Muramasa Rebirth is a beautiful 2D side-scroller that introduces players with two different playable characters Momohime and Kisuke. Both of the characters have their own campaign/story-line, however; in the end they’re both seeking 108 Demon Blades along with their own purpose that they need to fulfill.

What’s nice about each of the characters is that they actually have a different set environments and bosses, so the game essentially has two whole separate campaigns in one. The game is also scheduled to receive four additional playable characters with new scenarios later down the road, so there is more to expect after you’re done with the multiple campaigns.

The game’s biggest draw is it 2D visual art-style, it’s beautiful, charming and fun to look at. It’s totally worth purchasing this game a second time just for the updated and fantastic HD visuals. The game is already excellent, but it’s even better with updated visuals and localized text. Thankfully, the voices are all still recorded in Japanese, and you won’t find any cheesy English voice acting that tend to plague most Japanese games.

"What's neat is that the player can carry three swords at a time and switch between them on the fly by pressing the triangle button. "

As you play the game and complete chapters, you will also level up from defeating enemies and bosses. When you level up you’re able to use higher level blades and your health pool and attack damage increases overall. The game also allows you to grind certain areas and boost yourself up a few levels in order to make the boss fights a tad easier.

Overall, two characters to play which offer two different story-lines, gorgeous updated visuals, localized text and Japanese voice acting gets the presentation done perfectly.

Muramasa Rebirth combat system and boss fights are the two main reasons that this game is a ton of fun. There are a ton of blades to collect/craft and each blade has different individual attacks called The Secret Art. The Secret Art is a technique that you can use for every blade. Each blade does something specific, and it’s essential that you use the right blades at the right time to get through the bosses with a decent amount of health pool and get through the game on the harder difficulty settings.

Every time a player uses The Secret Art the blade’s power-bar depletes, once depleted you cannot spam the special attack anymore until you beat more enemies with the same blade using regular attacks or switch to a different blade. What’s neat is that the player can carry three swords at a time and switch between them on the fly by pressing the triangle button. When the player switches to a new blade, he/she also unleashes a unique attack that slashes enemies across the entire screen which adds another level of satisfaction.

"While the title shines from marvelous combat system and boss fights, the game's pace of traveling from one environment to another can be a bit repetitious due to the fact that the game just has too much backtracking that can get annoying."

The combat is down-right amazing. The gameplay is so addicting that I couldn’t put it down due to fantastic combat design and exceptional boss fights that are truly challenging. As I mentioned earlier, the two campaigns contain completely different bosses, which ends up delivering more content to the players. The game’s exploration aspect is fun, there are restaurants that you can find to eat food, hidden items and secret caves that contain arena challenges with harder enemies and find all the hidden blades in the game.

However, Muramasa Rebirth is not without its fault when it comes to the pacing of the game. While the title shines from marvelous combat system and boss fights, the game’s pace of traveling from one environment to another can be a bit repetitious due to the fact that the game just has too much backtracking that can get annoying.

You will also encounter too many of the same enemies and that can get annoying. However, my biggest grip is that you have to pay for the future four-playable character DLC. That’s unfortunate due to the fact that I was hoping the PlayStation Vita version would include more than just better graphics considering the game came out on the Wii in 2009, which is 4 years ago.

Muramasa Rebirth has a brutal trophy list in such a sense that it will truly test your patience and skill. Majority of the trophies are hidden which are just regular story mode trophies that cannot be missed as you progress through the game.

"Overall, Muramasa Rebirth's gameplay and visual art-style are what makes the game fun despite the annoying backtracking and repeating enemies. "

The miscellaneous trophies are easy, one of them requires you to eat all of the possible food in the game by finding all the restaurants in the game and tasting every dish. Trophies that require defeating a boss by using Secret Art attack, taking down all the barriers that exist on the main road, defeating a boss without taking damage and more should be easy to achieve if you’re good at the game and enjoy exploration.

The most challenging trophy is in fact, completing the game in Fury Mode. Fury Mode can only be unlocked when you beat the final boss on Chaos Mode. The reason Fury Mode is super difficult is because it requires you to beat the game without getting hit once and this includes all the enemies that you come across not to mention boss fights. If you want to obtain the platinum trophy, then you must have a lot of patience and skill in order to achieve such status.

I personally think this is a good trophy list, it gives the game a ton of replay-ability and stays true to the hardcore fans of the game. There are plenty of people out there who will attempt Fury Mode and some of them will either be successful or will give up. I like how this trophy list is truly challenging and clearly a worthy platinum to have if you are a skilled player.

Overall, Muramasa Rebirth’s gameplay and visual art-style are what makes the game fun despite the annoying backtracking and repeating enemies. This is a perfect game for the PlayStation Vita and is exactly what it needed in order to boost up its library of quality games.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation Vita.

Muramasa Rebirth is well known for it’s beautiful stylish 2D hand-drawn art-style, exploration, replay value and fun combat. The game contains two separate single-player campaigns and boatloads of collectibles.

The differences between the Wii and PlayStation Vita version are the updated HD graphics, improved/new translation and new button mapping/controls. If you haven’t played the Wii version now, is your chance to experience the game in all-new HD glory on your shiny new PlayStation Vita.

Let us know if you’re excited to play the game in the comments below.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for our full review of Muramasa Rebirth for PlayStation Vita in the next few days.

Players will be able to select either Momohime or Kisuke, each possessing their own skills, in a side-scrolling platforming action adventure that takes place over three different modes – with the Shigurui mode testing one’s limits with its difficulty. The PlayStation Vita version of the game, already released in Japan, also features new playable characters and some short scenarios that will be available via DLC soon.

The scenarios in question will have a new playable each, rounding out with four different mini-adventures. Muramasa Rebirth will be released via Aksys Games for the Vita on June 25th for English speaking audiences.

Along with Soul Sacrifice – which has just released and is receiving good reviews from critics – Marvelous seems to be having it good. Both games are currently going quite well in Japan.

Muramasa Rebirth is set to release on June 25 in North America for the PlayStation Vita with Aksys providing the localization to English.

As a remake, Rebirth offers four new as DLC along with four new characters in addition to the original game’s pair. The game is infamous for its three difficulty modes that can alter the play experience or make the game near impossible to complete.

A limited edition version of the game has also been revealed that will include a PS Vita face cover, PS Vita skin, PS Vita pouch and a high resolution framed lithograph by creator and lead designer George Kamitani. Additionally, those who pre-order from GameStop or Amazon will receive an exclusive Abridged Soundtrack for the game.

Muramasa is a 2D side-scrolling action game that focuses on the trials and tribulations of Kisuke and Yuzuruha during the Genroku Era.

The game supports three styles of play, which can either make the game more action oriented or character oriented depending on a player’s preference. The lethal Shigurui mode is equivalent to a Hardcore difficulty since you have only 1 health and can’t level up.

The 3DS sold 38,442 units this week compared to the Vita’s 31,795 units. The regular 3DS remains in the third place with 28,538 units sold while the Wii U is in forth with 22,829 units sold.

That number is surprising, considering it’s nearly double of what Nintendo sold last week for their new console. More importantly, the release of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon has proven to be successful. While not smashing records like Animal Crossing: New Lef or Dragon Quest VII, it did notch up roughly 110,840 units sold this week with 390,991 lifetime sales.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf, by the way, is still going great guns, selling 57,835 units and nearing almost 3 million units sold in its lifetime despite being in third place this week. Muramasa Rebirth helped put the PS Vita in the top 5 games list with 45,660 units sold in its first week at number 5.