Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 58:44

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Here is my playthrough of Brainlord done live on IGTV. Due to space restrictions I was only able to record the final Dungeon.

Follow me on instagram @CabinSNES_fever to join me live or via my reviews and uploads to witness me take down all the games currently in my SNES colleciton, following on from having already beaten all 234 licenced UK releases for the NES. I only use original carts, no cheats & no save states.

-Anyone who caught my recent story post will know this has been a pretty special week given the blessed safe arrival of my 2nd daughter. Those with 2 young kids can likely testify to this now being the inevitable slowdown of the snes challenge! Frankly given that the main goal was to simply to finish the NES challenge before her arrival, slipping in another 23 SNES games has been an unexpected bonus!

So 'BrainLord', unreleased in PAL areas & a bizarre title for sure? Given the plethora of grade A RPG's on the Snes, competition is pretty steep. While that's a good place to be for the gamer, such a high bar means everything short of excellent, is rendered rather mediocre! It feels unjust to pin a badge of mediocrity to BrainLord, but stood next to some of the Snes greats, sadly it does little to counter.

Technically it performs respectably, offering nice action based RPG game environment with a healthy diversity in weapons, items & magic that balances variety commendably. The inclusion of auto-fighting familiars accompanied by a simple levelling system is a welcome one. Its functional if a little bland tho sadly that's echoed elsewhere!

The story is uninspiring, your allies; little more than cardboard cutouts and with only 4 dungeons and 2 villages it's hardly the most engaging adventure either. Coming mid way through Enix's Snes library, it's fair to say expectations were higher given some of the excellence that preseeded. Still, it does little to offend the seasoned genre buff seeing as the core gameplay elements are replicated with professionalism. In principle tho, it acts more like an apertife to the more substantial offerings from the Enix team, not least the Dragon Warrior & Quintet games.

Presumably the title is suggestive of a more complex puzzle solving gameplay style? In reality, a more fitting title would be 'BrainCoaster' since the majority of limited puzzles are very easy, as are boss fights!

While still demanding over 10 hrs to beat, it's definitely one of the shorter RPGs on the SNES and although very bland, it's not without merit in its execution. Little more than enjoyable but since when is that a bad thing!