I was first introduced to Japanese developer Vanillaware with 2007’s cult-classic PlayStation 2 action-RPG Odin Sphere. While no one could deny the beauty of that game’s stunning 2D art style, the game had some problems in its design. The simple-but-fun button-mashing combat was complicated by a radial item menu which challenged players to mix and match various materials in an alchemy system to produce the highest quality items. You could also plant seeds in the level that would grow and bear healing fruit after after sucking up enemy souls. This system definitely added a layer of complexity to Odin Sphere, but in the end it became a little too complicated for its own good, especially since you were more or less required to master these extra systems in order to survive the game’s sometimes brutal difficulty.
So the long and short of it is that I really enjoyed my time with Odin Sphere, but I ended up giving up well before the end, defeated but vowing to watch out for all future Vanillaware releases, hopeful that they may produce something as visually stimulating and fun but with slightly tighter design.
As of E3 2009, I can happily report that my hope was not misplaced in the least. Vanillaware’s latest is Muramasa: The Demon Blade, a Wii release being published by Ignition Entertainment (Odin Sphere was published by Atlus, but for some reason they didn’t pick up this one). And it looks freakin’ awesome, both literally in terms of its graphical style and in how it plays. For an example of the former, just take a look at this background image plucked from the game’s Japanese website:
Beautiful, right? That may look like concept art — and, for all I know, it very well may actually be concept art; I can’t really read Japanese — but the in-game environments look astonishingly similar. Vanillaware has done the smartest thing they could with the Wii hardware: developing a stylized game that looks beautiful within the limitations of Nintendo’s console. Because of that, this game is going to stand up as eye candy to the best offerings on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Sure, it may not be as realistic or visceral as Killzone 2 or Alan Wake, and it may be locked into 2D, but given a choice, there’s a good chance I’d rather be resting my eyes on Muramasa.
Then there’s the much-simplified gameplay. I’m sure some people loved the intricacies that Odin Sphere offered, but if you’re like me and found yourself intimidated and eventually annoyed, Muramasa is going to be a treat. While the trappings of an RPG remain — you can still level up, gain new weapons and armor, etc. — the focus is much more heavy on the action side. The two lead characters — one male and one female — have a variety of unique weapons, each with their own feel and special moves.
Button-mashing is possible, but if you really want to progress, you’ll need to learn how to pull off powerful combos and match the right moves and weapons to the right enemies. You can switch between three weapons on the fly. If you use the same weapon for too long or are too vigorous with the special attacks, the weapon will break, forcing you to switch it out while it recovers or deal next to no damage.
During one particularly harrowing boss encounter, I relied on the special attacks a bit too much, causing my weapons to continue breaking. By the end of the epic battle, I found myself switching weapons every 10 or 20 seconds, draining what little juice the weapon had left until it broke, and then switching to the next one while the others recovered. I barely eked out a victory, but it was clear that this kind of clumsy play will not lead to success in later levels.
I just can’t wait to traverse those later levels in all their lengthy glory. The two playable characters mostly journey through the same areas, but their levels get some tweaks and variations, and they get to fight unique bosses and pass through their own storylines, so hopefully there will be enough incentive for replay. Add on to that the promise of Metroid-style backtracking to open up areas you couldn’t access before, and Muramasa could be one of the longest 2D actions games since…well, Odin Sphere.
Just, you know, better this time.
-Phil
June 16th, 2009 at 2:33 am
It says it’s a background shot that shows off the beauty of the Japanese scenery.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I loved Odin Sphere, but it did get boring after a while. Something about the button mashing and linearity just got to me I think. I seem to remember having problems with some bosses as well.
Anyway, can’t wait for Muramasa. Going to have to dust off the Wii for this one.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Phil, I felt the same way about Odin Sphere. I loved it for it’s wonderful visuals but I just couldn’t mesh with the gameplay so I eventually traded it in for something else but I too was keeping a eye for future titles from Vanillaware.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade looks like it’s shaping up to retain the visual flair that I loved from Odin Sphere but with some improved gameplay that sounds like it will make it more accessible. The only question I have for you is which control scheme were you using for the demo? I read that there were two options one that was a more casual control scheme and one that was directed to the advanced player. Any impressions on how those controls worked?
June 17th, 2009 at 8:43 am
I was actually just using the basic Wii remote+nunchuck setup, and it worked very well. I know I was told that you can also flip the Wii remote on its side and use it like an NES controller, which I’d definitely consider for long-term playing.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
It’s a shame you couldn’t get to the end of Odin Sphere since the endings are pretty awesome. Definitely worth checking out on youtube. It took me 40 hours to finish the game on Easy and I still had trouble with some of the bosses, so I’m sure there’s a lot of other people who gave up on it, especially if they couldn’t bring themselves to go below Normal difficulty.
Can’t wait for Murumasa; I’m going to play it with my trusty old GC pad.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Wow! 40 hours! I knew the game was long, but damn.