Brain Lord/Gameplay

The story

The father of Remeer was an adventurer who one day left looking for dragon scales. He never returned home. Years later, Remeer is a young adventurer who is following the steps of his father.

Link to The 7th Saga

When Lemele grew old after a centenary life full of adventures (i.e. Brain Lord and Mystic Ark), he recruited and trained seven apprentices. The mission of the apprentices was to collect seven magic runes to protect the world. In fact, the ancient enemy was going to reappear in that same age, after traveling through time. Thus, The 7th Saga started anew...

Spoiler

At the end of The 7th Saga, the hero was sent in the past to fight the final battle. Although victorious, his/her body was disintegrated, but the soul was catched by friendly white mages and incarnated in the embryo of a child that will be born: Lemele/Remeer.

Introduction

In Brain Lord you control a young hero, Remeer (also known as Lemele), in a quest across a fantasy world. During the game, the hero can progressively acquire several weapons and armors, but also many other items and a wide array of spells.

Brain Lord is a role-playing game. Specifically, it belongs to the sub-genre of Japanese-style RPGs.

Three aspects that can define the genre of RPGs are listed here, and they apply to Brain Lord as well:

1. Text is an essential part of the game, and the characters have to talk and interact with non-evil characters to proceed in the adventure;
2. There are permanent upgrades, in the form of enhancements of the various attributes of the characters (attack, strength, magic etc.);
3. There is freedom of exploration, all the areas are connected by an "overworld", and areas that have been previously cleared can usually be re-visited; in other words, the game is non-linear.

Japanese-style RPGs like Brain Lord focus more on the plot, while American-style RPGs focus more on exploration and "body-building" of the characters. Nevertheless, all three aspects are present in every RPG. Furthermore, Brain Lord has a strong emphasis about solving puzzles, hence the name.

Related games

Links between the RPGs by Produce & Enix

Japanese-style RPGs made by Enix & Produce, like Brain Lord:

• The 7th Saga (originally "Elnard"), the first game made by Produce & Enix together, where the heroes' trainer is named Lemele (Remeer in Japanese); somehow it is a prequel to Brain Lord.
• Mystic Ark, the third game made by Produce & Enix together, where the hero is named Remeer/Lemele (depending on the translation); somehow it is a sequel to Brain Lord.

Both these game have a quite different gameplay from Brain Lord, though: in fact, in them the player controls a team of two or three heroes and battles are turn-based.

The following video games have elements of gameplay similar to Brain Lord:

• Azure Dreams, another breeding RPG, where the creatures controlled by the hero gain improvements in their attributes, but the hero's attributes are constant.
  • Robotrek and the Pokémon series are further examples of this breeding RPG sub-genre, although the combat system is different.
• The Legend of Zelda series, where the hero, Link, often has to solve some puzzles in dungeon rooms in order to advance.
• The Eggerland series, where the hero, Lolo, must solve puzzle rooms in order to advance.
• Mega Man Zero 3, an action game where the hero, Zero, can use two cyber-elves at the same time, in a fashion similar to the Jade Faeries in Brain Lord.