NO

Is Robotron 2084 a Musou?

DEFEND YOUR ANSWERS, COWARDS!

I haven't played Vampire Saviors. Is Lu Bu in it?

Musous are games where you hit Square 2 times then Triangle to do a combo, then you hit Square 3 times then Triangle 2 times to do another combo, and then you hit Square 1 time and Triangle 3 times to do another combo and then you hit Circle to do a Special Attack and watch the KO counter tick up.

In Vampire Survivors the whole point is to put yourself in a position where you don't have to hit any buttons but the numbers still go up.

So... NO

@mindbullet: That's really interesting. I was mostly thinking about the swarms of enemies, I guess.

Powerful question. Was Smash TV and Total Carnage musou games???

No

It's an A.S.S.

It's closer to a Shmup or dual joystick shooter without the second joystick. Influenced by roguelikes (actual) and separately it also takes the meta-progression of so called "roguelites" to their logical conclusion.

Is Vampire Survivors a sandwich?

If Mass Effect is an RPG, then Vampire Survivors is a musou.

It's a clicker only you don't click.

It has way more in common with an arcade shooter than a musou. When I first started playing I was immediately getting Geometry Wars vibes in the way you have to kite a huge swarm of enemies around while avoiding getting overwhelmed.

It's basically just the evolution of the clicker. After the initial few runs, there's not much thought going into the gameplay besides bigger numbers and more things on screen yet you still pump hours into for no real reason excepts for more numbers.

No. Misou's tend to have objectives beyond surviving the mob. I'd argue the mob is trivialised in something like Dynasty Warriors.

If you take the literal translation of musou to mean unmatched or peerless and assume the context of its use to refer to a warrior so strong that even hordes of enemies are no match for them, then yes, Vampire Survivors is a musou. Live with your shame, you dirty musou fans.

@ragtagbag: I'm not sure I agree with that. I sunk a bunch of time into the game, and while it becomes like that for a little while, half of the game is finding the right item combinations. I think it involves more strategy than a normal idle game, personally.

This is a pretty bad oversimplification, I think.

The majority of every run is dodging waves figuring out how to kill things with your build in progress. The final state of standing still and watching the numbers happen is the reward for about ~25 minutes of careful play.

25 minutes seems a bit high in my experience. I completed the game 100% and was engaged the whole way through, but if you really think about it, a very small percentage of each run is actually compelling. The first several minutes are pretty slow, and in many cases the threshold where you know you've already won and are just waiting it out can occur even before the halfway point depending how well your item set up comes together. There is a sweet spot in like 10-15 minute area where you aren't unstoppable yet and there is a lot of action, but outside of that brief window you really don't do all that much that's super exciting.

Vampire Survivors isn't a musou. It's a walking simulator.

I voted yes because i'm fun.

That's not the experience I've had. It's the most turn-off-your-brain game I've played since Tap Titans. If you go in with any type of strategy at all, you're basically in win-the-game mode by 10 minutes and there's not much of anything going on before 10 minutes. You have to go out of your way to make the game difficult, and what's the point of that?

No, but MOBAs like DOTA 2 and LoL are. I know that they're based on a Dynasty Warriors custom map from Starcraft, alright? Just pretend I said something really controversial.

The essense of a Musou is being one person against innumerable enemies and defeating scores of them in one swing of a sword as one would swat at a fly.

Vampire Survivors is a Musou.

@looterjennings said:

NO

It's a Geometry Wars-like when you play in pacifist mode but except you attack in VS.

There may be a way to shorten that description somehow.

@looterjennings: i need receipts first FluterJennings!

@borgmaster: Okay, I respect that!

@propagandapanda: it won't let me change my name without premium! Weird, I just assumed it was a standard site feature.

Can we make Musou-like & Musou-lite a thing plz?

I think the two button hack and slash gameplay and the territory control/strategy layer are just as important to Musous as the hordes of enemies.

Is Dead Rising a musou?

Vampire Survivors is more like Crimsonland than a Musou.

No. "Musou" has a meaning in the context of games. If you told someone you were getting them a new musou game, and you got them this, they would rightfully feel misled.

@chamurai: Gauntlet is a Musou?

@bigsocrates: After my earlier pst and seeing the other poster's answers, I'm inclined to change my stance on this. If we were to ask the Koei Tecmo people who make Musou style games "What makes a Musou a Musou?" I'm sure they have a set criteria on what constitutes a Musou. However I don't want to go down that rabbit hole and I will just say this:

Vampire Survivors is not a Musou but a Musou-Lite.

As is Gauntlet.

@chamurai: Musou-lite might be the most viscerally annoying thing I've heard in a long time. Well done.

Okay, taken from this source: https://ggn00b.com/for-noobs/musou-game-meaning/

A musou game is a Japanese hack-and-slash type video game that has the player playing as a character that fights through hundreds of simple enemies and destroys them with relative ease. It is the epitome of a mindlessly fun game.

They also say later that the character in question is unreasonably strong.

By this definition, Vampire Survivors is NOT a Musou. There is a power curve in Vampire Survivors, even with a fully upgraded character, you do not begin as God. It has to be earned and the most Musou-esque hoards in Vampire Survivors come in at the end for mere minutes.

The default state in a Musou is a hoard of insignificance set against a cheat code main character.

That definition of Musou is correct and wrong at the same time and it bothers me.

But well the defense of Musou games is an eternal losing fight.

No, you crazy bastards (Respectfully)!

It's a durger