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B R A V E    F E N C E R    M U S A S H I D E N
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 		Version 1.0
 Walkthrough by Jerrold Ng <jiyau@yahoo.com>

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1. Introduction
2. Controls / Basic Techniques
3. Walkthrough
   i.   Chapter 1
   ii.  Chapter 2
   iii. Chapter 3
   iv.  Chapter 4
   v.   Chapter 5
   vi.  Chapter 6
4. Hints & Tips
5. Acknowledgements
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1. Introduction

Before I start the FAQ / Walkthrough, I need to set a few things
straight - 

a) I do not know Japanese, so all the story bits are
simply guesswork, don't trust them too much. Don't ask me to
translate anything either! 

b) This is my first time writing a Walkthrough. So, I may be 
doing things wrong without realizing it! Please inform me if 
I've messed anything up :) 

c) This is just a BASIC WALKTHROUGH, no secret stuff or details
to get everything in the game. That part you'll have to do
yourself (that's the fun of this game!)

OK, enough rambling, lets get on with it...

	Brave Fencer Musashiden is an Action/RPG by my favorite 
game Company, Squaresoft. It tells a story of a young boy Samurai, 
called Musashi (I'm told this is based on a real life person
who lived in Feudal Japan who uses two swords as his weapon and 
never lost a sword duel until he was eighteen or something)
wielding two swords, trapped in a crystal, for... gee, I dunno,
but set loose after some bad guys trash the peaceful country.
Well, basic RPG story, really. This game is a Zelda/Alundra-type
Adventure RPG, so don't let the first stage fool you (more on
that later). 

	You will need a good command of Japanese to play this 
game; without help of a few fellow gamers, I would have never 
gotten passed the first hour of the game. So, I suggest that you 
should be patient and wait for the US version, slated something
at the end of this year (1998). However, if the urge of playing a 
Squaresoft Action/RPG (or most likely the FF8/Ergeiz demo that 
comes with it :) is too much for you, read on!

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2. Controls / Basic Techniques

As mentioned before, I have next to no knowledge in Japanese, so all
the following are purely an educated guess. Correct me if I'm wrong, 
will ya?

Start Screen - 
Two options, first one being to start a new game, second to load a 
saved game. You knew that, didn't you? 

Controls - 
Direction Pad - Moves the Musashi around. Seems obvious.
Square Button - Swings his basic weapon, a thin katana blade. Tap 
                this button to rack up a few hits ending with a 
                rolling cut attack.
X    Button   - Jump. You can jump backwards if you hold down R1 while
                pressing X.
Triangle Button - Swings your second weapon, which is the magical 
		  blade Reygund. Hits once, but does lots of damage. 
		  You don't have this weapon at the beginning of the 
		  game. You can upgrade the sword later in the game.
  Circle Button - Uses your absorbed ability. More on this below.
    R1   Button - Defends against frontal attacks. Also fills up
		  bar on the bottom-left for various techniques
		  (once again, more on that below)
    L1   Button - Hold this down for Musashi to walk instead of 
		  run (not really sure how useful this is)
 R2 & L2 Button - Rotates camera if you're in town, in other cases
		  it simply zooms in slightly, and in some other
		  cases, does nothing at all.
  Select Button - Switches between Fight Mode and Sleep Mode, more 
		  on that below.
   Start Button - Looks at your characters inventory and pauses the
	          game while you're at it.

Techniques -

Get-In Technique - One of the main techniques the game uses is the
ability to steal enemy techniques and use them as your own. Each 
normal creature you meet has a technique to steal. To steal an 
ability, hold down the R1 button until you gauge is full, then 
press the Square Button in front of the enemy> If successfully hit, 
the sword will start glowing green. Tap the Square button until 
the gauge is completely green to absorb the enemy's ability.

There are two major types of abilities you can steal - 1) Spells;
where you press the circle button to do the attack, which drains 
your BP (Battle Point, I think) and 2) Skills - where you gain
certain abilities (e.g. Pogo hopping, BP drawing, etc..). These
usually drains a small bit of BP from you when you first absorb
them; they lasts only for a limited time, or stops if you're hit.

Force Attack - As above, if you hold down the R1 button till the
gauge is full, but press the Triangle Button instead, you let loose
your sword Reygund's Force Attack. Your first ability is a sword 
swirl; you'll get other Force Attacks later.

HP & BP - You character has two bars at the bottom left
representing BP and HP. HP is your character's Health Points 
(or Hit Points, for you RPG fanatics); you're dead if that drops
to zero. BP is your battle point; you need this to use enemy 
special skills that you have stolen. Incidentally, BP goes down on
its own as time passes. When it reaches zero, your character 
loses the will to fight and will do less damage and walk slower.
This is very dangerous if you're in a middle of a dungeon, so 
grab a green ball as soon as possible!

Time - Being a first for an Action/RPG, time is figured into the 
game. That's right, there will be night and day in this game, and 
certain puzzles will depend on this. A day passes very quickly in 
this game, but at certain times, you'll have to wait quite a while 
for the right time to go for a puzzle. So, Squaresoft puts in the 
Sleeping Mode into the game.

Sleeping - To access this mode, press the Select Button and you'll 
notice that the bottom-left icon (in the circle) changes from a 
sword to a moon. In this mode, hold down R1 until the gauge is 
full, then release it and Musashi will fall asleep on the spot 
(Musashi is quite a snoozer... this guy can fall asleep the middle 
of a marketplace in the day!). Falling asleep sends time racing by 
(about 10-20 minutes passes in 1 second) and heals you gradually. 
However, your BP will start going down at a even faster rate, so be 
warned! Also, after a nap, be sure to switch back to Attack Mode 
(press select again). It's not a nice experience to fall asleep in 
front of an enemy when what you really want is to do a Force 
Attack on him!

Sleepiness - On the bottom right is a circle with a picture of 
your hero Musashi. If that Circle starts to close up, and you 
notice that Musashi is getting sluggish, this means he's sleepy.
Go to a quiet corner or an inn to catch a few Zs.

Combos - You get combos from the people you rescue; go talk to
them at the old man's place in the castle. You can check what
combos you have in you inventory screen, 3rd option.

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3. Walkthrough

Chapter 1 : Getting Reygund
---------------------------
This chapter begins with you inside the forest. If you play 
through the chapter, you may think that this game is very action 
orientated, but looks can be deceiving!

Monster     Get-In
--------    ------
Plant	- Protective circle; prevents conditions like sleep
          but totally useless at this stage.
Gun Soldier - Turns our hero's hand into a machine gun. Each
	      shot does 4 points of damage, and drains 1 BP.
Sword Soldier - Stuns an enemy, uses up 4 BP.

In the starting area, steal the Gun Soldier's ability when you
meet them. When you reach the three big rocks, just push them,
when you reach a statue, just break it with whatever you've got.
Once you reach the river too far for you to jump, use the ability
you've stolen - the machine gun, and fire at the logs on the other
side to make a bridge.

Once you reach the tower, it gets even simpler. Break the four 
statues and press the buttons underneath while avoiding the bolts
the statue head fires at you. Do this and the tower rises...

Inside the tower, run up the spiral stairs. Avoid the purple bats 
(are they bats?) that come down at regular intervals while killing
off the soldiers. Keep to your gun ability. Almost to the top,
Musashi will comment on the bell structure in the center of the
tower. Just climb a little higher until you reach the closed 
door then shoot the bell with your Gun ability (there is a Gun
Soldier conveniently close by in case you've lost it). Once
the bell falls, you'll teleport to the top of the tower.

At the tower top, steal the ability of the Sword Soldier, then 
stand near the pressure pad. Once a Soldier approaches you, and
stands on the pad, stun him. Pick up that sword.. Now you
have the powerful magical sword Reygund as your ally!

Now the statue starts rolling at you, you run down the tower
side (how he does it is anyone's guess). This is purely an
action level, so I can't help you very much; just remember to
jump when Musashi tells you to!

After crashing through the palace wall, the bad guy you meet
will surround you in flames and captures the princess (its an
RPG law, you know). Use your new weapon's Force Attack to get
out of the flames, then be prepared to fight a huge boss! 
		 
Boss : Big Mechanical Thingie
First of all, hit the thing's foot (blatantly obvious thanks 
to those pointing arrows) while avoiding the fumes that spews
out of it. When he starts spinning his ball, start running.
Once a leg is down, cut off that cloth and start hacking at
the green globe at his... you know. Repeat that for his other
leg, then once he's down, toss him through the wall. Repeat 
the fight again, toss him through the wall again, then finally
you will end up in town. Hit his green globe every time he
lands from a jump, and he's history! On to chapter 2.


Chapter 2 : Reactor Trouble
---------------------------

Monsters	Get-In
--------	------
Spear Soldier - Allows you to throw spears for 8BP per shot.
		this one is actually very powerful.
Pink Flowers - Give you the ability to pogo hop. You lose 8BP
	       for this ability, and pressing Circle Button
	       or getting hit cancels the ability.
Ghosts - Magic of Shrinking. Uses 10BP per casting, 
	 this spell lets you shrink the enemy and
	 then harmlessly walk on them. Splat!
Mushrooms - You become extremely sleepy and sluggish. 
            Definitely not a good thing to Get-In!
White Blob - Drains BP from your surroundings. Useful.
             You first lose 4 BP though, and lose the
             ability once you're hit.

First, after waking up from that long rest, you get a briefing 
by that old guy you met in the castle at the start of the game.
After that, you may go around the castle.

Options		Effects
-------		-------
1 - Old Man	Lets you talk to the people you have rescued
		from the crystals. More on this later.
2 - Bishop 	Just browse through some library stuff, I think.
3 - Room	Lets you sleep and regain your HP and BP once you
		come back to the castle, not usable at the moment.
4 - Stats	View your stats. This is same as pressing START
		later.
5 - Leave 	Lets you leave the castle.

For the first time, you can't leave until you've talked to the 
bishop at the library. Then you will take a wild ride out of the
castle and begin your long adventure. Go explore the village 
first:

Shops		Effect
-----    	------
Inn		Allows you to rest and save. Actually, 
		don't bother resting here; go back to
		the castle and rest, it's free there!
Item Shop	Buys stuff that mostly heals your HP
		or remove conditions like poison
Bakery	        Buys stuff that mostly heals BP 
PawnShop 	Identify unknown items (those items 
		whose description includes brackets with
		highlighted Japanese characters). Also
		allows you to sell of some junk.
Bar		Lets you talk to people and play some
		games with one of them.
Toy Store	Weirdest feature of the game, this shop
		sells action figures of characters from
		BFM! You can examine your toy back in your
		room in the castle; just choose the second
		option.

First off, talk to everyone you meet, knock on every door you see.
You'll get a quest where you must rescue a dog. Find that dog by 
going up to the mountain region; the entrance is where you started 
off in town, where a guy is guarding the way. This particular 
is relatively simple; use the Wizard's shrink ability to get pass
the large white blob, and then, once you've spotted the dog, pick
him up and carefully walk back to town (fall into water and you'll
have to go back and get him at his little island).

Now that you have returned the dog to its owner, the guy who is 
locked up at the end of town. Talk to the man and he'll tell you
he's thirsty and hungry. Go to the well (where the two women meet 
during the day) and get some water, and buy some bread in the 
bakery, then go back to him. Give him the stuff (option 1) and 
he'll ask you to free him! Problem is, the guy that locked him 
there is dead already, so you'll have to hunt for his tomb. 
He'll ask his dog to help you out. Now you must head to the
haunted forest.

To get there, look for a path by the windmill; this will take you
to a spot with some pipes and a person to rescue (break the 
crystal which holds him with your Reygund); go pass the big pipe
to enter the forest. Follow the route to reach the area where you
see thorny briars on the floor, pass an overhead pipe. Use a 
nearby pink flowers ability to pogo-hop over the briars, then
you'll get to the Haunted Forest. Follow the dog, kill the few
monsters you'll meet, and you'll eventually reach the grave. 
Search the grave the dog indicates and pick up the key. Now 
you'll have to head back to town.

Talk to the racked guy and he'll tell you to come back at 
midnight; wait or sleep till then (incidentally, midnight is
shown as 0.00 on the clock), after that, talk to the guy again
to free him. He'll tell you to meet him at the mountains, so
it's off to the mountains (again)!

Pass the spot where you saved the dog, you'll see two new 
lilypads in the water. Follow them, and climb some poles, and
you'll reach the mountain area. There's a temporary save here
in the form of a treasure chest. Doesn't save to your memory
card, but you'll have the option to return there if you die.
Anyway, take the long route up the mountain and eventually 
you'll meet the guy you've rescued earlier. He'll ask you to
find four logs for him. If you're observant, you'd probably 
have found them all already, if not, look a little harder.

With the for logs, he'll build you a raft. Now you can take
a wild ride down the river in a cool arcade bit; also a good
source of money if you're broke! The river ride has two exits,
one harder to find exit leads you to another person to rescue.
The main one leads you to a treasure chest at the top of the
mountain to the right of where you first entered (with the pit
and the big boulders). Get that chest!

Go back to the pawnshop in town and ask to identify the item 
you've found; its actually an ability item; and gives you 
the ability to climb certain walls (ones that are in a darker
shade of brown). Once you've left the pawnshop, you'll notice
that the entire town is filled with smoke. The guy who talks
to you tells you that a nearby power plant (at least that's
what I think it is) has broken down. He also tells you to
talk to the man running the plant. You might want to save 
now... tough bits are ahead!

Go to the area by the entrance to the mountains, and you'll 
notice some brown walls.. you know what to do. Talk to the
guy running up and down and he'll tell you that the reactor
at the plant is gonna blow in 24 hours; and gives you 
directions on how to shut it down. Now go to the area with 
lots of steaming pipes and go all the way to the end. There's
some brown walls here too.. Once you've reached the plant
(ironic way of calling it, eh?) you'll have to figure out
how to open the door. It's very obvious.. there are two bars 
here, a red one and a blank one. The red bar keeps going
up and down, just stop it at the point saying OKAY! and 
the other bar builds up. Each time you stop the red bar at
the OKAY! the blue bar goes up, if you fail the blue bar
goes down. Fill up the entire blue bar and you can proceed.

The inside bit is pretty tough. You'll need to perform the
similar operation 8 times (each with increasing difficulty)
in the order of the numbers. And, if it's not bad enough,
you have a limited time in between two operations! You'll
need to hone your reflexes for this one. After successfully
shutting down the reactor, the plant keeper will be outside;
and he'll tell you to go to the mountain.

At the mountain, go to the spot down at the base of the 
mountain (pass the save-game treasure chest) and you'll 
meet the guy who kidnapped the princess. He'll challenge you 
to a climbing contest; climb real fast up the mountain 
and you'll quickly end his existence. Here, you can find 
the Earth Rune, that powers up your sword Reygund with the
ability to create quakes as his force attack. You'll also
get a secret attack - charge your bar to full, then 
immediately after you block an attack press the Triangle 
Button for a mega damage super slash!

Now go back to the afore-mentioned area with the pit and
boulders. Use your newfound power to send down the 
boulders and create a path onwards. You'll be blocked
after a short walk; there are four pads to be pressed
simultaneously. Now go back to the old man at the castle.

If you have explored a little and rescued a lot of people,
the old man will send four of them to help you out. Now
go back to town, pick up some healing herbs, save the
game etc.. cause its boss time! Back to the mountain!

Boss : Crystal Guardian No. 1
The fella you meet cannot be harmed thanks to its hard
armor. When your four friends start sending stuff across
in buckets above you, use the quake ability to send it 
down onto the boss. When he gets hit by a large rock, 
he'll get dizzy. Use Reygund to strike the gem in its 
mouth. He'll go berserk now and has a new attack where 
he burrows his hand on the ground and slows you... get
the four guys to drop a herb to remove the condition.
After another big rock or bomb on his head, he'll get
dizzy again. Give him another blow. Now, he will start
attacking the four guys up there. Knock him down using 
quake when he tries to climb up. Another big rock, 
another big slash, and he's history! On to chapter 3.

Chapter 3 : Cursed Town
-----------------------
Monsters	Get-In
--------	------
Blue Zombies - Surrounds you with flies... 
	       not sure what this is for.
White Blob - Not the ones you see outside
	     but the ones found inside the
             mine. Surrounds you with white
             balls, again not sure what that
             does..
Blue Mushroom - Poisons you... not a good idea!
Snakes - Gives you the ability to heal
	 yourself if poisoned - 6BP. 
Bowler Plants - Let's you do some bowling! Press
		Circle Button twice to hurl a
		ball. 
Ghosts - Lets your spirit leave your body and
	 wander about. 

You return to town after your victory and find out the
town is in trouble again! (Sigh...) Anyway, to find
out about the problem, talk to the village elder (the
one with a red headband) and that other guy in the center
of town. They will tell you that blue zombies have started
to prowl the town at midnight. Take a look if you want;
they start appearing from the bar.

You have to look for a few treasures to solve this little
problem... namely the ....

The Flower - Go to the guy at the windmill at midnight
and he'll give you the key to the mine in the town. 
He'll also tell you the flower only blooms from 3am-7am.
Enter the mine. At the junction, go left. There's a 
poison-spewing mushroom here, avoid it if you want. Climb
up the pole. In the next scene, you'll have to practice 
your jumping skills a lot, can't help you there. You'll 
eventually reach a big fan. Wait until it stops, then jump
down. At the bottom is a temporary save chest again, use
it if you want, then go left. More jumping involved, and
then you'll reach a pool with some rotating platforms. 
Jump carefully to reach the flower, then wait till the 
time reaches 3am-7am, then pick up the flower. Get out
of the mine.

The Holy Water - Go up to the mountain. On your way up
you'll meet that guy you talked to earlier; he's injured
and dying. To save him, run / climb up to the top of the
mountain and get that water before 12 hours pass (more
like 12 minutes to you), then give it to him.  

After this, go back to the tavern and wait till midnight.
The barkeeper will tell you about the problem, and tells
you to leave. You'll get a hint that some of the people 
in the bar is now residing in the inn. Go talk to them
(go to the inn, choose 3rd option) and the barmaid will
tell you the location of the secret entrance. So, wait
for the blue zombies to start coming out (at about 
midnight) and then sneak into the bar. You'll enter the
secret temple.

In the secret temple, you'll find out that you need to
light up the four eyes on the wall to progress further.
You can try each of the four doors in whatever order you
want. They're not difficult, but you really need to test
your jumping skill...

Door1 - The one with the moving platforms forming a 
bridge. No tricks here, except maybe you'll need to 
throw some zombies around to get anywhere. Once you've
reached the teleporter and dark areas, take the 
teleporters in this order - Right, Left, Left.

Door2 - The ones with the bowling ball plants. Note that
in this temple, use your bowling ability on any cracked 
walls to break them down. There are some secret rooms 
around here... Once you reach the flame-spewing totem
pole, the trick is not to make eye contact with it.
Using your basic Reygund, turn around, hold block, and
walk towards it (with your back turned), then use your
Force attack once you're close. Some crushing walls bit,
some more bowling bits, and you're outta here!

Door3 - Lots of floating teleporters. Easy! There are 
some dark areas here, which you can sort out if you 
get-in the ability of a ghost.. you'll become one and
float about, so you can examine the darkened area 
before stepping in.

Door4 - Some difficult jumping here with the rotating
floor blocks. Also, you'll meet swinging blades and
fireballs later. Practice and you'll get through in no 
time. 

You'll need to hit the crystal at the end of every room
to light up the eyes. Be sure to go back to the barkeeper
to heal yourself. Also, be on the lookout for 
people-in-crystals - there's at least two of them in every 
room. 

After opening the door with the four eyes, you'll meet
with the barkeeper again, and pick up the double jump 
ability (go back to the pawnshop to get it). Now you 
can go into the compound of the church. Talk to the priest
and he'll tell you that there are strange sounds at night, 
every 2am in the morning. So come back at this time and
he'll get you into the church.

Midboss? - Red Zombies - After a long chat with that gal
you'll meet, you'll have to fight with 5 red zombies. 
Just keep hitting them. They start coming out one at the 
time, then two, then three, while others will be hurling
paralyzing balls at you. Move around and keep hitting
them - don't let them grab you! It's instant death if 
they do! After a long battle, daylight will enter the 
room and kill all of them.

Now, the priest asks you to retrieve the bell for him;
you'll get a rope. The bell is down in the well, use
the rope to get down. Here, you'll get the Water Rune!
The Special Ability of the rune helps you to walk on 
water and sprays water bubbles at enemies (does no damage
to most enemies though). You can now get to the bell. 
It's impossible to get up using the rope, so you'll have
to bring the bell out through the mines area. Just toss
it around... Once you leave the mines, the priest will 
give you a little statuette that is actually the key to
the locked door at the underground shrine!

Make sure you save the game first. Bring plenty of herbs.
Now go in to the shrine under the bar, use the double
jump to get to the door, and then be prepared for a 
long and difficult jumping exercise. You'll eventually
reach the boss room and challenge the next crystal 
guardian! 

Boss - Crystal Guardian No. 2
This one really takes a very long time to beat. First,
you'll have to fight with a shape-changing ball of fire.
Use your sword's new ability to fire bubbles at it. Note
that you will not be injured if you get hit by him while
in the bubble, the bubble just bursts. After a very long
battle, he'll be extinguished. Hit the crystal, and the
ball of fire appears again! You have to repeat this 
another two times before the guardian is defeated!
Then, it's on to chapter 4... 

Chapter 4 - Coming Soon!
Chapter 5 - Coming Soon!
Chapter 6 - Coming Soon!
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4. Hints & Tips

- Rescue as many people from crystals as possible! For each 
  rescue your max BP goes up by 5.
- Go check back on the people you rescued back at the castle.
  Some of them give you vital clues, others, like the soldiers,
  teach you combo attacks. Also, some of them require another
  person (or people) to rescue before they can teach you or
  tell you anything. Some of them also want some junk that
  you usually sell at the pawnshop before they can help
  you out. 
- There is a strange creature wandering about that looks like
  a cross between a rabbit and a panda (I'm not kidding)...
  They wander about at night at specific spots. You can
  find these spots in the day - if you see a small red ball on
  the ground, that's where they'll be at night. Pick them
  up and throw 'em if you see them; they drop fruits that 
  increase your Max HP by 25!  
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5. Acknowledgements
- Myself - for having slogged through the entire game knowing
  very well that I'm probably not going to get anywhere without
  any knowledge of Japanese...
- Ken Jones <trunkten@earthlink.net> - Without his help, I'd 
  probably won't even get pass the 2nd chapter. Most of this 
  material comes from his helpful e-mails. Thanks man.
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Brave Fencer Musashiden is a copyright of Squaresoft.
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