60.Quite possibly the funniest game Square ever made, or at least that I have played. Brave Fencer Musashi, better known as "that game that came with the awesome FFVIII Demo" comes from the Golden Era of Square and is an experimental 3D Action-RPG that will make you feel nostalgic for Square's awkward 3D model era of games. This game is also unique in that it was the first full 3D RPG Square designed and the first game developed to have voice acting for most of the major story scenes, which is pretty damn impressive considering it came out over half a year later from FFVII and yet, barring Xenogears incredibly limited VA work, Square wouldn't bother with VA until three years later with Final Fantasy X. The story goes that the world once was under threat from a Dark Wizard until the brave hero Musashi was summoned to the world named Musashi using the sword Lumina. One hundred and fifty years later, the Allucaneet Kingdom is being invaded by the Thirstquencher Empire who wishes to obtain Lumina, which is guarded by the Kingdom. Princess Fillet uses the Hero Summon to summon Musashi to their world to save them. Instead they get a kid named Musashi who isn't exactly pleased to be brought to this world and even more annoyed to find out he has to save it. The kingdom for their part, don't even really believe he's the same Musashi as the one in the legend, but considering they used their trump card, they decide to put their faith in him. Begrudgingly, Musashi goes to the Spiral Tower to obtain Lumina and returns to find that Thirstquencher has captured and kidnapped both the princess and most of the inhabitants of Allucanneet Castle. Thus Musashi goes on a quest to save the kingdom and obtain the five magical crests to awaken the full power of Lumina. Musashi is a pretty damn fun and funny game, as one can tell by the names of the kingdom and empire, there is a food name pun scheme the goes across the entire game and some other silly things like Vambees (a hybrid Vampire and Zombie) and eventually Kojiro, Musashi's rival finds his way to the world to finally get that fair duel he's been asking for. The game is incredibly tongue and cheek and while Musashi does prove to be quite the hero, he's also brash, arrogant, and pretty lazy. All quirks that help make him a lovable scamp. Most of the cast is pretty neat as well and this ties into the rescue side quest in the game. As you explore the various dungeons, you'll come across crystals that contain the local inhabitants of the kingdom and freeing them allows them to return to the village, which acts as the game's hub world, where you can open up stores to sell items, buy action figures for Musashi to play with, or even unlock other quest lines. Each towns person has their own quirks and story going for them and you can even go to the castle and have an audience with them to learn more about them. The villains themselves are also quite the treat, feeling like something out of a 70s Tatsunoko anime show or a Team Rocket vibe. In fact, if there is one game that really has a similar vibe to this game, it's probably Mega Man Legends, though Threads of Fate feels like the spiritual sequel to it. The game is an Action/Platformer RPG with a bit of a Zelda vibe to it, where Musashi traverses different locations around the kingdom to find the townspeople, fight monsters and Thirstquencher soldiers, and hunt down the shrines of the Crest Guardians. Combat is a bit unique due to Musashi having a a jump command and he uses two different swords. Lumina is the big heavy broadsword that does some pretty killer damage and eventually unlocks some cool powers as you obtain the Crests. Fusion, his primary weapon is a smaller and faster katana, but has a unique ability where it can be charged up and thrown into enemies. Once struck, the player mashes the attack button until the sword drains all the power from the enemy, at which point, Musashi now has access to the monsters primary or hidden skill. These skills have various effects like powerful projectile moves, making Musashi stink so bad enemies avoid him, or giving Musashi a temporary boost ability. This all consumes MP of course, and you are only allowed to have one move at a time, but you would be surprise how effective they can be as some skills can make a seriously difficult segment of the game a cakewalk, so it's imperative to try and find out what every enemy teaches. You can even go back to former dungeons to give Musashi an old skill that might prove useful in later segments of the game. Musashi can also find the legendary Musashi's Armor, which grants Musashi permanent skills like double jump. Saving some villagers can also reward him with special sword techniques as well, so there is a surprising amount of depth to the game's combat system. There are some interesting boss battles as well, this game actually introduced me to Rhythm games, because one of the boss battles is a Simon Says, DDR battle basically and the music is glorious.With all that said, I wish I could say this game has aged beautifully but that would be a lie. We are talking about a game with heavy platforming being made by a studio that primarily does simple RPGs with text and 2D Backgrounds. Even at the time of it';s release when 3D gaming was still kind of new, it's hard not to notice how clunky the whole game can feel and how aggravating some of the dungeons can become because of it. In fact, as much as people bitch about Xenogears Babel Tower, which is a pretty bad dungeon don't get me wrong, I feel it's safe to say that Steamwood from this game, may be the most obnoxious 3D Dungeon, Square ever made. Clunky platforming with a terrible angle, combined with a timed puzzle, makes this place infamous for frustration. Especially since the game makes you do it twice. Still, if you can get past the clunky design, the combat is pretty fun, the dungeons are interesting and the game is easily one of the funniest and charming titles to come out of Square during the PS1 era. One thing that makes me sad, when I really think about this game is how I really don't feel Square-Enix would ever green light a game like this. Hell, according to wiki sources, Sakaguchi had doubts about the title, and I'm sure that's why it was packaged with the FFVIII demo. Yet, I really feel this game embodies the spirit of Square's more experimental enthusiasm going into the PS1 and 3D gaming, and this title plays with so many gameplay elements that eventually became standard features for later Square titles. It makes me sad that I can't really see SE's in-house developers venture into a game this experimental, knowing it probably would be a cult hit at best. I feel The World Ends with You was probably the last title to do so. Other than that sad thought, I highly recommend this game to people, especially because I would love to talk about it more but no ones here seems to have even heard of it, let alone play it.