GameSpy's Take

Muramasa is a game that you want to love. For one thing, it's a 2D action game, a once-popular genre that gets little attention nowadays. It also shows no shame in being a niche title that caters to its audience, an audience that wants its Japanese games left essentially untouched when localized. This is evidenced by a complete absence of English dubbing for the game's ample dialogue, which is completely subtitled. Finally, Muramasa looks positively stunning. The screenshots alone are almost enough to make you want to declare this the Wii game of the year. In the end, however, it's hard to not be a little disappointed by the overall package.

You won't be disappointed by the visuals, though. The game really looks as fantastic as the screenshots imply. It's entirely sprite-based; the art style (of both the characters and the backgrounds) gives off the impression of a painting come to life. And it looks even better in motion. The enemy designs are also amazing, especially during the epic boss battles, where you face some horrifying monstrosities. Like developer Vanillaware's Odin Sphere and GrimGrimoire before it, this game's pretty easy on the eyes.


At first, the game seems as though it will live up to the impressive visuals. You choose one of two characters, Momohime (the girl) or Kisuke (the boy). Momohime's quest is slightly easier than that of Kisuke; each character has their own storyline, but both involve leading your chosen hero through areas comprised of a series of (fairly small) interconnected rooms. Occasionally enemies attack, forcing you to defeat the lot before moving on. Usually you are unable to progress beyond the current area until you obtain a sword from a defeated boss.

The combat system sports only one attack button, but various controller inputs allow for a solid number of moves. Within no time you'll be throwing out impressive combos, including flurries of midair attacks, powerful downward slashes, and even moves that repel thrown weapons. Despite the large number of attacks, though, it's often possible to emerge victorious via simple button-mashing (the harder difficulty setting decreases the effectiveness of this tactic a bit). The fighting mechanic also grows repetitive after a few hours of play, due to the fact that you never learn any new attacks. The characters sport their entire repertoire of moves at the start of the adventure, which makes for scant feelings of progress as you progress deeper into the game.

What you do gain are different swords -- over 100 in total -- to play around with. Some drop from defeated bosses, but most must be forged from items collected as you play. You can carry three swords at once, each with its own durability bar (which the game calls "Soul Power"). Blocking enemy attacks takes a toll on your equipped blade's Soul Power; when the power is depleted, the sword breaks. Swapping in a new weapon not only allows your busted sword to magically repair itself, but it also results in a snazzy "slash at everything on the screen" attack that's ripped right out of a samurai movie.


Though the variety of swords is pretty huge, none of them feel particularly different from each other. Sure, one may be slightly faster, but the difference is negligible. Each sword has its own "Secret Art," a unique special move that causes considerable damage to your foes. Problem is, the game discourages you from using 'em: Secret Arts consume the sword's Soul Power, which results in the blade breaking faster. Use the Arts too much during a boss battle and you can quickly find yourself running around defenseless while you wait for three busted swords to heal themselves. More often than not, you're better off skipping the Secret Arts and focusing on your regular combos.

The game's design and level layout also results in a lot of unfortunate backtracking. A sort of Metroidvania-lite vibe permeates Muramasa, as in you'll come across barriers that can only be destroyed with a certain sword that you've yet to earn. Once you get the proper weapon, you find yourself running back through multiple screens and areas to reach the appropriate location. Although backtracking isn't necessarily a problem, Muramasa's areas are pretty dull. They're beautifully drawn, but otherwise just a series of interconnected rectangles. Thanks to the low frequency of respawning enemies you're often running through empty rooms, and it becomes quite tedious after a while.


It's nice to see that Muramasa presents the player with multiple control options. In addition to the standard Wii Remote/Nunchuk setup you can also opt to play with the Classic Controller or a GameCube controller. Unfortunately, the options stop short of allowing you to adjust the button layout. Vanillaware made the incomprehensible decision to assign the jump command to "up" on the control stick/d-pad, rather than a button. Sure, you'll eventually accept running and then quickly pressing up to jump, but you shouldn't have to. It just feels unnatural in this type of game, and the problem could have easily been avoided with customizable controls.

Muramasa is frustrating because it's a game that should be great, but its compounded faults result in it merely being good. If you can overlook the repetitive combat and boring backtracking, then you'll get a kick out of slicing up ninjas and monsters for a few hours, and you'll certainly like ogling one of the best looking titles on the Wii. Still, you'll probably wish that the gameplay had been tweaked enough to turn this into a classic.