Muramasa: The Demon Blade, available exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, is the perfect example of style over substance. It's not that the game is completely devoid of content and depth, it's just that the visuals are over-the-top wonderful and the gameplay strictly mediocre.
A 2D side-scroller imported from Japan, the game still has a very foreign feel to it. While English subtitles do appear in the game, there is still a lot of Japanese characters informing players about where they are and all the spoken dialogue is in Japanese. Of course, the story itself – or the part of it that is decipherable – has a very Japanese feel to it, so to have the ninja princess speak in Japanese isn't terribly distracting or off-putting. No, the distracting part are the actual words that she says, because even after playing the game as both Momohime (the ninja princess) and Kisuke (the amnesiac boy), the plot is still something of a mystery. The players two tales do overlap to some extent, and one does clear up some questions about the other, but not to the point where the goings-on are completely decipherable.
Of course, the mechanics of the gameplay are so easy and feel so rewarding, plus the visuals (which we'll get to later) are so astounding, that it doesn't really matter terribly much that it's incredibly difficult to figure out exactly what's happening. It would be nice to understand more about how and why Momohime's soul got pushed out of her body, but it's not essential.
Mainly an action game, Muramasa features very basic attack mechanics – virtually all that's required is for the player to hit A repeatedly while moving up, down, backwards, and forwards on the control stick to perform some pretty impressive combos. Players can level-up with regularity and unlock tons of new weapons – which is really where the game is at its best. There is an RPG-like system for forging new swords. It involves not only finding one's that can't be forged out in the world of Muramasa, but also having enough spirit and having collected enough souls from vanquished opponents. A wide and deep tree, one will often have to back track and create a less good sword that was bypassed in order to create a needed, stronger one down the line.
Article comments
1 - Chelsea Doyle
It's always hard when visually beautiful games lose in other aspects. If I want to play a Wii game, I know that this is one to check out!
2 - Mark Buckingham
You got on this one quick. :) I'm looking forward to it, and heard a rumor it might be ported to another console in the not too distant future. Heard anything similar?
3 - Ken Edwards
Marvelous has talked about porting their Wii games to other consoles. Last interview I saw with Kamitami said he was not interested. Though Marvelous could always get someone else to do it, in which case it would not be as good.
Even though Marvelous says they are working on HD games, I am not convinced this is coming to XBLA or PSN, at least not yet.
I am picking up Muramasa today, can't wait.
4 - Ken Edwards
Now that I have played the game, I am quite annoyed and disappointing in the controls. This is basically a 2D Ninja Gaiden style game. It is very old school, 8-bit game play. Why in the hell do they map jumping to the analog stick for the "Classic" control scheme. Jumping should be button B, and Attack is button A. That is how things have been since the dawn of time.
My best guess, after playing the Wii Remote/Nunchuck controls, is they just "ported" those controls to the Classic Controller. So they were just being lazy.
Pushing up on the analog stick is not normal for jumping in an action game. It is off-putting and leads to a lot of lost health because of it. It is just awkward.
And of course the game does not allow you to map different controls, why would it?
Amazing looking game. Really crappy control scheme.