It's been more than six years since the company that was Squaresoft brought us Brave Fencer Musashi, a cute overhead action role-playing game for the PlayStation that gave Zelda fans a different take on their favorite genre. While other Square franchises saw sequel after sequel on the PlayStation and the PS2, we didn't hear a peep from Musashi after Brave Fencer. Finally, Square Enix is rectifying that absence with Musashi Samurai Legend, a new sequel with some interesting gameplay mechanics and a lot of quirky charm. We've slashed our way through the first chapter and found the new game to be a likable update to the sleeper original.

Save the world once again as the quirkily coifed swordsman Musashi in the upcoming Musashi Samurai Legend.

Musashi Samurai Legend bears few ties to Brave Fencer, but a couple of similarities immediately stand out: The eponymous hero is once again summoned from another world by hapless citizens in need, and this time around, his hair is even more insane. These citizens are beset by the Gandrake Corporation, led by the malevolent Gandrake himself, who is purportedly a swordsman without peer. Gandrake Corp. wants to develop new magical weaponry and is kidnapping magic-endowed folk to further its nefarious designs. Just before she's kidnapped, a princess completes the "hero summoning" and brings Musashi onto the scene to beat up Gandrake and restore peace to the land.

We've seen some wild settings during just the first chapter of Samurai Legend. After a brief tutorial segment that culminates in a fairly easy boss battle, Musashi is whisked away to the town of Antheum, where he learns that he'll have to gather four elemental swords in order to defeat Gandrake. Antheum is unique because it sits atop the Anthedon, a giant magical sky whale that flies around the planet. As you collect the elemental swords, the Anthedon will gain more power, allowing it to reach new areas of the world it couldn't get to previously. This will naturally open up new places for Musashi to explore, ultimately leading him to the four swords with which he needs to take down Gandrake. He will then be teleported back to wherever it is that he calls home.

The gameplay in Samurai Legend has changed noticeably from Brave Fencer, primarily because it's now played from a third-person perspective rather than from overhead. Don't worry; there's still plenty of slashing to be had. You start off with merely the default katana, which you can use to perform a basic combo by hammering on the attack button. The game pulls a nifty aiming trick that automatically targets your slashes at the nearest enemy target, taking some of the guesswork out of the action and making it easier to take down the many enemies that will come at you.

There's also a lock-on ability that you can access by holding R1, but its purpose is twofold. Besides keeping you facing an enemy at all times, locking on will begin to charge up your focus meter, and once that meter is full, you'll be able to learn a special ability from the enemy that you're targeting. To do this, you'll have to wait until the enemy attacks, which will make an exclamation-point icon appear over it at the very last second. If you hit the attack button just as this icon appears, the game will switch to a quick cutscene where you learn the enemy's attack (and vanquish it in the process).

Stealing enemies' abilities is a big part of the gameplay.

So far, we've been able to learn an ability from every kind of enemy we've encountered, from the creepy foot-soldier-like ninjaroids to attack robots and bats. One move let us spin around and slash in a circle, while another had us darting forward to perform a direct stab move. These abilities can be easily accessed with button and directional combinations, and they don't use any sort of magic power, so you can use them quickly and frequently to really cut up the hordes.

That magic power is reserved for more powerful special abilities that you'll gain from the magical weapons you'll be acquiring throughout the game. The first of these comes from a giant oar that your feline sensei gives you toward the beginning of the game. You can use it to spin an enormous circle and do massive damage to any enemies in your path. As you progress through the game and pick up the elemental swords, you'll gain even more magical abilities to use. These abilities should come in handy, since the boss at the end of chapter one was a fair sight harder than the relatively simple tutorial boss we took down.