"Despite popular belief, this is a screenshot and not something framed on my wall."

I have come to the conclusion that the staff at Vanillaware is made up of a bunch of wizards who use very powerful magic to make the graphics for their games. The above screenshot alone is enough to cause a “double take“. And yet, that is nothing compared to seeing “Muramasa: The Demon Blade” in motion. The game somehow managers to look like a moving painting, and I don’t say that lightly.

But Muramasa’s graphics are already becoming increasingly well known. The story that really must be told is that of its gameplay. After all, the prettiest game in the world (which this just might be) is nothing without fun and engaging gameplay to back it up.

Fortunately, Muramasa has this in spades. Though it’s often labeled an “Action RPG”, the game’s primary focus is on the action, with RPG elements backing it up more subtly. While traversing the luscious 2D environments, you will have random encounters, but they will not take you to a separate battle screen. Instead, enemies will appear by popping out of the ground or dropping from the ceiling as you ready your blade.

I was shocked at how many different attacks you can perform in battle right off the bat. All of your standard attacks are performed with a combination of directional stick input (or pad if you prefer) and a single attack button. Using this method, you can perform standard slashing combos, uppercuts, stabs, jumping somersaults, zig-zagging air dashes, dodge rolls, blocks, and more.

What’s even more amazing than the sheer number of actions that can be performed is how fluidly they can be linked together. Chaining each move allows you to take on ridiculous numbers of enemies at once, while racking up huge combos. The combat feels very reminiscent of the 3D Ninja Gaiden games, but on a 2D plane (not to be confused with the combat in the 2D Ninja Gaiden games).

To make things even more interesting, Muramasa has you equip three swords at once. You will only attack with one at a time, but you can switch between the three at the push of a button. This has several uses. Each sword you acquire in the game has a “secret art” that consumes “soul power”. This is essentially a special attack, specific to that sword. There is a surprising variety in the secret arts including creating phantoms of yourself, shooting ground waves, spinning around rapidly in the air, and performing elemental slashes… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Besides secret arts, each sword has its own attack power. Most swords even have a bonus effect such as “no poison”. They’re also divided into two categories: blades and long blades. The regular blades allow you to perform numerous quick slashes while the long blades will cause each attack to be a slow, but powerful swing.

The swords’ individual abilities are not the only reason to switch between them, however. Every time you block an enemy’s attack, it will consume some of your soul power (just like using secret arts). If your soul power is completely depleted, your sword will break. Thankfully, all swords will heal themselves and regain their soul power when they’re sheathed. As an added bonus, switching swords will periodically cause you to perform “Quick Draw”, an attack that damages all the enemies on screen.

When you boot up the game, it will ask you which character you want to play as. The two characters have their own independent stories, and progress for both is stored in a single save slot. Though they both have the same move set, Momohime’s attacks are much faster while Kisuke’s are slower and stronger. Interestingly, the game’s difficulty setting can be adjusted at any time from the pause menu.

The map structure gives off a “Metroidvania Light” vibe in that, while set up in a much simpler manner than either Metroid or Castlevania, every level is still connected in one giant map. Rather than special abilities granting access to the next areas, each blade gained from a boss allows you to break barriers of a specific color.

Speaking of bosses, Muramasa’s are a blast to fight. Each one is visual masterpiece. On top of that, each boss fight has a distinctly different feel. I was always excited to see what the next boss would be like.

Beating bosses is actually one of two ways to obtain new blades. The game also lets your forge them. The forging menu is set up as a giant branching tree. In order to unlock a blade, you must have all the ones that connect to it above. Because the blades from bosses can’t be forged, much of what is unlocked depends on which bosses have been defeated. Once a blade is unlocked, you must spend “spirit” (obtained from eating recovery items) and “souls” (obtained from defeating enemies and collecting them on the map). No other materials are necessary for forging.

You will, however, need materials for cooking. When not engaged in battle, you can use the recipes and ingredients you find and buy to make food. Some of the recipes are for food that must be eaten immediately while others let you make recovery items that can be used in battle. Even cooking looks beautiful in Murasama. Each dish has a completely unique and detailed animation to go along with it that looks so good that I regret how many times I played the game on an empty stomach.

The music in Muramasa is also great. Though most of it consists of traditional Japanese instruments (much like Okami’s soundtrack), it’s also occasionally spiced up with rocking guitar or electronica. The mix of styles gives it a unique sound. Quite possibly my favorite touch is that when a battle is initiated, other instruments are dynamically layered onto the existing song rather than abruptly switching to “battle music”. This makes the transition in and out of battles even more seamless and satisfying.

One of my only real complaints with Muramasa is how often assets are reused for different areas. Fortunately, they’re so breath taking that seeing them again isn’t too big of a deal, and usually they will add different lighting effects to make it less noticeable when it does happen.

Each character’s story takes roughly 8-10 hours to beat. Though it is the same overall map, Kisuke starts on the far west while Momohime starts on the far east. The characters have entirely different stories, bosses, and blades. Also, each boss has their own unique section of the map leading up to them.

Fortunately, the game doesn’t stop there. After clearing both stories, you will be able to access new ares and fight many optional bosses. You will also be able to share blades between the two characters, unlocking even more forging options where the characters’ trees overlap. Only by using blades obtained after your first play-through will you be able to obtain the other endings.

“Muramasa: The Demon Blade” is not a game to be ignored. Not only is it one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen, it’s also an extremely fun game that proves that 2D gameplay still has what it takes to compete with the 3D HD franchises of modern day. Its fast pace and fantastic execution keep it constantly entertaining, and places it as one of the best experiences available on the Wii to date.

This review is based on a copy of Muramasa: The Demon Blade provided to us by Ignition Entertainment.

Tags: 2-D, action rpg, Ignition Entertainment, Marvelous Entertainment, Muramasa, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Vanillaware, Wii

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.