The story follows that the main character, Remeer, has joined a band of treasure hunters in his long-term quest to investigate the mysterious disappearance of dragons (which, apparently, were a pretty common sight once). His father had attempted this investigation before him, but never returned. During the course of the game, Remeer does find the last of the dragons, but this discovery is hardly the end of the game.
Notable in that the game contains numerous references and even cameos to Dragon Quest (and also The 7th Saga, developed by the same team), but, despite going so far as to Title Drop it several times, is otherwise unrelated and not within the same continuity.
Brain Lord contains examples of the following tropes:
- Awesome, but Impractical: The most powerful weapon in the game is a hand axe, which can only can only hit whatever's directly in front of you and has a very short range.
- Barrier Maiden: Fire Drake is keeping the Demon King from returning. When his health starts declining, the player has to go to the Dark World and kill the Demon King before he dies.
- Canon Name: The only way the player knows of Remeer's name is if they decide not to name him something else.
- Character Level: Although Remeer exclusively powers up through new weapons, armor, items, and so on, your Attack Drone becomes faster, stronger, and meaner in general though little orbs of experience.
- Charged Attack: All of the magic spells, rather than requiring MP. The stronger spells take longer to charge up, but the basic Shot magic charges up in about half a second and shoots a projectile as strong as two or three hits from the Copper Sword.
- Chest Monster:
- The Ice Castle mixes in "poison fountains" that hurt Remeer when he tries to drink from them with the normal healing fountains.
- One of the plaques on the wall that give you information on how to solve puzzles and such will just poison you as well. Ramus is an asshole.
- Examining one of the bookshelves in the Toronto library also poisons you.
- And then there's your standard Mimics, which tend to hang out with other treasure chests and are slightly lighter in color than regular chests.
- Elemental Crafting: Gold, a substance you can smear between your fingers at the right amount, is stronger than copper.
- Guide Dang It!: The single hardest puzzle in the game is ironically the simplest (the two often go together), partly because of the fact that it's a bit of Breaking the Fourth Wall. There is a room with a locked door, and three buttons that don't do anything, and a message saying that the key is on the control pad. How do you solve it? You walk up to the door, and press a button of the control pad that you literally never use in any other situation in the game.
- Inevitable Tournament: Subverted. The underground tournament in Toronto is completely optional.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Though, sometimes, the items are referenced by ancient script very close to where they are found, suggesting they were intentionally stored in their chests.
- Informed Equipment: Remeer is shown with the same white tunic with orange shoulderpads, regardless of what you have equipped. However, he will be shown carrying specifically whatever shield and weapon you have equipped.
- Irrelevant Importance: Subverted, in that a lot of exclusive/rare items that have gone obsolete CAN be sold off, but since you'll never see them again...
- Long Song, Short Scene: The road between Arcs and the first dungeon, again. There's no other song like it in the game, and it's only heard here.
- Money Spider: Unless there's also a little blue ball for your fairy, numbers will rise from slain foes, telling you how much you made.
- Now, Where Was I Going Again?: Unfortunate, considering that at least half of the dungeons are hidden in far-away places from the main world, and at least one requires a magic wormhole in order to reach. Plus, most NPCs don't know much about that sort of thing, and your NPC-team is probably already there. Or near it.
- Opening the Sandbox: Happens after you gain access to Toronto, just before the third dungeon. However, this only really applies to the main world map. At the end of the game, you can access almost all of the dungeons, but the third will be closed off.
- Pamphlet Shelf: A bit ridiculous in the library, where different chapters of the same work are on different shelves.
- Permanently Missable Content: The Ice Castle is inaccessible after you clear it, so anything you didn't pick up is gone (including the second best armor and helmet in the game and an upgraded morning star.)
- Player Party: Subverted, in that there is a very clear and present party system within the team, but you will always be in control of Remeer and Remeer only. Everyone else is an NPC in party member clothing.
- Save Scumming: Stat Up potions give 1 to 3 points. One single point makes a noticeable difference. Save Scumming to make every single potion give 3 instead of 1-2 gives you a Remeer that is much more powerful than a standard Remeer.
- Sprint Shoes: A special cape found in the second dungeon, at the drawback that it is a type of armor and thus un-equips what you had on before. In other words, you move fast, but you're vulnerable unless you save scum the Defense Up Potions.
- Status Effects: Poison makes you slowly lose health, numbness makes you suddenly lose all control for a fraction of a second and stop (spell casting takes much longer because of this.)
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: One room in the Caves of Droog is a maze of boulders that shift around randomly whenever they're off-screen. It's very easy for them to end up trapping you in a small area where you can't move enough to get free and force you to use a Warp Gate to escape (or just restart if you don't have one.)
- Universal Poison: Scorpion Venom is apparently made from the toxic dust produced by Toronto Library's ancient rotting text.
