I know little about traditional Japanese culture. I know it involves a lot of stories about mythical creatures (youkai), honor, ninjas and samurais, but it would be a mistake to stereotype it to those elements alone. Thankfully, most video games from Japan are made easily accessible to English-speaking audiences thanks to effective translation. They explain the basic concepts so that the player can understand. In the case of today’s game, a relatively poor translation combined with a complex story that heavily relies on Japanese mythology results in something hard to understand for me, and for some others. I will most likely get it as I play.
Enter Muramasa: The Demon Blade. A little jewel of art
on the Wii, a game that has gained a following in no small part thanks to its
peculiar details. Yes, it features a lot of elements from Japanese myths. It’s
an action RPG, similar to games such as Super Paper Mario, with the character
walking and running around the large world to explore like it’s actually a
platform game, while the random encounters with enemies award Experience and money, allowing the character to level up over time. Plus, it’s technically two
storylines, each following a different character on their journey, with both stories finding their root in the same event and unfolding at the same time.
However, two things stand out in this game: First off,
the art. Every single sprite and background was hand-drawn, then scanned and
used for the game. And as a result, everything is drop-dead gorgeous. I mean,
look at any other game I called gorgeous in the past three years; none of them
even measures to this game. It’s probably one of the best-looking 2D video
games ever made. Simply astonishing. Every time I pick it up and play, I am
reminded of its beauty. Second, for all the beauty of this game, the large and
complex storylines of each character, the giant world to visit, the entire game
actually takes a ridiculously small amount of space on the Wii disc: 0.62 gigabytes.
For reference, that’s only twice the size of the original Wii Sports, one of
the shortest games out there. And of that 0.62 Gb. 0.49 of it make up the
soundtrack and voice clips, which means that the programming and all of the
beautiful hand-drawn sprites and backgrounds that make up this game world take
up only 0.13 gigabytes. It’s a technical marvel. If that is not impressive, I don’t
know what is.
That’s the basic information about this game. I will
be jumping into the story now, and I will be looking at both the stories of
Momohime and Kisuke. In that order.
When you play a new game, you select between Muso and Shara, two difficulty settings; the former is simpler while the latter is more complex, requires a better knowledge of buttons and techniques made available. What follows is a tutorial that explains all the attacks and techniques your character can use. This includes ground and aerial combos, unleashing a sword’s special ability (one big feature in this game is the collecting of swords) and using items, among other things. This title also contains a rather unique mechanic where you always have three swords equipped at any time, and you can change between all the swords you unlocked as you please in a sub-section of the Pause menu. I’ll go back on this later. Alright then, Momohime Time!
When you play a new game, you select between Muso and Shara, two difficulty settings; the former is simpler while the latter is more complex, requires a better knowledge of buttons and techniques made available. What follows is a tutorial that explains all the attacks and techniques your character can use. This includes ground and aerial combos, unleashing a sword’s special ability (one big feature in this game is the collecting of swords) and using items, among other things. This title also contains a rather unique mechanic where you always have three swords equipped at any time, and you can change between all the swords you unlocked as you please in a sub-section of the Pause menu. I’ll go back on this later. Alright then, Momohime Time!
….that sounded wrong.
We don't learn until a little later who exactly Yukinojyo is. One problem with this story is how it starts after a major event we never see and we're left to pick up the pieces and put them together. |
But... if you're trying to stop the criminal named Jinkuro... Why is your speech calling you "Evil monk"? |
So many health bars on those damn bosses. They're absorbing so much damage, they're like sponges! |
So! Is this the only mask to collect on this adventure? Yes? Phew! |
I'll take your word for it, I don't like fish meals. |
This part of the game also introduces Enemy Lairs,
where your character can enter – given that they can destroy the magical
barrier blocking the entrance if they own a sword powerful enough. Those are
bonus dungeons where you’ll be fighting a set number of opponents. Each Enemy
Lair also has a recommended level, so that you don’t go in there unprepared.
Well, you can try; nothing says you’ll win. Thankfully, since those are removed
from the plot, you don’t die if you lose; you’re brought back to the entrance.
We soon reach the city of Musashi, which Jinkuro-as-Momohime crosses, until he
reaches the other side, where he thinks Rankai ran off with Momohime’s soul.
…Say, how do you take a soul hostage? Aren’t those things, you know,
non-material?
A giant face in a wheel. ...Eh, I've seen worse. |
*goes to get a Tylenol* Phew, so many names to keep
track of! Everything’s in Japanese, the names of the places, the names of the
characters and bosses, even the names of the swords! It gets so complicated!
Dammit, stop using your swords to attack and protect yourself! |
When Yukinojyo is defeated, Jinkuro attempts to kill
him but before he can carry through, Momohime forces herself back in her body,
turning Jinkuro into a wandering soul again. Yukinojyo is wounded, and Momohime’s
pleading leads Jinkuro to ask his kitsune servant Kongiku to cure Momohime's "husband".
Yukinojyo explains that he was but a pawn in a plan put together by the current
shogun of Japan, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi… and that this plan, sadly, involved
Yukinojyo and a squad of ninjas killing Momohime’s family. That’s the thing, though; this attack also
killed Momohime, so right now she’s more like a corpse walking around with the
wrong soul inside her, somehow keeping the body alive. Bet you didn’t see that
coming, did you? Jinkuro and Momohime agree to help each other to take down the
shogun, but they need to take a detour across many provinces of the world in
order to reach the town of Hida. Why? Because there are many Monks on the way.
Hey, I can deal with monks! I’ve killed a hundred of those in one of the Enemy
Lairs! I can do that! Bring them to me! ...No? Ah, alright, I'll do the detour.
Jinkuro runs through many parts of land to reach Hida, a land of snow. It’s beginning to look just like an ice world…. Oh boy, here we go… Hey wait, this is an RPG, not a platformer. Yay, I can’t fall off to my
doom! Travelling across the snowy prairies and mountains, we finally see a duo
of adventurers who stopped on their journey; apparently there’s a giant
mountain god ahead, and it would be a bad idea to piss off a god. We still move
forward and the protective charms keeping the god away break, revealing a
gigantic green-skinned monster god that decides to crush Jinkuro-as-Momohime. I’d
call it a Titan, but I think even Titans aren’t nearly big enough to compare to
that monster. For reference, its first “form” is… its foot. When the foot is
defeated, you need to climb on it – by hitting it some more – to reach a place
high in the clouds, where you’ll see the whole monster in the background and
battle… its fist. Yeah, basically imagine Master Hand as an RPG boss. In case
that thing wasn’t dangerous enough, you can also get thrown off the clouds and
back down, which means you need to climb on the giant foot again. When the hand
is defeated a first time, the godly green giant may turn into a harmless giant
boar that Jinkuro can slash at without fear of getting attacked. That form
doesn’t stay for long, however, so you gotta hurry and get in a lot of hits.
Because let me tell you, the other two sections of that boss are really hard.
Stupid hand with its stupid spinning energy thingies… So, Jinkuro manages to
defeat the giant green god.
Jinkuro, killer of giants. |
I would enjoy the fanservice if she was older. And Kongiku, what enormous breasts you have! I see a kitsune made some choices for her human form... |
After leaving the hot spring, Jinkuro possesses
Momohime’s body again and heads out towards Narukami, in the province of Mino,
to ask its magistrate where the Kuromitsu blade is.
Still got that flowchart? Keep it around, you’ll need
it when Part 2 rolls around… Monday!
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