Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii) Review

By Joshua Callum Jeffery 21.02.2010

Review for Muramasa: The Demon Blade on Wii

When Muramasa: The Demon Blade was first announced in late 2007, many were reluctant to get too hyped up about it due to a lack of hope for any localisation. However when the title was confirmed for an international release in late 2008, excitement quickly rose as Wii fans found themselves looking forward to one of the most unique Wii exclusives yet. Was it worth the wait? Does it play as beautifully as it looks? You’ll just have to read on.

Maybe you’ve seen screenshots and art around the web, or maybe you’ve seen the box despite its limited stock supply. If you didn’t know about Muramasa beforehand, then the first thing you’d notice about it is the visuals and style. Whether they take your fancy or not, the world of Muramasa, and everything in it, is aesthetically gorgeous; even the ghastly old monks have a certain spark of charm in them. It also looks and plays quite similarly to its spiritual predecessor, Odin Sphere, Vanillaware’s previous project on the PS2. Everything is a brilliant mix of cartoony and artistic, and it gives you the feeling of witnessing a moving painting at times. Sound familiar? Those of you who have played Okami could potentially see many similarities between the two, in terms of artistic direction, the fantastic musical score and the heavy focus on Japanese mythology.

That’s what Muramasa is all about too; Japanese mythology, a beautifully healthy dosage of swords, huge gods, and ridiculously huge demons. Those of you who know their Japanese mythology are bound to notice some familiar phrases and names, but for those of you who don’t, never fear, as you’re not expected to. The plot is quite confusing, regardless of your prior knowledge on these things, and while it’s suggested to just enjoy what the game has to offer, those of you who put a little extra effort into figuring out the plot once it’s all finished will have some very interesting stuff to think about, adding another layer to the game.

Screenshot for Muramasa: The Demon Blade on Wii

Speaking of what the game has to offer, Muramasa flows very well, and not just in terms of the superb character animation. At the start you pick which character’s story to play: Kisuke, a young ninja boy with a nasty case of amnesia, or Momohime, a cute princess possessed by the spirit of an aggressive (but mostly dead) swordsman named Jinkuro. Both characters play the same, with very minor differences in stat growth, and different angles of looking at the game’s plot. They’re even both given similar assistance by some very foxy… foxes.

You’re then given a tutorial on how to play, and you can do this with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the Classic Controller, or a GameCube controller. The whole game is button-controlled - there's no unnecessary waggle here - regardless of which control scheme you choose. The swordplay is very simple, and with the exception of a couple of moves you’ll soon be slicing your blade around like a pro. All movement is done with the analogue stick (you can also use the D-pad on the GameCube or Classic controllers), including jumping, which does take a while to get used to, but in the long run it works better this way than mapping jump to a button, as the control stick is also your ticket to pulling off some crazy katana techniques with the A button. Pressing up and A will allow you to pull off uppercuts and more air-based combos, and holding A while pushing different directions will have you zipping back and forth, juggling your opponents. So yes, with the exception of a few moves that break up the combos a little, the combat flows extremely well. New players will find themselves getting used to the control scheme and pulling off fantastic looking swordplay in no time.

Screenshot for Muramasa: The Demon Blade on Wii

Not even a broken katana can stop Kisuke or Momohime’s pointy assaults, as forging a plethora of different blades to swap between plays a central part of the gameplay. After some crafty kitsunes set up a contract with an ancient legendary blacksmith, you find yourself wielding the power of Demon Blades, and even after breaking these blades can fix themselves if you collect enough Soul Points - also used for creating new weapons -, it really doesn’t take long at all either. If you’re ploughing down an Armageddon of ninjas and your katana suddenly breaks in half, don’t worry; just press the C Button to swap to your next one, of which you can have three equipped at once. This means that if you’re not completely careless, you’ll hardly ever find yourself without a blade to use, and even then you can use items to fix them up right away. If you’re feeling more confident that you can preserve your blades then you can even press B to unleash your current blade’s special art, a powerful attack or combo which takes up a lot of the blade’s Soul Power. Use it too often and your sword will snap like a twig, so attack wisely!

Screenshot for Muramasa: The Demon Blade on Wii

Despite the lovely flow of the combat system however, the gameplay structure is far from perfect, and you will find yourself running to your next destination for quite a while. Those who love to backtrack may want to think twice about it, as running for a long time between destinations can become tiresome and really break up the action. The difficulty can also be a little random at times, and whereas items will seem mostly useless for the beginning part of the game (as well as not easily affordable as money is hard to come by), you will have a sudden need for healing and support items during some of the far tougher bosses, so it’s always good to have some on hand. You can also learn how to cook by getting cookbooks and ingredients, meaning if you find the correct ingredients whilst in the middle of nowhere, you can cook up a nice meal to replenish your health when there are no shops or restaurants for miles around. Be warned though, as the detailed animations for meal time can make you hungry.

Screenshot for Muramasa: The Demon Blade on Wii

Cubed3 Rating

9/10
Rated 9 out of 10

Exceptional - Gold Award

Rated 9 out of 10

Muramasa may not play quite as beautifully as it looks, but you can be confident in the knowledge that whizzing around slicing ninjas with a big katana is definitely as fun as it looks. Those of you who have been looking for a unique little action game to dust off your Wii with, or have been following this particular release, look no further. Muramasa is everything it has been hyped up to be and more.

Developer

Vanillaware

Publisher

Rising Star

Genre

Real Time RPG

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10 (12 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

Comments

Comments are currently disabled

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
Insanoflex

There are 1 members online at the moment.