Post by wafflerevolution on Sept 11, 2013 17:28:35 GMT
by Apathetic_Prick
Are You Worthy Enough To Be The Brain Lord?
Back at the height of the SNES's popularity (early mid-90's), the most popular - and coveted - games were RPGs and their like. There were three companies that really stood out: Squaresoft, Atlus and Enix, Enix being the quirkier of the three because they were well-known for blending genres, such as god strategy, side-scrolling action and RPG elements (that game specifically being ActRaiser).
Brain Lord - also by Enix - is no exception.
Brain Lord was released in 1994 on 12 Megabit cart format in Japan and North America only, which is quite a shame because unless you can find an emulation of it, anyone in a PAL reagion probably won't have heard of it.
I myself really didn't think much of it until, on a whim, I decided to rent it back in 1997 or '98 - can't remember which, it was that far back - and by that time, we were getting into the lifecycle of the N64.
Like a lot of Enix's action-RPG hybrids, Brain Lord is played from a top-down perspective. Despite it being referred to as an action-RPG, the game has more in common with The Legend of Zelda than, say, Secret of Mana. Your stats are increased by permanent booster potions, your health is increased by items (by acquiring and using heart brooches), and while the only things that level up are your helpers, this is also done by items, specifically experience orbs dropped by monsters. All monsters actually give your character are money and the occasional item. On the plus side, unlike a lot of Enix's (and Square's, and especially Atlus's) other RPG's (7th Saga, I'm lookin' at you), massive bore-inducing grinding does not apply.
Brain Lord is pretty light on story; it's pretty much all action and puzzles. Combat is simple. You hit the B-button and you attack, although aside frmo being able to equip different weapons and armours, you can also equip helper spirits (up to two) that can either attack your enemies or offer you stat boosters, such as further increased defense, increased attack power or even restoring health (which actually didn't help too much come boss fights).
Combat most definitely differs in Brain Lord from other top-down games, though, because while there are different weapons, they also perform differently; aside from the usual swords, axes and bows, you also have boomerangs which loop to the side when they come back to you as well as morning star flails that you can swing 360 degrees (and if you're good you can do it for a prolonged period). Each weapon is used differently and because of that, they have different strengths and weaknesses.
Enix also changed the concept of magic use with Brain Lord, as well. Instead of it being instantly cast and running off of a mana reserve, spells have to be charged. What was really great, though, was that you could easily switch between spells on the go by hitting the right and left triggers, so it's very user-friendly. Unfortunately, I didn't find very many spells (from what I've gathered looking at the FAQ's, I only found about 40% of them), but the ones I did find were all quite useful beyond being merely attack spells as they seemed to be necessary to complete the game's main quest.The concept of Brain Lord, aside from being a top-down action-pseudo-RPG hybrid, is that you go through massive (as in 2 to 3 hours apiece) dungeons getting items and keys and solving puzzles with both logic and platform skills, and then fight a boss at the end (excluding one dungeon where you're supposed to meet something).
It's actually a very well done concept, and I really haven't seen anything like it. Sure, a lot of top-down adventures have puzzles, but I have yet to play one on the SNES that had any math problems answered by hitting corresponding switches or switch puzzles where you have to not only move objects that stop after each push, but with others that, with a single push will continue on past the point where you want them to be unless you impede them with something else.
The game itself is five dungeons long, with two towns and three road sections, and it only takes about 15 hours to go through - mind you, that's not all that much by today's standards. In the SNES period, that was a fair amount of time - even for an Action RPG (Secret of Evermore, iirc, can be beaten in less than 8 hours, for example). Especially for a game that isn't a grindfest.
What makes Brain Lord revolutionary is that it takes puzzle solving in an action game to a new level - something that won't be seen again until 1996's Hexen on the PC, and then Hexen II and HereticII thereafter - all three being games that were ostracised for not being streamlined action titles (and the fact that unlike Brain Lord, the puzzles in the Hexen series were nothing short of brutal) - and that is where, critically, Brain Lord's approach also works against it.Up until Brain Lord came out, the most technical action RPG was probably Secret of Mana, and SoM was actually quite shallow - but it was really pretty and colorful and you could play it with two other people. In that regard, it pretty much set the standard for what would - or should - be done with the genre. Brain Lord broke that standard and had the potential to take a lot of people off-guard because it was definitely something different. An top-down actioner for the thinking gamer.
Unfortunately, because there's rarely more than three copies selling on EBay - and often less - this game is a bit difficult to own. However, there are other means of playing it and while I don't necessarily encourage the use of emulation (more, actually, for aesthetics, than legal reasons), the best means of this are either ZSNES or SNES9x.
Give it a run. You know you want to.
Are You Worthy Enough To Be The Brain Lord?
Back at the height of the SNES's popularity (early mid-90's), the most popular - and coveted - games were RPGs and their like. There were three companies that really stood out: Squaresoft, Atlus and Enix, Enix being the quirkier of the three because they were well-known for blending genres, such as god strategy, side-scrolling action and RPG elements (that game specifically being ActRaiser).
Brain Lord - also by Enix - is no exception.
Brain Lord was released in 1994 on 12 Megabit cart format in Japan and North America only, which is quite a shame because unless you can find an emulation of it, anyone in a PAL reagion probably won't have heard of it.
I myself really didn't think much of it until, on a whim, I decided to rent it back in 1997 or '98 - can't remember which, it was that far back - and by that time, we were getting into the lifecycle of the N64.
Like a lot of Enix's action-RPG hybrids, Brain Lord is played from a top-down perspective. Despite it being referred to as an action-RPG, the game has more in common with The Legend of Zelda than, say, Secret of Mana. Your stats are increased by permanent booster potions, your health is increased by items (by acquiring and using heart brooches), and while the only things that level up are your helpers, this is also done by items, specifically experience orbs dropped by monsters. All monsters actually give your character are money and the occasional item. On the plus side, unlike a lot of Enix's (and Square's, and especially Atlus's) other RPG's (7th Saga, I'm lookin' at you), massive bore-inducing grinding does not apply.
Brain Lord is pretty light on story; it's pretty much all action and puzzles. Combat is simple. You hit the B-button and you attack, although aside frmo being able to equip different weapons and armours, you can also equip helper spirits (up to two) that can either attack your enemies or offer you stat boosters, such as further increased defense, increased attack power or even restoring health (which actually didn't help too much come boss fights).
Combat most definitely differs in Brain Lord from other top-down games, though, because while there are different weapons, they also perform differently; aside from the usual swords, axes and bows, you also have boomerangs which loop to the side when they come back to you as well as morning star flails that you can swing 360 degrees (and if you're good you can do it for a prolonged period). Each weapon is used differently and because of that, they have different strengths and weaknesses.
Enix also changed the concept of magic use with Brain Lord, as well. Instead of it being instantly cast and running off of a mana reserve, spells have to be charged. What was really great, though, was that you could easily switch between spells on the go by hitting the right and left triggers, so it's very user-friendly. Unfortunately, I didn't find very many spells (from what I've gathered looking at the FAQ's, I only found about 40% of them), but the ones I did find were all quite useful beyond being merely attack spells as they seemed to be necessary to complete the game's main quest.The concept of Brain Lord, aside from being a top-down action-pseudo-RPG hybrid, is that you go through massive (as in 2 to 3 hours apiece) dungeons getting items and keys and solving puzzles with both logic and platform skills, and then fight a boss at the end (excluding one dungeon where you're supposed to meet something).
It's actually a very well done concept, and I really haven't seen anything like it. Sure, a lot of top-down adventures have puzzles, but I have yet to play one on the SNES that had any math problems answered by hitting corresponding switches or switch puzzles where you have to not only move objects that stop after each push, but with others that, with a single push will continue on past the point where you want them to be unless you impede them with something else.
The game itself is five dungeons long, with two towns and three road sections, and it only takes about 15 hours to go through - mind you, that's not all that much by today's standards. In the SNES period, that was a fair amount of time - even for an Action RPG (Secret of Evermore, iirc, can be beaten in less than 8 hours, for example). Especially for a game that isn't a grindfest.
What makes Brain Lord revolutionary is that it takes puzzle solving in an action game to a new level - something that won't be seen again until 1996's Hexen on the PC, and then Hexen II and HereticII thereafter - all three being games that were ostracised for not being streamlined action titles (and the fact that unlike Brain Lord, the puzzles in the Hexen series were nothing short of brutal) - and that is where, critically, Brain Lord's approach also works against it.Up until Brain Lord came out, the most technical action RPG was probably Secret of Mana, and SoM was actually quite shallow - but it was really pretty and colorful and you could play it with two other people. In that regard, it pretty much set the standard for what would - or should - be done with the genre. Brain Lord broke that standard and had the potential to take a lot of people off-guard because it was definitely something different. An top-down actioner for the thinking gamer.
Unfortunately, because there's rarely more than three copies selling on EBay - and often less - this game is a bit difficult to own. However, there are other means of playing it and while I don't necessarily encourage the use of emulation (more, actually, for aesthetics, than legal reasons), the best means of this are either ZSNES or SNES9x.
Give it a run. You know you want to.