Developed by Square-Enix..
Squaresoft steps up and decides to start a franchise out of a previous stand alone title that really didn't get a whole lot of press. Samurai Legend Musashi is the sequel to Brave Fencer Musashi on the Playstation. Even when Squaresoft initially released this game, they knew it wouldn't get much play at all, so they strategically sold the game with a playable demo of Final Fantasy VIII which was one of the highest hyped games of 1998 right along side Zelda: Ocarine of Time.
Much like Zone of Enders 1, people merely bought the game for the demo. Well, arguably, unlike Zone of Enders 1, Brave Fencer was well worth the standalone purchase without the demo included. Man, I have fond fond memories of early 97 when I originally imported Brave Fencer to play FF8. And, after my 'ol Toys R Us pals had a little FF8 demo party, i devved into Brave Fencer.
My god, this game was great. It had all the aspects of a great solid adventure title along with a game clock that followed a standard 24 hour day. The characters were fun to interact with. The story was rather basic, but it was still solid at the same time, so it provided for great gameflow.
And now...
Is it just me, or does it seems squaresoft is in the market for franchising sequels now? On the playstation, it seemed they had so many standalone singular titles, and now it's sequel here, sequel there. I dunno... They've made Drag-on Dragoon, Kingdom Hearts, and The Bouncer so far on the PS2. But, both The Bouncer and Drag-on Dragoon are terrible, and Kingdom Hearts was made to be a franchise.
On the Playstation, there was Vagrant Story, Xenogears, Threads of Fate (Dew Prism), Parasite Eve, Einhander, Tobal No. 1 and Brave Fencer Musashi. Plus, Racing Lagoon that didn't make it over, though if I remember correctly it wasn't all that great, anyway.
It seems like they've focusing more on "sure-thing" titles, rather than a "well at least we can say it's a good game" title, or "at least we can say we made the game we wanted" title, or whatever. Maybe the economy over there factors into it, or maybe they are too hesitant because of their losses from Square pictures, or they want to secure more positive funds before venturing again. I dunno... there are many reasons, I'm sure.
NONE the less, the thought of a new brave fencer game is very intriguing. ^_^ I mean, I loved that game. And a sequel? Hells yeah.. Bring it on. And, as another insentive that I've been in love with is that the game uses cell-shaded graphics. Check out these shots:
If they can pull off the same gameflow as the previous Musashi, and keep the graphics up to the standard in the industry, I'd say this game will probably be one of squaresoft's best on the ps2.
This was just announced today or yesterday on the heel of E3. The article ends with saying that Squaresoft will announce further details at E3, so we'll see what happens. ^_^ I hope this game won't suck.