Musashi: Samurai Legend

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Musashi: Samurai Legend is the sequel to Brave Fencer Musashi. It's a mixed bag of interesting ideas, unpolished gameplay, and effortless level design, so for many Musashi fans it fails to live up to its predecessor. Nevertheless, the game is playable, the graphics are top-notch (with an impressive display of cel shading), and it has an impressive soundtrack from Masashi Hamauzu, Junya Nakano, and even former Capcom composers Takayuki and Yuki Iwai.

At the very least, it is worth trying out for any fan of Brave Fencer.

Regional Differences#

Musashi: Samurai Legend is the second game by Square to be released in the United States before other regions, the first being Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. Because of this, the North American version is considered to be the "vanilla" release of the game, as it lacks some features that were added in the later Japanese and European releases, similar to the "International" re-releases for many Japanese games.

Listed below are the added features in those versions that unlock after completing the game and accomplishing various quests and requirements in the game and subsequent New Game Plus playthroughs.

• Blademaster Mode, a skill-based hard mode akin to the Dante Must Die and Heaven Or Hell difficulty modes in the Devil May Cry series. Musashi and all foes have their stats increased by 5×, and any hit is an instant kill. This mode is unlocked when the player finishes the game and has obtained every single Focus Ability in that playthrough.
• An Extras Menu is added in the Options Menu upon completing the game, which has the following:
  • A Jukebox, which allows the player to listen to any track in the game and is unlocked upon completion of the game.
  • A Gallery, which showcases official art; To unlock the gallery, the player must gain all Imagicards, including the second half of the Special Series that can only be gained in New Game Plus.
  • The Japanese version exclusively features a "Musashiden II USA Mode", which uses the English translation and voice acting and is unlocked upon completion of the game.

Script Differences#

To do: Address more differences in the script and explain them.

Consumable Items#

Tunnbrod's Bakery in the English release tries to evoke the goods you'd find in Jam's Fluffy Puffy Bakery in the first Musashiden, going for more general baked goods and sweets. In the Japanese release, Tunnbrod serves more elaborate baked goods and entrees, which explains the cheeses you find on his shelves. In-game, his goods restore health, instead of how the first game healed Bincho (magic) Points if you stocked up on bread items.

In the English script, Hosomaki's Onigiri has more generic Japanese cuisine fillings for her onigiri, presumably to relate more with an English-speaking audience.

In Japan, her onigiri has flower theming and different names for her goods.

Kiri's Creamery has the distinction of having fewer drastic alterations in its translations, to some extent. The Japanese script shows a lot more presentations than just plain ice cream, though they all are served in cones.

Just like Tunnbrod's Bakery, Pepper's Grill in the English script tries to evoke the first game's Grillin' Restaurant's "queasy cuisine" menu, with entrees like Pork Pot Pie and Possum Burger. The Japanese script instead goes for an all out ala carte menu for Musashi, featuring a ton of Japanese dishes and entrees.

Leyden's Lounge in Japan goes for giving every drink a name akin to Japanese soft drinks like Pocari C and Calpico. They also have Japanese wordplays and puns. In English, they have more direct references and drink mixes for their boosts, making them also sound like recipes.

These drinks cannot be found at Leyden's Lounge; instead, they can only be found at Gandrake HQ, or in the case of the Genie Tonic, in Manglewood.

The drink names in Japanese have more mythological medicinal names to them than the soft drink names that Leyden comes up with. For Viper's Scale and Avis's Tears, they seem to be named akin to the Five Artifacts, with an animal theming to them.

In English, the names of the drinks have more mythological creatures to their themes, and of fearsome or powerful creatures, implying they came from powers of darkness more than any mortal's hands.

Weapons and Related#

Musashi's katana, like in the first game, has a name like Fusion/Raikoumaru; while the English script merely labels it as a brandless and nameless Katana. In the Japanese script, Musashi's second katana is named Kaneshige (兼重). In real life, Kaneshige is the kun'yomi (Japanese-based) pronunciation of Kinju, who is reputed to be one of Masamune's Ten Disciples.

While the English script states that Magic Alloys are used to improve his Katana, the upgrading catalysts are named カジノモト (Kajinomoto), which is a katakana spelling for 火事の元 (kaji no moto) or "a source of fire". This makes the upgrading process for his katana much different by translation; while in English, Magic Alloys would imply Mugwort, the local blacksmithy, would melt down and reforge Musashi's blade by whole and add in the Alloys, the Japanese sources imply that these are special kinds of tinder that are able to temper Kaneshige properly. The latter is a legitimate real-life process, as higher temperatures are able to make the cutting edge of katana more resilient and tensile by proper reforging, while the former is just as appropriate as to the fantasy setting and the magical nature of the Mystics.

Accessories#

There is not very much difference to Moderna's Emporium Accessories by the script, though the Japanese script has more fanciful accessories, while the English script has more utilitarian and clothing-based accessories. There is also an emphasis on giving Musashi a tiger theme in the English script; this is to evoke Tiger Versus Dragon symbolism elements, as in East Asian martial arts philosophy, the tiger and dragon are symbolic of two equal but opposing forces, and is used to describe powerful rivalries, made more pronounced with Gandrake's dragon theming.

Inventor's Parts#

Parts in Japan are known as ガラクタ (garakuta), or junk, essentially. Iron and Steel Parts remain the same, while Mythril Parts should be noted: Mythril Parts are known as 魔甲ガラクタ (mako garakuta), or simply Magical Junk, or Magic Shell Junk for a literal translation. 甲 is a very versatile word in Japanese, which can imply that the magic junk you get is either top of the line to be reused, or salvaged from a magical shelled creature as a very rare material.

Latent Powers#

Latent Powers in the Japanese version have robust artistic names for their attacks, befitting Musashi's samurai and martial arts themes to his character. To elaborate, their Japanese names use on'yomi (Chinese-adapted) pronunciation with grandiose naming, used to emphasize intellect and class, while being flamboyant and high-flying to showcase that they are extraordinary feats of skill.

In English, they are given more bluntly put and apt names. It appears Maelstrom is named so as to match the seafaring theme that the Great Oar inherently holds, as opposed to simply calling the attack Great Magic Blade.

Sources#

• Final Square Musashiden II Blademaster fan site, contains documented Japanese language script differences
• Musashi: Samurai Legend Translations on Musashi Wiki, goes further in-depth in regards to explanations of item lores and significance