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Finally, a reason to turn on the Wii again.
It had been well over a year since I bought my last Wii game when I picked up Muramasa. The last game I bought was Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, which was not a good game, and thus has been transformed into store credit at Amazon. However, this is not a review about that game, its about Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Vanillaware once again shows how you make a game in 2-D. It is quite possibly one of the most beautiful games to grace the Wii.
I really can't put into words just how pretty this game looks. It's one of only two games on the Wii that made me go slack-jawed, the other being Super Mario Galaxy. There were times where I'd just sit and stare at the background artwork. It's just so damn beautiful. The character artwork is no different; they are beautifully animated.
The gameplay doesn't disappoint either. Combat is fairly simple, and a joy to watch. It moves along very quickly, but you never feel like it's getting out of control. It's pretty much like every ninja/samurai movie or anime I've ever seen, where the main character just appears as a blur among his opponents. It sounds like it would be difficult, but all you need to look completely awesome is the A button and a direction on the control stick. Or if you hit the B button, you perform a special move, which is specific to the sword you're using.
Speaking of swords, there are a lot of them. You find a few by just going through the game, but most of them you will forge yourself using the souls of your defeated enemies. (how metal is that?) Yes, every time you kill an enemy you collect his soul. They serve two functions, one is to forge new blades, while the other is to repair the swords you already have. Your swords can break, but its only temporary. Sheathing them and collecting souls repairs them. You can have three equipped at a time, and can switch them on the fly.
There are two characters to chose from, and you will play both on the same save file. You can even chose which one to play every time you load your save file. There isn't a lot of difference between how they play, but their stories are completely separate and the two characters barely come in contact with each other.
If you're looking for a game with a deep involving story, you will be pretty disappointed with Muramasa, but if you just wanna mess up demons, ninja, and even gods, then this is the game for you. It's light on story and character development, but heavy on ass kicking. It does a pretty good job on making you feel like a badass.
One area that could have used a little work, however, was localization. It could have been better. The dialogue, even though there isn't much of it, is kinda stale. Some people might not care about this, and some will, but there is no English language voice option for spoken dialogue. The game is completely in Japanese, which is fitting since it does take place in ancient Japan. Still, some people would prefer the choice.
So all-in-all, this game is very good. The production values are excellent, and the combat is extremely fun. For an action game it is fairly lengthy it should take around 12-14 hours to beat the game with both characters and thats if you just run from point A to point B. There are some secrets here and there. I would say its worth the purchase, especially if you're starving for a new Wii game.
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System: |
Nintendo Wii
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| Genre: |
Action
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| Experience: |
Finished both characters' Stories
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