Muramasa: Demon Blade Review
From the people that brought you Odin Sphere comes Muramasa: The Demon in which you will play one of two stories, or take on each story at your leisure. You will play the part of a samurai spirit that possess a body to utilize his ancient fighting technique. You will have to defeat enemy after enemy to obtain strong enough sword to break through the barriers place around the land. If you survive the trials you will be rewarded with the ultimate sword, and will know who's sword technique rules supreme.
The graphics of this game are on par with Odin Sphere. There is a 3D feel to the background but you will only be playing the game in the foreground, running from left to right through the majority of the areas. You will get to see some pretty impressive looking monsters which look like they were yanked right off an ancient Japanese scroll. Your character also has a fluid feel to them and it makes your character seem that much faster.
The music in the game feels like feudal Japan type music. The majority of the sounds will fit in that category as well.
The controls are relatively simple with the Wii-mote. You're going to be spending most your time using the analog stick of the nunchuck, and the A button of the Wii-mote. Have no fear though you will be utilizing some of the other buttons as well to switch swords, pull up the map, and use the currently equipped sword's special power.
I'm going to say this right off the bat. I didn't really enjoy having to run through stages over and over again as I'm trying to traverse the map. That being said though, I did enjoy the different feels to some of the areas to make me feel like I was in a forest, on a beach, running through a town, going through a graveyard, and more. The action was pretty impressive in this game. You're going to be button mashing for sure, through at least the opening of the game, until you start getting swords that won't last as long. The cool thing is that if a sword breaks you only need to return it to the sheath and it will regenerate over time. Another feature I enjoy with the game was the Forge feature that you can get to from the menu which allows for more swords to be made with you getting to choose between progress trees. I have to say that I loved the feel of the game, and the visuals. It felt simple yet elegant, and it drew me in and kept me playing longer than I would have anticipated.
This game isn't for everyone, but for those who are willing to do some back-tracking, like lots of swords, like some button mashing, and are interested in games that depict that era, this game is right up your alley. This game gets a7.9 out of 10.
