Vanillaware’s most underrated game is more than just a pretty picture
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Soapbox features allow our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random things they’re mulling over. Today, Alana is talking about an old Vanillaware game – Muramasa: The Demon Blade, a Wii title that is celebrating its 15th anniversary. And after the success of 13 Sentinels and Unicorn Overlord, it’s time to give some love to Vanillaware’s older title.
Vanillaware is pretty much everywhere. It visited the magical fairy tale world in Odin’s Orb. It has returned to the medieval, war-filled world many times over with History of great knights And The unicorn lord. It’s the 1980s in Japan 13 Sentry: Aegis Rim. We were even able to go to wizard school thanks GrimGrimoire. But even though there are so many worlds that are lightly drawn and gorgeous, I always find myself looking back at Edo Japan most fondly.
It was love at first sight with Muramasa: Demon swordthe developer’s second title on a Nintendo system following the Japanese exclusive Kumatanchi on DS. This isn’t the most unique game in Vanillaware’s library, nor is it the most complex. But these are great times, which, with the recent success of 13 Sentinels and Unicorn Overlord, deserve their (rising) moment to shine.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade has a lot in common with Metroidvanias (skill/weapon based progression, interconnected maps, some light platforming) but the game focuses more on combat than exploration deep or secret. The two main characters – Kisuke, an amnesiac ninja whose only memory is that he had to steal a specific katana; and Momohime, a princess possessed by the spirit of a criminal rōnin – play identically and explore essentially the same map. But the intertwining stories and thrilling and challenging battles kept me coming back for more.
Aside from Vanillaware’s stunning art style — which shines brightest when passing through fields of reeds bathed in stunning blood-red sunsets or when flying through the honey-colored clouds of Takamagahara — the Muramasa’s, as mentioned, is fighting ability. It’s an action RPG that you control using a button for single attacks and combos, and holding that button to dash around the screen. It’s incredibly simple yet stylish, especially when paired with Vanillaware’s gorgeous watercolors.
Wrinkles appear as weapons. You have one huge weapon tree, where, from the initial three blades, you can forge various ‘Demon Blades’ to use during your playthrough. You can equip three different swords at once and swap between them during combat. There are two types of swords – Short and fast blades, and Long blades, larger, heavier and more powerful weapons. Each sword has its own stats, but you can’t just use a single sword. Your sword also has Soul Power, which is consumed by blocking attacks, dealing damage, or using the weapon’s Secret Art – an extremely powerful attack that varies depending on the weapon. If the sword’s Soul Power is completely depleted, the weapon will be temporarily damaged.
This is where swapping your weapons comes in handy. Sheathing a blade and drawing another weapon will allow other swords to replenish their Soul Power. Additionally, drawing another with a full Soul Power gauge will trigger an attack that hits every enemy on screen. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a samurai movie where a warrior pulls out his sword and immediately massacres an entire room and never wanted to do that. It’s as entertaining here as in any show or movie I’ve ever seen.
For me, ‘collecting’ the swords is female draw a picture. I wanted to look at each Secret Art individually and find the three weapon combination that worked for me. For example, Hell Spinner is an extremely fast horizontal spin that can tear through enemies on the ground, while Wind is a vertical spin in the air. Faerie Bolt allows you to have two balls of electricity surround your character for a limited amount of time, protecting you and dealing damage on contact. Earth Runner is a non-stop sword fight. Combining light and heavy swords with defensive skills and fast-paced Offensive Arts is my favorite.
Even if the combat is simple on the surface, I still enjoyed encountering hordes of enemies as I explored Honshu and its 16 provinces. A group of seven ninjas may hinder my progress as I run through the rain forest of Owari, but it’s fun to juggle them in the air and dash around the screen, taking them down one by one — or sometimes all at once. for a while. .
The combat really shines in Muramasa’s incredible boss fights. Many of these are visual images that require a combination of patience and fierceness; Learning your enemies’ attack patterns and animations then punishing them at just the right moment feels incredibly rewarding. Ippondatara is one of the largest monsters in the game — a towering giant in the clouds, you need to chop off its legs before flying up and grabbing his fist, while reflecting the projectile with perfectly timed sword slashes. Afterward You must fight him in his boar form, where he is helpless and does no damage. Turns out he was just trying to keep the hot springs for himself.
While fighting trolls, giant spiders or even the storm god, Raijin, he himself is extremely memorable, the best part is (as with many action games) the battles with others. In Kisuke’s story, he has to fight the woman he loves most in the world, Torahime. Commanding an army of undead and riding his ghostly, skeletal steed, Torahime charged to the other side of the bamboo thicket, commanding his soldiers to fight against Kisuke. You must then chase her, avoiding her arrows by deflecting them or hiding behind bamboo. It’s not a particularly difficult fight – especially compared to some of the later battles – but the sheer spectacle, the narrative revelations that follow, and the fact you’re fighting a war princess Brave soldiers on the back of a dead horse, that’s amazing.
Some of the more difficult battles — like the final boss, or even the flaming wheel Wanyuudo on Momohime’s side — reveal the beauty and balance of Muramasa’s combat. If you’re smart with your weapon choices and know when to block, you can get some extremely satisfying combos and wins out of these encounters. But then there are Evil Caves scattered throughout the map. These unlockable challenges throw enemies and boss encounters at you for a short period of time and get increasingly harder as you progress through the game. These “caves” can be found by dead tree trunks that you’ll uncover as you explore, and are locked behind various colored barriers – meaning you need to get specific swords, usually from story bosses, to deal with them.
Trials like the Light Blue trial that forces you to face seven samurai enemies (ha!) at once will test your patience and ability to break enemy guards. The previous game, locked behind a green barrier, pits you against poison enemies. There’s also a challenge where you have to re-challenge a boss from earlier in Kisuke’s playthrough – except this time, there are four of them. The variety here once again tests your knowledge and although it forces you to return (I mean, it has some Metroidvania DNA in it), who can complain about Every time I run past these beautiful places? Not me.
With Vanillaware getting more attention than ever, I really wish Muramasa: The Demon Blade would be more accessible. Currently you can only play this game officially on the Wii or female PlayStation Vita – admittedly this is a much superior version with better localization and four DLC episodes with new characters and playstyles (one of which has you playing as a cat). Company president George Kamitani has said he wants to port the game to modern platforms — and god does Muramasa look good on the OLED Switch — but said “there is a problem”.
Having played many Vanillaware titles, it’s interesting to see the shared DNA in each game despite how many genre differences there are in the developer’s library. Battle in action brawler style Dragon’s crown is located in Muramasa and almost every game has multiple storylines intertwined with each other.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade may be Vanillaware’s simplest title, and it doesn’t challenge as many genre conventions as its other games, but I fondly miss the days of running through snowy mountains, breaking into the depths of hell and forging the legendary sword? Of course I know.
Have you ever played Muramasa: The Demon Blade? Would you like to see the game on Switch (or modern platform)? Let us know below!
