This 2D hack-and-slash will definitely suck out your soul with it's gorgeous visuals and fun combat.
The combat will more drawn you in more than the story will. It's simple, but often repetitive at times. Even though you can play with three different controllers, the scheme remains the same and boils down to the players controller preference. You attack and defend with one button, and that's usually the best way to go. Players will slice through their enemies, all the while deflecting attacks from all sides. Deflecting, blocking and using your swords special abilities will weaken your sword, ultimately breaking it if you don't pay attention. However, you'll have access to three of your blades during battle and changing out to a perfectly healthy sword lies within the press of a button. Placing your broken sword in it's sheath will repair it over time, and the souls you find scattered throughout the world and those of your enemies will aid in it's repair. While the move list is severely hindered due to it's control scheme, the combat is smooth and the controls are solid. It's fun and it'll definitely keep you hooked.
When you're not fighting hordes of enemies, you can cook items to boost your stats, fill your health bar, and other items to aid you later on in battle. As you slay enemies you'll level up which will increase your strength and vitality. As your strength and vitality increase, you'll be able to equip stronger swords that you gain from defeating bosses and forge. Defeating enemies and gaining experience will also give you souls and spirits, both of which are used to forge swords. Forging swords and experimenting with their abilities is fun and there are a ton of swords to forge in this game. You'll earn money for winning battles and often pass by a merchant who will sell you items for cooking, maps, equippable items to help increase your stats or other items that will heal you or aid you in a tough fight. However, players will mostly need to rely on the items they find scattered throughout the world and reap from their enemies corpses. Aside from taking a few minutes out of your time to make items, there's not much to do in Muramasa when you're not fighting an onslaught of enemies. You can backtrack and try out the enemy lairs to earn some items or scavenge around areas to locate the hidden items in them, but it's not really worth the time.
The best thing to do when you're not putting down punks with your blade is to admire the pretty graphics. Muramasa has a very unique style. It has a wonderfully crafted 2D world with some of the most amazing visuals. You'll trek across snowy mountains, ninja fortresses, lush forests with flowing rivers, through bustling villages between fields of wheat with the wind blowing through them. Backdrops repeat themselves a lot but that's ok because they're so pretty to look at. Bosses come in all shapes an sizes, to make each one a memorable experience. Some come in the shape of towering mountain gods, small clouds that spew poison and minions, to large centipedes that take forever to kill.
All in all, Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a great game for the Wii. The combat may be repetitive and the story lacking in any real depth, but it's a load of fun to play and looks fantastic. Players will find themselves playing through as both characters just to see all the different swords they can create and use. If you've got fifty bucks to shell out on a game for your Wii, you'll really want to take Muramasa into consideration.