Beat at level 76 with 89 str, 41 int and 60 magic resist. The controls were improved over the first game but still a bit awkward. Switching the L and R buttons to turning instead of strafing was necessary. I spent the early game using fists to build up str and spare my weapons, until the enemies became too tough. I hoarded weapons and ended up with way more than I needed, even selling some of the weaker ones after I found a better permanent weapon. I turned off the music because the emulator was struggling with it, but what little I heard was great. Will have to check out the soundtrack. I had fun mixing melee with ranged fire magic early on, but by the time I started fighting humans I had to switch to ice magic to freeze them because they took minimal fire damage. I did not really like all those human enemies because it did not feel like proper dungeon crawling to not fight monsters. Though they make sense within the context of the story fighting an evil king with his own soldiers. It did not make sense how they respawned.

Most enemies and bosses were tough and I felt perpetually under leveled (except while backtracking). I did a lot of hit and run, and resting to keep my hp up. I did not use healing potions until near the end of the game because it was usually easy to find a semi safe spot to rest. The early bosses were not too difficult; game speed to slow, freeze for free hits, and rest during the battle to heal. The wizard boss with 2 ninja minions was very tough because it was such a small room with that many enemies, and I think there was no leaving to rest; not sure if the exit teleporter was accessible. I froze and killed the ninjas first, then it was not difficult to hide from the wizard to rest as needed. Once I found the double magic I used that instead of ice, though there were a few physical immune enemies that made me use fire and flame. I made sure to use up the blitz lighting bolt rings; such a powerful spell that I wished I had the spell. I found that most late game enemies needed double in order to do decent damage to them, and they could kill me easily in a few hits. The revived final boss from the first game was not hard, given how big the room was and thus how easy it was to rest.

I got proper stuck in the fortress. I beat the brutal harpies using double because without it they took minimal damage. Then the shield boss, which was even more brutal. It did so much damage and was so hard to avoid that I chugged invisibility potions to win. There were obviously puzzles to solve but I had no idea what to do. The only walkthrough was incomplete so I had to watch a let's play video. Turns out I missed some breakable walls that looked the same as normal walls, so the game expected me to manually examine each wall section. Since I now knew this trick I did not need any further help. I found a permanent holy axe and used that to kill all the undead. There was an extremely annoying floor with pitfalls to the previous floor. It started with platforming against tricky enemies and later became invisible pits that did not show on the map until after I fell down. It was an extremely tedious process to map out these pits, until I realised I could examine the floor to see if there was a pit. The enemies made the process far more difficult and I wished I could separate the poison bottles they dropped to make a breadcrumb crumb trail to show the safe path. It turned out I did not even need to navigate that area and I moved on without fully exploring that floor. Then after all those brutal enemies were bats that did minimal damage and died in a few hits to weak weapon. That felt like a joke. I beat the armor boss and passed the seeming point of no return into the final dungeon. Dropped into a room with like a dozen of the first boss, who had a nasty attack that ignored defense. I chugged invisibility potions again. There were lots of nasty enemies with the worst being the spider things that would paralyze me with webbing for a ridiculously long time. I found it best to avoid them or use double and wait to ambush so they did not get a chance to attack. Surviving the web needed barrier or health potions, but that was not guaranteed. Invisibility potions and ice magic could work also. Then came the second last boss fight with Karl, where he mentioned me using the ultimate sword. Wait I can use that now? I had made my way through the entire final dungeon using breakable high end weapons. Karl was tough, taking most of my hp in a single hit and running around on his horse like a coward. I used double and barrier ring to ambush him a few times. Then the second phase when he dismounted he killed me in a split second with lightning bolt; probably should have grinded magic resist more. Next try I laid into him and killed him in 2 or 3 hits. I beat the final boss the same way; he was tough but did a bit less damage than Karl so it was easier to get away and drink potions.

I liked this game just about as much as Brandish 1. It had much better story and characters with a few improvements to game mechanics. I especially liked the character art, particularly for the women. Very high quality and sexy. It was hilarious that the blonde sorceress managed to be a rival, ally, potential future romantic interest, sex appeal and comic relief all at once. The puzzles and traps were toned down a bit and the entire game felt like a rehash that was less compelling. I preferred the massive vertical dungeon of 1 over the more horizontal multiple dungeons of 2, and it made little sense for the hero to become a level 1 noob again. It seemed like there was less use for money with none of the good spells being sold, all spells being found for free, and there being no real need to buy supplies or repair weapons. Even buying better armor and shields was optional.

7.5/10