We'll get this out of the way first: visually, this game is a masterpiece. I've thrown down another gauntlet here. A word like that shouldn't be tossed around lightly, for a piece of music, a movie, or whatever. But I use it gladly here. If you play through this game and look at scenes like this and don't let in a sharp intake of breath or at least say "wow, thats awesome", well then you sir (or madam, and if you are a madam and play video games like this, email me your phone number) simply have no taste. This game looks incredible. In-cred-ible. It looks better (in a different way, of course!) than most PS3 or 360 games, and its on the wii, which is pretty much just two gamecubes taped together, which is definitely an impressive feat. This snow picture here gives you an idea of the sheer beauty of this game, but really, pictures don't do it justice at all. It needs to be seen in motion, for the subtle nuances in the background, like a dragonfly buzzing around your face, or snowflakes lightly falling the background, or a torrential downpour that is broken by the sunlight as you advance across the screen. Maybe I'm sounding too poetic, but this game is a work of art. I'd already tell you just to buy it or at least experience it just to see the graphics, gameplay be damned.
But the good news here is, the gameplay delivers. If it didn't, I wouldn't have said this is a reason to own a wii, right? It'd just be a game to rent to take over to your friends - who is likely a mom, or a girl who likes ponies, or your grandparents if they own a wii - house to check out how pretty is. But instead, you have not one but two awesome and fairly epic stories to enjoy, and each one will take longer than what has pretty much become the standard game length, which is usually around 8-10 hours. Running through with Momohime, the cute samurai girl that I picked first, took me right around 13 hours. And thats just one of two quests. Thats what we call great value, and wii games cost $10 less than 360 and PS3 games too, so thats even better value for your money. So we got the length that is better than most games and you'll see all sorts of pretty scenes and cool looking (if maybe a little too palette swapped, which means, you'll fight a lot of the same enemy except it'll be a different color) enemies, and how about the story? Well heres the thing - if you are a nerd, and into anime at all, you will eat this junk up. Same if you love old samurai tales and NINJAS, which I'd like to think nearly everyone loves ninjas, but I dunno, there could be an odd few out there that don't. If you don't have a nerd bone in your body, you probably won't be impressed. However, if you don't have a nerd bone in your body, you probably wouldn't be reading this review anyways. I'll give you a bit of a synopsis, and see if you bite: in Momohime's story, shes possessed by this (awesome) bad guy named Jinkuro. He takes over her soul and enters her body for his own evil plan to basically find the most kickass sword in the land and waste everyone who stands in his way with his "oboro style". Momohime is a sweet little innocent (boring) girl before shes possessed by Jinkuro, who makes her awesome. Momohime Jinkuro talks crap to just about anyone in her path, and her story takes her to Hell, which is kinda standard issue for a lot of anime stories, but in a cool twist, you also head up into the Heavens to try and find the best sword in the land. You've got your standard issue corrupt priest who tries to thwart your (also evil) plans, you fight a mess of ninjas and other samurai who stand in your way, and just for good measure, you even kick the piss out of Momohimes love interest, although he isn't all that he seems either. Sound awesome? Sound like you'd want to spend 13 hours seeing what happens next? Well then go get this game. Doesn't sound like your cup of tea? Well, the graphics and the collection aspect, as well as the cool and easy to pick up gameplay still might interest you.
Just to showcase again that everything in this game is beautiful. Thats Momohime about to take a nice dip in the hot springs, and this is just a minor sidenote on the game - recovering in a hot spring. Yet just like everything else here, its of the highest quality, this game was obviously a work of love by everyone involved. And its great that we finally get to see something like this on the wii. But enough gushing, what do I mean about the gameplay you say? Well, for one, its totally old school. And we all know that Clev likes him some old school gameplay. It's really done through two buttons - you have your button for slashing attacks, and your button for special attacks attributed to each sword (you equip and switch between three at a time). You use another button to switch between your items and your swords, and that second button is important - because one of your most useful attacks is charging up your "soul" count (basically what you get from every defeated enemy and some you just find in the background) until those swords flash so that when you switch, you do a cool slash that ruins every enemy on the screen's stuff. You'll use it often, and you won't get tired of using it either. Theres also a collection aspect - theres a whole BUNCH of swords to get for both characters, and some you can only get by beating the game with either character, or having a certain sword from one character to get another sword for the other. It's a cool system, and while you'll collect so many souls and such that you won't really have to pick and choose which swords you want, you'll have a good time switching swords and using cool new special attacks. It's an awesome system, and unlike Dissidia, it'll leave you always feeling accomplished and like you are working toward something. It'll keep you playing, basically. And the battle system isn't all that complex, but it doesn't matter - everything happens so fast and the combat is so stylish that you are unlikely to ever get bored. It's great stuff.
What other awesome aspect to discuss here? How about the bosses. Here's one, a sort of japanese style cyclops. The boss battles are intense, and if you are ballsy enough to switch to the harder mode, you better bring your A game, and on top of that, a lot of stuff to heal your ass when you fight them. They are epic and some are often 5-10 minutes long, especially the final boss fights. They also have very cool (and old school) lead ups to the confrontations, which is to say, you will often have to traverse through an old run down castle or a shady town or a significantly ominous location before you get to face them. There is a slight problem with the backtracking in the game, which might have been done just to stretch out the length a little more, but honestly, you probably won't mind much. I never did, because there was always something new to see on the horizon or if I had to go through something I already had, well I'll probably hit a few level ups on the way there anyways, so no big deal. Really, this game doesn't have too many flaws. And that should make sense, since I already told you that its so good that you should go buy a wii just to play it. So I guess that I'm telling you, this game is worth $300 to play. I stand by those words. BOOM! I said that. And there isn't a whole lot more to say after dropping that bomb on you, so on to the scores.Oh, and one last thing! No douchebag alert for this game, thank God. Everyone is cool. Momohime and Kisuke are awesome main characters (Momo is saved because shes possessed by someone MUCH more awesome than she is throughout most of her story), you will have cool conversations with some of the later bosses, you will feel like an epic badass when you talk crap to demons in hell or gods in heaven, and its all just really cool stuff. So, good news everyone! No douchebags here, they make their appearances in lesser games.
Graphics - 10/10. It doesn't get any better this. Yes, they aren't HD. But what they are is absolutely spectacular. Pictures don't do them justice. It's by far the most beautiful old school game I've ever played, and there should be more games like this. Hopefully this one is truly successful (unlike most niche games like this on the wii have been) and we DO see more.
Sound - 10/10. Just as great as the graphics. Its all japanese voiced, which may turn some off, but honestly, we'd have just gotten poorly acted english voices, and would have had to wait even more months if they did that, so its better this way. Some of the tunes in the background will get stuck in your head, from the ominous to the cheery, its all here. And the sound effects, mostly the clangs and bangs of swords, are all here too. It's great stuff.
Challenge - 7/10. Honestly, I don't think I died once on the Muso mode. The game is meant to be experienced, not meant to be struggled through. That isn't a bad thing. However, you can also bump it up to the other mode (I think its called Shura?) and then the game doesn't eff around. Keep healing items on hand and prepare to get your ass kicked often, but you'll still enjoy yourself and won't truly struggle with anything. It's really just the right blend of difficulty for game like this. The progression is phenomenal too and that doesn't happen in many games.
Fun - 10/10. Maybe I should add a sidenote and say 10/10 for nerds only, but really, anyone who has a passing interest in games should check this one out. Some of the backgrounds honestly look like a painting in motion. How many games can boast something like that? And the gameplay is so easy to pick up and play that anyone can enjoy themselves, even the casual gamer. Theres something for them here, and theres the collection aspect and the bumping of the difficulty for the hardcore. Something for everyone, and this is yet another reason the game is a masterpiece.
Overall - 10/10. Nevermind my lower score for the challenge. This is the reason to own a wii (finally!). This really has been the year for old school and where we got a 2D fighting masterpiece in BlazBlue a few months back, now we get a side-scrolling 2D masterpiece from those mad geniuses at Vanillaware. This game is worth $300 to play. 'nuff said.
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