Title: Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Release: September 8, 2009
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Vanilla Ware
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
Platform: Wii
Rating: T (Teen)
The Nintendo Wii has quickly become devoid of any promising future third party titles. With the exception of No More Heroes 2 and the usual stable of first party Nintendo titles such as new Mario and Zelda games, there really isn’t much to look forward to on the Wii’s horizon. Muramasa: The Demon Blade attempts to break up the monotony of boring Wii titles and add something to enjoy between high profile game releases which are becoming increasingly scarce.
The look of Muramasa is exceedingly elegant and colorful. The hand-drawn backgrounds and characters are other-worldly and haunting maintaining the signature feel of Vanilla Ware’s last game and critical success, Odin Sphere for the Playstation 2. Despite the lush surroundings of bamboo forests and steamy hot springs, the game can appear blurry at times due to the Wii console’s lack of high definition support. The design for the main characters and enemy types are particularly well imagined. Ninjas and goblins, in any other game, would be considered standard action staples, but in Muramasa the designers effectively turn them into interesting and visually pleasing fodder. The game is deeply rooted in Japanese folk lore and mythology. Vanilla Ware is able to keep this theme fresh while adding a spark of novelty that complements the articulate graphics and story where most titles that drink from the Japanese mythology well end up abusing the context and creating clichés.
Most people will be delighted to know that the voice acting by default is presented in Japanese. Not only does it sound great, but it also adds to the authenticity and engrossing feudal Japan theme. The sound effects are clear and offer what you might expect from an action game that exclusively uses swords for fighting.
You choose to play as either Kisuke or Momohime. Both have the same basic combos and attacks but offer drastically different story arcs that eventually come together and effectively present the same story from two very unlike perspectives. They also double the duration of the game from six hours to twelve. A two-player mode seems like a no-brainer, but sadly, Muramasa is a single player affair.
At its core, Muramasa is an action game with RPG elements added on such as building weapons, leveling up statistics and equipping a multitude of accessories, however, all of these elements are handled casually and do not open the gameplay up to several different builds or distinctly varied approaches to completing the game. You can forge new weapons out of a mixture of souls that you collect from enemies and spirits that you gain naturally from eating certain foods to heal yourself. The forge system works like a skill tree in that you must forge some blades before opening the path to more potent weapons later on. Unfortunately, you can forge all of your blades fairly easily without any penalties which boils down to equipping the best three swords at any given time while eliminating strategy.
Every time you begin or resume playing the game, you are asked to choose whether you want to play the Muso version or the Shura version. The only difference is that the easy Muso version automatically blocks attacks for you while the hard Shura version doesn’t. This may seem like a small difference but having to block and evade attacks requires precise timing and concentration during battles that are usually one-sided and feature four or more enemies on screen at once. Those looking for a challenge will want to use the hard version, but because the game allows you the option of switching to easy at any point, the temptation to switch becomes a self-policing matter and may act as a parachute more often than not.
Muramasa delivers an adequate action game formula that can begin to wear down players after only a few hours. This title would have been an ideal candidate for WiiWare as a download only game. As a full fledged fifty dollar game, Muramasa doesn’t quite have enough to offer gameplay wise. What it does offer is a beautifully rendered action game that is fun in small doses. Muramasa is a definite rental and may become a purchase if you are a Vanilla Ware fan and the price comes down a bit.
Overall Rating: * * * / 5
M. Michael Chwedyk