At E3 earlier this month, I spent a bit of time with Muramasa: The Demon Blade, which was developed by Vanillaware of Odin Sphere fame and is being published by Ignition Entertainment in North America. I was a big fan of the gameplay and the graphical style, and at an Ignition event in New York City last week, I had the opportunity to play Muramasa for a longer period of time. During my second hands-on session, I discovered that Muramasa isn’t as close to Odin Sphere as I originally thought, but I think the game is more than capable of standing out on its own.

Since I chose the role of young princess Momohime the last time I checked out Muramasa, this time around I played as ninja Kisuke. Once again, I couldn’t help but notice the wonderful aesthetic; Muramasa proves that being on the Wii is no excuse for crappy graphics, and I hope that future developers will take note and put more effort into the visuals of Wii games going forward. I skipped the tutorial this time around, spending more time exploring the first level, up to a giant boss who I was sure was going to annihilate me. However, with a carefully planned strategy of panicked button pressing and sword switching, I managed to emerge victorious, thus ending the demo.



Jumping and moving using the nunchuk thumbstick is a little strange to get used to. At first, it didn’t feel as precise as hitting a button to jump or double jump, but became second nature by the time the boss fight rolled around. The biggest difference for me this time was really feeling the importance of choosing your sword. As I previously noted, there are many swords to collect in Muramasa, and overuse will deplete the Soul Gauge, breaking your current sword and making it ineffective for a short time. During the boss fight, this led to many panicked moments as I switched from sword to sword, evading attacks as I waited for them to restore themselves and trying to balance powerful attacks with ones that didn’t drain the Soul Gauge as much.

Originally, I thought Muramasa was going to be like Odin Sphere set in ancient Japan, but a second playthrough has shown me that the two games don’t have as much in common as I thought. While I wouldn’t complain about an Odin Sphere clone, it looks like Muramasa will be able to stand out on its own. Though it has side-scrolling levels and hack-and-slash fighting, the controls feel different, and the collectible swords and Soul Gauge are unlike anything in Vanillaware’s previous game. I was told that there would be some food items used for healing, but that it wouldn’t be as in-depth as Odin Sphere’s system of growing plants and collecting recipes.



So as it turns out, Muramasa isn’t as much like Odin Sphere as I thought it was going to be, but I’m okay with that. The connection may have been part of the game’s appeal to me originally, but now that I have spent enough time with it, I think it’s going to be another excellent and unique Vanillaware title. With the exception of the game’s difficulty level (it’s supposed to be pretty hard, just like Odin Sphere was at the end), there’s not a whole lot to complain about with Muramasa—other than the fact that we still have over two months to go before the full game is out.