Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Muramasa is a two-dimensional (2D) side-scrolling action role-playing game set on the main Japanese island of Honshu during the Edo period. Combat comes in the form of both avoidable random encounters and scripted fights where the camera is fixed within the fighting area: enemies and bosses are primarily drawn from Japanese folklore and mythology. Battles are triggered only when enemies are near, with the player character otherwise keeping their weapons sheathed. In combat, characters attack and guard using a single-button prompt, while another button accesses items such as healing potions. Continuously attacking triggers combos. Different moves include sword slashes combined with directional buttons, which have different effects such as throwing an enemy into the air with an upward slash. Additional offensive items such as smoke bombs are acquired during the course of the game. At the end of each battle, experience points are awarded to the player character depending on how fast the battle was finished: leveling up increases a character's health, stats, and the amount of damage inflicted upon enemies. Weapons are distinguished into two categories, Blade (katana) and Long Blade (nōdachi): Blades are fast, while Long Blades are slower and deal higher damage. Three blades can be equipped at any one time: each blade has its own stats, determining the amount of damage that can be inflicted. When blocking or using a blade's Secret Art special move, its Soul Power gauge depletes: if emptied, the sword breaks and its offensive abilities are drastically reduced. When sheathed, the Soul Power regenerates. Soul Power can be gathered in various locations to restore Soul Power and the character's health. There are 108 blades that can be collected and forged in-game: forging blades requires Soul Power and "spirit", and each blade has a level cap determining when it can be forged. Weapon forging is governed by a weapon-based skill tree. ==Synopsis==

Setting and characters Muramasa takes place on Honshu, the main island of the Japanese archipelago, with its overall style and setting drawing heavily upon Japanese folklore and mythology. It is set in the Genroku period, itself within the larger Edo period, during the reign of the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. Tsunayoshi's thirst for power has created conflict around ownership of the Demon Blades, samurai swords forged by the legendary swordsmith Muramasa Sengo that crave blood when drawn and bring madness and death to those foolish enough to draw them. Due to the chaos generated by this, the Demon Blades' powers begin summoning demons from Hell (Yomi), along with causing ancient gods to stir from long slumber. Plot '''Momohime's Story''' Momohime wakes up in Kyo with memories of being killed by the dying Jinkuro when he attacked Yukinojo. Jinkuro spirit, forcefully possesses her, but before the process of soul transference is finished, they are attacked. Momohime's soul is kidnapped by the vengeful monk Rankai, forcing Jinkuro to follow Kongiku as Momohime's body will die if her soul is harmed. With her soul safe, Jinkuro sets out to regain the Dark Resurrection Demon Blade so he can properly utilize his Soul Transference Technique and gain influence through a new host. Encountering Yukinojo, who is searching for Momohime, the two battle. Momohime forces Jinkuro to spare Yukinojo, even when she learns that Yukinojo's intentions in marrying her were part of a scheme to ruin her family as punishment for defying the shōgun. Jinkuro goes to Yukinojo's compound to retrieve the Dark Resurrection, but the storehouse where it is said to be is absorbed into Hell by demons. Descending into Hell, Jinkuro's soul is briefly captured by a demon, and it is only with Momohime's help that he escapes and learns that the Dark Resurrection was never in the storehouse. With Momohime's body beginning to fail due to the strain Soul Transference put on it, Jinkuro attempts to ascent to Heaven so he can become an immortal demon, but is stopped by Raijin and Fujin. While willing to accept his death and allow Momohime her remaining time in her body, Kongiku shows them another way to Heaven on Mount Kongō, where Rankai's temple is located. There, Yukinojo reveals that he had the Dark Resurrection all along. They are then attacked by Fudo-Myoou, who is there to deliver divine justice upon Jinkuro. In the first ending, Jinkuro allows himself to be sent to Hell while Momohime lives; she forgoes her marriage to Yukinojo and becomes a Buddhist nun to save Jinkuro's soul. In the second ending, Momohime and Jinkuro are intercepted by Kisuke and Yuzuruha, who turns Kongiku back into a fox as punishment for her actions. Though defeated, the dying Kisuke delivers a fatal wound to Momohime, forcing Jinkuro to merge his soul with Momohime's to save her: this act leaves her an amnesiac but grants her Jinkuro's sword fighting abilities, which become legendary as she travels Japan with Kongiku. In the third ending, after the battle with Fudo-Myoou, Jinkuro is transported to the night he attacked Yukinojo by the Oboro Muramasa Demon Blade, which can defy the passage of fate. He chooses not to attack them, later possessing Yukinojo so he can safeguard Momohime's family. Momohime lives to be one hundred years old and bears three children, while Kongiku remains close to Jinkuro in the guise of a servant. In "Fishy Tales of the Nekomata", a domestic cat called Miike sees her family brought to ruin and all its members killed. Becoming a nekomata and taking on the form of the family daughter Okoi, she vows revenge against her family's killers: assassins employed by their rival Netsuzo Wakamiya and his samurai retainer Shinzaemon Shigematsu. Using teachings from the tanuki Danzaburou, Miike infiltrates the Wakamiya estate as Okoi to kill Wakamiya and Shigematsu. Despite succeeding, her rage extends to the entire household. In the end, her tails are cut off by Jinkuro when he is hired to exorcise her: in the process she curses Jinkuro with illness, setting the events of Momohime's story in motion. Now at peace, Miike spends time with an old priest and hosts moonlight dances with local cats and bakeneko. In the alternate ending, Miike becomes a demon whose rage is finally quelled by the old priest. In "A Cause to Daikon For", the farmer Gonbe is forced to form a revolt when the local daimyō raises taxes to the point that local villages are on the brink of ruin. Abandoned by the authorities and aided by the spirit of his deceased wife Otae, Gonbe and his neighbours fight through the daimyōs minions before killing him. Executed for his actions, he relates his story to Enma, who acknowledges his reasoning but condemns him to Hell. Due to her love for him, Otae joins Gonbe despite being a pure soul. After complaining to Enma about the exhausted demons being unable to punish their souls, Enma banishes Gonbe, Otae and his comrades back to the living world, where they live in peace under a kinder daimyō. In the alternate ending, the entire sequence is an illusion produced by Gonbe's spirit around the ruins of the daimyōs castle, ended when a passing Yamabushi frees their spirits. In "A Spirited Seven Nights' Haunting", the Iga ninja Arashimaru goes on the run after learning his latest target, the Okabe clan leader and caretaker of the Spear of Bishamon, was his father. Taking shelter in a shrine, Arashimaru accidentally breaks a mirror sacred to the Goddess Inaraki, who becomes a Shirohebi (white snake) that curses him to die in seven days. After besting his master Shiranui in combat, Arashimaru learns that his mission was orchestrated by the monk So Xian, a century old Chinese spy working to destabilize Japan's ruling classes who was indirectly responsible for taking the young Kisuke from his family. Arashimaru kills So Xian and escapes with Shiranui's aid, then goes peacefully to his death after asking the saddened Shirohebi to give his head and Spear of Bishamon to his brother Dengoro to restore the Okabe house. Arashimaru's head is given proper burial at the Shirohebi's insistence, and Arashimaru's spirit is deified due to the grave becoming a prayer site for pilgrims. In the alternate ending, Arashimaru is possessed by So Xian and enslaves Shirohebi, becoming the sorcerer "Orochimaru"; the Okabe's last surviving heir escapes, taking on the name "Jiraiya" to fight Orochimaru. In "Hell's Where the Heart Is", the Oni girl Rajyaki, daughter of Enma, is journeying to recover the treasures of the Seven Gods of Fortune. On her journey, the womanizing ex-monk Seikichi accidentally proposes to her and she accepts him as her husband. In the end, Seikichi saves her from a Jorōgumo's poison by feeding her the sacred peach of Fukurokuju, though this prompts Enma to banish her from Hell. The Seven Gods of Fortune persuade Rajyaki to return to her father, while Seikichi moves to live a proper life, with Rajyaki returning as a human to formalize their marriage. In the alternate ending, Seikichi saves the still-banished Rajyaki from hunters by pretending he killed her, establishing himself as a samurai; Rajyaki becomes his wife, and they have five children who bear their mother's demonic horns. The Genroku Legends conclude with the narrator detailing the locations of the Seven Gods' treasures scattered through the stories, and thanking the player for locating them and calming Enma so his demons could return to Hell. ==Development==

Muramasa was developed by Vanillaware, a studio created by former Atlus staff members to create successor projects to the 2D action-adventure game Princess Crown. The positive sales of Odin Sphere gave Vanillaware the capital needed to begin full development on Muramasa. The game was also co-funded by their publishing deal with Marvelous Entertainment, who were sold the project after Odin Spheres publisher Atlus refused to take any further products from Vanillaware until Odin Sphere had released, in addition to delaying the game so it would not compete with their main 2007 release Persona 3. In addition to Atlus, they also pitched to Capcom, but Vanillaware's untested reputation prompted them to be turned down. Kamitani stated in a later interview that Vanillaware would have closed had Marvelous not accepted the project. The team's style of development was identical to their strategy for Odin Sphere, although they worked to change up some aspects to make it a unique experience. When developing the game, the team decided to create a vertical plane for players to explore, something which the team had needed to forego with Odin Sphere. In addition, bathing sequences cut from Odin Sphere were reworked and incorporated into Muramasa as hot spring scenes. The game's programmer was Kentaro Ohnishi, whose biggest challenge was creating a battle system which allowed for cancelling of attacks, while maintaining the appearance of smooth attack animation. The resultant code looked so strange that another programmer thought it was a fault and deleted it, forcing Ohnishi to rebuild it. The team was highly dedicated to the success of the project, putting a large amount of work to make it as good as it could be for players. In keeping with the wish for realism, Momohime and Kisuke were given distinct accents (Momohime used a cultured dialect while Kisuke spoke with an Edogawa accent). Another realistic element was the game's food, which was designed based on the types of delicacies that were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. One of the folklore references was the 108 Demon Blades in the game, which was a direct reference to the 108 human vices in Japanese folklore. A number of monsters and deities from Japanese mythology made appearances in the game, and the art style was intended to give a "Japanese" feel without consciously copying artwork from the game's period. Character designs were handled by Yasuhiro Fujiwara, Yasuo Shirai, Takehiro Shiga, Kouichi Maenou and Ine Kawazu. Kamitani's art style choice was influenced by the bright ink-wash style of Japanese woodblock prints. He also drew inspiration from the folklore-centered anime series Manga Nippon Mukashibanashi. The artwork was created at double its in-game resolution, then reduced to fit within the hardware. Music The music was handled by a team from sound company Basiscape, composed of multiple composers who had worked on Odin Sphere. Sakimoto acted as sound producer, the sound director was Masaaki Kaneko, and the music was composed by Sakimoto, Yoshimi Kudo, Noriyuki Kamikura, Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Kimihiro Abe, Azusa Chiba and Masaharu Iwata. Sakimoto was working on music for Odin Sphere when the project was first proposed, and thought Kamitani was being overambitious working on a premise-based in Japan when developing a game based on European mythology. During the initial planning stage, Sakimoto thought the game would be a "mock-Japanese" project, with Japanese instruments inserted into techno music. Once he realized how sincere Kamitani was with the project, Sakimoto and the team needed to re-identify with the roots of traditional Japanese music. For Sakimoto, his approach was to reconnect with how earlier Japanese people turned their wabi-sabi philosophy and worldview into words and music: he carried over this approach into the project. Each of the composers had to go through similar experiences. ==Release==

Muramasa was announced at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show (TGS) under the title , alongside its intended platform, setting and gameplay mechanics. After its announcement, information releases about the game virtually stopped, and an April 2008 report by Famitsu reported the game's development was "struggling", although no details were revealed. Muramasa was reintroduced at TGS 2008 under its Japanese title, along with its planned release window in 2009 and details on its characters and story. The game was released in Japan on April 9, 2009, published by Marvelous Entertainment. It was released as part of Nintendo Channel's budget game line-up in January 2010, and re-released for download on Wii U via Nintendo eShop in July 2015. A North American version under the title Muramasa: The Demon Blade was later published. The game was originally being published by Xseed Games, but in April 2009 they dropped the title from their schedule. Publishing rights were transferred to Ignition Entertainment. Ignition later explained that it was in competition with Xseed and Atlus to acquire the American publishing rights, and after seeing Muramasa at TGS 2008 they were encouraged to apply for the rights. The change between publishers was an internal agreement between Xseed, their parent company Marvelous USA, and Ignition. The situation was amicably resolved as Xseed already had a large number of Wii titles lined up, and giving Muramasa to another publisher allowed multiple titles not to be overlooked when it came to Western publicity. The game's localization was done by external localization companies in close collaboration with Ignition Entertainment. The game was published in Europe by Rising Star Games alongside other Marvelous products including Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga and Arc Rise Fantasia. The English translation was carried over from the North American version, although the English language version underwent regional adjustment, and some minor faults were corrected. The game was also translated into French, Italian, German and Spanish, which made using the original translation more practical than creating a new one. Originally scheduled for November 2009, it was first shifted into 2010, then moved back into 2009. The game was released in Europe on November 6 of that year. Upon release in the United Kingdom, most retailers did not stock it: this was put down to a general attitude that it would not sell like prevalent franchises or games from mainstream genres. The game was released in Australia on December 3 the same year. Muramasa Rebirth Muramasa Rebirth, released in Japan under its original title of Oboro Muramasa, Muramasa Rebirth was published in Japan by Marvelous AQL on March 28, 2013. The game's Western release was handled by Aksys Games, which also created a new localization. Compared to the original version, which was described as a direct translation, Aksys Games' version was more "flavorful" and more faithful to the original text. It was released in North America on June 25, followed by Europe and Australia through PlayStation Network on October 16. In addition to the main game, four self-contained stories were released as downloadable content (DLC) under the title featuring new characters within the Muramasa universe. New music was created for the title under Sakimoto's supervision: the four episodes were scored by Kudo, Chiba, Kaneda and Iwata respectively. The Vanillaware-developed DLC launched in both Japan and the West between November 2013 and November 2014: the final DLC's Japanese release was delayed by over two months behind the Western release. ==Reception==

The Demon Blade received generally positive reviews, garnering a score of 81/100 on Metacritic based on 58 critic reviews. Sales of the title were higher than anticipated, resulting in several stores in Japan being sold out within two weeks of its release. The game had sold 47,000 units by November 2009. In North America, NPD Group reported that the game had sold 35,000 units during its first month of release. In a feature on notable video games in 2009, GamesTM stated that The Demon Blade sold "extremely well", besting established Western franchise releases such as Dead Space: Extraction. Ignition Entertainment, the game's North American publisher, confirmed that the September sales for The Demon Blade had fallen within the NPD Group's estimates, and had met their sales expectations. In a 2010 interview, publisher Marvelous Entertainment stated that, despite positive reception from both critics and players, Muramasa: The Demon Blade had suffered from low sales in Japan, North America and Europe. This was put down to it being a non-traditional game and the falling relevance of the Wii hardware. In its first week of release, Rebirth debuted at #5, selling 45,660 physical units. Within the first month following its release in Japan, the game topped 100,000 shipments, with at least 67,800 physical retail sales, and the remainder as digital copies distributed on the PlayStation Network. Muramasa Rebirth ranked as the seventh most downloaded digital Vita game on the Japanese PlayStation Network in 2013. In both North America and Europe, the game ranked high on PSN download charts: it ranked as the fifth best-selling Vita title in North America, while in Europe it debuted at #5 before climbing to #4 by December 2013. ==See also==