Musashi: Samurai Legend



The sequel to Brave Fencer Musashi, with more Cel Shading. The main character, named for Miyamoto Musashi, is brought into a fantasy world to save the Mystics and their magical city from Gandrake Enterprises. Namely by gathering the The Five Swords and rescuing the Princess of the Mystics who summoned him there in the first place, and finding the scattered citizens of the evacuated village. Oh, and he gets to collect cards of the friends and foes he meets during his journey.

Musashi: Samurai Legend wasn't quite so well liked as the original, due the lack of the original's quirky charm, but it worked well as a standalone game. It also has more of an adult tone and a higher rating (T for Teen) rather than the childish tone of the original.

Its main theme is composed by The Surf Coasters, and has an animated opening by Studio Gainax themselves.

"Musashi: "You've got to be kidding me!""
 * Accidental Pervert - Oh, poor Banon.
 * Anti-Hero - Musashi, to a point. Midway through the game, he confesses that he was mostly doing his good deeds for himself, but he acquires his morals later in the game, truly becoming The Messiah.
 * And he.
 * Action Girl - Istara, and to a lesser degree, Princess Mycella, though she's more of a Magical Girl.
 * Attack Its Weak Point - Each and every boss have a weak point that must be exposed and then slashed in order to damage the boss himself.
 * Bait and Switch Boss - At one point, you must fight off a massive, fire-breathing Crimson Gorger.
 * Bare Your Midriff - Musashi himself.
 * Beware My Stinger Tail - Gorpus, a giant scorpion, who can launch explosives out of it. And also Shiraz.
 * BFS - The Great Oar, and the rest of the acquired swords throughout the game. Also Gandrake's sword is very long.
 * Bonus Boss - It's possible for Musashi to fight  in the game's arena.
 * Boss Subtitles - The bosses have to be introduced somehow.
 * Big Bad - Gandrake
 * Brainwashed and Crazy - Arachnoblia.
 * Camp Gay - Laden the bartender.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: The elemental powers and maidens, specifically: Green for Earth, Blue for Water, Red/Pink for Fire, Light Blue for Wind and Violet for Void
 * Cool Sword: The elemental Swords. Also the boss Asura, who wields six different sabers and can eventually turn into a large sword himself.
 * Critical Existence Failure: A robot enemy will absorb slash after slash until you cut away that last bit of health. At which point your sword cleaves it neatly in half as if it could have done so all along.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul - Arachnoblia and probably Shiraz.
 * Diagonal Cut - In various fashions, including double, cross-shaped, X-shaped, strip-shaped and, in case of the last technique, "net-shaped".
 * Disney Death -.
 * Damsel in Distress - Priness Mycella, but is subverted in the end.
 * Dual Boss - Glough and Riesling
 * Dual-Wielding - Musashi swings his unnamed katana in his right hand and the BFG du jour in his left.
 * Dug Too Deep - Roquefort Mine.
 * Elemental Powers - The Five Swords. Each contains a different element (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void), and holds special powers embodying their element and used both for fighting both for puzzles. Said powers include:
 * Earthquake: used for knocking foes down and activating platforms.
 * Hydroblast: extinguish fires.
 * Fireblast: burn obstacles and light torches.
 * Tornado: allow you to lift an enemy and drop him on a platform.
 * Dark Warrior: Useful for stealth sections.
 * Epic Flail/Anchors Away - Glough's Weapon of Choice.
 * Escort Mission: At least six of them. Your combat options are limited with a lady (and in one case, valuable mineral) in your arms, but you can toss her in the air long enough to perform a Spin Attack. Or just use her as a bludgeon.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses - Mycella.
 * Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods - The Red Kraken boss, which is part octopus and part elephant.
 * Evil Genius - Malbec. Made worse by the fact that he is, at most, a prepubescent kid.
 * Expy - Gandrake is based on Musashi's rival Kojiro Sasaki.
 * Fanfare - "The Musashi Legend"
 * Fan Service - Musashi Samurai Legend has a little for everyone; Fontina (Meganekko, which is even mentioned as her best asset by one of the NPCs); Istara (Action Girl with a hint of Tsundere), and Burrini (The Chick), among others.
 * And then there's Clochette, who is in a league all her own. She even gives Musashi a blatant proposition, though he's so innocent that he completely misses the point.
 * Five-Bad Band - Gandrake Enterprises:
 * Big Bad: Gandrake
 * The Dragon: Rothschild
 * The Brute: Glough and Riesling
 * Evil Genius: Malbec
 * Dark Chick: Clochette
 * Sixth Ranger Traitor: Shiraz
 * Flunky Boss: Malbec fights along with a group of machinegun-toting, sexy female Ninjaroids.
 * Friend to All Living Things - Burrini, who owns a pet bird named May Day.
 * Gainaxing - Burrini does this during the cutscene where she' threatened by The Dragon. The close up which includes her ample chest helps a lot. Also Istara in a similar occasion
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere -
 * Also, the Crimson Gorgers. Unlike basically every other boss in the game who has either an in-story justification or at least serve as a thematic match, these guys come literally out of nowhere at the end of a mission that didn't really seem to need a boss, just because the devs felt it had been a while since there'd been a boss fight.
 * Giant Spider - you meet some human-sized, exploding spiders in the Pycodon Jungle area. The boss of the area is their mom, the colossal, Brainwashed and Crazy Arachnoblia.
 * Go for the Eye - The second boss, Gorpus, must be defeated in this fashion.
 * Green Rocks - Nebulite, though it's more of a Red Rocks thing.
 * Hailfire Peaks - The first area, the Spring Wood includes The Lost Woods, Evil Tower of Ominousness and The Maze in one.
 * Heel Face Turn - Clochette, the secretary for Gandrake Enterprises,
 * Hey, It's That Voice! - There is a surprising amount of well known Japanese voice actors who worked on this game.
 * Hyperactive Metabolism: Musashi's: he can eat bakery products, onigiri and various kinds of food from pasta to grilled meat in order to heal himself. There's however a variation: Ice-cream replenish the magic bar and cocktails and drinks give you an attack/defense bonus.
 * Except for the deadly Angler Hellstew, which will make you lose a few hp but add some to your maximum.
 * Improbable Hairstyle - Musashi's 'do kinda speaks for itself.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha - The Vaporbot.
 * Going by any looser definition of "mecha" would mean virtually every enemy in the game.
 * Item Crafting - Somewhat. One of the helpful NPCs can pop any combination of three or fewer items into a machine and invent something new. Some inventions are quite handy, such as a portable refrigerator that keeps valuable food items from spoiling. Unfortunately, your selections are limited - only three types of crafting materials exist in the game.
 * Lethal Lava Land - Mount Terroir.
 * Living Ship: the Anthedon, a giant flying whale which carries the city of Antheum on its back.
 * Lost Forever: As soon as you rescue for the second time, be sure to visit her room for a bonus cutscene and a highly useful accessory.
 * The Lost Woods - Spring Woods and Pycodon Jungle. The latter has also some cavern sections and is more like Jungle Japes.
 * Magma Man - Moltan, a dragon-like monster made of magma.
 * Mega Corp - Complete with not one, but two CorruptCorporateExecutives.
 * Mega Manning - The Duplication process.
 * It's of the "watch the move and instantly learn it yourself variety"--in fact, Musashi counters the move he's learning with the move he's learning. This leads to a good explanation as to why the moves are sometimes different--he's adapting the moves for use with his gear and, at times, biology, so a 1 to 1 match is sometimes impossible.
 * Mercy Kill -.
 * Miyamoto Musashi - The game and Player Character are both named for him, after all.
 * Multi-Armed and Dangerous - Asura has six arms and three faces.
 * Not Quite Dead - Played straight with . Musashi kicks his ass twice, blows up the building he's occupying, and finds him still up for a fight.
 * Not Quite Dead - Played straight with . Musashi kicks his ass twice, blows up the building he's occupying, and finds him still up for a fight.


 * Oh Crap - Gandrake's Henchmen
 * One-Hit Kill - Gandrake's Returning Swallow's attack.
 * One-Man Army - Musashi himself.
 * One-Winged Angel -, once he's completely nebulized.
 * Earlier, the Drill Golem turns in a different model the second time you face it. The Asura boss does a similar trick.
 * Punny Name - Princess Mycella and all of the Elemental Maidens are named for different kinds of cheese.
 * not only them but also some of the villagers like Pecorino or Asiago. Gandrake's minions are named for kind of wines.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni - Musashi and Gandrake. Also Maribo and Mirabo, though they have the same color scheme (dark red for Maribo and bright pink for Mirabo).
 * Rule of Cool - Those Mecha-Mooks must be really shoddily manufactured; much of the fun of the game is dashing hither and yon, dicing robots Samurai Jack style. Oddly, some of them even leave a red skeleton behind when you slay them.
 * Save the Princess - In spades, particularly when you end up having to find, pick up, and carry each of the Elemental Maidens at one point or another. Also subverted.
 * Scary Scorpions - Gorpus is a giant, partly robotical scorpion that shoot fireballs from his stinger.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can - Many Bosses, usually the guardians of the Elemental swords were this and must be fred in order to obtain their sword.
 * Single-Stroke Battle -.
 * Spin Attack - The Great Oar's magic, Maelstrom. Musashi pumps it up to about twenty feet long and spins, demolishing everything in its path.
 * The Stinger - One plays during the epilogue, revealing that, among other things,
 * Sword Cane - Rothschild's weapon of choice, it can somehow unleash annoying tornadoes.
 * Temple of Doom - Where you find the Sword of Void.
 * There Are No Therapists - Fontina, somewhat. Though she gets one major pep talk from Musashi, who restores her self-esteem.
 * This Is a Drill Golem - Yes, it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
 * Those Two Bad Guys - two of Gandrake henchmen, Golgh and Riesling who also act as a Battle Couple, using an Anchor shaped Flail and a Battleaxe for their Combos
 * Too Dumb to Live - Riesling.
 * Tsundere - Istara, somewhat. She's Badass, a swordswoman who is on par with Musashi himself, and was the champion of the Arena for years before the events of the game. But give her a compliment on how good she looks and she'll blush harder than everyone else.
 * Also Fontina, indubitably.
 * Turns Red - Sort of with the Scarlet Kraken, who's already red in color, "turns blue" when his HP are halved and becomes stronger.
 * The Very Definitely Final Dungeon - Just look at the final stage.
 * Weapon as Familiar: Gandrake, instead of using his own power, relies entirely on that of his power-source/boss, the Archnembulus, along with Musashi's elemental swords.
 * Wicked Cultured - Rothschild. Doesn't stop him from being an asshole on wheels, though.
 * Wolverine Claws - The Ninjaroids.
 * Wolverine Claws - The Ninjaroids.