Muramasa: Masterpiece or Meretricious?

 Review of Full Metal Daemon Muramasa

Alternative Titles: Soukou Akki Muramasa

Rating: 8/10 (Good)

One-liner: A very solid steampunk-alternate history fantasy-mecha action. 

HOT

• A cast of colourful characters that stray beyond their established archetype
• A powerfully moving story
• Choices actually matter, and are not obvious. Some places may even require a walkthrough if you're not a fan of repeating events until you finally pick the right choice

NOT

• There is no romantic development. Zilch. Nada. Zero. End of Story.
• The H-scenes are all disturbing, even the "supposedly vanilla" pure love ones.
• There is just way too much self-pity

VERDICT: PLAY IT!

Synopsis

This is not a story of heroes.

Minato Kageaki is a musha, a warrior who wields a tsurugi - an enchanted, sentient armour that grants one supernatural powers. For centuries, mushas have ruled the battlefield, and they are known to crush armies and entire nation. Minato dons the legendary, crimson armour Muramasa, who plunged the world into ruin 500 years ago. Minato is driven only by one thing - to destroy the Ginseigo, the Silver Star, whose power is able to warp people's minds and leaves nothing but absolute destruction in its wake. But using Muramasa has a terrible cost, and Minato Kageaki is not prepared to shoulder the burden.

Review

Disclaimer: This is a review of the English version of Souki Akki Muramasa, localised by JAST as Full Metal Daemon Muramasa. Because of localisation, the Japanese text which was displayed vertically was replaced with regular horizontal English text and the fancy old Japanese has been translated into modern English. There may be other changes, so the experience playing the Japanese version and English version will vary.

Muramasa. Every review I've seen so far has either lauded it as one of the greatest literary masterpiece of its generation, or has dismissed it as too long and too meandering for its own good. My opinion, is that it is good, but nowhere as good as some people have made it out to be.

This may be in part due to the fact that the English version is markedly different that the Japanese version, but I have not played the Japanese version, and I believe that any literary work must be judged by its own merits.

The story general revolves around the Rokuhara, the ruling shogunate that sold out its country to curry favour with the western powers and retain control of the alternate-history Japan, named Yamato and the GHQ, which as basically the British Empire at its peak and also has annexed the United States. The GHQ wants to use Yamato as a bastion against the possible invasion of Russia, and the Rokuhara is biding its time to consolidate its power and eventually strike back at the GHQ. Therefore, an uneasy peace last between the Rokuhara and the GHQ, but war may spark out at any time. Meanwhile, the Rokuhara is tyrannically ruling the people under an iron fist, and massacring any disruptive elements. The plot is interesting and does feature various machinations but it does drag on at times. Nevertheless, the alternate-history fantasy world is well built and is a fascinating backdrop for the story. 

However, the characters are pretty hit and miss for me. Ayane Ichijo is the standard Justice-loving Shirou Emiya of this story. Otori Kanae is the seemingly airheaded GHQ officer that belies impressive abilities and a few tricks up her sleeve. and Chachamaru is a blonde loli who seems to do whatever she wants but hides a dark secret and may have a few skeletons in her closet. There is also a fourth heroine, who I won't spoil but her name is literally in the title, so its not really a spoiler.

Minato Kageaki is an interesting specimen. His backstory and motivations are fully fleshed out but his self-hate and self-pity is too much to read at times. Yes, he does have a reason to hate and wallow in his own pity, but when the story tells you in excruciating detail how much hate and pity he has on himself every single chance it gets - it gets old, repetitive and becomes downright obnoxious after a while. 

One interesting thing about this visual novel is the sheer number of choices. Most VNs give you an insignificant number of choices, make the choices to get into whichever girl you choose extremely obvious, ultimately making the "choose you own adventure" system pointless. Muramasa eschews that format and instead provides a multitudinous number of choices, and two gargantuan minigames along with one extremely difficult puzzle. Suffice it to say, if you are playing without a walkthrough, you are going to stumble into bad ends very often. The choices are also very opaque, so even through there is sort of an affection meter, the affection meter can get cancelled without warning, and sometimes they bait you by making you choose the obvious choice only to greet you with a bad end.

I am not an art connoisseur so I can't comment about the art, but its is very beautiful to look at. There are some limited animation and they generally do a good job in the battles between the mushas, giving it a sense of momentum and movement with the limited animation and movement they have.

Overall, Muramasa is definitely a visual novel worth reading. Is it overhyped? Maybe. Is it still a fantastic read and well worth your time. Yes. 

9-nine- Tetralogy + Shinsou: Birth of a new fantasy classic

 9-nine- Tetralogy + Shinsou Review

Produced by Palette

 

9-nine- is a visual novel split into 4 different episodes (with potentially a fifth in production), which form a complete story when read in order:

Episode 1: Kokonotsu Kokonoka Kokonoiro (Miyako Kujou)

Episode 2: Sorairo Sorauta Soranooto (Sora Niimi)

Episode 3: Haruiro Harukoi Harunokaze (Haruka Kousaka)

Episode 4: Yukiiro Yukihana Yukinoato (Noa Yuki)

There is also Shinsou, which is basically a standalone epilogue that ties up all loose ends a well as short after stories for each character.

Rating: 8.5/10 (Sublime)

HOT

• Detailed fantasy story with rich character development
• A very capable and proactive protagonist
• Heroines are charming and are very likable
• Prose flows very well and plotline is extremely well developed
• An impressive meta-element that blends in seamlessly with the plot.

NOT

• Must be read in order
• If you don't like the heroine, you are stuck with her for the entire episode
• Romantic development is hit or miss; some relationships happens too fast, some just drag on for ages

One-liner: One of the best fantasy visual novel series in recent memory, and Episode 4 is probably one of the best visual novels released in 2021. 

Synopsis:

― Shiromitsukawa
A city that other than being a academic town, doesn't have any special characteristic.

There has been some attempts at revitalization in order to attract tourists, but it achieved no success. However, for an unexpected reason the city began to gather the people's attention.

Niimi Kakeru is a boy that despite the hasty attitude, has a strong sense of responsibility. He seems to be an ordinary student with a kind personality, but after a sacred treasure of a certain temple was damaged, an unusual power woke up on some people including him.

These people with powers all possess an Artifact, and are called Users. Joining others who share the same ideals, Kakeru and his friends are embroiled in a battle of fate against those who attempt to use their powers for their own nefarious ends, and eventually find themselves caught in the crossfire of a war then ends up being bigger than they could ever have imagined.

Review (Minor spoilers, read at your own risk)

I would like to preface this review by saying that if you decide to play this series (and you should DEFINITELY play it), you MUST play the visual novels in order, regardless on whether you like the main heroine or not. 

9-nine- is basically a fantasy story with superpowers. Each episode focuses on a main heroine and it is a linear route, which means there are no real branching points, and there is only a singular route. That means that if you don't fancy the particular heroine in a certain episode, unfortunately you are stuck with her for the entire episode. That said, the series takes pains to make sure each heroine is likable, and by the end of it, I liked each character, even the ones whose character I initially despised. 

Each episode takes around ~10 hours to complete, depending on reading speed which clocks in at a total of ~40 hours, which is pretty standard for a full-length visual novel, if you complete all available routes.

Shinsou is the final part of the series, and it acts as an epilogue to the series. It is not necessary, but I highly recommend it if you even remotely enjoyed the game. It is an extremely short game, with a runtime of ~2 hours, and it ties up all the loose ends for the previous series, and provides short and sweet after stories for each of the heroines without overstaying its welcome. It's a fantastic addition and definitely worth reading, especially if you would like a last hurrah with your favourite heroines.  

The series starts of being quite generic and spends the first few entries building the world and the characters, as well as the rules that govern the conflicts in the world. Therefore, the first few entries may be a little slow and end quite abruptly, but the story really picks up during the third entry, and the fourth entry is the true climax of the story - and let me tell you, it is a sight to behold.

It is worth noting that there is a meta element in the plot - it is nowhere as deep,  nor as screwed up as in Totono, but it is beautifully interwoven in the story. It is not intrusive and does not break the suspension of disbelief (no mean feat), which is critical in a story such as this.

There are absolutely no complaints with the art. It is gorgeous and the characters look fantastic, especially the heroines. Most of the action scenes feature static images with limited animation, but they convey the detail of the fights really well, with the prose and the music supporting the art, and they are really a treat to behold.

The music is also noteworthy. There are two different vocal tracks for the opening and ending theme of each episode, and each episode feature a different opening and ending theme for the respective heroine, and every theme is catchy and worth listening to. The background music isn't really anything to write home about, but its unobtrusive and mostly fits the scenario well. The battle scenes, especially has some fantastic music that really hypes up the scenes. 

If this review seems a bit lacking in detail, it's because you should experience it for yourself. I would say that this game joins the ranks of games such as Fate/Stay Night and Muv-Luv as some of the best fantasy visual novels available in English.

Verdict: PLAY IT  

P.S. I never really understood where the 9-nine- name came from, apart from a EXTREMELY vague hint from the lore of the game, but I just realised that there are only 9 characters (with sprites) in the entire game that actually matter, so I guess that's where the name comes from.