Brandish Psp Faq

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Brandish: The Dark Revenant: Walkthrough by SardienLast Updated: 2009-12-13 | View/Download Original File Hosted by GameFAQsReturn to Brandish: The Dark Revenant (PSP) FAQs & GuidesWould you recommend this FAQ? Yes NoBrandish: The Dark Revenant is a remake of the first entry in the Brandishseries by Nihon Falcom. This guide is intended to help out importers thataren't fluent in Japanese by describing important game mechanics and givingsome general tips.

Also check out the excellent guide by Jax Aagar in the Gamefaqs SNES Brandishsection. It contains the SNES game script, which can give you a good idea ofwhat's going on in the story. There are however plenty of gameplay, item andevent differences in the PSP version, which are of course documented in thisguide.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------CONTENTS:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Controls~~Combat~~Magic~~Stats~~Items~

~Exploring~~Ares Mode~~Dela Mode~~SNES/PSP Differences~~Credits and thanks~

Skip to a section by pressing Control + F and type ~[section name]~

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-----------------~Version History~-----------------

04/1/2009: Initial board version. Posted the final part of this badly formattedwall of text on 4/6/2009. I was pretty fast back then!

08/7/2009: Submitted cleaned up version with expanded Ares Mode. Reformattingwas boring and took me forever.

12/13/2009: Ultimate version with expanded Dela Mode and completed differencessection. I'm proud and satisfied with the guide now.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------~Controls~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you start a New Game you'll be asked if you want to go through thetutorial. It's not necessary, but it's short and easy to follow thanks to thepictures.

L/R buttons are used to turn around, which you should get used to doing a lot.

The /\ button lets you interact with what's one square ahead of you. Use it toopen doors, open chests, read plaques, talk to characters, check walls etc.

The O button launches a melee attack at an enemy right in front of you or


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pulls up the shield when there isn't an enemy in front of you.

You can perform a jump with the X button which will let you go over the squareyou're currently facing. Not only handy for jumping over pits/switches, butalso for jumping over enemies to avoid getting cornered.

The select button puts you into Resting Mode. You'll recover your health andMP, but you're literally defenseless when you get hit. It's a good way to healwithout using items when in a safe spot. There's no penalty or any kind oflimit to this function, so make use of it!

The [ ] button calls up the real-time item and equipment menu. The game doesn'tfreeze, so it's not a good idea to fiddle around in it unless you're in a safespot. The top three slots are for your weapon, armor and shield. The threeslots below that are used for shortcuts: you can instantly use an item placedthere by pushing the analog nub [direction] + O button. The left slot is usedby pushing analog nub left + O, the middle is used by pushing analog nub down +O, the right slot is used by pushing analog nub right + O. These shortcuts areextremely handy, be sure to assign them to items you use a lot.

Below the shortcuts there's a 3x3 grid where you can store other items. You canonly use these items by going into the real-time menu and pressing theO button. Later in the game you'll find Dimensional Boxes that you can accessby pressing the circle button while highlighting them in the [ ] menu.

These give you another 3x3 item grid each, but items stored in there are notactive. For example, a Revival Ring won't kick in if you die when it's placedin the Dimensional Box.

It's important to save item space by stacking the items in your bag: mostmulti-use items that aren't swords can be stacked. You can for instance stacka pile of 3 H-Potions onto a pile of 10 H-Potions, forming a stack of 13H-Potions. You can't stack 3 H-Potions onto a pile of 10 M-Potions, becausethey're not the same item. Use the R Button to move items around and stackthem. You can throw away items by pressing the L Button when highlighting them.It's important to keep your bag organized. You don't want to die trying tounlock a door because you took too much time to grab your Master Keys.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------~Combat~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When equipped with a shield, Ares will automatically go into guard mode ifthere's an enemy right in front of him. As long as you don't move or attack,every attack will be guarded. If the enemy is not on the square right in frontof you, Ares will not guard. So when faced with a mage or archer that attacksfrom a distance, press the O button to manually pull up your shield. Rememberthat Ares will start auto-guarding again when you're right in front of theenemy, so pressing the O button at that time will make you attack.

Pressing the O button while the enemy is right in front of you will make Ares

launch a melee attack. If you're unarmed you'll throw a single punch, whenarmed with a sword you perform a slash, which can be chained into a second andthird slash. A normal punch has a relatively high recovery time compared to thefirst slash of a sword combo. Especially if you're unlucky and perform therandom 'lunge punch' which has such a high recovery time you're almostguaranteed to eat a counter hit. Depending on the enemy you can usually performtwo hits with the sword without having to worry about recovering in time toguard the enemy's counter hit. Chaining up to the third hit with the sword isgenerally unsafe and should not be done carelessly on regular enemies, unlessyou can finish them off with that last hit.


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While using a sword is more effective, there are enough reasons to not use themuntil you reach the Tower (second dungeon area):

-You do not get any unbreakable weapons until the end of the Ruins. Allbreakable weapons should be sold so that you have enough money to buy newarmor/shields, and the Warp Magic scroll on the 8th floor of the Tower. Enemiesdon't drop gold in Brandish, so selling items is your primary source of income.-Your strength stat increases faster if you fight unarmed.-Enemies don't have that much health or strength in the first area, andyou always have Fire Magic as a backup.

So it's best to use the weaker unbreakable swords than the strong and valuablebreakable ones. Bossfights are much more fun that way too.

Another thing worth noting is that you take significantly more damage when hitin the back or from the sides as opposed to getting hit from the front. Thisgoes for enemies as well. Make sure you don't get surrounded or attacked in theback, especially by bosses.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------~Magic~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Like with swords, magic too comes in breakable and unbreakable variants. You'vegot magic rings that disappear after a set number of uses, and magic scrollsthat use the MP bar. The rings should be sold, there's not much use to them andthey sell for some decent cash. Here's a description of the magic available inthe game, with the icon descriptions in parenthesis when needed:

Fire: Shoot a ball of fire forward that travels a fair distance. You'll findthis one in the Ruins area, you need it to solve a puzzle there. It's also thebest offensive magic available because of its low cost and range. You can walkbackwards while burning the enemy to crisps, take out enemies from a distancebefore they reach you or counter archers. Your all-purpose low-cost must-usespell.

Thunder: Call forth a burst of lighting that hits the tiles right around you.Cool in concept, but ultimately flawed. You'll only be able to hit multipleenemies when they're around you, but that means you're surrounded. And gettingsurrounded usually results into a trip to the Game Over screen within seconds.You can find this scroll for free in B3 of the Cave. Sell it.Only useful for a puzzle in Dela mode where you need to hit some switchessimultaneously.

Ice: Shoot a wave of ice that travels the ground. Freezes the enemy for about10 seconds, or until you hit them twice. Can be found in B10 of the Cave, itworks wonders against Medusa's.It's a useful spell for Dela because you find it pretty early, and you can use

it to build up both her Intelligence and initially low Strength by freezing andthen hitting the enemy.

Barrier Magic (standing figure): Increases physical defense for a short while.Too short to be of any consistent use, but you can tank the enemies that guarddoors/chests and are invulnerable to offensive magic in some areas of theFortress with this spell if you're having trouble with them.

Healing Magic (transparent bottle): Recovers HP when casted. You don't needthis with H-Potions and the Resting command around.


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Warp Magic (wings): Warps you to any place you've explored before on thecurrent floor. Uses up the entire MP bar. It's quite useful, a great help forgetting 100% floor completion and a must-have in order to reach a chest or two.You'll go through your M-Potions really fast when using it though, so make sureyou've got a decent stock. The first time you could have enough money to buythis scroll is at the eight floor of the Tower. You can find it for free in thefinal area of the game, but you won't get much use out of it by then.Unavailable in Dela mode.

Quake Magic: Create a shockwave that damages all around you. Buyable in theshop on the first floor of the final area, the Fortress. It has some decentuses there, especially to safely kill those annoying fake chests when there'sno room to throw fireballs, and to do some nice damage to the ridiculouslytough lobster enemies.

Timestop Magic (clock): Freezes enemies for a decent amount of time. Buyable inthe same shop as the above. Could've been useful if the Fortress' door-guardingenemies you'd want to use this on weren't resistant to it.

Double Magic (glowing sword): Doubles your arm strength for a short while whenused. You can find one of these on the seventh floor of the Fortress. It'shandy to have for the final two bosses because they're resistant to offensivemagic and only have short periods of vulnerability. Using it at the right time

will make the few hits you can give them hurt all the more.

I suggest having a shortcut for the Fire Scroll at all times, it's pretty muchobligatory to get through the game. In my experience, the easiest way totrigger it is by using the analog nub down + O button shortcut.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------~Stats~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you perform an action that increases your stats, four bars will appear atthe bottom-right of the screen. When you open the [ ] menu, you can see them

too.

LEVEL increases by killing monsters and getting experience. An increase inlevel earns you more HP and MP.

STR increases by attacking enemies with physical attacks. The Strength statdirectly influences the amount of physical damage dealt to enemies.

INT increases by attacking enemies with magic attacks. The Intelligence statdirectly influences the amount of magical damage dealt and MP recovery rate.

MGR increases by getting hit by magic attacks. The Magic Resistance statdirectly influences the amount of damage taken from magic attacks.

You can press start and access the first tab for some additional information.The first six stats are obvious.

The seventh stat is your Luck. Luck fluctuates with every action you take, likehitting an enemy, getting hit, using a potion, etc. At a high level of luck,your attacks do good damage and your defense is at its fullest. At low levelsyour attack power will fluctuate more and more, and you'll take harder hitstoo.You can fix this by using the Amulet of Protection, found in the 7th area of


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the Ruins. Using this item will raise your luck to the max of 101, so it's agood idea to have it with you at all times and use it when you notice a drop inyour capabilities. The icon for the item looks a bit like a brown ruggedcarpet, the description starts with the Japanese symbol for 'luck', it's thesame as the seventh stat in the start menu, so check it with that.

The eight and ninth stats are 'physical attack power' and'physical defense power'. Note that your physical attack power is yourarm strength added to the power of your weapon. Your physical defense powerrelies solely on your armor and shield, there's no level-able stat connectedto it. The only way to increase it is to get a better armor and shield.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------~Items~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this section I'll cover the function of the various items you'll come acrossduring your journey. Stacking items usually increases their total selling pricea bit. Item icon description is in parenthesis when necessary. An item can beused by pressing the O button while highlighting it in the [ ] menu, or byusing one of the three shortcut slots.

Sledgehammer: Used to break crumbling walls. Essential item for the Ruins,

Tower and Cave. Always keep it on a shortcut there and make sure you've got adecent stock. Even though the Dark Zone and Fortress do not have breakablewalls, you still need hammers to break the Completion Stones.

Steel Balls (bag of steel balls): Used to check the floor ahead for pits.Extremely useful, another item that should always be kept on a shortcut whenexploring. Even though you can see when the floor has a pitfall if you lookcarefully, or just use the /\ button to check, throwing a steel ball will notonly reveal the hole but also mark the pit on your map. Having marked the pitsis a big help if you walk through an area again. An invaluable resourceespecially in the Dark Zone.

Keys: Used to open certain doors/chests. You've got Master Keys, these usually

come in a bunch as indicated by the number. There are also unique keys that canbe used only once. You don't have to worry about using the wrong key for thewrong door: there's always only one key that fits a certain door, you can'tscrew up game progress by using the wrong key or by using up your Master Keys.

Amulet of Protection (brown charm): Raises luck stat to the maximum of 101. Hasinfinite uses. An important tool, use it before entering a bossfight. You'llnotice its effect best in the Fortress, where you'll easily fluctuate betweendealing 2 and 50 points of damage when not using it.

Breadcrumbs: Using a breadcrumb will create a continue point. If you die on thesame floor you'll go back to this point instead of the beginning of the flooror the last save. You can just save anywhere with the same result, but it's a

bit faster than going into the menu and creating a save. It's never a bad ideato use one of these if you feel there's a suspicious situation ahead.

Gold bars: These are to be sold, gold bars go for 1000 gold each. As opposed tomost other items stacking them does not increase the value, 40 bars will stillgo for 1000 each.

Revival Ring: Once killed, this brings you back to life if kept in the bag(not Dimensional Box). You start the game with one in your bag, and you'll findquite a few more scattered around the dungeons. They're not stackable, but


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don't be afraid to sell a few if you run out of storage space. You probablywon't need them anyway.

H. Potion (bottle with blue liquid): Restores HP completely. Put this on ashortcut when in a boss fight.

M. Potion (bottle with red liquid): Restores MP completely. Put this on ashortcut when in a boss fight.

H. Poison/M. Poison: Looks completely identical to their Potion counterparts,but drain HP/MP instead. When stacked on potions in the menu, they decrease thetotal amount. Carefully read what's on the bottle before drinking!

Invisibility potion (bottle with purple liquid): Become invisible for a while.Stack and sell these for some decent cash, there's not much use to them. Youmay think you can use it to kill some enemies quick and clean, but because theydon't see you they don't stand still when you hit them. You'll just waste a lotof time chasing after them for single hits.

Hardening potion (bottle with yellow liquid): Increases the amount of times thecurrently equipped breakable sword can be used. Use this on your strongestbreakable weapon to increase its value, then sell it with a huge profit.

HP Mantle: Increases HP recovery rate when resting. Works only when placed in

the active bag, not when inside a Dimensional Box. Ares can buy this in theCasino for 5000 Medals (50.000 gold).

MP Mantle: Increases MP recovery rate when resting. Works only when placed inthe active bag, not when inside a Dimensional Box. Ares can buy this in theCasino for 5000 Medals (50.000 gold).

Attack Bracelet (red bracelet): Sacrifices defense power for an increase inattack power. Like the mantles, they'll take effect when placed in the activebag, not a Dimensional Box.

Defense Bracelet (blue bracelet): Sacrifices attack power for an increase indefense power. Takes effect if placed in the active bag, not a Dimensional Box.

Experience Scroll (rolled up scroll): Increase experience gained for allattributes. Ares receives this from wounded warrior Gadie on Tower F9 if hereturns his repaired sword. Dela can buy this from the shop for 80.000 gold.Having this item in the active bag pretty much equals to playing the game onEasy Mode. Not really recommended if you want a bit of challenge.

Winged Boots: Decreases amount of damage you take when falling into a pit. Onlyworks when in the active bag.

Treasure Eye (gold casing with red diamond circle in the middle): Showslocation of all chests on the map. There are only two of these in Ares Mode andone in Dela Mode, but you don't need them at all.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------~Exploring~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brandish is all about wandering through dungeons while making due with littleresources and keeping your wits about when faced with enemies and traps.To fully enjoy the game you need to take it slow and explore every nook andcranny of each floor. Keeping this up will result in finding all chests which


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means more resources to help you buy new spells and armor, so it's the"correct" way to play the game. Your map will be a big help.

It's possible to mark the map from start menu, second tab. Pick the color withthe analog stick and mark the square with the d-pad and O button. This is ahandy function that makes it easier to find certain points of interest againlike locked doors, split paths or holes that lead to unique places on the floorbelow. Make use of this.

New to The Dark Revenant are Completion Stones, they contain a bonus forachieving 100% completion of a floor. Every floor has a Completion Stone thatyou can only break with the hammer after getting 100% map completion for thefloor. You can check your current rate of completion by looking at the rightcorner of the map in the start menu. You'll encounter the first Stone at theend of Ruins F1, right before the doorway leading to Ruins F2.These things usually contain a rare/useful item for that point in the game,so it's a good idea to mark Completion Stones on the map after finding one.When the floor has been completed you can then easily find your way back to itand take the item inside.

Only tiles that you can walk on count towards the floor completion rate, soplunging yourself into large pits to get a few more squares on the map is awaste of time. This is especially useful to know for the Cave section of thegame.

There are a few corpses of less fortunate predecessors scattered around. Youusually find an item on their body after examining them a few times.

You can prevent undead Skeletons from reviving by dropping an M. Poisonon them.

Look out for the set of powerful Dark equipment. They're easily recognizedbecause they're much stronger than the equipment you currently have, and areall dark and ominous looking. Do NOT equip this gear unless you're in theDark Zone, because you'll suffer all kinds of deadly status effects whenwearing them outside of that area. But be sure to store them in yourDimensional Box until you reach the Dark Zone, as you'll probably need their

power to deal with the vicious enemy assaults there. You should sell theequipment once you're out of that place.

When you're exploring, I recommend your shortcuts to be set up like:[Steel balls] [Fire Magic] [Hammer]

When you're in a bossfight, I recommended your shortcuts to be set up like:[H. Potion] [Fire/Double Magic] [M. Potion]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------~Ares Mode~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apart from the first floor, this isn't a step by step walkthrough. But you willbe provided with everything you need to know to beat the game and the solutionsto the harder puzzles including the few you'd be unable to solve withoutknowing Japanese.

-----RUINS-----


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F1:Because this is the first area of the game I'll put some more effort in guidingyou through. I suggest you just skip reading this, but if you're still unsureabout how the game works play along to see the mechanics described in the abovesections in action.

Start by walking around a bit and getting used to the turning. Pick up yoursword and shield with the /\ button. Go into the [ ] menu to equip your shield.Move the sword and Revival Ring out of the shortcut slots to the empty gridbelow it with the R-Button, that's your active bag. Note how you have only 1 HPfrom falling down, so press the select button to rest which heals your HP.

There's one chest behind you and two in the front. The front-right one needs akey and can't be opened yet. Hug the walls here for map completion and ignorethe stairs, then step on the switch to open the door.

After talking to the guy, hug the walls and pull the lever to open the nextdoor. Step on the switch in the center of the room to open the doors on theleft and right. Notice the cracked wall in front of you, this indicates thatit's breakable with a hammer.

We'll go through the door on the right now, where you'll encounter yourfirst enemy. Head directly left from the doorway and hug the walls, notice

another cracked portion. Now go back to the doorway and follow the path. Takethe dead-end to the left and then continue until you hit another closed door.Open it with the /\ button to see a split path. Head down the right dead-endpath first. Go back and take the left path now, you'll need a key to open thedoor in the middle path. At the end of the left path you'll find a set ofMaster Keys, place them on the middle shortcut. The square behind the keyslooks slightly different because there's a pitfall, don't step on it just yet.Now take the middle path. Open the door with a Master Key by pressing circlewhen highlighting the keys in the menu or by using the input for the shortcutslot it's placed on. Open the two chests containing gold and go back to step onthe pitfall I told you about before, it leads back to the starting point.

You can now open the top-right chest in the starting area which contains a gold

bar. Move forward to the room with the switch in the middle and head to theleft this time. You'll notice a switch and a pitfall here. This pitfall doesn'ttake you down a floor, but instead hurts you when you fall in. Step on theswitch, head to the right. Open the door with a key and enter a large area withthree enemies. Kill em, then hug the walls. Open the locked door with a key,and the locked chest too. It contains a Sledgehammer, assign it to a shortcutslot. The other path leads to a chest with five H. Potions.

Head back to the room with the pitfall and switch, and go left now. The secondswitch in the corridor closes the door, so you need to jump over it. Go rightafter the door to find a switch that opens another door. Go through it and headto the left. You'll end up at a spring, drinking the water will replenish yourhealth. Don't forget to hug the walls left and right. Walk out, head to the

left and step on the switch to open the door.

You'll find a couple of shops in this area, Item shop is straight ahead,Weapon shop is at the second path to the right and Magic shop at the first.The options when entering are:[BUY] [SELL] [TALK] [EXIT]

Sell your gold bar and the two swords you should have (with 50 and 40 uses).Buy the 10 use Sledgehammer and 20 Steel Balls from the Weapon shop. Stack theSledgehammer with the other set you have and put the Steel Balls on a shortcut.


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Once you visited them all, take a right from the Magic shop. It seemingly leadsto a dead end, but don't step on the last square yet. Instead use a Steel Ballto reveal a pit. You can use Steel Balls like this to check the area in frontof you. Now jump into the pit and we're back at the start.

Head to the room with the switch in the center and break the wall in front withthe Sledgehammer. Which leads to another wall to break. Look carefully at thefloor in front of the chests in this area, throw your Steel Balls to revealthree pitfalls. Open the three locked chests with Master Keys and head back.

Take a left at the switch room from this point of view (facing south), and headimmediately left again. We'll end up at that crumbled wall from before. Smashyour way through, kill the enemy and destroy the crumbled wall to the left.Open the door, use the switch in the left pathway and go through the otherdoor. Follow the path and open the chest for some gold.

Head back to where you smashed through the wall, go left and open the door witha key. Follow the path, note the Completion Stone. Head one step past thedoorway, and you'll find a chest with breadcrumbs. Now go back to the pyramid,and you should be able to smash it if you followed the directions.

Congratulations on completely completing this floor! Now go for the next one!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-There's a secret to this floor. Remember the pitfall at the place where wefound the set of Master Keys in the middle-right part of the map? Jump intothat hole, and hold the /\ button. You'll end up in the secret basement!There's a Casino and some minor exploring to do. You can't reach 100%completion just yet, there are some stairs on F3 and F4 that lead down todifferent sections of this area which you need to explore first.

F3:You'll find your first Dimensional Box here in the chest next to the Skull Key,in the room where the rolling boulder came from. The Fire Magic scroll islocated in the northeast part of this floor. You can hit the switch in thatsection by hurling a fireball at it, which will allow you to explore thefinal section.

F6:You can't rest on this floor. There are lots of springs hidden behind breakablewalls as an alternative.

F7:This floor is themed around warp panels. As a reference, the exit is located inthe northeast of the map, but the keys you need to open the doors are locatedin the southeast. You should also find the important Amulet of Protectionon this floor.

F8:The boss battle against the Sorcerer has been moved from F10 to this floor.

He can be defeated easily without getting hit once, but equip your H. Potionsbecause it hurts hard when you do get hit. Stay out of his line of fire orshield the shots by pressing the O button. Your Arm Strength will probablylevel up quite a bit here if you fight unarmed.

-Note that when you defeat him he tricks you with another fake and flees.I wonder if we'll see him again in one of the sequels?

F9:You'll encounter enemies with attacks that hurt even when guarding for the


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first time. Step away or jump over them to avoid damage.

F10:The first room has more warp panel madness. Top-right warp leads to the keyneeded to open the door. Take note of the ghost girl in a room before the exit,we'll have to get back to her after the bossfight on the next floor.

FOOT OF TOWER:You'll enter a bossfight when you head through the closed doors, make sure tohave your Potions equipped. You need to hit one of his minions who then turnsinto an explosive ball. Slam the ball into the boss when he runs around. Hithim three times to knock off his armor and stun him. You'll be able to beat himup a bit, and then the cycle starts again with him moving faster.

After you defeat the boss, go back to the ghost girl on F10. You'll need theitem she gives you. Head back to FOOT and explore until you reach an ominousdoor. Use the item in front of the door to undo the spell, if you open itwithout using the item you'll get blasted for 255 damage.Proceed to head into the same Tower you saw in the cutscene on F1.

-----TOWER-----

F1:Don't worry about 100% completion on the next two floors, you'll take a bunchof stairs down from F3 to fill in the missing areas.

F2:There's a monster here that offers you some information in exchange for 5000gold. Pick the second option to decline. The information is that fake wallsmake their debut in the game from this point on: if a wall looks a bit lighterthan normal you can walk right through it.

F3:In the southeast corner there's a girl in front of a chest. Talk to her, then

open the door to the right with the key in order to find her boyfriend. You'llenter new sections of F2 and F1, and find the guy at the end. When you headback up you can take the chest the girl stood before, which contains yoursecond Dimensional Box.

F5:The top-left room on this floor has a switch in the middle surrounded by fourpillars. Put the Potions on shortcuts and save before stepping on the switch,as you'll trigger a boss fight. Equip a strong breakable sword because youdon't want the first part of the fight to drag on too long, with them killingyou instantly. The first phase is all about jumping at the right time to avoidtheir attack, then counter with two hits of your sword and get ready to jumpagain. It'll probably take a few tries before you get used to the timing.

When you kill one of them they'll split up, and things get a lot easier.Your sword is probably broken by now, but you can take them down without anyweapons in this phase. Just focus on one at a time and don't forget you canjump over them when cornered. If you really can't get past the first phase'sinstant-kill punching action, you can use an Invisibility Potion beforestepping on the switch to skip that part completely. Though that kinda sucksthe fun out of the fight.

The treasure chest has a piece of Dark equipment, store it in a Dimensional Box


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for use in the Dark Zone.

F6:One key, three doors. You can only pick one path, but fall through certainholes on F7 to explore the other two paths and the area behind the locked doorin the upper part of the map.

Don't flip the switch with a spiked floor in front of it, not only can you die,it doesn't do anything but block your way with a pillar.

You'll need Warp Magic to complete this floor 100% because there's an otherwiseunreachable chest in the middle right of the map behind a fake wall. TheCompletion Stone holds Winged Boots, an item that will cut down the damage youtake from falling into pits.

-There's a bug on this floor that keeps you stuck at 99.80 map completion.Remember the switch on the middle path where you had to stand on a spiked floorto flip it? Doing this will erect a pillar on a normal tile in the middle ofthe map, right behind a pitfall to F5. Even if you walked on that spot beforethe pillar was put there, it will no longer count towards the map completionrate. So if you're stuck at 99.80%, just go back to the switch and pull it upagain. You'll probably need to teleport there unless you opened the middle doorat the start. The pillar will disappear and the tile will count again, bringingyou to 100% completion. The Completion Stone on this floor contains the

Winged Boots, a handy item that reduces damage taken from falling into pits aslong as it's placed in the active bag.

F7:There are four holes leading back to F6 here. Three are located in the firstroom with the warp panels. The fourth one is in the top-left room of this map,sneakily hidden between a bunch of normal pitfalls.

Also beware of the thief here, you can get back the item he steals by killinghim.

F8:At this point in the game you should have enough funds to be able to buy

Warp Magic for 150.000 gold at the magic shop. Do so, it's an extremely handyspell and essential to gaining 100% completion on some floors.

F9:There are a few points of interest on this floor.

-You start out in an area with warps. There is one chest surrounded by warppanels that can only be reached with Warp Magic, it contains the Treasure Eye.

-After this area there's a room with four fireball-throwing enemies. This is aperfect place to max out your Magic Resistance. It's not necessary to do this,but definitely recommended. Upon entering kill all but the right enemy, thenhead to the right exit that does not have a hole in front of it. Stand in the

doorway, go into Resting Mode and take a few hits from the monster. Go backinto Resting Mode after every hit. You'll take more damage in Rest Mode, whichmeans the stat will go up faster. When almost dead, go back through the doorand hide around the corner, the monster won't follow. Go in Rest Mode again toheal, and repeat the process. You can get from ~10 to 99 in fifteen minutes!

-The Armored Knight enemies give a big boost to Arm Strength when fighting thembarehanded. Take the time to beat them up instead of blasting them with magic.

-You'll find the wounded warrior Gadie on this floor, his location is easy to


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re-find on the map because of the two chests in the room. He'll tell you abouthow he got beaten up in the puzzle room and gives you the key to that room.Open the locked door and kill the enemies. To solve the puzzle, write "3 5" bywalking on the switches when facing east. When the door opens head back to theGadie to tell him about it, he'll give you the armor from his other chest.

-Talk to him twice after the above to initiate a sidequest. He'll give you hisbroken sword and request you to bring it to his armor shop owning girlfriendGayla over at Tower F1. Lots of backtracking to do, but it's not so bad usingWarp Magic. You can complete F6 in the process. Talk to her and she'll repairit for you. It ends up being an unbreakable sword with 6 strength! Talk to heragain to receive 30 H. Potions as a thank you.

Go back to F9 and deliver the sword. You'll get an Experience Scroll in return,an item that increases the experience you get from enemies as long as you keepit in the active bag.

-You could also steal the sword by never returning it, it's the strongestunbreakable weapon available to you for another 12 floors.

TOWER TOP:You'll automatically fall through a hole leading to the missing area of F9.

As expected, you'll fight a boss on this floor. You can enter the room after

taking the warp. Not much to say, just kill the Rakshahsas and then hit theevil summoning tower. Make sure to dodge their ground slam attack, it's slowbut unblockable. It's easy to fight them unarmed, but Rakshahsas drop a swordwith 5 uses when killed, which works well on other Rakshahsas. There's auseless as always Barrier Magic ring in the down-right corner of the room, pickit up after you finish the battle to sell.

----CAVE----

B10:

The exit on the top of the Tower surprisingly leads you into a Cave. It's agood idea to equip a sword instead of going unarmed, if only to plow throughthose Undead Skeletons faster. Use the unbreakable sword you found in the chestbefore leaving the Tower.

-You can talk to the Sprite who tells you about a switch room occupied bymonsters, which is on the next floor.

-You'll find another piece of Dark equipment on this floor. The CompletionStone contains the Ice Magic scroll.

B9:You'll reach the switch room pretty fast. Let the water flow again and head

back to the Sprite, this will give you a reward later on B6.

-There's a Room of Wander on this floor. When you step on certain tiles hereyou will automatically change the direction you were facing. Keep your eyes onthe map and you'll get through. Flip all the switches in the room to open thedoor.

You can explore the final section of this floor by jumping into the first largepit you encounter on B8.


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B7:You'll reach the other side of the crevasse by going down a stairway in thenorthwest corner of B5. There's a Dimensional Box on the island in the easternpart that you can reach from there, but the chest is rigged to a weightchecking switch. You'll have to leave an item in the chest to be able to leavethe island, warping won't work.

B6:You'll meet the Sprite again in the middle-right part of the map, she thanksyou by giving you an armor.

The woman in the prison in the middle-left of the map asks you to save her bygetting the key from the Medusa's that locked her up. They're in the top-leftarea of the map in the Room of Wander. This is the shining moment of Ice Magicbecause freezing Medusa's before they freeze you is the way to go. The last onewill drop a key, use it to get her out of the cell and get a reward for helpingher out


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slowly and use the walls as guidance, there are some pitfalls scattered aroundthat you can see by pressing the /\ button or unveil by throwing a Steel Ball.

Make sure you completely explore this floor, the Completion Stone here contains99 Steel Balls. You'll REALLY need those for F2, I used about 150 steel Ballsthere.

Area 2:A unique area compromised mostly of pitfalls. Use the Steel Balls to mark a wayon the map.

-Don't forget to pick up the unbreakable 14 strength sword, the warp paneltakes you close to it but you need to take a different path to pick it up.

-There's a casino hidden here, it's behind the locked door near the stairsleading into the Fortress. You can open the door by standing on a switch at thebeginning of F2, you need to end up on the tile that has the breadcrumbs on itand walk forward a bit.

The grand prizes at the casino are mantles that increase the speed of your HPand MP recovery when resting. You could gamble to get them, but you could alsojust pay for the 10.000 Medals required to buy them both. It will only set youback 100.000 gold, which should not be a problem at this point in the game.

--------FORTRESS--------It's the final stretch, explore it!

F1:You can buy Stop and Quake magic in the shop. You should at least get the Quakeand maybe Barrier magic. Sell your Dark equipment, there's no use for itanymore. I recommend putting Quake and Ice/Barrier Magic on your shortcut slotsin addition to Fire Magic, enemies can get really tough.

Certain monsters guarding doors or chests are immune to all magic, you can only

'side-zag' bait them to create safe openings or use Barrier Magic to tank them.

~How to Side-Zag~

|1| |2| |3| |4| |A = Ares M = Monster

A-M- -AM- --M- --M- |M attacks at panel 2> > >

---- ---- -A-- --A- |A dodges at 3 and safely counters at 4

The final area of F1 is a large room with a few pillars and enemies. There arefloor switches at every wall. When you step on any of them you'll notice that

a few corpses have fallen down. You need to examine the right one to reveal awarp circle, if you get the wrong one they'll all disappear. When facing north,for me it's always the skeleton facing downwards near the original warp circle.

F2:The Eraser Eyes that appear here after you flip the switch eat up your map!Dispose of them quickly.

F3:Another floor switch puzzle here, the first thing to do is to fail it: just


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walk to the locked door and fall into the trapdoor. Here you'll find the finalarea of F2, and a note on the dead body that tells you how to solve the puzzle.F means to move forward, L/R mean to TURN the camera left or right, J meansJump. Go back to the puzzle room, and stand on the rightmost square before theswitches. Then follow the instructions on the note to complete the puzzle,which says:

F2 L1 F2 R1 F2 R2F1 L1 F2 L1 F1 J1L1 F3 R1 F2 R1 J1

You'll be able to stand on the trapdoor if executed correctly.

F4:Once you've opened the locked door using the Sapphire Key, prepare yourself forwhat's probably the toughest bossfight in the game. In this small 3x4 arenasurrounded by poison and pitfalls, three giant Lobsters are attempting to makeyou their dinner. None of the offensive magic spells effect them, so all you'vegot is your sword and H. Potions. Jump over them when you're about to getsurrounded, or just walk into the poisonous marsh which is still better thangetting hit by them. You can always retreat to the entrance when things get tootough to save the game and heal up.

F5:

The following three floors are heavily connected, but not terribly complicated.

F6:In the northeastern section of this floor you'll encounter a locked door and aswitch in the wall. The switch does not correspond to the door, but to the warpcircle a few steps further. You'll be warped to a different place depending onthe position of the switch.

F7:At the end of F7 you'll find yourself before a magic circle that does not work.The plaque on the wall tells you to "Not move!", and that's exactly what youhave to do. Stand still on the warp circle for a few seconds, and you'll getwarped to the end of the floor.

TOP:You can jump over the blue beams that are shot at you when you step on thetrap switches. Head up the stairs behind a fake wall to enter Backbone.

BACKBONE:Here you'll fight a boss to gain the right to brandish the strongest weapon inthe Brandish universe, the Planet Buster. There's not much to the battle, justjump up to him, activate Double Magic and start twacking him.

When you've picked up the Planet Buster and Elmef Key head back to finish upthe rest of TOP. You'll eventually have to use the Btowl and Elmef keys toenter the final area of the game.

BTOWLS:Time to face to the nefarious king's cursed form, God Bistall. Ready yourselfby putting Double Magic and Potions on your shortcuts. Put all Revival Ringsyou still have in your active bag, this is the last chance to get some use outof them! One thing to note is that the boss area counts towards map completionrate. I recommend jumping into the warp, then hop around after the scene tofill up the map. Take the warp back, save the game and then take the Bistall onfor real. Using the Amulet of Protection before starting would be a good idea.


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The first phase of the battle consists of Bistall shooting at you while someplatforms try to push you around. Use Double Magic and hit him while you staybetween his two blasters. There are moving warps that teleport you back a bit,just take a step backward when you see them coming.The second phase starts when God Bistall protects himself with a barrier. Youneed to destroy the three pillars for it to go down. Once the pillars are downor you take too much time, Bistall will fire his BISTALL BEAM which reallyhurts. Be sure to walk to the side once you see the string of light form.Bistall is vulnerable for a short while after this attack is over, so getyourself in a good position and use Double Magic, then strike once the beam isgone. You'll probably have to go through this twice.

His final form can dish out some insane damage, the spread charge shot has OHKOpotential. Use the Amulet of Protection and Double Magic to maximize yourdamage. Approach him with caution, don't go near when he's charging and keepmoving when you're assaulted by lightning bolts. Eventually, you'll make himfall to the brilliance of the Planet Buster...

Which concludes Ares Mode! Enjoy the ending. Don't forget to save your cleardata, it's first option in the menu after the credits.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------~Dela Mode~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Loading your clear data from the main menu will start Dela Mode, where you'llnot only play as Dela, but do so in 10 floors of completely redesigned Ruins,aka RUINS EX!

Going unarmed is not a good idea with Dela because she'll take damage whenguarding without a staff in her hand. Her melee startup speed is notably slowerthan Ares', but her third hit comes out rather fast. She can wear several kindsof headgear instead of a shield.

There's no Warp Magic in Dela Mode, instead all floors are connected by abasement with Warp panels. A lot of areas can only be completed 100% by pushingforward and dropping down a hole or finding a Warp circle on the next floor.

I'll let you know how and when you'll be able to get 100% completion.

--------RUINS EX--------

F1:Even though it's the innocent looking Ruins, be on guard! Dela Mode is only tenfloors long, but the difficulty starts out the same as Ares' endgame! You startwith a Fire Magic scroll in your inventory.

F1 houses the only shop in Dela Mode. You can upgrade his stock twice by giving

him a Blue Crystal.The locked door near the shop can only be opened from the other side, which youcan reach by taking some stairs down in F2 and using the Warp in the basement.There's another locked door west of the shop that can't be opened until you hitF6. So it'll be a while before you can get 100% completion on this floor.

For now head to the topright area where you can find the first Dimensional Boxand the way to F2.

F2:


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No resting allowed on this floor.

Stepping on the switch in the first room will start a mini-boss fight. It'sjust three waves of four enemies, but they can kill you if you let yourself getsurrounded. Keep H. Potion on a shortcut just in case. Defeating them unlocksall four doors.

The room west from the mini-boss room has tons of pits. Beware of the frogs asthey can attack from two spaces away, take them out with magic. You'll find theGreen Key here. Compare the B2 and F2 maps to find the right pit to fall intoin order to grab the 3000 gold in the basement. It's the one next to thelantern.

The following area has a bunch of blue blobs blasting beams at you. These beamshurt a lot, so you need to move fast when you've got your back turned to them.When moving up you can jump over the beams. The timing is pretty tricky, tryfocusing on the sound effect.You can find a secret 20 gold bars in a chest here. The catch is that you canonly obtain these when all slugs are still alive, the chest will be emptyotherwise. It's in the back of the rightmost path, so you'll have to take atleast two hits. Equip an H. Potion to make it out alive.You can find the mantle that increases your HP recovery behind a crumbled wallon the leftmost path of the same area, but this can be grabbed after killingthe blobs.

Next up is another mini-boss room. Same as last time. After defeating them allyou can use the 6 Hammers you should have left on the crumbled wall to theleft of the exit for a chest.

Final area of this floor is one giant pillar puzzle. Don't take the staircasedown in the upper part just yet. First open up a path to the chest in themiddle of the area, which contains a Blue Crystal. From here you only have toflip the switch in the upper left corner to reach the Completion Stone, whichcontains 10 more gold bars.Once you have this, take the staircase going down. Welcome to the Warp Zone!For now you can only head back to F1, but you'll eventually connect eight morefloors to this shortcut system. If you choose to visit F1 you can give the Blue

Crystal to the merchant by talking to him. This will upgrade his stock once youre-enter the store. By selling the 30 gold bars from before you should be ableto buy a new infinite weapon, better armor and a stupid bird hat.Take the shortcut back and head to F3.

F3:Head north for a scene and a room that has four locked doors, four openedchests and four switches. You need to place the right items in the empty chestsand then step on the switch to operate the doors. The items necessary are:

-Lower Right Door: Shield of Darkness-Top Right Door: Sword of Darkness-Lower Left Door: Armor of Darkness

-Top Left Door: Skull Key

Alright then, first up is the Shield of Darkness, which you can find in thearea to the east of the entrance. One of the treasure chests near the room withthe log traps contains the blue Defense Bracelet. This item sacrifices someattack power for an increase in defense, put it in the Dimensional Box if youdon't want it to take effect.

Put the Shield of Darkness in its place to open the door leading to the Armorof Darkness. You'll run into the famous 3x3 switch puzzle that somehow makes it


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into every other ARPG. Like always, solve it by standing on all four edges andthen jump on the middle switch. Past here is the Armor of Darkness and FreezeMagic.

Drop the Armor in the lower left chest to open the door that leads to a YellowKey. This fits the locked door you found in the area to the east from theentrance. Grab the Sword of Darkness from the chest and put it in the top rightchest.

Explore further to find the Skull Key, which is not used for the locked door inthe top right of the map, but for the final top-left chest. That's it for thisfloor for now, you can only reach the top right area from the end of F7 soit'll be a while till you can complete it. Take the new basement warp shortcutto F1 and unload your stuff.

-Make sure to buy Thunder Magic, you'll need it to open a door on F4.

F4:

This area is themed around lighting torches. Shoot a fireball at the torch andstep on the switch before it goes out to open the door. You'll encounter othervariants of this puzzle that require you to light multiple torches beforestepping on a switch.

In the southwest of the map you need to light three torches with lots of waterand doors around. This will net you a second Dimensional Box upon completion.It requires some practice to complete though, so mark the torch-pillars on yourmap and get familiar with the area.Look at the map and start with the one that's most left. Strafe left and jump,turn right and make your way to the middle switch. Light it, strafe right, turnright, jump, go around the corner and jump all the way up to the third torch.Light it, go back how you came and go out the door, strafe left and you shouldhave succeeded. It's especially important to strafe left and jump after thefirst torch, without using this shortcut to the middle torch you'll never makeit in time.

You need Thunder Magic to light both torches fast enough in the northern room.

One of the chests here holds the Amulet of Protection! You need it, enemies aregoing to get a lot tougher soon.

The basement shortcut is located in the topleft corner of the map. You canbreak a wall here which leads you to a swimming pool of gold.

F5:This is what Dela's nightmares are made of. It's a fairly straightforward areathough, all you need to get through is some perseverance/paranoia.

Opening the locked door in the west part of the map is best done in stages. Putthe key on a shortcut, unlock the door, dodge, open it, dodge, and then getinside.

The room in the east with the pits, boulders and treasures counts towards yourmap completion rate. So you need to walk through all of it. It's not so badonce you get the pattern down though. Step step, strafe strafe, step step,strafe strafe is the key to get through.

You'll eventually reach F6 through the same basement that has the shortcut toF1.

F6:


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section of this floor. The floor puzzle here takes some trial and error tocross. If you head into the second outer section, there's another skeleton thatdrops a key. Once you have it you can go explore the inner section further. Theenemies here are strong, so keep your guard up. You'll find another BlueCrystal in behind one of the weak walls. Eventually you'll have to use the keyfrom the skeleton to open the door to the second batch of switch puzzles.

You're in a Room of Wandering with lots of pits, which alone is a deadlycombination. Add to that the fact that you have a time limit in order to reachthe switch to open the next two doors, and you're in for a lot of falls intothe basement. First take out the enemies, then step on the switch at the startand navigate towards the door in the back. The door to the right is easier toreach, but you're missing the key to fully explore that section. Behind thedoor in the back is another skeleton with a key, and another bridge toactivate. Now go back to the switch in the previous room and go for the door tothe right this time. Another collapsing floor puzzle awaits you there.

The roundabout way is the safest one. From your starting position turn thecamera to the north and walk sideways three steps, one forward, then jump overthe pit and walk left immediately to avoid falling. From there on just followthe path and stick to the walls, you'll reach a switch that stops the floorsfrom moving eventually.

Open the room to the outer part first using the Ebony Key. Another skeleton

with a key awaits you there. Move inside again and you'll reach a room with twoplaques and a warp circle blocking the way. You can open the door using the keyyou just got to find another skeleton that does not drop a key.

Now then, how dow we cross the warp circle? The left plaque in the room tellsyou that the potion that drains your magic power has the ability to stop theresurrection of the undead. In other words, Put an M. Poison on a skeleton tomake it stop reviving. The right plaque tells you that the path will open whenall the undead bow to the ground. Pretty simple, right? Kill all the skeletonspatrolling around the walls, the ones that dropped the key. There are five ofthem in total, so that's the amount of M. Poison you'll need. Drop it on themwith the L-button, and once they're all pinned to the ground you'll be able towalk right through the warp circle. You cannot un-stack items, so I hope you

followed my earlier advice to save you a trip back to the shop!

Activate the basement warp shortcut and go to the shop on F1. Give the BlueCrystal to the shopkeeper again, exit and re-enter to enjoy the upgraded stock.You should at least grab the better armor.

When you take the stairs to the next floor, you'll end up at F3! At last youcan gain 100% map completion here, the Completion Stone holds a nice 50 GoldBars. Take the exit in the top-right corner to reach the next floor.

F8:Total darkness. Just keep going until you reach an enemy in the room with theCompletion Stone. There's only one door you can open here, it'll lead you to

another locked door and a barely visible body of water with something in themiddle... shoot a fireball at it and you'll see it's a torch. This stage isthemed around that one source of light in the middle of the area. It'll go outafter a while, it's best to return and light it again before pushing further.

There are pitfalls arranged in patterns everywhere, but without the light youcan't see them. You can get some use out of your trusty Steel Balls again tocheck the grounds when the light is out, or mark the pits when the light isstill on to prevent yourself from falling into them on backtrack.


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Another hazard themed around opposites on this floor are the enemies that drainyour MP coupled with enemies that can only be killed with magic. Stay sharp,prioritize killing the leechers and use some M. Potion when neccesary.

You'll find the final Dimensional Box hidden behind 3 crumbling walls in thesouthern part of the map, before the shortcut to the second place from whichyou can light the torch. If you're in the room with four Rakshahsas leading tothe third place from which you can light the torch, you're already too far.

And when you finally got used to the whole torch mechanic to survive, the gamecruelly forces you into a situation that blocks the way back to the torch whileyou helplessly see the light getting fainter and fainter until it goes out...that's Brandish for ya! Luckily there's an area with plenty of weak walls tothe south. Watch out for the Floating Sword, it's best to bait it away beforeproceeding further. Use your Steel Balls to test the floor in the narrowcorridors, and you'll eventually make it to the fourth and last area from whichyou can light up the torch again.

Warp Maze Time. If you're lost follow these directions to reach the exit:-upon entry, face north and take the left warp-turn left, jump over the water and take the right warp-make an 180, jump over the water and into the warpYou'll reach the room with two Raskshashas and the way back to the CompletionStone, a stairwell to the basement shortcuts and a doorway to the next level.

As usual, go back to lighten your load. You'll need Quake Magic to be able toexplore an optional area on the next floor. I highly recommend buying threedoses of M. Poison for a timed switch puzzle, so grab that too. Now then,prepare yourself for one of the finest floors in the entire Brandish series.

F9:You can consider this the final area of Dela Mode, in which the game throwseverything it's got at you. It's filled with tons of fun obstacles.

When you step on the lone switch you'll meet some familiar foes that are stillmissing an essential part of their body.

You'll obtain a Black Orb after defeating them. These orbs are very importanton this floor, because they activate warps. The room with three empty chests isyour gateway, putting a Black Orb in either of them will warp you to adifferent section of the floor. Putting a Black Orb in two of them also takesyou somewhere else, and putting a Black Orb in all three will take you to thelocked door leading to F10 and a basement warp shortcut. I'll indicate thechests with [ ], and one with a Black Orb in it with [x] to make clear whatarea I'm talking about.

[x][ ][ ]The second Black Orb can be obtained here. Take the other warp in the room andyou'll reach an area with four armored foes carrying flails. Defeat them to getthe Orb.

[x][x][ ]You can get the third Black Orb here. Defeat the Skeletons and throw theM. Poison on them, then you can easily reach the switch in time. Defeat theflail carrying foes again to gain the final Orb.There's a room with three switches and two boulders here, and you get only onechance to do this right. You need to step on the top left switch first beforethe other two in order to take the chest. Use the Master Key to open the chestto the northwest of the room. There's an invisible fake wall behind that chest,so jump over it.


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The one locked door near the Skeletons also needs a Master Key to be opened, ithas a warp that runs on a Black Orb leading to a Treasure Eye.

[ ][x][x]The goal of the collapsing floor puzzle is to find footing to kill the floatingswords, which will allow you to open the chests. The Master Key you find herecan be used in [x][ ][ ].-I couldn't find a clean way to get past the trap alley. I did a step, wait,jump over the projectile, get hit by next one, rest. You'll at least avoid thefloor spikes this way. But you shouldn't attempt it anyway till you get theBTOWL Key, or you'll have a hell of a time getting out.-You'll find the Elmef Key here, the one that opens the final door at [x][x][x].-Before going there, you should jump into the more lightly colored pit. Itleads to the last part of B2, which has tons of breakable walls, empty chestsand gold. It's completely possible to clear the area without buying anysledgehammers if you found all of them up till now. As long as you stick to theright path at the three way split, you will always find some new sledgehammersin a chest before running out.

[x][ ][x]A room filled with switches, and not stepping on a switch will teleport youback to the beginning. Once you know the trick, this puzzle is really easy:take a good look at the switches. You'll notice that some of them aredifferent, and are pointing in a direction. Jump on these only and follow the

directions to make it to the door, where you'll find the Altet Key behind somecrumbled walls, which you can use in [ ][ ][x] to progress.-In the next room there are three holes and a blue slug blocking the way. Youcan only get past here by using Quake Magic. You'll end up in a room with threeswitches that will cost money to flip. They've got some decent treasure behindthem, and are of course needed for 100% map completion. You at least need toflip the one that costs 10.000 gold, as it has a chest with a Master Key.-The last switch requires 500.000 gold, so you'll probably need to sell someitems first. You can sell the Quake Magic and other stuff you no longer need.Potions, weapon/armor and Fire Magic are the only things neccesary for the bosson the next floor. If you're somehow disappointed with the treasure behind the500.000 gold door, be sure to jump in rage!

[ ][ ][x]Use the Atlet Key here to open the door and get the BTWOL Key, which opens thedoor at the end of the trap alley in [ ][x][x].

[x][x][x]Once you have the Elmef Key you'll be able to open the door here. You may wantto go back to the shop first using the basement shortcut and sell some stuffso that you can open the 500.000 gold door for 100% map completion. Don'tforget you have 100% completion in the warp basement now too, so you can breakthe Completion Stone there for a nice 99 gold bars. Take the topleft warp toget to it.

F10:

Jump over the dead guys to explore the small islet for 100% map completion.Once you've broken the Completion Stone, cross over the bridge to face thefinal boss of Dela Mode! If you have high MGR, he's a pushover. If you don't hecan inflict some deadly damage, but that's what you saved all those RevivalRings for. There's a lot of attack variety, learning how to dodge them wins youthe fight. The spinning fire attack can destroy you at close range, so block itinstead of counter. The big freeze is hard to avoid, he seems to be able tochoose the range at which the first pillar spawns which can screw up yourdodge. But as long as you keep pressing buttons you'll unfreeze in time tododge the next attack. After coming this far, I'm sure you can destroy this


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------STAGES------

RUINS

-The guy you meet after opening the first door in the PSP version was neverthere in the SNES version. However, a guy with the same design is present infront of the Ninja boss in the Cave in the SNES version. The PSP version has askeleton in its place. Kinda sad how he goes from badass that nearly makes itto the Dark Zone to some guy that dies three steps into the dungeon.

-Both Casinos were changed to Sound Test rooms in the SNES version, completewith a unique "What's that sound?!" message when examining the doors. They'vehave been restored to Casinos in the PSP version. There's also no longer afree Warp Magic scroll in the secret basement of the Ruins.

-The Ruins had some water spilling over tiles near fountains every now andthen, this visual detail did not make it into the PSP version.

-You no longer have a key left over on Ruins F3 to open the chest in the eastof Ruins F2 in the PSP version. They give you an extra key on F2 instead tosave you the backtracking.

-Getting slammed by the logs on Ruins F5 actually hurts in the SNES version.Which makes sense, considering that you're violently getting thrusted in theface by big pieces of wood. In the PSP version you just get pushed around, thedamage comes from falling into the pits only. The combination of push and falldamage can easily kill you in the SNES version, making the area a bit harder.

-There's no Warp animation when you get teleported around at Ruins F7. Instead,the SNES version uses the Room of Wander effect. Same goes for a few otherareas in the game too.

-There's no Sorcerer boss on F8 in the SNES version, there are two magicenemies that aren't in the PSP version instead. They look the same, but one

floats around constantly and shoots energy balls when at a save distance. Theother stands completely still and casts a barrier when you attack him, thenlets it down for a second to hurl a ball of energy at you. The Sorcerer islocated in Ruins F10 in the SNES version, right beyond the room with theGhost Girl.

-The Old Stone Geezer at FOOT OF TOWER doesn't die after you open the gate tothe Tower. Instead, he'll keep on yapping about how you'll never make it pastthe gates and will grow old with him forever even after you've unlocked andentered the Tower.

TOWER

-In the SNES version of the Tower you had certain switches that opened doors inplaces that looked just like normal walls. The PSP version just has genericlocked doors instead of the walls opening.

-There's no walking animation for the girl and her boyfriend which you help outon Tower F3/F1. They just go poof the instant they finish their dialog in theSNES version.

-The sidequest with Gadie and Gayla in the Tower didn't exist in the SNESversion. It has probably been added in the PSP version to add more value to


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their appearance in Brandish 2.

CAVE

-As far as I can see, fake walls in the Cave have no different graphic in theSNES version, so they're invisible till you check them or walk right through.

-This one's interesting. The puzzle on the little island in the Cave where youfind the final Dimensional Box has been changed a bit for PSP. This is due tothe Dark Revenant not having a separate EXAMINE function like on the SNES,instead the /\ button acts as a mix between the EXAMINE and INTERACT functions.So the PSP version has a wall with a plaque that you can only jump through, notwalk. The SNES version uses the difference between EXAMINE and INTERACT tothrow you off here. When you see a plaque, you'll automatically switch toEXAMINE to read it. But what you have to do is to touch, aka INTERACT with thewall to make it crumble. Despite how simple it sounds, it's not something you'dthink of doing because the game has taught you that INTERACT has no function ona wall with a plaque! Brandish 3 has a similar puzzle with plaques that areactually switches when you interact with them, I look forward to the waythey'll chance that one in the inevitable remake.

-The room behind the Ninja Master boss is guarded by another ninja, with lotsof health. Luckily he doesn't spawn clones if you hit him while he blocks.The little ledge here that has the Completion Stone on it doesn't exist.

DARK ZONE

-There's no cutscene when you enter the Dark Zone in the SNES version, the PSPhas a little CG here.

-The SNES Dark Zone has an interesting mechanic when it comes to its enemies.You won't find as many Swords of Darkness, so they're more valuable. There'sthis thing with the knight type enemies based on that: some have over 100 HPwhile others have only 10. But the ones with 10 HP have incredible defense, somuch that even the Sword of Darkness hits for 1 or 2 points of damage. Hittingthem with your bare fists does the same amount of damage! So if you don't checktheir HP before engaging them, you might just waste an entire Sword of

Darkness. The high HP enemies die in about three hits, but without the swordthey take forever. I found this pretty cool.

-There's no breadcrumb hinting the location of the switch to open the door tothe Sound Room in the SNES version, that is of course a Casino in the PSPversion. They didn't change the graphic of the door in the SNES version, so the(weird) PC98 name of the Casino, "BE", is still written on it despite it notbeinga Casino.

FORTRESS

-The puzzle in the big room with all the switches on Fortress 1 doesn't workwith corpses falling from above, but with pillars shuffling around.

-The area on F2 where you learn the correct steps for the switch puzzle on F3has no body with a note on it. You'll just have to write it up yourself!

-The shops ran by monsters have a proper door now, in the SNES version theyjust sat on the ground. Also, the one on F7 doesn't sell any spells. Thereare more changes to shopkeepers' stocks, but this one really jumped out forme.

-The warp square you have to stand still on to activate on F7 isn't indicated


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by a magic circle in the SNES version, it just looks like any other meatground.

-The unblockable beams from some traps look exactly like normal arrows on SNES,but they still inflict heavy damage when you try to block.

-The boss themes start playing the instant you access the floor on BACKBONE andBTOWLS in the SNES version.

-You can't walk around in the deserted room with the book on the table in theSNES version, it works the same way as a shop. You see a closed door (readingMystery Door) and when you enter it you just get the scene with the story.

-There's no fancy teleport cutscene for when you enter BTOWLS in the SNESversion.

-God Bistall does not have any dialog at all in the SNES version, not before orafter battle.

-The part after beating God Bistall is a cutscene, you don't have any controlover Ares in the SNES version.

----------DELA DELON

----------

-Dela only leaves a letter twice in the SNES version, and they're always inchests. The first one is after the encounter in the Ruins, the second one isthe letter she leaves behind in the chest that held the Elmef Key.

-Her many letters are collectable and re-readable items in the PSP version. Notthat there's any use to that, as far as I know.

-Dela got four more appearances during Ares mode in the PSP version:Ruins F7, quick scene of her being lost in the Warp maze too.Dark Zone 2, ambushing you after the fake wall at the start.Fortress F3, assault after you complete the correct steps on the floor switch.

Fortress F6, falls through hole from F7 to drop on the switch on F5.

-You can no longer kill Dela on Fortress TOP in the PSP versions. It'd be badfor the sequels!

------BOSSES------

*SORCERERHe's a bit harder because he and the clones actually turn around to shoot youwhen you approach them from behind or the sides! The clones cannot be attackedeither, you just walk right through them. Only the real one is solid, which is

a nice touch. If you defeat him in the PSP version and have the door on screenyou can quickly see him poof away, implying he isn't dead. This doesn't happenin the SNES version.

*CRABDEVILYou'll fight him right after heading up the stairs after the Sorcerer battledue to their placement in the SNES version. His behavior is completelydifferent, there's no more breaking the armor with eggs while he franticallyruns around trying to ram you. He's just a normal hit and run boss.


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*HEADLESSYou can not avoid their team attack by jumping like in the PSP version. I usedWarp Magic to get out of their trap, I assume some Invisibility Potion would dothe trick too. They don't act cool and sink back in the ground if they kill youwith their quadra-punch in the SNES version.

*RAKSHAHSAThere's no evil summoning tower that produces more Rakshashas or tries toflatten you. You just fight two Rakshashas and win once they're dead. Theybounce back magic in the SNES version, so you must go full melee on them.

*NINJA MASTERAlmost exactly the same, he only lacks the teleport flying kick attack in SNES.

*LOBSTERThey don't run around in patterns, or have any coordinated movement at all forthat matter in the SNES version.

*AZITAKAHAHe only breathes flames in the SNES version, no headbanging or blowing away.This makes him even an even bigger pushover if you have high MGR.

*GOD BISTALLEven though he only has a single form in the SNES version, the battle doesn't

feel like an anti-climax at all. There's no BISTALL BEAM or barrier, but thescreen is still crowded with all kinds of magic shots bouncing around. Thereare a lot more warps that teleport you back to the beginning, counted at leastfour at some point. He also attacks by making spikes appear on the tiles youstand on, which is hard to avoid in the midst of his crazy barrage. The overallchaos here got toned down in the PSP version, but the second form andlengthened theme more than make up for it.

-----MUSIC-----

-'Tradition', the song played during the first part of the opening, did not

exist in the US SNES version. Brandish PC98 has an oddly similar song as intro,but it was not until Brandish Renewal that we got the 'Tradition' that the PSPversion is based upon.

-'Tradition' got promoted to main theme status by being incorporated into thefinal boss theme and the new 'Ending 2'. I really like this change as it's abeautiful piece of music.

-The song known as 'Ending 2' that played in the second part of the ending ofthe SNES version has been changed to the opening theme in the PSP version.Probably to make the overall intro more similar in style to Brandish 1/2/mostother Falcom games that usually feature a slower piece of music during thebackstory/legend part of the intro, followed by an upbeat song during the

awesome cool character introduction part.

-Because of this there's now a completely new piece of music that takes theplace and name of the above tune called 'Ending 2', based on 'Tradition'.

-For some reason the shops in Ruins F8, Cave B5, Fortress F3 and F7 have theCasino music playing instead of the normal shop tune in the SNES version. Ihave no idea why they did this, there's nothing special about these particularshops.


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------~Credits and thanks~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First of all I've got to thank Jax Aagar for his excellent SNES guide. The gamescript and item descriptions came in really handy when I started the game.

Mass_Carrier who I really owe one for translations of a few items and theplaques in Ruins EX F7. Thanks for still taking the time to do it even thoughyou don't care about Brandish.

jeffx for clarifications on the floor puzzle on Tower F9, invisibility potionfor Headless strategy and typing up the instructions for Fortress F3. Anappreciated fellow wanderer in the world of Brandish.

hysoong, who pointed out the way to reach the secret basement on Ruins F1.

FwugRadiation, for correcting me on the availability of Timestop and QuakeMagic in the SNES version, and explaining the origin of 'Tradition'.

Synchronicity Translations for the English patch of Brandish 2, a deedappreciated by the many millions of Brandish fans across the globe! Updated afew names in the guide based on the patch, like BTOWL > Bytohl.

The members of the resident board for their support. Another thanks to thefolks from Ancient Land of Ys, without that place I probably never would havediscovered this series in the first place. And finally Synchronicity, the homeon the internet for us Brandish fans: synchronicity.animeontheweb.com

Well, that's it. I love the game and hope this file helped a few more peoplediscover and enjoy the series. If you have any questions, suggestions or otherfeedback, you can mail them to [sardien AT live DOT com]

Now sally forth, wanderers! Explore more, and never forget about youradventures in Bytohl!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brandish: The Dark Revenant: Walkthrough by SardienLast Updated: 2009-12-13 | View/Download Original File Hosted by GameFAQsReturn to Brandish: The Dark Revenant (PSP) FAQs & Guides

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