It's been a while since gamers have had a chance to play a Musashi game. However, after spending a ton of time with the sequel, maybe that's a good thing. While the original has aged extremely well, Musashi: Samurai Legend offers only few positives, encapsulated by negatives.

There are two really good things about the game - the level design, and the menus. When first playing Musashi, it's refreshing to see some level designs that actually look good. They are extremely vibrant, and expansive, with plenty of subsections nestled within them. One of the best is a lava level just filled with some gorgeous looking magma. I found myself jumping over certain areas, dying, but just captivate at how great it looked. Also, the menus are very well done as well. I really like how the map can be accessed without pausing the game. It only saves a couple movements, but it was just nice to have the map accessible often. However, that's really because the camera kept turning me around.

The worst aspect of Musashi: Samurai Legend is the camera. In my mind, it's the worst I've ever had to deal with period. It's like someone decided that, during a boss battle, it'd make sense for the camera to keep shifting between perspectives that don't give you one good look at the battlefield. It'll go behind the enemy when you're stuck in the corner, not showing you a great way to get around the boss. Then it will switch to being a side view that doesn't give you a good idea of the terrain around you. It's infuriating to have to keep on retrying not because you're losing to the enemy, but because you're losing to poor game design.

Also, it'd be nice if there was some diversity in the types of enemies you have to fight. I mean, it could make sense in the game's story too. Sure, you're fighting enemy forces that will look a lot alike, but you'd figure the enemy would realize after you rescue a couple of these princesses they might want to try something different. It's just the fact that in volcanic areas, forests, and military style installations you start seeing the exact same bad guys over and over again - just with different color uniforms. Oh, and some of them had drills.

Musashi: Samurai Legend also has a lot lacking in the sound department. The score itself is completely forgettable, offering nothing memorable or timeless like other Square Enix videogames. Then there is the voice acting. The horribly generic actors bring nothing to their roles, and end up either over or under acting the lines. They'll be times where Musashi will be talking to another character and a line requiring no emphasis, none what so ever, has every syllable accented, screaming the lines. There's a mute button on the TV, but if the game offers spoken dialogue, there should be an earnest effort to make sure it's good. It's just compounding the already apparent problems, but at this point these are just salt in the wound.

As you can see, Musashi: Samurai Legend doesn't actually accomplish what it set out to do. I'm sure there were attempts by the development team to actually make a good game. It just seems the gameplay got slighted in favor for pretty graphics. Though, you'd think they'd realize that some people are not going to get to see some of the attractive levels because the overall game design is deficient in too many of the important areas. The hack and slash is mindless, the camera is atrocious, and the voice acting is sadly, unforgettable. Please, if you really want this game, pay an extra couple bucks and rent it first.