I played Muramasa: Revenant Blades early, and it’s a visually beautiful nod to arcade gaming

In the recent years of game companies trying to achieve high-fidelity graphics, sometimes with the end goal of photorealism, my heart has longed for a better time. In a lot of modern games, I miss something that only arcade machines, Monkey Ball platforming, and slightly crusty-looking racing games can fill. As it turns out, my preview of Muramasa: Revenant Blades scratched the itch too – in a way I wasn’t really expecting.

Muramasa: Revenant Blades is a remake of Muramasa Rebirth and its DLC, repackaging the original game into a modern format. Revenant Blades takes a hack-and-slash side-scroller with six character paths, each with their own story and abilities, and improves graphics while adding English voiceover and a couple of new features. These include a new gallery, a character viewer, and replays, so you can jump into any point in the game without restarting.

According to Marvelous and Vanillaware, the upcoming Switch game is designed for new and old players alike. I’d never played a Muramasa game before, but was impressed with how easy it was to pick up. This was partly because the game relies on action game tropes to do the heavy lifting with many of the mechanics, though there’s nothing wrong with that. There were classic inexplicable barriers that prevent you from moving on, a weapon crafting skill tree, and typical fighting game-style controls, and I was fine with all of those things. I love uppercuts.

I opted to play Momohime’s route, though Kisuke was also available in the preview, and there are four more characters in the full game. The English voiceover was impressively performed, particularly as Momohime became Momohime-Jinkuro, despite the fact that the art style kind of begged me to hear the Japanese voices of the characters. Still, having English voices is good for young children, and I can see kids really getting on with this game, mostly because of its visuals.

It’s hard to understate just how beautiful Muramasa: Revenant Blades looks. At several points during my hour with the game, I stopped playing entirely to just admire the scenery in the background. The colors and general design choices are largely the same as Muramasa: Rebirth, which I like because it keeps its charm, but the art team has added new foreground and background elements and made everything much sharper. The layers pop in every section, but my favorite was near the beginning when Momohime runs through some rice fields. It reminded me a lot of Mooshu’s design in one of my favorite games of all time, Wizard101.

I played the hands-on preview on PC, and while it might not look as great on the original Nintendo Switch, I think both Switch and Switch 2 players will be impressed in docked mode. I used a controller, and I can’t really imagine how the game will work with a keyboard and mouse, but Switch players don’t have to worry about that. I ran into a few issues swapping between my three swords, but hopefully they’ll sort it out in time. Other than that, the game felt very responsive to my inputs, which is, of course, essential for any good action game.

The combat itself is fast-paced and fun, with a generous difficulty level for the first act while you’re still getting to grips with the game. I felt good at the game, even though I wasn’t really, which is one of the best things a game in this genre can do. Muramasa’s mobs are varied enough to feel like you’re getting a different experience each time you get into a fight, which is a lot: every time you run into a new part of the map, you’re liable to an ambush, so you’ve got to make sure you stay healthy and prepared at all times. The one boss I got to tackle was a gnarly-looking Blue Monk, but his attack patterns were easy to understand, and I dealt with him swiftly. It was awesome.

Ultimately, Muramasa: Revenant Blades, so far, is exactly the kind of experience that would have been formative for me if I were 10 to 20 years younger. That’s not to say that it’s a kid’s game at all, rather that it possesses the qualities of the kind of games I’d loved as a child – a mystical setting, a moreish combat loop, and plenty of character in its presentation, including a distinct and captivating art style. As it happens, I’m not young enough to be defined by new games much anymore, but from where I am standing, it’s a pretty great ride. Muramasa: Revenant Blades is out February 4, 2027.