Topic: Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Oboro Muramasa Youtouden)

[Dirk Temporo]

How are you guys getting this? Amazon says it won't ship out until the 8th!

Quoted for answers!

[BeautifulShy]

Maybe Amazon recieved copies later than other places.

[Dirk Temporo]

The official release date is the 8th. It's not just Amazon.

[broodwars]

I just walked into my local Gamestop and bought it...

And yes, this game is awesome.  MUCH better than Odin Sphere, though I would certainly have appreciated more backgrounds.  There's an awful lot of recycling in this game, though to be fair the artwork is beautful (it makes Odin Sphere look ugly by comparison, and that's hard to do).  I just beat the boss of Hida (I'm playing the Momohime path first) and gained the Green Barrier-breaking Muramasa, and so far the game's been a blast though the boss battles have been strangely hard.  Definitely prioritize picking up recipes that create consumables, because you'll need them.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I just walked into my local Gamestop and bought it...

And yes, this game is awesome.  MUCH better than Odin Sphere, though I would certainly have appreciated more backgrounds.  There's an awful lot of recycling in this game, though to be fair the artwork is beautful (it makes Odin Sphere look ugly by comparison, and that's hard to do).  I just beat the boss of Hida (I'm playing the Momohime path first) and gained the Green Barrier-breaking Muramasa, and so far the game's been a blast though the boss battles have been strangely hard.  Definitely prioritize picking up recipes that create consumables, because you'll need them.

You'll have to tell me if the Giant Octopus is scary, that is the one thing that worries me about the game. That things looks so scary and I have a fear of video game aquatic life!

[broodwars]

I just walked into my local Gamestop and bought it...

And yes, this game is awesome.  MUCH better than Odin Sphere, though I would certainly have appreciated more backgrounds.  There's an awful lot of recycling in this game, though to be fair the artwork is beautful (it makes Odin Sphere look ugly by comparison, and that's hard to do).  I just beat the boss of Hida (I'm playing the Momohime path first) and gained the Green Barrier-breaking Muramasa, and so far the game's been a blast though the boss battles have been strangely hard.  Definitely prioritize picking up recipes that create consumables, because you'll need them.

You'll have to tell me if the Giant Octopus is scary, that is the one thing that worries me about the game. That things looks so scary and I have a fear of video game aquatic life!

Well, I'll tell you if I run into it.  Apparently it's a random encounter of some sort when you're going through a particular sailing section of the game.

Speaking of which, that Play Magazine cover is just disturbing.  That thing comes so close to a tentacle rape anime screenshot (from what I've heard, mind you.  The most extreme stuff I watch is Hellsing Ultimate) that I'm just astonished that thing is being allowed on store shelves.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I just walked into my local Gamestop and bought it...

And yes, this game is awesome.  MUCH better than Odin Sphere, though I would certainly have appreciated more backgrounds.  There's an awful lot of recycling in this game, though to be fair the artwork is beautful (it makes Odin Sphere look ugly by comparison, and that's hard to do).  I just beat the boss of Hida (I'm playing the Momohime path first) and gained the Green Barrier-breaking Muramasa, and so far the game's been a blast though the boss battles have been strangely hard.  Definitely prioritize picking up recipes that create consumables, because you'll need them.

You'll have to tell me if the Giant Octopus is scary, that is the one thing that worries me about the game. That things looks so scary and I have a fear of video game aquatic life!

Well, I'll tell you if I run into it.  Apparently it's a random encounter of some sort when you're going through a particular sailing section of the game.

Speaking of which, that Play Magazine cover is just disturbing.  That thing comes so close to a tentacle rape anime screenshot (from what I've heard, mind you.  The most extreme stuff I watch is Hellsing Ultimate) that I'm just astonished that thing is being allowed on store shelves.

Yikes, that sounds scary. I may not get it!

BTW just got a notification today that Muramasa has shipped!

[rbtr]

Played this more today,  I am really digging the Japanese mythology.  Fighting kappas, oni, tengu, spirits, those umbrella things, giant ghost samurai... it's really fantastic.

There's a lot of running, almost aimlessly because the backgrounds repeat a lot, but the repeated backgrounds are so nice to look at it doesn't matter.  Getting used to the combat, and hopping around like a ninja more.

Really liking it, one of the better games I've played in awhile.

[Kairon]

Just picked up my copy from the local indie store today! Huzzah!

[broodwars]

Just a tip about those Monster Lairs you see every now and again: don't trust the recommended level the game gives you.  I've managed to take on 3 of them, and the 2 that gave me the most trouble (100 monks and 100 birds) were listed as recommended levels 29 and 9.  The recommended level 23 fight against this toxic furry blob was pretty easy, though.  It's not so much that the enemies are hard as that they like to gang up on you and use a super move that breaks your blades in one or two hits, so you run out of blades pretty quickly unless you've been stockpiling your soul restoring items.  I'm now level 35 in Act 6 of Momohime's story.

EDIT: HOLY **** that Red Oni boss guarding the Blue Barrier-breaking blade was hard!  I barely beat that thing at level 40, and I was probably overleveled!

[broodwars]

Well, I've completed the game with both characters now, though I still have to acquire all the Muramasas to get each character's two alternate endings.  Of the two characters, Momohime's campaign was by far the hardest with some really hard-to-hit enemies and bosses.  The other character's campaign is pretty damn easy, though he does have a better final boss by far (Momohime's just involves a great deal of annoying platforming in a game where the jumping controls are way too loose for that kind of thing).

[DAaaMan64]

Yikes buddy, learn to use teh spoilers tags.

[broodwars]

Yikes buddy, learn to use teh spoilers tags.

As soon as I find a need to say something spoiler-y, I'll do that.  You have no idea just how vague I've been typing.

*sigh*  Kids these days don't even know what an actual spoiler is.  This is a spoiler: Momohime dies in the end credits when she jumps inbetween Kisuke and the final boss, impaled upon his sword (yes, I just made that up).   This is not a spoiler: Momohime's final boss is more annoying than hard.

[Dirk Temporo]

Yikes buddy, learn to use teh spoilers tags.

Also the modify button.

But I agree with broodwars, I don't find anything he's said so far to be spoilers.

[broodwars]

Yikes buddy, learn to use teh spoilers tags.

Also the modify button.

But I agree with broodwars, I don't find anything he's said so far to be spoilers.

Hey, at least I've avoided double-posting within the same day.   

(btw, thanks for giving me an excuse to test out a post on my laptop now that it's upgraded to Windows 7 with IE 8.  Yeah, it's laggy as all hell, though significantly less than on other sites.  I guess I'll have to switch to Firefox now.)

[GoldenPhoenix]

Yikes buddy, learn to use teh spoilers tags.

Also the modify button.

But I agree with broodwars, I don't find anything he's said so far to be spoilers.

Hey, at least I've avoided double-posting within the same day.  

(btw, thanks for giving me an excuse to test out a post on my laptop now that it's upgraded to Windows 7 with IE 8.  Yeah, it's laggy as all hell, though significantly less than on other sites.  I guess I'll have to switch to Firefox now.)

So was the big octopus scary?

[broodwars]

Yikes buddy, learn to use teh spoilers tags.

Also the modify button.

But I agree with broodwars, I don't find anything he's said so far to be spoilers.

Hey, at least I've avoided double-posting within the same day.   

(btw, thanks for giving me an excuse to test out a post on my laptop now that it's upgraded to Windows 7 with IE 8.  Yeah, it's laggy as all hell, though significantly less than on other sites.  I guess I'll have to switch to Firefox now.)

So was the big octopus scary?

You know, that's one of the optional bosses I still have to kill.  When I beat the game, I tried to take out any enemy lairs I ran into along the way but left most of them to deal with later.  The problem with the Octopus boss is that you have to talk to a specific fisherman in a specific area (which is different for both characters) to get him to take you to another area by boat.  There's then a random chance that you will either just jump to catch fish the whole way, you'll run into a mermaid who throws fish at you ( -_-' ), or you'll encounter the giant squid boss.  I've only tried that run once and I didn't get the squid, but from the looks of the Youtube video I've seen of it it does look pretty scary between the rain; the crashing waves; and the giant squid with glowing eyes.  But then again, I was pretty creeped-out as a kid playing the NES Little Mermaid game (don't ask, my pickings were slim those days on the rental shelf and I've always been a big Disney nut) fighting Ursula.  It's that creepy grin with those eyes...*shudders*.  And she has that same look in the two Kingdom Hearts games.  *shudders again*

[Stratos]

I remember that NES game. Classic NES/SNES Disney games FTW!

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

How does gameplay with the regular enemies hold up compared to boss battles?

Is typical gameplay a matter of interaction/adjusting to enemy attacks or a matter of being overpowered and plowing thru them by sheer advantage?

[broodwars]

How does gameplay with the regular enemies hold up compared to boss battles?

Is typical gameplay a matter of interaction/adjusting to enemy attacks or a matter of being overpowered and plowing thru them by sheer advantage?

It doesn't hold up compared to the boss battles.  The normal enemies only pose an actual threat to you if you aren't paying attention or if they're all ganging up on you at once such as when you're fighting off 100 of them in sequence.  An example of this is when you're fighting Ninjas that are spread out over a map, who like to throw bombs out as well as Shuriken and occasionally chains.  If you don't remember to hit low to hit the bombs as well, you can easily kill the enemy and then get hit by the bomb explosion.  Otherwise, you're mashing the A button to utter victory without even really trying, occasionally swapping out swords as they get low on Soul Power to keep them from breaking.

Most of the bosses are a different story, requiring you to watch for patterns so you know when to evade to prevent taking critical damage to your sword (usually resulting in them breaking the sword).

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

"It doesn't hold up compared to the boss battles.  The normal enemies only pose an actual threat to you if you aren't paying attention or if they're all ganging up on you at once such as when you're fighting off 100 of them in sequence.  An example of this is when you're fighting Ninjas that are spread out over a map, who like to throw bombs out as well as Shuriken and occasionally chains.  If you don't remember to hit low to hit the bombs as well, you can easily kill the enemy and then get hit by the bomb explosion.  Otherwise, you're mashing the A button to utter victory without even really trying"

Amazingly, this sounds like a shoot'em-up rather than a platformer.  Waves of enemies that fall easily but set you up for small mistakes, while serving as sources for level score/point generation.  Not sure that I'm drawn to this mix.  I'm also not a fan of Capcom VS.-style hyper-animations.

[broodwars]

"It doesn't hold up compared to the boss battles.  The normal enemies only pose an actual threat to you if you aren't paying attention or if they're all ganging up on you at once such as when you're fighting off 100 of them in sequence.  An example of this is when you're fighting Ninjas that are spread out over a map, who like to throw bombs out as well as Shuriken and occasionally chains.  If you don't remember to hit low to hit the bombs as well, you can easily kill the enemy and then get hit by the bomb explosion.  Otherwise, you're mashing the A button to utter victory without even really trying"

Amazingly, this sounds like a shoot'em-up rather than a platformer.  Waves of enemies that fall easily but set you up for small mistakes, while serving as sources for level score/point generation.  Not sure that I'm drawn to this mix.  I'm also not a fan of Capcom VS.-style hyper-animations.

To be honest, I'm not sure I can recommend this game as a $50 purchase.  It's truly a gorgeous game and I have a lot of fun playing it, but the gameplay is extremely shallow and the story's pretty poorly told (which is wierd for how much emphasis the plot gets).  It's a great rental, but I don't think this mix of gameplay is worth a purchase till it drops another $10-$20.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

If I continue to let my imagination run wild,

I see Dynasty Warriors an awkward 3D evolution of the 2D beat'em-up mixed with the behavior of the 2D shoot'em-up.  Result:  keep pressing "A", and you'll continue to cut through multiple enemies, where simple offense is part of your simple defense, and you bounce around to dodge when needed.

I now see Muramasa as a refined 2D implementation of Dynasty Warriors.  AUGH.

It's boiling down to how much care and attention do I have for each individual button press, relative to the damage that's successfully dished-out.  Is it working because I'm being careful with my button usage (and platforming)? or is it working because I get to press it a lot?

[GoldenPhoenix]

If I continue to let my imagination run wild,

I see Dynasty Warriors an awkward 3D evolution of the 2D beat'em-up mixed with the behavior of the 2D shoot'em-up.  Result:  keep pressing "A", and you'll continue to cut through multiple enemies, where simple offense is part of your simple defense, and you bounce around to dodge when needed.

I now see Muramasa as a refined 2D implementation of Dynasty Warriors.  AUGH.

It's boiling down to how much care and attention do I have for each individual button press, relative to the damage that's successfully dished-out.  Is it working because I'm being careful with my button usage (and platforming)? or is it working because I get to press it a lot?

Pro not liking a game which actually is well received by most reviewers, AMAZING.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

It's the new king of style over substance.