Marvelous AQL recently released the opening trailer for its Vita port of Muramasa Rebirth. Originally developed for the Wii as Muramasa: The Demon Blade back in 2009 by Vanillaware, the action RPG follows the story of Momohime, a possessed princess, and Kisuke, an amnesiac fugitive, and their respective relations to the eponymous blade.
Unique to this version of the game is the inclusion of DLC and several new protagonists. The upgrade provided by the Vita’s hardware is sure to give the game’s already stunning visuals an added boost, as well. If you’re not familiar with Vanillaware’s games (Odin Sphere, GrimGrimoire, and the upcoming Dragon’s Crown), a defining aspect of their work is their absolutely gorgeous hand-drawn artwork and silky-smooth animation. Judging from the trailers and screenshots that we’ve already seen of the Vita port, Muramasa certainly won’t disappoint in this regard.
Aksys has already confirmed that they’ll publish Muramasa Rebirth in North America sometime this year. I can only speculate that they’ll retranslate the game’s story for this release, but I certainly hope they do, considering their legendary work on story-driven games such as 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward. I personally felt that Ignition’s translation of the original Wii version was rather…confusing, so let’s hope that Aksys works their publishing magic here, too.
For more on the game, check out Aksys’ official Muramasa Rebirth website. If you happen to speak the language, you can even check out the game’s official Japanese website, or at least stumble around in it like I did. (There’s plenty of eye candy, though!) And make sure to check out our previous coverage of the game below as we anxiously wait for word from Aksys on an official release date.
