MURAMASA: THE DEMON BLADE

REVIEW: MURAMASA: THE DEMON BLADE

Developer: Vanillaware
Publisher: Ignition Games
Platform: Wii
Players: 1
MSRP: $49.99

Muramasa: The Demon Blade stands apart from modern games. In an industry where exceptionally realistic 3-D is an often numbing standard and most 2-D games are simple affairs, Muramasa constructs a world entirely of spectacular hand-drawn samurai stylings. It's standard practice for Vanillaware, the developer of similarly envisioned action-RPGs like Princess Crown and 2007's cult hit Odin Sphere (and the strategy-RPG Grim Grimoire). Muramasa fixes some, if not all, of its predecessors' flaws, emerging onto new ground for Wii action games.

Muramasa needs no long introductions, or any introductions at all, really. Regardless of which of the two characters you play, theirs stories begin in medias res: Momohime is a princess possessed by a demon after an attack on her clan, while Kisuke is a rogue ninja with no memory of why most of his former friends want to kill him. Their stories are steeped in supernatural samurai-film mystique that's a bit more entertaining than Odin Sphere's moron-filled fairy tale, though it's still frequently laden by clichéd twists and dry main characters. Perhaps it's best to take the plot as another part of Muramasa's vast, beautifully drawn stage of mythic drama.

And Muramasa is beautiful indeed. Capturing all manner of spirits and monsters from folklore, it breathes with a deft animation in nearly every character and background, from the crash of waves to the slow tilt of wheat stalks. Muramasa's fantasy realm is the stuff of classical Japanese art, and its recreation of that style would be impressive in concept alone. The characters all move with smooth grace, and even the human-scale warriors are large, detailed figures filling the screen. That's to say nothing of the gigantic creatures that frequently punctuate stages. It's also upheld by music that fits quite well without really standing out, while the voices remain in Japanese with efficient subtitles.

Past Vanillaware games were just as stunning, but flaws persisted throughout them. Princess Crown is a pretty Sega Saturn action-RPG with a deliberately slow and limited battle interface. Odin Sphere takes the same idea and broadens it, resulting in chaotic, frustrating combat that sometimes grinds the PlayStation 2's hardware nearly to a halt. Muramasa solves both problems; its battles are large clashes between Momohime or Kisuke and throngs of enemies, but there's rarely any slowdown or awkward gameplay. Tapping the attack button results in quick strikes, and holding it down allows blocking, dashing, and setting up elaborate mid-air combos. It's easy to pick up, and the variety of large moving targets lets the player try something new quite often.

Speaking of large moving targets, Muramasa's best moments arise during its frequent boss battles. Mythical creatures and exaggerated humans show off magnificent jointed animation and excellent art, and most of them are excellent challenges, from a writhing octopus to a lone samurai. If there's a problem, it lies in the bosses' lengthy life meters. In the normal “Muso” mode, it's not much of a problem, but the difficult “Shura” mode can drag out boss encounters into long struggles of attrition. There's also the strange demand that players press “up” to jump, with no option to change that. It gives the game a strangely flat feel, like Guardian Heroes without the line-jumping. Still, Muramasa's control stays relatively tight. Most players will want a Wii Classic Controller or a GameCube pad for Muramasa, but it plays surprisingly well on a nunchuck-and-analog setup.

If the battle system is simplistic, there's plenty going on around it. Momohime and Kisuke each can carry three swords to swap out in the heat of battle, and switching out weapons keeps them from taking too much damage and breaking. Shattered blades can be fixed by popping them back in sheaths for a while, because hey, it's a video game. While there are items to be found and used in battle (and restaurants), it's the sword collection that truly backs Muramasa's dozen or so hours of playtime. Over a hundred swords are hidden in the game, and they all grant varying increases in speed or power, with special attacks available as you change swords. A forge allows players to create new blades, and most of the game's arsenal lies there.

Sadly, Muramasa can't escape all of Vanillaware's common mistakes. As it was with Odin Sphere, there's a lot of backtracking and repeated scenery in Muramasa's quest. It starts up about an hour into Momohime's story, when she runs through one identical multi-level city neighborhood after another. Other levels have Momohime and Kisuke backtracking through stages, now free of enemies, to get to a new path (usually one unlocked with a new sword). It can get quite tedious, even after some shortcuts appears, and I have no idea why Vanillaware didn't cut down on the back-and-forth.

The repetition can grate, but the rest of Muramasa comes together nicely. It's a game driven by its battles and stunning visual punch, and not so much its light RPG dressings or lazily designed stages. Despite some poor design choices, it's far easier to recommend Muramasa than the frequent drudgery of Odin Sphere. Vanillaware is clearly improving, and if Muramasa isn't a standard-setting masterpiece, it's still a fiercely enjoyable spectacle.