muramasa-the-demon-blade posts(Subscribe to this feed)

Ignition: Muramasa sales 'in line with expectations'

by JC Fletcher { Oct 23rd 2009 at 1:00PM }

Muramasa: The Demon Blade publisher Ignition revealed to Gamer Investments a rough estimate of the NPD sales total for its Wii sidescroller, describing the game's September performance as "in the ball park of 35K," with a margin of "15-20%."

It might sound low to us, but marketing director Melody Frieda said that the total was "in line with expectations and we're happy with how it's performing to date." She said that positive reviews should help keep sales up through the holidays. The company sees even better potential for the title in the long term: according to Frieda, Ignition is "quite confident that Muramasa will be a revered cult classic like its sister property Odin Sphere," which went on to be released under the PS2's "Greatest Hits" line.

Gallery: Muramasa: Demon Blade

Joyswag: Muramasa prize pack [update]

by David Hinkle { Sep 25th 2009 at 2:00PM }

Update: Contest is closed! Keep an eye on your email to see if you won! Thanks for playing!

If you didn't take our word on how awesome this game is, then here's your chance to check it out first-hand. One lucky reader will not only receive a copy of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, but we've also got a small collection of poster art for the game. It's a one-two punch of free gaming goodness. Best of luck!

Leave a comment telling us which of the game's main characters you prefer: Kisuke or Momohime
You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec)
Limit 1 entry per person per day
This entry period ends at 3:00PM ET on Thursday, October 1
At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive Muramasa: The Demon Blade ($50 ARV) and a collection of art cells ($15 ARV)
For a list of complete rules, click here

Review: Muramasa: The Demon Blade

by JC Fletcher { Sep 14th 2009 at 7:01PM }

I was honestly a bit worried about being able to review Muramasa: The Demon Blade objectively, because this game was, from the outset, completely up my alley. Making a fully 2D sidescrolling action game with lots of combo-based swordfighting and a Japanese mythological setting is like titling the game JC Will Buy This, as there is no component of that game description for which I am not a sucker.

What keeps me honest? ~~Professionalism~~ the other side of that coin -- if the game worked I may be more likely than most to love it, sure, but if there was anything wrong with it, my disappointment would come out pretty harshly. Luckily, I don't have to worry about my personal biases getting in the way, as I'm quite certain this is a great action game.

Gallery: Muramasa: Demon Blade

Continued →

Check out more of Muramasa's lovely gameplay in this new trailer

by Xav de Matos { Aug 31st 2009 at 10:00PM }

Muramasa: The Demon Blade's US release is so anticipated around Joystiq HQ, our staff can constantly be spotted exchanging fist-pumps whenever it's mentioned. Today, a new gameplay trailer has found its way online, showcasing more of the game's beautiful action. Hopefully, when it hits stores Stateside on September 8, it will live up to our lofty expectations. If not, the only arm movement we'll be making is when we throw elbows during our daily "abuse the intern" training exercises.

Muramasa: The Demon Bosses

by JC Fletcher { Aug 26th 2009 at 3:00PM }

Ignition has released two new trailers for the always lovely Muramasa: The Demon Blade. The first features the game's bosses, a collection of mythical monsters who can withstand thousands of rapid-fire slashes from Kisuke and Momohime. We've seen many of them, but we weren't familiar with that giant centipede thing.

If you enjoy that particular boss as much as we do, be sure to watch the other trailer after the break, originally posted at UGO. Not only does it feature more of that boss, acting both as opponent and surface, it features a one thousand hit combo on that boss.

Continued →

New trailer looks at Muramasa's Momohime, release set for Sept. 8

by Richard Mitchell { Aug 13th 2009 at 6:50PM }

Some new Muramasa: The Demon Blade media has been released. This time around, it focuses on Momohime, one of the game's main characters. She's "a princess possessed by a dark spirit and on a quest to recover the cursed demon swords," and each blade she collects gives her different abilities.

But none of that matters, really. What does matter is that she can slice and dice baddies with the best of them and, as we've come to expect from Muramasa, she looks great doing it. Watch the new trailer above and then soak up some new screens and artwork below.

One more thing, we can finally pin a date on Muramasa. Expect it to hit North American shelves September 8.

Gallery: Muramasa (8/13/09)

Ignition opens sharp Muramasa: The Demon Blade site

by JC Fletcher { Aug 11th 2009 at 7:15PM }

Ignition opened the official North American Muramasa: The Demon Blade website today, confrming two important facts for us:

Ignition is still planning to release the game this year (we need constant reassurance that not every game is being pushed to 2010)
The art is still bangin'.

In fact, the website allows you to take some of that art for your very own in the form of desktop wallpapers. You can also check out screenshots, video, and character profiles while you're there, and offer Ignition your own Muramasa art in a fan art contest.

Vanillaware: HD Muramasa wouldn't be 'a great deal of extra work'

by JC Fletcher { Aug 4th 2009 at 6:00PM }

Vanillaware's Muramasa: The Demon Blade is quite beautiful on the Wii, but would such a work be possible in HD? Vanillaware founder and president George Kamitani told Gamasutra that he thinks so. "Well, the original art we draw is all done in double-size -- in the case of Muramasa, the animation frames then get compressed down to the Wii's native resolution," he told Gamasutra. "As a result, producing a fully HD title would not be a great deal of extra work for us; it would just mean our original art is displayed in higher resolution." This is very similar to what WayForward's Voldi Way told us about 2D development in HD.

Despite the relative ease of transitioning to HD, Kamitani said there was no plan to re-release Muramasa as an XBLA game (or to re-release it anywhere else), but that the company is "in the experimental stage" of high-definition development.

Gallery: Muramasa: Demon Blade

New Muramasa: The Demon Blade trailer is all about the blading

by JC Fletcher { Jul 30th 2009 at 4:30PM }

The latest trailer for Muramasa: The Demon Blade is designed to show off the high-flying, combo-ridden swordplay found in Vanillaware's action game. Your sword is in motion at almost all times during this game, as you float around, juggling enemy after enemy. It is a little bit overwhelming at first, in a Marvel vs. Capcom sort of way.

But then, when you get the hang of it, grimacing wheels, single-file lines of monks, gigantic samurai, and even transparent horses won't be able to stop you. At least, we think. We didn't really graduate past the "panicked button-mashing" technique at E3.

Gallery: Muramasa: Demon Blade

New Muramasa trailer makes with the slicing and dicing

by David Hinkle { Jul 2nd 2009 at 6:15PM }

There's no better way to fully appreciate the wonderful artistic style and furious action of Muramasa: The Demon Blade than to see it in motion. And, thankfully, that's just what we got for you right now. Above, you'll find a near-minute of fabulous Muramasa gameplay footage for your eyes to drool over, and if you're wondering what all of the fuss is about, you really should be keeping up.

Gallery: Muramasa: Demon Blade

Muramasa: the GameStop preorder bonus

by JC Fletcher { Jun 29th 2009 at 1:25PM }

Click to Marvelous-sizeWe didn't dare think it could happen, but when we saw the pre-order bonus for Japanese copies of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, we secretly wished for Ignition (well, XSEED at the time) to bring something half as awesome to us here. The bonus is a five-foot-long scroll featuring a series of amazing pieces of character art from the game.

GameStop has just revealed the North American pre-order bonus, and it's exactly that! We couldn't be more thrilled. Well, we could be more thrilled if two things happened:

We confirmed that the back of the scroll had the same enemy and stage artwork as the Japanese version
We found out that GameStop's September 1 release date (a Tuesday!) was the real release date for the game.

We've contacted Ignition about those two points. In the meantime, we can all enjoy the prospect of getting a really nice-looking free thing by buying another thing.

Gallery: Muramasa: Demon Blade

E3 2009 highlights: The Nintendo roundup

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jun 12th 2009 at 4:00PM }

Nintendo E3 2009 checklist:

Mario? *check*
Zelda? *check*
Metroid? *check*

Are we missing something? Head past the break to find out!

Continued →

Interview: XSEED on what happened with Muramasa and more [update]

by JC Fletcher { Jun 6th 2009 at 10:30PM }

[Update: we had attributed some of these remarks to the wrong person. Our apologies to Mr. Berry.]

Last September, XSEED Games announced its intent to publish Vanillaware's Wii side-scroller Muramasa: The Demon Blade in North America, to the delight of hardcore action gamers and people who like to see pretty things. Then, in April, it announced that it wouldn't be publishing the title, a duty that then fell to Ignition Entertainment.

At the time, we wondered why XSEED would decide not to publish such an eye-catching game. The short answer: it wouldn't decide to do that. XSEED's Jun Iwasaki and Ken Berry gave us details on the Muramasa situation, as well as the recent Fragile announcement, and the timing of Flower, Sun, and Rain. And, of course, they gamely accepted our pleas for Retro Game Challenge 2.

Continued →

Hands-on: Muramasa: The Demon Blade

by JC Fletcher { Jun 4th 2009 at 4:30PM }

Vanillaware's Muramasa: The Demon Blade was one of the flashier games being demonstrated on the show floor. Positioned right in front of the door at E3's West Hall, every attendee is greeted by the game's signature woodblock-esque look, with vividly colorful, swirling forest scenery. Our demo took place inside Ignition's booth, guided by new director of business development Shane Bettenhausen.

We know Vanillaware from its RPG titles like Odin Sphere, but while Muramasa shares the same lavish 2D look, it differs sharply in gameplay style -- this is a pure action game similar to something like Legend of Kage. First you choose one of two characters, princess Momohime or ninja Kisuke (each have their own divergent story), and then a difficulty level, "Muso" (easier) or "Shura" (hard). Then you run, jump, and slash monsters. It's pretty simple!

Continued →

Muramasa rights picked up by Ignition, due in September

by Justin McElroy { Apr 21st 2009 at 1:10PM }

We love it when the wheels of progress turn quickly, but this is a bit much. Just a day after we learned that publisher XSEED had dropped the rights to Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Vanillaware's followup to the PS2's Odin Sphere, we hear from Ignition that it will be scooping the game up for a North American release on Wii in September.

Jeez, Ignition, you didn't even give us time to mount an elaborate, multi-pronged effort to take to the streets to save Murasama. Now what the hell are we going to do with all this poster board and puffy paint?