Brandish

Unlock the underworld!

Brandish is an Action RPG series by Nihon Falcom notable for having a rotatable "camera" despite having entirely 2-D gameplay, thus allowing the player to do things like circle-strafing, hit-and-run attacks, and other typically-3-D techniques. Only the very first game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was ever released in other countries, and with great alterations at that. An overview of the game series can be found here.

Thus far, there have been four main games in the series:

• Brandish and Brandish: The Dark Revenant: Ares once killed a wizard, so the wizard's apprentice Dela Delon seeks revenge. While battling, one of Dela Delon's spells breaks open the ground, sending them both into a deep labyrinth. Now, Ares must figure out a way to escape. This game was remade for the PSP as Brandish: The Dark Revenant and retains the same rotatable camera system.
• Brandish 2: The Planet Buster
• Brandish 3: Spirit of Balcan
• Brandish 4 and Brandish VT: Fata Morgana Templum: No relation to the previous games.

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Tropes used in Brandish include:

• Always Over the Shoulder: And with sprite-based graphics, no less! The trick was loading four versions of each map that switched as you "turned".
• Breakable Weapons: Combined with a limited inventory.
• Breakout Character: Dela Delon has become the signature character of the series and features on many front covers despite only being playable in Brandish 3 and a secret mode of The Dark Revenant.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Always an option.
• Hot Witch: Dela Delon.
• Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: One of the bosses is a group of ninja.
• Ms. Fanservice: Again, Dela Delon.
• Pit Trap: Lots, to the point where one expendable item is dedicated solely to finding them.
• Sitting Sexy on a Piano: Dela Delon in the cover art for the Brandish Piano Collection.
• Squishy Wizard: Dela Delon in The Dark Revenant.
• Stripperiffic: Dela Delon.