Got it for my birthday and I’ve got about four to six hours in. This review is by no means complete, however I feel like I’m far enough into the game to understand most of what it’s about (IE, as far as I can tell, there aren’t any unopened aspects of the game, nothing is ‘grayed out’).
I’d like to start off by saying a few words about the beauty of games. In general I couldn’t care less about the graphics of a game. As half of my avatar or whatever doesn’t get swallowed by a wall, or the color scheme isn’t blinding me with a terrible palette, I’m usually cool with it. I like well-controlled games that are intuitive and require my brain. However, there are a few games that I can think of off the top of my head that scream “Masterpiece!”. These games were masterpieces the day they were released and will never ‘age’. Sure, Final Fantasy VI may not look great today, but when it was released it was a masterpiece to me, and always will be. Others on the list of masterpieces are Metroid: Prime, and Metroid: Prime 3, Super Castlevania and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are graphical masterpieces as well. I’ve got a good dozen or so on my mental list.
The first thing you notice about the game is that it’s beautiful. Graphically this game is a masterpiece. And I will play it because of this almost regardless of any faults. Much like King of Fighters and a few other games, this one is hand drawn. Everything about it is hand drawn. It is gorgeous beyond belief. I need to find some good component cables just for this game (and some more Metroid: Prime) to see it at its best. (go Amazon.com!)
Okay. The first choice you get is how you wish to control the game. Do you want the game to pretty much take care of you or would you like full control over your actions? This is the only distinction between “Easy” and “Hard” mode. I decided that I could handle the responsibility of all the buttons myself and went with the harder mode. I did not expect it to actually be hard. It’s a very difficult game. The easy enemies really aren’t all that difficult, however they are holding swords and still quite dangerous. The game seems to try to keep it real in that no matter how much life you have in total, it still doesn’t amount to much. If you get slashed/stabbed by a sword it’s going to A) hurt, and B) bleed all over! Every level you gain is maybe another pop, shot you can take. Earn three levels and we’re talking maybe surviving just one more boss onslaught. The game is tough.
The controls are solid. Your character does exactly what you ask, when you ask. The asking has been made simple. You use combinations of the d-pad and attack button. Another button is designated your special attack (secret attack) button. Hold attack to guard. It could easily be renamed “sword” button, or even “pointy/sharpy” button. You want to go up, press up. You want to slash up, press attack and up, you get the idea.
Each character carries three swords all over the place. Each blade has its own secret attack and some have special abilities such as increased strength or more experience earned. There are two types. Long Blade, and blade. Long blades are slower, more powerful, and have greater reach. In general I’ve found that long blades are basically suicide. Some enemies are so fast that only the short blade can win, and with the exception of a few bosses, the long reach isn’t too useful.
In combat the blade is unsheathed and you can cycle blades with the press of a button. If you’re properly powered up, then you’ll unleash a quick draw attack across the screen. Blades also have “soul power”. This is used up by blocking attacks, deflecting objects, and using the secret attack. When the soul power is gone the blade breaks and looses almost all its power and reach. Switch to a different blade and the broken one will repair over a short time. However, you’re in the thick of battle so you won’t want to worry about that. Switch and try not to get hit!
The game keeps track of combos. They don’t need to be completely contiguous and I cannot for the life of me figure out why there is a combo system. Damage is not increased as far as I can tell, there are no perks granted, and you don’t get any extra experience. Maybe I’m missing something. The only real advantage of the combo count is to know that you got x hits in for their zero.
One thing that you’re warned to do early on is to keep a large stock of healing items. You’re going to get hurt and you need to heal. There are basically two types of items. Food, and not food. Food gives you health and more spirit (for forging swords). Not food gives you health but doesn’t add to your fullness meter. If you’re too full your character isn’t going to choke down a rice even if he’s got two points of life left and it’d save him from the ninja army ready to slice what’s left of your mangled body into low-grade taco meat.
The game has quite a few RPG elements. You gain levels, stats, items, you have to look for things, etc. Swords are made by the spirit of a great sword maker (in your menu screen). In order to forge new swords you have to complete a tree by finding special swords and collecting “spirit” and “souls” from defeated enemies. Before this game the only time I was ever remotely entertained by a food system was Gauntlet and Metal Gear 3. Muramasa makes faux cooking a desirable action. Everything is done with animated overlays and you just page through them, but I love them. Some food is made to save for later, the rest is more like a soup (hot pot) and is eaten immediately and generally grants a temporary ability boost. There are also restaurants that you can frequent. They’re a bit cheaper than cooking on your own (a stark contrast to reality) and restore a percent of what’s missing rather than a set number.
The story is spoken entirely in Japanese with subtitles. I’m not quite sure how I feel about the story just now since it’s pretty weak this early in. The guy has amnesia and the girl is possessed by a demon. That’s all I know, and those aren’t spoilers.
You’ll wander around a large 2D (think Rambo on the NES, you know you loved it!) map that covers a great deal of countryside. The 3D effects in the 2D world is astounding as things pass by in the background and the foreground. I haven’t seen a part of this game that didn’t make me say “Wow”. It’s that well done. When you walk around town there are people with whom you can converse but they rarely have anything of any consequence to say. Sometimes they’re looking for people but when I find them the character seems adamantly opposed to discuss the seeker with the seek… seek-ee? Sure. I do have a problem in that the map doesn’t help you remember where find merchants. You’ll see barriers (you need certain swords to bring down the barriers, think Metroid), anomalies (items you can grab) save points and boss fights, but no merchants!
Overall it’s been a great game to me and I can’t wait to pick up the controller next. If you forced me to put it on a scale I’d say it’s closer to a 9 than an 8. It’s not perfect, but it’s really good.
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