Video Games: Review: Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Video: Muramasa: The Demon Blade Unboxing

I just happened to find this little gem while browsing through Disc Replay one day and I made sure to grab it, mostly because it's a game that I'd been planning on getting back when it was new but never got around to it until just now.

What I Think Overall

Muramasa: The Demon Blade turned out to be one hell of a game that I'd recommend for any Otaku. This baby is a lot like Naruto meets Inu Yasha and then teams up against Samurai Champloo. It's all about the olden days of Japan, back in the age of the samurai. You're running around collecting souls like you're Kikyo, you're jumping from tree to tree just like you're from the Hidden Leaf village, and you're slicing up ninjas and samurai as if you're on a quest to find the samurai who smells of sunflowers.

What I Like About it

One of the things I really like about this game is it's intro. No matter how many times I see it, I never get bored of watching it. You see the characters for the first time, and even get a close look at their sharpened samurai swords. And the part where you're running through the woods is a lot of fun. And the soundtrack just make everything so much more Japan - like.

Speaking of Japan - like, eating at the different restaurants really gives you an idea of how the Japanese used to eat back in those days at those little tea houses. You learn quite a lot about Japanese cuisine from this game, including which meals even the Japanese would still use a spoon for, which ones they'd simply eat with their hands, and the ones that they'd use chopsticks for. You also learn a lot about how each of the meals was made just from the descriptions, and even which meals are better with sake.

If Baten Kaitos was the most beautiful GCN game ever made, then Muramasa: The Demon Blade has clearly earned that same title for the Wii. The backgrounds are some of the most beautifully detailed I've seen in a game in quite a while now. You can almost feel yourself getting lost forever in those deep woods, running up and down the rolling hills of those farmlands, needing a winter coat in those snowy fields, and a dry towel on those water splashing beaches. They even included a bit of interaction with the backgrounds as well as you can slice up the bamboo and other items while you're fighting.

One interesting thing to note is that despite the premise you see in the opening of "I am the Demon Blade. I must have blood. I'll kill you faster then Heero Yuy. I'm such a bad boy. I've been so naughty this year Santa." and all of that, when you get past all of that the violence in the game is almost no different from a Legend of Zelda game. This definitely makes it one of most family friendly games out there, assuming you skip the intro of course. Rather than blood and gore, you see souls come out of the bad guys when you kill them.

What I Do Not Like About it

Now thus far, I've only played through the story of Momohime, the princess of Narukami who's possessed by a demon, which I only know because I'm the type that reads the instruction book. This is one of the gripes I have with the game. They don't give you any of the background stories of the characters. When the game starts you're just suddenly getting jumped by ninjas with no idea of what's going on. You only find out about the background story in little bitty pieces as the game progresses.

Of course you already know what I'm going to say about the fighting, but I'll only take off a half a point this time since as I stated earlier the violence is pretty much on par with something along the lines of Super Mario. No wonder this "bloody" game got off with only a T rating.

What I Found Strange

One last thing to note is, what is up with the bouncing ninjas? It's not a complaint or anything, it's just very odd watching ninjas bouncing up and down on the screen as if they have basketballs in their pants (or maybe Momohime really is a naughty girl and she's hitting them in their balls literally. They really do have some high soprano voices every time they get hit you know!). Hey Kakashi, you never mentioned anything about the village hidden on the basketball court. So who's the Slamdunkkage, Michael Jordan?

Conclusion

Overall though, this baby is one that I highly recommend to, not only Otaku, but anyone who has any kind of interest in Japan at all. Muramasa: The Demon Blade gives you the whole experience of living in Japan back in the olden days of the samurai right from the comfort of your own living room. Despite it's very few and very minor drawbacks, Muramasa: The Demon Blade has more than earned it's place in the gaming collection of not only Otaku, but any gamer who has any interest in Japan.

Otaku Universe gives Muramasa: The Demon Blade for the Wii a(n):

Now if only there were some sake!