter - I still do think that what is there in the first game is really nice and overall good in any case) but not only the game has a much stronger narrative, lore-wise this is really a rich game (much more than the first one) and there’s a lot of worldbuilding done here as well.

This game also does have a lot of NPC that you can with and they will share their thoughts and this is pretty different compared to the first game. In this game you can find a town and a village, which have different NPC and these one tells you their stories (in addition to the shopkeepers). Instead in Brandish 1 you won’t find any town, just some NPC while travelling and the shopkeepers. This thing that Brandish 2 does is much closer to how Falcom writes their game now, where you can see NPC telling you important information. I really didn’t expect this game to be one of the first game where Falcom started to do this, it’s so interesting to see this in a such an old game (1993, this game is 30 years old as of today).

I already briefly mentioned the ost, which is amazing btw. I just want to mention some other tracks from the game’s ost.

Stranger - Wandering Swordsman

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Wharf 2

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Laboratory

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Special mention to the second final boss track in the game. This is so good. I just love this track so much and I’m glad that I’ve heard this in the game.

Gadobadorrer

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And this one is probably one of the most known Falcom tracks. And it’s a good one really.

Soldiers' Sorrow

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The last thing that I want to mention for the music is the title screen track. Why is the title screen music called Homeless Johnny? This name is so funny.

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That said, this game has some big issues when it comes down to the controls, which is also one of the reasons why this game took me much more time to finish it compared to the first game. In B2 (and by extension B1 on pc-98) you need to use the mouse and the keyboard to play the game. Because of this it's definitely much more difficult to play this game today, but while playing it I was able to adapt myself to them and I was able to finish the game pretty nicely overall, but it definitely took time to get used to them. They really should do a 1:1 remake of the second game (while also porting the first one in the meantime as well).

Overall, I really love this game, and I wish that more people might give a chance to it: Brandish is such a nice and fun series to play, and I would really love to see more people giving a chance to it. It’s still Brandish, this is still a game in the series that I fell in love with at the start of the year and it has become one of my favourite Falcom series now. I love this game (like the first one).

For now my journey has stopped (I might just start again B1 on pc-98 but that’s it), I need to wait the english patch for Brandish 3 is ready to play this game so… Brandish 3 english translation patch waiting room (that said in the meantime I might start learning Japanese, even for other old Falcom games that I still have to play and these aren’t translated. Japanese might be my only option in these cases).

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#ares #brandish #dela #falcom #brandish2 #Youtube

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