Vanillaware’s gorgeous action RPG Muramasa: The Demon Blade is coming to PlayStation Vita in March right after other Marvelous AQL Vita games like Valhalla Knights 3. When I met with producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto, I asked why Marvelous AQL didn’t bring Muramasa: The Demon Blade to PS3 and Xbox 360 too.
"Considering the sell rate of the hardware, it would be better to release it on PS3 or Xbox 360," Hashimoto explained. "Since Muramasa: The Demon Blade is tied to Japanese culture the colors and art style are Japanese-like. You’ll see bright colors like red or sometimes orange and green. Because of this I thought it would be better to present the game and the world itself on an OLED display."
Muramasa: The Demon Blade was developed as a Wii exclusive back in 2009. What you may not know is the Wii game in stores was far from complete. A sizable amount of content was cut including gameplay features and story scenes. I asked Hashimoto if they would add any of the "lost" content to the Vita version of Muramasa: The Demon Blade.
"Yes, there were some features that were cut from the Wii version, but Vanillaware is not the type of company that likes to use old designs or plans. Also at Marvelous AQL we feel the same way. All of the new content will be made specifically for the Vita version," Hashimoto answered. "The gameplay will be the same, but there are new features with the new characters."
"Have we seen the ‘new’ characters in Muramasa: The Demon Blade before? Are they already in Momohime or Kisuke’s story," I wondered.
"This is difficult to talk about because of the timing of the interview, but these will be exciting characters. They will be totally new, someone you haven’t seen before," Hashimoto said.
When Ignition brought Muramasa: The Demon Blade to North America they released it with a bland localization. I think it could’ve been much better, so I explained my concerns to Hashimoto and asked if they plan on making the Vita version’s localization better.
"We are discussing about that internally right now," Hashimoto replied.
