PSP Critic Reviews

Given its somber tone and grueling difficulty, I’m not sure if I should refer to Brandish: The Dark Revenant as the PSP’s swan song or its funeral dirge, but either way it’s among the system’s best RPGs.

This is a special one. It is a PSP-title that came out in 2015, which combines real-time battle with dungeon crawling. It is as fun to play as to listen to; Brandish is surprisingly good.

Brandish wants you to sweat a little. It also wants you to stick with it, though, which means that it has a pretty delicate balancing act. Luckily, it's an act the game pulls off with aplomb.

Brandish may be among the most niche of RPGs, but it doesn't suffer any illusions to the contrary. It's comfortable in its own skin and happy to commit to its own rules and limitations. Most people will find themselves indifferent to its focused, idiosyncratic design — but those who get it will love it.

Those looking for a sweeping story about legendary heroes are barking up the wrong tree. This game is about marching through trap-laden mazes and solving puzzles at a deliberate pace. Go in with the right mindset and you will discover a well-crafted role-playing game, one which has aged surprisingly well.

It’s essentially a dusty gem for those looking for some good, old-fashioned dungeon crawling, however, those coming to the game with modern eyes expecting a solid action RPG maybe pleasantly surprised too.

Tough but fair, good soundtrack, great atmosphere, updated controls over the original.

The unconventional controls and overall difficulty will likely scare off most, but for fans of old-school dungeon crawlers, this will come as a breath of fresh air.

While hardly the greatest dungeon crawler ever produced, exploring this labyrinth is worthwhile for a certain audience. Falcom has plenty of other series that have gone without new iterations for many years, though the length of time since Brandish was remade seems to indicate that it unfortunately didn't start a trend.