Brandish: Лабиринт Проклятых Этажей

1991 video game

is an action role playing game by Nihon Falcom. Originally released in 1991 for the NEC PC 9801 and FM Towns, it was later ported to the Super NES and PC Engine CD ROM² in the mid 1990s, including an expanded re release titled Brandish Renewal. The game was the first in the Brandish series and was followed by three sequels. A remake, Brandish: The Dark Revenant, was released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan in 2009 and worldwide in 2015.

Brandish is a top down view dungeon crawler game. The original version of the game uses mouse controls from a real time overhead view, where the player can move the warrior character Ares (known as Varik in the English version) forward and backward, turn, strafe, and attack by clicking on boxes surrounding the player character. The player's objective is to escape from a labyrinth of over 40 floors in 5 different areas such as the 'Ruins', 'Tower', 'Cave', 'Dark Zone', and 'Fortress', each filled with various monsters, traps and puzzles. Brandish: The Dark Revenant turns the game's female antagonist Dela Delon (known as Alexis in the English version) into an optional alternate player character. Dela, a magician, plays differently from the protagonist Ares the warrior. The game's "Dela Mode" is shorter (lasting about 10 hours as compared to some 20 hours with Ares) but harder than the main scenario. When Dela catches up with Ares and attacks, her magic causes the ground beneath them to collapse and both fall into the cursed Ruins of Vittoria. The player assumes the role of Ares and must escape from the dangerous ruin, with the vengeful Dela constantly in pursuit of him. She is also interested in escaping the maze herself and the two meet repeatedly. The ending changes slightly depending on whether or not Ares helps her out of danger during certain events late in the game.

Originally released by Nihon Falcom in 1991 for the NEC PC 9801 and FM Towns home computers (and also ported to MS DOS exclusively in Korea by Mantra and Ssangyong in 1996), Brandish was later released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and PC Engine CD ROM². The PC Engine version was published by NEC and features CD quality music as well as vocal dialogue and narration. The PC 98 version was re released as Brandish Renewal in 1995, with some new music and hard drive support. The SNES port is the only English language version of the game ever released. It was published by Koei in 1994 in Japan and a few months later (in February 1995) in North America. Due to Nintendo of America's policies at that time, the game was regionally censored in its depiction of Dela's revealing costume and the plot was considerably altered.

GamePro gave the SNES version a mixed review, commenting that the combat, though simplistic, is "more fun than it sounds". They criticized the "practically nonexistent" sound effects and repetitive music, and complained that the way the automap does not rotate along with the scenery is confusing, but concluded that the game's long length and addictive maze crawling make it worthwhile. They gave it ratings of 4.0 for control, 3.5 for graphics, 2.5 for sound, and 4.5 out of 5 for funfactor. VideoGames gave it a score of 7 out of 10; while noting its relatively weak graphics, the magazine called its gameplay as "solid". RPGFan gave it an overall score of 75%.

Brandish: The Dark Revenant is a 3D remake of Brandish developed by Nihon Falcom for the PlayStation Portable. It was released in Japan in 2009 and worldwide by Xseed Games in 2015.

Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 was positive to the game, calling the PSP version as the definitive version of the first Brandish, and the best game in the series. a 4.5/5 from Hardcore Gamer, and four out of five stars from USgamer. Other review scores included B+ from Gaming Age, 7/10 from Push Square, 79% from RPGFan, and 7/10 from RPG Site.

Brandish Storybook (ブランディッシュ・ストーリーブック) is a novelization of the game, co authored by Katsunori Inoue and Suzuki Noriyuki and published in 1992. The story is told from the perspectives of both Ares and Dela. Another novel, Brandish Ares: Yobisamasu Unmei (ブランディッシュ・アレス 呼び覚ます運命) , is a prequel for the game, originally published in 1993. It was later made available for free (in Japanese) at Falcom's official website. Several soundtracks with the music from the game were also released, including Perfect Collection Brandish (KICA1102) and Falcom Neo Classic (KICA1114 5) in 1992, Falcom Special Box '93 (KICA9012 5) and Falcom Ending Collection 1987–1992 (KICA1132 3) in 1993, Brandish Piano Collection (KICA1153) in 1994, Falcom Special Box '96 (KICA9026 28) in 1996, Falcom Classics (KICA1201) in 1997, and Brandish ~The Dark Revenant~ Original Sound Track (NW10102800) and Brandish Original Sound Track ～FM TOWNS & Renewal～ (BR OST FR) in 2009. 1995's audio drama CD Drama Brandish Gaiden (CDドラマ ブランディッシュ外伝) features voice acting by Yasunori Matsumoto (Ares), Kikuko Inoue (Dela), Junko Iwao, Yūko Mizutani, Kyōko Hikami, Yūko Miyamura, Minoru Inaba, Ryōtarō Okiayu, Yuri Amano, Kaori, Jūrōta Kosugi and Masako Katsuki (the cast is different from in the game's PC Engine CD ROM² version). The drama was released as a part of Falcom Special Box '96 and Falcom Special Box '97 (KICA9029 31).

Brandish proved popular enough in Japan to warrant two direct sequels exclusively in Japan that continued the adventures of Ares and Dela: 1993's Brandish 2: The Planet Buster and 1994's Brandish 3: Spirit of Balcan. Another game, 1996's Brandish VT (Brandish 4), features a new story and characters. Dela also makes an appearance as a support character in Falcom's Ys vs. Trails in the Sky (2010), and her costume was added to Rachel's wardrobe in Dead or Alive 5 Last Round.