The original Muramasa: The Demon Blade was developed byReleased by MARVELOUS three years after the Wii's launch, it was Vanillaware's first attempt at the "Japanese-style ARPG" genre and, in my unreliable memory, one of the few side-scrolling action RPGs that could be described as "perfect."
Calling it"perfect," for a very simple reason: In the early days of the console's life, action games on the Wii were not particularly numerous, and most retained the awkwardness and discomfort of the transitional era, including unstable learning curves and rough graphics typical of early 3D games. It’s not that this was bad, but many of these games presented significant challenges for players not skilled in action games.
But Muramasa: The Demon Blade was different; it was the kind of game where you absolutely couldn't find any faults at first glance.—Vanillaware's exquisite art resources perfectly constructed a detailed and dense Japanese-style world spanning East and West; just the gourmet food along the way makes the journey worth the ticket price. The smooth, refreshing, and intuitive combat system, combined with three different difficulty templates—"Musou," "Shura," and "Shikyo"—also ensured that Muramasa: The Demon Blade's action experience could satisfy the vast majority of Wii users.
But this"Perfect" needs to be put in quotation marks. Because when I reopened its port on the PlayStation VITA (hereinafter referred to as PSV) years later, I realized that the perfection of the original Muramasa: The Demon Blade was partly due to nostalgia bias. Whether it was the large amount of pointless running between chapters, the operational fatigue caused by single-button inputs and lengthy boss battles, or the short gameplay flow of individual chapters—these trivial issues were not enough to overturn the game's evaluation, but for modern players who have long been "spoiled," they indeed became problems that could not be ignored.
So, when IWhen I got early access to play Muramasa: Rebirth at Bilibili's "Game First Look" event in September, my first association was actually with Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, released on PlayStation 4 in 2016. Both are action RPGs produced by Vanillaware, both are HD rebirths of classic masterpieces on modern platforms, and both have systems that feel somewhat outdated—the connection between the two is certainly worth analyzing carefully for Vanillaware fans.
Returning to this Muramasa: Rebirth. From the change in title, it is evident that the positioning of this work is more likeBased on the PSV console, it integrated the four chapters from the paid DLC "Genroku Kaidan," solving the issue of insufficient base game content while providing a high-definition port. For fans of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, these DLCs were truly generous. Although each of the four chapters in "Genroku Kaidan" was not long, their content fully justified the low price of "500 yen" at release.
"Genroku Kaidan" introduced four new protagonists in addition to the base game's stories of "Momohime" and "Kisuke." These new characters not only brought new combat mechanics but also showcased another of Vanillaware's strengths beyond art and gameplay design: the ability for "multi-threaded narrative."
InIn "Genroku Kaidan," Vanillaware used several hidden threads to connect the fates of each character within the world of Muramasa: The Demon Blade. The intricate and interwoven story arrangement was more subtle yet clever than Odin Sphere, which was also an "ensemble drama." In fact, if you have played these titles, it is not hard to understand why Vanillaware later devoted effort to developing a narrative-driven game like 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, which somewhat defies "market laws."
Fortunately, the renamed Muramasa: Rebirth is not as stubborn as Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, because solely from a combat experience perspective, its original version was already close to completion, achieving an almost perfect balance between hardware features and operational experience.
I believe that no matter which platform you previously experienced Muramasa: The Demon Blade on, you will be impressed by its combat system's emphasis onthe "offense and defense as one" control logic—in this game, attacking with a cursed sword also represents defending, so in many cases, players do not need to specifically distinguish between these two actions and can block or rebound most enemy attacks while attacking. This resulting smooth combat experience became the main reason why mob battles in Muramasa: The Demon Blade were addictive.
To some extent, this simple yet profound control logic was Vanillaware's response toa "compromise" made in response to the hardware characteristics of the Wii controller, ensuring that players could obtain the most intuitive combat experience with minimal input.
In fact, this set ofThe "offense and defense as one" control logic originally came from the PlayStation 2 version of Odin Sphere, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade's streamlined combat system was precisely the result of targeted optimizations based on experience from its predecessor.
During the development of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Vanillaware compressed the functional window between attack and defense, integrating command-based skills and stamina (POW) resources entirely into the later "Cursed Sword" system, achieving true "shared source for offense and defense."
As the core cultivation element in the game, Muramasa: The Demon Blade replaced the traditional character progression model related to skill trees with a cursed sword forging system.—In the game, each cursed sword has corresponding attack and defense stats, and the spiritual power used for blocking is also the resource used to activate the sword's Secret Arts. Under this logic, all resources are concentrated on the equipped cursed sword, allowing your attention to focus more easily on the combat itself.
Later, this more action-oriented, intuitive, and modern-player-friendly control logic was applied back to the remastered Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, makingThe work "Odin Sphere" formed an extremely interesting contrast between its original and remastered versions—which is why I repeatedly emphasize the connection between Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade.
Interestingly, today, the connection between the two has been reflected once again in Muramasa: Rebirth.
As mentioned earlier, the control logic of the original Muramasa: The Demon Blade was self-contained, and although it had minor flaws, it was difficult to change arbitrarily. Therefore, in my imagination, Muramasa: Rebirth's approach toThe definition of "modernization" should naturally be similar to GrimGrimoire OnceMore, closer to a painless parallel port that enhances art resolution and adds some new elements without touching the core game experience.
However, after getting hands-on experience, you will find that Muramasa: Rebirth is quite bold in its changes.—Although these changes seem more like a targeted remedy aimed at eliminating the parts of the game that feel less modern.
For example, addressing the blank running sequences between chapters in the original, the game directly added convenient fast travel points between chapters. To address the issue of too few enemies in certain encounters in the original, making combat less satisfying, the game modified the encounter spawn logic to ensure players receive a fulfilling combat experience.—In fact, during this demo, almost all major encounters spawned two or more waves of enemies, effectively improving upon the original "Musou Mode" experience where "the enemies fell before I even started performing."
What truly surprised me was Muramasa: Rebirth's reconstruction ofthe "Cursed Sword" and "Secret Art" systems.
In this demo, the game introduced a feature calledThe new "Secret Art" system allows players a degree of "free customization" for skills on cursed swords.
It should be reiterated that in the original game,"Secret Arts" are bound to cursed swords. Under this rule, characters can equip three cursed swords at a time, each with independent stats and offensive/defensive resources, requiring players to switch swords to change Secret Arts. However, in this Muramasa: Rebirth, the "Secret Art" system allows players to "learn" skills from each cursed sword and assign them independently to the character.
Functionally, this system is almost an extension of the skill system in Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir.—For cursed swords that have already been forged, players can learn Secret Arts by accumulating corresponding experience points through repeated use of "Secret Arts" in battle, or they can directly use the "Spirit" resource from the original game to fill the required experience. Even after learning them, you can continue to upgrade Secret Arts by accumulating experience.
Learned Secret Arts can be freely assigned to combinations of directional and skill buttons. To maximize the potential of this system,With the "customization" feature, the game even provides different Secret Art slots for ground and air combat. Supported by this system, characters can have up to seven Secret Arts simultaneously in battle without switching cursed swords, offering more options to handle various situations.
You may have already guessed what the addition of this system implies.—Without the need for frequent sword switching, the original combat pace of Muramasa: The Demon Blade will be further accelerated. Although in the early gameplay we experienced in this demo, the cursed swords' stats were still relatively low, making it difficult to complete high-intensity battles without switching swords and frequently using Secret Arts, current trends suggest that this pattern is likely to emerge in the mid-to-late stages of the game.
Honestly, I dare not jump to conclusions about what specific changes this will bring to the game. Because, as mentioned earlier, it may have changed the original cultivation and combat structure of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, but it also effectively addressed the monotonous combat controls in the original, as well asIn "Shura" and "Shikyo" modes, the choice of cursed swords will naturally lead to an "optimal solution"—this is what I find most intriguing about Secret Art customization.
That said, regarding this newRegarding the "Secret Art" system, there is indeed one very clear dissatisfaction.
Unlike Odin Sphere, since Muramasa: The Demon Blade does not allow attacks or Secret Art activation outside of encounters, it is difficult for players to directly test whether their configured Secret Arts meet their needs.—Perhaps it’s not the technique you imagined.
InIn the "Secret Art" menu, these skills are merely simple icons accompanied by brief text descriptions, making it difficult to determine at a glance whether it is the skill you want. This is certainly not a convenient design for first-time players—remember, the original game had 108 cursed swords; wouldn't that dazzle your eyes?
Of course, this opinion only applies to the current demo version. In fact, I have every reason to suspect that Muramasa: Rebirth still has plenty of content yet to be revealed.—After all, if its systems were already fully adjusted, there would be no need to delay the release until next year.
The good news is that this assumption seems to have been somewhat validated. During the demo, I noticed more than once that its map structure had subtle differences from the original. According to staff at the demo site, the game appears to add more hot spring scenes and new gourmet food items based on the original.—
You have to say, this really sounds like something Vanillaware would do.