Introduction

Welcome everybody, this is the beginning of a Let's Play for...

Brandish is a top down dungeon crawler that was originally released as a computer game in 1991 and then ported to the SNES in 1994. Yes, this game is old enough to drink. Remember that when reading. The US port was released in 1995, alongside such games as Breath of Fire II, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and Ogre Battle. Brandish is… not as good a game as any of those, honestly, but it's fun. It has two things going for it. First, it's an actual rogue-like. Second, it's got some bitching box art:

Oh yeah, that's anime right there. The US box art is a cut down version of this image, one of the few cases of box arts precisely matching. I'll get into what I mean by describing this as a rogue-like, but first we have some plot to get out of the way. We'll start with a history lesson.

"In the center of the kingdom, piercing the sky itself, stood a tall, majestic tower which symbolized this land."

Way to steal my thunder for a "tower that will pierce the heavens" joke, Brandish. Actually, I should probably be thanking you.

Naturally, if this were going to last we wouldn't be here.

"one that held his evil ambitions above all else."

It's got to be the Grand Vizier. Or the Chancellor. You can't get either of those jobs without being evil. It's practically on the application form.

Possibly out of a desire to enact posthumous revenge on his parents and the world in general for being named Berebus.

"and thought to conquer the world with it. Under the command of the King, the army forced their way into the tower and attacked the Dragon."

What the King's plan for world conquest was going to be if his army was decimated fighting the Dragon remains a mystery, since...

"incredible burst of energy… in exchange for its life."

Some people would call that resisting, but who am I to argue?

So.. yeah, you get three guesses as to what the final boss is. Also, this is meant to be the king bowed down under the weight of his torment but it really does look like some kind of a monster. You have to look twice to really see the human shape.

"ambitions did not end with him alone."

"Doomed to an eternity of darkness…"

Well, not quite an eternity.

Not quite sure if they're meaning 1000 years or 250 here, but either way it's one hell of a long time. Naturally, we're one of the two… unfortunately there's no choice, so we have to be the male character. It would have been really neat if they'd allowed for a choice to play as both sides of the story. We begin in the middle of a confrontation.