Brave Soul
 Reviewed by Rowena Lim LeiPublisher: Peach Princess Available at: J-List Cost: $39.95 Quality: Perfect "H" factor: Hetero themes, nothing hardcore Overview: A challenging RPG with wonderful bishoujo themes
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Description:
You are Rudy, a skilled young swordsman who is thrown out of the house by your
own father -- in the hopes that you'll learn to thrive independently. Since
your childhood days, a beautiful and mysterious girl appears before you every
time there's a full moon. You have no idea who she is or what she wants, but
finding her has become something of an obssession. As fate would have it, you
meet a girl that looks just like your elusive Moon Goddess shortly after you're
sent off. Whether you solve the mystery of the Moon Goddess or find love in
the arms of another is all in your hands...
Review:
One of my bishoujo game frustrations has always been the fact that I had not
been able to play the bishoujo RPG "Knights of Xentar" when it was
released by the now defunct Megatech Games. I've loved Japanese RPGs for as
long as I can remember, and Knights of Xentar was the first English-translated
bishoujo RPG ever. When Peach Princess first informed me that they were going
to release Brave Soul, I was as excited as any RPG and bishoujo game enthusiast
could be. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've waited years to play this
game... and my expectations were high.
In Brave Soul, you take on the role of Rudy, a swordsman who joins a guild to
become a hunter. The game's premises are actually quite simple: be the best
hunter you can be, fight evil, and get yourself a girlfriend/wife. There's a
grand total of six girls you can end up with: Alicia, the dead-ringer for the
Moon Goddess; Ruby, a sassy Robin Hood-esque female thief who steals from the
rich and gives to the poor; Carroll, a powerful magician who's deathly afraid
of the undead; Marine, the playful cat girl who's descended from an elder race;
and lastly, two secret characters whom you have to unlock on your own.
Unlike the usual bishoujo game where all you have to do is pick a decision,
Brave Soul requires much more of an effort to play through. You form parties,
visit towns, buy and sell items, solve puzzles, battle through dungeons -- all
that along with picking the right answers in order to impress the girls you're
with. You score love points by taking on missions that the girl(s) like and
approve of, and by staying at inns in order to seek the girl(s) out during your
free time. Special events unfold if you have enough love points by the time
you go see a girl. You can only take along two girls in your party and so you'll
really have to replay this game several times to get all the endings and bonuses.
I wasn't expecting the RPG elements to be challenging since this was primarily
still a bishoujo game. Lo and behold, most dungeons consisted of at least ten
levels with a gazillion monsters ready to attack your party... and at the last
level there would almost always be a big boss, just like most RPGs. I was so
confident that I made the grave mistake of choosing the difficult setting for
the game, which almost drove me to tear my hair out in frustration many times.
This game is packed to the gills -- additional dungeons, quests, and modes can
be unlocked every time you beat the game. Worth a special mention is the map
mode. After you finish the game once, the map mode becomes available in your
camp screen. It shows you exactly where you are in a dungeon, and more importantly,
where the exit is. If you beat the game several times you'll be given the option
to start off with the highest level attained and all your items intact so that
going through the game on your nth time would be a breeze (unless you're a masochist
and you choose the nightmare mode).
In terms of visuals, Brave Soul is excellent in all aspects. I really liked
the character designs and the CGs were nothing short of perfect. The 2D sprite
mode when you're adventuring is reminiscent of how earlier Japanese RPGs such
as Final Fantasy 1-6, Arc the Lad, and the original Legend of Zelda looked.
The sex scenes were pretty graphic albeit in a few CGs, Rudy's penis would either
be hidden from view or invisible. There also aren't any hardcore stuff like
S&M or bondage. It's all straightforward heterosexual action. Take note
that you can only make love to a girl if you stay at an inn, and getting one
girl to bed automatically locks out all the other girls... so better make sure
that the girl you're going to do is the girl that you want to end up with.
Brave Soul is to date the most massive, most challenging, and most rewarding bishoujo game I've ever played. Replaying is anything but tedious since there are a gazillion things to unlock and discover, and there are numerous features that make your life a whole lot easier each time you go through it. Whoever feels that bishoujo games are thin on gameplay and entertainment value should give this one a spin. This is definitely one title any bishoujo game fan should not miss.
Miscellanies:
Extra features include a CG and music gallery. Oh and remember... the Tab key
is your friend.
The art was done by the creator of a fantasy anime called Scrapped Princess, making this a sort of hentai version of that anime.
(c) www.animetric.com, Reprinted with permission