Review by: Brandon "Pheasant Hot Pot" Cackowski-Schnell

Make no mistake about it, Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a gorgeous game. From the stunning, multilayer backgrounds to the excellent enemy designs and the over the top boss battles, this game flat out delivers on the visual front. Unfortunately the gameplay doesn't quite match up to the stunning visuals as too much backtracking and a lack of combat variety makes the game a gorgeous, but ultimately shallow date.

The game weaves together the stories of two characters: Momohime, a woman whose soul was forced out of her body by a vengeance seeking swordsman, and Kisuke a young, amnesia stricken man. Either character can be chosen from the beginning and you'll want to play as both to create all 100+ of the game's blades but both characters control exactly the same. Luckily their stories are different as are the various bosses they face which does give incentive to see both sides of the sword so to speak. Combat is relatively simple with the A button serving as your attack button and directional presses on your control stick applying directional modifiers.

Along with attacking, holding down the A button allows you to block, and picking between the two initial difficulty levels affects whether you block automatically, as well as how successful you are at it. The combat is simple to pick up and play however it never evolves. The moves you have at the beginning are the moves you have at the end, hopefully you'll just be better with them. Enemies do scale with your level so there's always a challenge, and it certainly is an awesome feeling to see that "Completely unscathed" experience bonus flash on screen when you completely destroy a room full of ninjas, but the combat can get repetitive.

Where combat does differ is with the three blades you have equipped at all times. Each blade has a different spirit power from spinning blade whirlwinds to calling forth lightning and tornadoes. Blocking enemy strikes causes your blade's soul power to diminish, as does using spirit power. Let your blade's soul power diminish entirely and your blade will break, causing you to get your ass handed to you in the process. If you can draw a new blade before your current blade breaks, you'll do a massive area of effect attack as well as have a nice, new sword to deal death with.