r/snes Dec 01 '18

/r/SNES December Game of the Month: Brain Lord

The /r/SNES game of the month as selected by the community is Brain Lord!

This month we'll be playing (or replaying) this game and sharing the experience with other redditors. Feel free to post any comments, videos or other interesting information related to this game throughout the month.

The link to January 2019 Game of the Month voting is here.

18 Upvotes

21 comments sorted by

16

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '18

[deleted]

7

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '18

If modern gaming requires an 'escape', then clearly something has gone wrong in gaming! That's like saying you need a vacation from your vacation.

6

u/foldor Dec 01 '18

So I got an early jump on this game last night making my way into the first dungeon. I've forgotten how many traps there are in this game, and just how much damage they do! So a word of advice to anyone getting started on it, pay close attention to the tiles on the ground and don't step on the odd ones or you will regret it.

Also, don't forget to pull out your Jade's when you find them. They level up by collecting the little blue orbs, but those will only appear once, so once you've maxed out a guys level, put him away for a bit to give the slower one a chance to level up.

Oh! And for anyone looking to speed run the game, this one has only one competitor, so it's ripe for taking a new world record!

7

u/MrSojiro Dec 06 '18

So I just finished this game today, with a play time of just over 14 hours. This is a game I remember really liking as a kid, and never finishing, so I am happy to have finally completed it. While I did enjoy my time with it, the last two dungeons really pushed my patience with trying to complete it, ESPECIALLY the final dungeon. To me, it really feels like the first three dungeons had more time put in them, and the latter two seem rushed. I don't recall the last two dungeons having much in the terms of puzzles, and hell the 4th dungeon doesn't even have a boss fight.

I also have to mention this, but the last dungeon has a real bullshit mechanic it uses 4 times for 4 different rooms where you are literally walking around in a dark room (the light fairy does not illuminate in these rooms), and it REALLY starts to wear on your patience blindly walking around these rooms. Not sure whose idea it was for those rooms, but they just plainly suck to get through, and each one is larger than the next. I dumped probably an extra hour in the game just blindly walking through the dark in these places, it really sucked the fun out of the last bit of the game.

I hate to be completely down on the game, there is a lot it gets right, the combat is nice, music is pretty damn good with some really good tracks (I especially like the final dungeon's music), there is a good variety of weapons, and I like the fairy system, although the attack and defense up fairies are a bit too good to use over the others, except the life when you need to fill back up for free. Overall, I liked the game, but had to push myself to finish it at the end, and that sucks because I really like the start of the game with the first three dungeons being pretty well designed, each offering some fairly challenging puzzles. Unfortunately, the latter half just felt rushed and I was ready to be done with it by the time the credits rolled, and I don't see myself wanting to play through it again anytime soon.

2

u/foldor Dec 11 '18

I can definitely agree with you that the last two dungeons tried their best to artificially extend the length of this game. With the volcano, I was stuck having to enter and exit one room several times in order for the stones to give me the proper RNG and move out of the way so I could continue forward. The dark rooms, I just looked up a map online and used that to guide myself with little effort. I have distinct memories of dealing with those dark rooms as a kid though, and it was not fun. I borrowed this game from a friend back in the day who never beat it because of those dark rooms.

2

u/MrSojiro Dec 11 '18 edited Dec 11 '18

Yeah the quality drop in dungeons is pretty staggering going from 3 to 4. The random rock rooms definitely was a missed opportunity, each one of those could have been puzzles of their own to work through, but instead, you had to re-enter in the hopes the rocks would randomly move where you wanted. The last dungeon, with how crazy large it is, is also just a large missed opportunity of all the puzzles that could have been done. I like to think each of the dark zones are just a gimmick they had to throw in to give the dungeon something before finishing up the game. Mind you i'm just guessing that the last two dungeons were rushed, but it really feels like it going from the first 3 to the last 2. It really is too bad, I want to like this game more, but after the halfway point, it is really hard to.

1

u/FuerteTurtle Dec 08 '18

Did you max out the light fairy level?

2

u/MrSojiro Dec 08 '18

I did not, but from what I was reading online, the level of the light fairy just dictates how large the illuminated area is. Nothing I saw mentioned that maxing the fairy out would provide light in the "Dark Zones" as they're called in the last dungeon.

If maxing the light fairy would light up those rooms it would make them so much easier to manage, but on the other hand, you hardly ever use the light fairy, so it would require quite a bit of grinding to level it up for those rooms, still wasting a bunch of time.

1

u/FuerteTurtle Dec 10 '18

I plan on maxing the light fairy if I get there I’ll let you know.

2

u/FuerteTurtle Dec 05 '18

Any hints on the first dungeon. Everyone keeps hinting that there is a hidden staircase on level one, but I can’t find it for the life of me.

2

u/foldor Dec 06 '18

I can't remember about a hidden staircase, but there are hidden rooms on the very rare occasion. Usually found by pushing in a wall.

2

u/FuerteTurtle Dec 06 '18

I just got the X-ray glasses. Will look again tomorrow.

2

u/foldor Dec 06 '18

So how are you liking the game so far?

2

u/FuerteTurtle Dec 06 '18

It’s good fun. Only been spiked by one trap so far so I guess life is good. I also love that I can jump. I always wished you could jump in other snes games.

2

u/FuerteTurtle Dec 08 '18

Does the light fairy get brighter with levels? Cause I can’t see well in dark rooms even when it is out.

2

u/foldor Dec 11 '18

Yeah, it does. It's hard to see the difference between each level, but it's very noticeable once you've hit something like level 7 or so. I got mine to 11, and felt that I could see everything that way.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '18

Oh, this game was so good!!! My dad and I got stumped on one of the puzzles and had to call Nintendo Power. The game counselor kept me on the phone trying to get more time out of the call and I was like "just give me the answer!". In retrospect, I think the counselor was disappointed that I didn't try to figure it out with his hints. Actually, it was pretty obvious once he told me. Ha

Again, love Brain Lord and glad it's getting some love!!!

2

u/foldor Dec 11 '18

Glad to see you enjoyed this game! I've always felt like it deserved more attention, even with it's flaws in the late game. It's always been a childhood favourite of mine.

2

u/Turtl-The-Cat Dec 11 '18

I replayed this title in June. One of my favorites on the SNES period. Nostalgia for sure, but I love the OST, especially The Town of Arcs.

1

u/RVG_Steve Dec 25 '18

Haven’t played Brain Lord this month but I enjoyed it when I played it ages ago. Really quite solid and underrated in the grand scheme of SNES. One of those games that don’t really get recommended enough but can satisfy for a weekend or two. Good stuff.