Muramasa Rebirth Review (PS Vita)

Story

Play as either Momohime or Kisuke in their quests.

Momohime was a princess, and her body was taken over by a man named Jinkuro. With Jinkuro inside her body, she was able to use a powerful sword style called the Oboro style to annihilate his enemies. Momohime's soul was safe, but was separated from her real body. Together, they must recover a Muramasa blade so that Momohime can get her body back and also for Jinkuro to achieve his objectives.

Kisuke is a ninja who has amnesia, mysteriously wielding a Muramasa blade and the Oboro style. He then wanted to find out his past, and he found that his past is related to the Muramasa blade that he wields, as well as his relation to a princess by the name of Torahime, the maiden of the Muramasa blade.

Both stories are equally enjoyable, personally. I find that the game has rather unique take on the Japanese mythology and brought it to life with creative designs of chaarcters and demons encountered in the game. Like some other RPGs, this game has multiple endings. The first endings for both characters can be unlocked normally, whereas the second and third endings can only be unlocked upon equipping certain swords upon fighting the final bosses. I find that the endings are rather well constructed, where each ending depicts different fate for each playable characters. The characters are pretty interesting as well, where I thoroughly admire both Kisuke and Momohime's development.

Gameplay

i) Progression Section

Traverse to different areas in Japan.

This game plays in 2D field, with characters and levels both designed in 2D. Progression is rather linear, as you can see the marker in the map that shows you where you need to go. By buying maps, you can fill out your unmapped areas to avoid yourself getting lost. Most of the time, you can only run towards your destination. As you travel in the game, you may pay for travel services to go to certain areas. As you travel in different levels in a game, you must fight enemies in fixed encounters. In some levels, you can quickly escape to exits to avoid battles. You may use a certain item to escape battles. Save points can be found in shrines or i in the boss rooms.

One major thing player should be reminded that they cannot freely travel to other areas without finishing certain levels. By defeating a boss at the end of an Act, you will unlock a Muramasa sword that dispels certain barriers. Many areas in this game are restricted by barriers, preventing you from progressing further until you unlock that particular blade.

ii) Upgrading and Leveling Section

Forge new Muramasa swords to gain an upper hand against enemies.

The upgrading system is rather simple, as you need to forge new Muramasa swords by spending both Souls and Spirit. Souls are obtained by collecting green orbs floating around in the game's levels or by defeating enemies. Spirit are obtained by eating food at restaurants or cooking yourself. The Muramasa sword forgery is designed like a tree, such as a sword can only be forged upon completely forge two previous swords.

However, forging them alone is not enough to equip them. To actually equip the new swords, your character need to have sufficient Strength and Vitality stats. To do so, you need to increase the character's levels by fighting enemies. Once you have gained enough levels, you may equip the new swords.

Items can be bought from merchants all around in the game, as well as by defeating enemies. Money can only obtained by defeating enemies, which is tedious since you cannot sell any items to get more money.

Accessories can be bought as well in the game to help you in battles, or be found as treasures in the game. Different accessories may provide various effects like extra boost on Strength, total poison immunity, and other effects.

iii) Combat Section

Use the Secret Arts to defeat enemies quickly.

Before starting the game or loading up a save file, you may choose between two difficulty modes. Legend mode is the easier mode where you can auto-block enemy attacks while attacking and the enemy levels are fixed. Chaos mode is the harder mode where you cannot auto-block enemy attacks and enemy levels will scale accordingly to your levels.

In combat, both characters can jump, attack, dodge, glide or block attacks. Muramasa swords have two categories. The first one is the standard Blades where you can execute combo attacks quickly with slightly lower attack power. The second type of swords is Long Blades, where it executes slowly albeit with high attack power. It is best to choose which swords that suit your taste.

Each Muramasa sword has unique Secret Arts. Secret Arts are special moves that allow you to defeat enemies easily. Some Muramasa swords may also have extra passive abilities, such as experience or attack boosts. However, Secret Arts deplete the Soul Gauge greatly.

Each sword used in combat has Soul Gauge. Soul Gauge is depleted upon blocking, or using Secret Arts. Once the Soul Gauge is depleted, your sword will be broken and you need to switch out to another sword. Soul Gauge can be restored by keeping your sword in reserve or by obtaining Souls. You may also use items to restore the Soul Gauges of the swords. Thus, guarding attacks frequently are not recommended, as you may need to fight off enemies by going around them via dodging or jumping over them.

Sometimes upon switching to another sword, you may execute Quick Draw to damage enemies in a wide area. However, there is a cooldown for the the Quick Draw move so it is no reason to rely it solely for damage.

Most enemies in this game are rather unique, where each enemy has different attack patterns and styles. For example, ninjas have variety of attacks to kill you, or a red demon uses powerful attacks to break your swords easily to defeat you.

Bosses in this game are rather unique as they have powerful moves that can break your swords easily. Many of the boss fights are greatly designed, where most of the boss fights require you to fight them smartly, not aggressively.

iv) Conclusion

Good gameplay.

I like the gameplay of this game a lot, except for a few complaints. Firstly, the lack of variety of progression methods. In all cases, you just need to beat enemies and continue to the next level in an area to progress. There are no puzzles or anything, so be prepared for that. Secondly, repetition. Despite the fun combat, the game is painfully repetitive as there are no puzzles to be completed or completing platforming sections except completing Caves of Evil or going to hot springs. Not only that, backtracking in this game can be quite a chore. However, I believe that the great combat system itself is enough to redeem itself from the repetitive nature of the game. Overall, the game has a good gameplay but with questionable flaws.

Graphics

Extremely good art design and graphics.

Strictly speaking, I love the graphics of this game. The art is extremely lovely, with unique character designs such as the cute Momohime and tough looking bosses like the Dragon God. The environments themselves are extremely well-done. Upon playing this game, players may perceive this game is an art itself upon watching either Momohime or Kisuke moving in different levels.

No bugs or glitches found in this game, which I am very happy of it.

Sound

Authentic Japanese voice acting and soundtrack.

Unlike major Japanese games, this game does not have any English voice acting. I support this move, as using English voice acting may dampens or destroys the mood of this game (except for a few exceptions) as this game is totally Japanese in style, such as Japanese characters, setting in Japan, soundtrack and others. As I am not an proficient listener or speaker of Japanese language, I cannot judge whether it is good or not. However, it provides authenticity that this game is set in Japan.

The music in this game is well-done as well, with authentic Japanese sounds with mix of instruments like electric guitars, taiko, and others.

Replay Value

Good replay value.

The game has good replay value. You may complete Caves of Evil scattered around in the game. Each Cave of Evil have different sets of enemies in numerous waves of enemies. You may also play the game again in Fury mode, which is the hardest difficulty mode where your characters' HP is only 1, meaning one hit kill by enemies. You may also try to obtain all Trophies in the game.

Conclusion

A well-done port from Wii to PS Vita with exceptionally good combat, good story, and great art design.

This game is a well-done port from the Wii version, where it plays easily on PS Vita with great combat system, good boss fights, good story, likable characters, and most of all, extremely great-looking art designs. Despite some of it's issues, I sincerely believe that this game should warrant a try from all PS Vita owners as it is very fun to play. In conclusion, it is a good Action-RPG game, but with some minor flaws.

Score

Story: 9/10

Gameplay: 7/10

Graphics: 9/10

Sound: 9/10

Final Score: 8.5/10 or 34/40

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Good story.

- Multiple endings.

- Two enjoyable playthroughs for both Kisuke and Momohime.

- Likable characters.

- Unique take on Japanese mythology.

- Fun and great combat.

- Great art design.

- Great boss fights.

- Easy to learn tutorial.

- Scaling level of challenge.

- Great music.

Cons

- Extremely linear progression.

- Lack of variety of progression methods, like puzzles.

- Tedious backtracking.

- Repetition nature.

**Images are from Gematsu.