Games Brandish 2: The Planet Buster, Brandish, Brandish VT, Brandish 3: Spirit of Balcan | ||
Brandish (ブランディッシュ) is a series action role-playing video games by Nihon Falcom that began with the original Brandish originally released in 1991 for the NEC PC-9801 and FM Towns and later ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and PC Engine CD-ROM² (TurboGrafx-CD) in 1994–1995, including an expanded re-release titled Brandish Renewal; the SNES version was published by Koei in Japan in 1994 and in North America in 1995. A complete remake of the original Brandish for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), featuring 3D graphics and titled Brandish: The Dark Revenant (ブランディッシュ～ダークレヴナント～), was published by Nihon Falcom in Japan in 2009 and XSEED Games released a localized version in North America on the PlayStation Store in 2015.
The original game proved popular enough in Japan to warrant two direct sequels exclusively in Japan that continued the adventures of Ares and Dela. The first one was Brandish 2: The Planet Buster (ブランディッシュ2 THE PLANET BUSTER), originally released for the PC-98 in 1993 and ported to the Super Famicom (SNES) in 1995 (like Falcom's later Ys V, the game was released in "normal" and "expert" difficulty versions). The next sequel was Brandish 3: Spirit of Balcan (ブランディッシュ3 SPIRIT OF BALCAN), originally released for the PC-98 in 1994. None of these were officially released in English, but Brandish 2 received a fan translation in 2009. Dela also makes and appearance in Falcom's 2010 Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki: Alternative Saga as a support character.
Brandish 3 was followed by Brandish VT, originally released in 1996, and renamed Brandish 4: The Tower of Sleeping God (ブランディッシュ4 眠れる神の塔) when it was re-released for Windows in 1998. This final game follows a similar gameplay format, now with isometric graphics, but with completely different storyline and characters.
