QCF: Brandish: The Dark Revenant

ou may or may not know it, but one single name always gets my gaming emotions set to fever pitch. No, it's not Cave, Natch, nor is it Qute or 5BP. or anything else you might be thinking. No, fine sirs and madams, the name in question is, in fact, Falcom. I've been a humongous fan of the Ys series in specific for a very long time, and when Falcom flashed up on my PSP Go's screen for Brandish: The Dark Revenant followed by what looked and sounded like a lost Ys intro, I was understandably psyched.

Brandish: The Dark Revenant is a re-imagining of the 16-bit classic dungeon RPG originally released to a number of computers and consoles, such as the PC Engine, NEC PC-9801, FM Towns, DOS and, most notably, to the Super NES in 1995. It was also published and co-developed, at the time, by Koei. Even in the 16-bit era, Brandish separated itself from the huge influx of RPGs with its unique control and gameplay system. Basically, the game plays much like a first-person dungeon crawler like Wizardry or Arcana with many, many floors, secret rooms and even shops in unexpected places.

In the spirit of being a Third/First-person game (fourth person?) the controls are... wonky—there will be a period of frustration to be sure when figuring out the controls.

Turning with the shoulder buttons, strafing, and moving forward/back is handled by the d-pad is just unnatural, or so it seems. Other control options exist as well, so if turning with the d-pad is more your speed, it's there. Beyond the bizarre controls, the inventory system is super clunky as well. Using the analog nub on the PSP to activate additional items and abilities in conjunction with the circle button is also something that takes a fair bit of time to get used to.

Despite this, after a bit of playtime, players should be able to adjust accordingly to make decent progress in no time.

Less rogue-like and more Diablo, players traverse Brandish's tower with less fear of biting it and having to start all the way at the beginning, as many of these types of games seem to be these days. To survive, players have a health bar and a magic bar, both of which can be replenished by either using potions or resting. Care should be taken to eliminate all of the enemies in your immediate area before resting though, as failing - or forgetting – to do so would lead to a quick death in your sleep.

Combat is a simple back-and-forth with the occasional battle that forces players to use more creative tactics, especially with bosses. A fair bit of planning is needed at all times, given that your weapons will break after so much use. You can repair weapons with specific items as well, so keeping one or two of those on hand for your most powerful implements of death is a handy thing, but as mentioned before, shops will be accessible with a certain degree of exploration that allows players to gear up every now and again. If a player can complete a whole floor map, special obelisks can be shattered to reveal helpful and powerful stuff as well.

It all sounds pretty neat right? Too bad Brandish is super dull and falls heavily into “boring” territory. The overall vibe of the game is dull at best and with so many floors being more or less the same deal over and over again with very little variance in enemy types, too few bosses and only very sparse story elements, Brandish ended up being unexpectedly yawn-inducing. The drab visuals and sleepy music doesn't help either. On the plus side, options for the original 8-bit version's music exist, which do a better job of keeping you awake, though it's pretty annoying. The occasional boss makes things interesting, but getting to them feels comatose. More than a few times, I just wish I had been playing Ys instead; in many ways, Brandish is Ys' polar opposite, with the latter being a fast-paced, interesting, challenging, engaging game that I can't seem to recommend enough.

The PSP doesn't have a lot going for it these days, and if somehow you don't yet have a Vita or 3DS and you need yourself a new RPG, Brandish might just work for you. But if you have the aforementioned hardware replacements and you like your games engaging, Brandish will most likely leave you drooling with boredom. Download any Ys game instead.