Muramasa: The Demon Blade Review

This game is like….SUUUUPER japanese. It’s like the most japanese game I have ever played. Right next to Okami. I finished it a while ago actually. This was my first time playing a game from the famed Odin Sphere creators, Vanillaware and my first 2D side scroller in like forever.

The graphics in this game are of course, number 1. All the scenic beauty all over the place makes you forget that you’re playing in a torn and war racked world. I would see beautiful things like a castle in the distance with a large hot pink moon, surrounded by swirling clouds. You could feel the atmosphere in that place and you know some shit is going down.

The battling system is fun and fast paced and I really appreciated that each character got their own sets of bosses for their stories.

I loved the music too and I really liked the fact that each boss had their own boss battle song. It wasn’t the same song used for each boss. I mean, some people might not care but I certainly appreciated it.

There are a lot of hidden unlockables. Like multiple endings and special swords that do special things and some places where you can take on a challenge and see how well you do. Some of the challenges are hardcore though. You’d need to be like level 99 or have some good shit equipped or you’re gonna get your ass handed to you on a silver platter.

I thought the stories for both characters would somehow cross and they would meet or something. Or they would keep meeting. But the stories were both completely different. They never see eachother, except in certain situations which I won’t reveal for fear of spoiling anything for you. It made me wonder why they bothered to put 2 playable characters in the game if they barely interact with eachother. It seemed sort of pointless to me.

While the areas were extremely beautiful, I saw a lot of the same in a lot of places. It’s not like every area was unique. It’s like Kingdom Hearts when they reuse the same areas in like every single one of their games and the paths were very straightforward and you just sorta trudged along, without really an option of exploring or anything.

The stories were really inconsistant. Like when you play as a character, the other main character is like…the bad guy and you have to kill them or some crap like that. But when you play as them, they are cast in the light of a protangonist. I just didn’t get it. Everything was all mixed up. In one story they are good, but then in another, they are bad? What the fuck, kinda shit is that?

The hot spring seemed pointless to me besides providing fan service. Having the characters sit around half naked, with their private areas covered by a skimpy little cloth or by their hair being long and awkwardly curled to cover them and saying things to you that aren’t helpful was just sort of stupid. But it was a little funny how some of the characters interact. At some point, one of the main characters stands there in the spring and has a little banter with a little cute monkey that looked like some kinda hairy baby.

The stories were very short too. I wished they were longer.
The boss battles were also inconsistant with their difficulty levels. Some were very easy while others were incredibly hard. I was disappointed with the final boss battles too. I thought I was gonna be in for some hardcore fighting, but beating the crap out of the final bosses was so easy, I was more shocked than dissappointed. Don’t expect anything when fighting the final bosses or you’ll be sorely let down.

Eh, this game was okay. It is a very beautiful game and the battling is good too. But the story for this game was all messed up and I didn’t see the point of them having 2 playable characters. If you’re gonna have 2 playable main characters, have them meet or interact or SOMETHING. And if not, then have it make sense. Don’t just take a bunch of pieces and mix them around or you’ll confuse the player as to what in God’s green earth is happening.
The game was good but the story just puzzled the hell out of me. I recommend this game for people who like the hack ‘n slash kinda games who don’t mind the constant horizontal running and who don’t mind the terrible story.
Out of a score from 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, I give this game a 7.5
If not for it’s horrible story fabrication and confusion, it would have gotten a higher score.

Hope you enjoyed this review. More on the way.

‘Till next time!

~ Jaz