Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a sidescrolling hack ‘n’ slash game for the wii developed by Vanillaware, most widely known for the sidescrolling rpg Odin Sphere and less widely known for the sidescrolling rts GrimGrimoire. Though it retains its predecessors’ painted storybook aesthetic, Muramasa has a decidedly more Japanese look to it, given the subject matter. In my opinion, it doesn’t surpass Odin Sphere in terms of the depth of its gameplay; nevertheless, it’s definitely one of the more worthwhile titles on the wii.

The plot is set in feudal Japan and focuses on two protagonists – Momohime, a girl possessed by the spirit of samurai warrior Jinkuro practitioner of the powerful “oboro” style; and Kisuke, a ninja who loses his memory and is on a journey to recover it. Each character’s story is divided into acts, with story and gameplay kept pretty separate throughout the game. Their stories is fairly straightforward, and the two characters’ tales don’t really tie into one another in the same way that characters’ stories in Odin Sphere did, and aren’t very fully developed. Cutscenes are generally before and after boss fights, and there are areas where you can talk to different characters to reveal more about the plot, but for the most part little is revealed and the story doesn’t play a major role.

Comparisons to Odin Sphere are pretty much inevitable, so I’m going to get this out of the way. The two games share many elements, both being sidescrollers with RPG elements; however, while the latter had a focus on strategy and inventory management, the former emphasizes exploration and timing in combat. It’s a metroidvania game which involves travelling to a location, fighting through a horde of enemies culminating in a boss fight and obtaining a new sword, then moving on to the next one. Coloured barriers will block paths and can only be destroyed with the sword of the corresponding colour. Naturally this involves a lot of tedious backtracking, which a very limited warp system doesn’t do a whole lot to remedy. It’s pretty much unavoidable too, since obtaining a blade from a boss fight can lead to breaking a barrier on the other side of the map. Blades also unlock fights against rooms of enemies that yield items and experience, but this usually just involves grinding out enemies experience, since after dying in one of these rooms your spent healing items are restored, and any experience gained from the room is kept. The nonlinear format isn’t really justified and really just adds unnecessary frustration.

Easily the best part of Muramasa is the combat, which, again, usually involves fighting hordes of enemies at a given time. You carry up to three swords at a time, either shorter, fast swinging blades, or larger, slower ones. Fights aren’t necessarily difficult but do require some dexterity – mashing A works, but using launchers and juggling enemies in mid-air as well as downward stabbing are useful and satisfying to pull off. The controls are pretty loose and have a smash bros feel to them; jumping is pulled off by hitting up and the combat feels floaty, rarely to its detriment though sometimes it isn’t as precise as it needs to be. Each blade has a special ability, and switching blades mid-battle will hit everything on the screen once your blades are glowing. Your blades can wear out and even break, and can only be recharged once sheathed, so you need to keep an eye on your “soul gauge”. Doing things like clearing a room without getting hit net you bonuses.

Even on the “shuro” difficulty I was never really challenged by the combat – A is both block and attack, it’s easy to absorb attacks without trying to. The penalty for dying is restarting the screen you died on with full health and soul gauge, and with the items you used replenished. Health is also plentiful, since it’s restored every time you level up or go to a save point, and can be recovered by cooking, using items, or eating at a restaurant. The RPG elements work for the most part but are pretty shallow, since grinding out experience and health items is usually a more valid option than changing up your strategy or improving your timing. The swords you can create using souls you collect are arranged in a way that makes them look like a skill tree, however you are never restricted to following one path, and with the amount of souls I ended up getting just from defeating enemies in my path, since there was no reason to use a smoke bomb and evade them, I was able to get every single sword available at any given time – the only real barrier to forging swords is whether or not you’ve beaten the boss that unlocks more swords to get. So again, most of the RPG elements are superficial and have no real bearing, so if you’re looking for something with Odin Sphere’s depth you’re probably going to be disappointed in that department.

Easily the best part of the whole game is the presentation in terms of the visual style and music, which vanillaware fans should probably expect and will not be disappointed by. The style for the most part keeps to the watercolour-storybook aesthetic in the visual department, with a distinct element of Japanese ukiyoe art. The music too incorporates identifiably Japanese instruments along with some electric guitar and bass. Overall, it makes the most of the wii’s hardware restrictions and throws itself behind its 2D visuals, with detailed and multilayered scrolling backgrounds, and lots of little details in its environments.

Overall, despite a few limitations in certain areas,

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

is very easy to recommend to those who like metroidvania games, action-oriented sidescrollers, or even just if you’re a fan of Vanillaware’s previous works. It isn’t especially groundbreaking, but nevertheless it’s absolutely worth playing if you happen to have a wii kicking around.