We played Muramasa: Revenant Blades on a PC and it was awesome
During a preview event directly before Tokyo Game Show, I had the chance to play an in-development build of Muramasa: Revenant Blades on a PC at Marvelous' Japanese headquarters. I saw them launch the game, a Vanillaware game, on Steam; up until a few months ago, I wasn't convinced we'd ever see the day this would happen, and now I can personally confirm that not only does that port exist on paper but I was able to play it for myself.
Visually, it's about what you would expect; Muramasa has been remastered for higher fidelity, and none of the assets looked out of place on the monitor that we played our demo on. It's a Vanillaware title, so it already was one of the most beautiful games of all time - but seeing it in proper HD for the first time ever was a real treat. We've seen Vanillaware titles on HD platforms before, of course, but that doesn't really mute the impact of seeing all the assets I'd already experienced on my PlayStation Vita in 2013 in a higher fidelity.
As far as content, well, there's not all that much new. The DLC that was released for the Vita version is included, and there's now the ability to learn each blade's ability, allowing you to equip them even without making use of the requisite demon blade. While we didn't get to mess with this feature too much during our session - we played the very opening hour of the game, after all - there's at least a few skills that I could see going incredibly well when paired with stronger blades down the tree. You can assign skills to different combinations of directions and whether or not you're in the air; between the skills tied to your equipped blades and ones you've already learned, I definitely foresee combat looking marketedly different by the end of the game on the game's two primary campaigns.
This does make me wonder about the game's balance to a degree, but at the same time Muramasa has always been a rather difficult game. In many ways it feels like playing a 3D Ninja Gaiden title but in 2D, if that makes any sense; your job is to dart around the arena like an angry wasp, while avoiding getting swatted. Going into the demo I distinctly remembered that the game had a very sensitive feel to its movement and combat. At first it's pretty easy to overshoot your movements and miss enemies, but once you get combat down it almost feels effortless darting from one side of the screen to the next.
In other words; I do think it will make the game a bit easier for some players, but at the same time I still think you'll need to learn the fundamentals of combat in order to be successful against bosses, especially on the harder difficulties. If anything, I'm excited to see how it allows for skill expression. By the time this remaster drops, it will have been almost 15 years since the last time I'd played Muramasa, and quickly learning I hadn't completely atrophied my muscle memory has me all the more ready to dive right in when it drops in just a few short months. Even if it wasn't for the PC version I'd be there day 1, but how could I not celebrate Vanillaware's introduction to the platform after so many years?
Regardless of whether you feel the same way, Muramasa: Revenant Blades is shaping up to be well worth the wait when it drops on February 4, 2027 for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC (Steam). Stay tuned for our further impressions in the months ahead.
RPG Site was given travel accomodations for the purposes of this preview opportunity.