Muramasa Rebirth

Port Over of an Action RPG

As an action RPG, Muramasa Rebirth offers a slightly different kind of game play than most.

Some gamers might have noticed that Muramasa Rebirth looks a lot like Muramasa: The Demon Blade for Nintendo Wii. If nothing else, they might very well have noticed that because Demon Blade is one of the most prominent anime style RPGs of this type available to those who play games on the Wii. Muramasa Rebirth represents a port over of this game to the PlayStation Vita console, and because it doesn't use the Wii controller it might actually be considered the superior version.

Using Japanese Stories

Like the original Oboromuramasa, this PS Vita installment features a great deal of Shinto and traditional Japanese influence. Those who like to play these kinds of games are often fans of anime. Those who are certainly going to like scenes where the character Momohime goes along and ends up fighting an Oni spirit demon that is wielding a kanabo. Those who practice the martial arts or have a background in kabuki might also appreciate some of the themes more so than other gamers, as this game has a number of themes that those who are otherwise uninformed may not be able to recognize.

Top Vita developers like Marvelous AQL had their hand in the game, and while its single player those who play it have thus far not really considered this to be a drawback. It's the type of game that actually benefits and uses the single player setup to its advantage, even if it feels like a cross between an RPG and a fighting game at times.

Art Direction

Hashimoto Yoshifumi and George Kamitani worked on the game. Vanillaware in general has a very distinct style, and that's obvious in this game. They refer to their graphic development process as tenbineri, which is also known as hand shaping. These figures are generally 3D looking, but they're rendered completely from objects that stand as two-dimensional pixels instead of actual 3D models or anything of the sort. That gives all of their games a very unique look, which has certainly been well demonstrated by this particular title. The game is unique in its own right.