Odin Sphere was one in a million. I never thought that in this generation of under-stylized brown filters and less-than-inspired art direction, anyone could or would develop a wildly imaginative 2D side scroller. Dreams are occasionally answered and, as we all found out In 2007, Vanillaware’s 2007 offering, Odin Sphere, turned the action RPG genre on its heels and slapped next gen purists right in the face. While the gameplay ultimately suffered from a tiring lack of repetition, the art direction barely made the repetitious trudge worth it.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade, the latest offering from Vanillaware and now published by Ignition Entertainment, looks to mend the qualms from Odin Sphere. Honestly I’m not sure if they’re going to be able to pull off that claim in its entirety, but I can tell you the bits I got to play were a good deal of fun.

The magnificent art direction was, of course, intact, but the exploration and gameplay looked for be significantly altered from Odin Sphere. Town investigation and item acquisition was standard, but the combat, which involved beating the living hell out of a series of marginally difficulty enemies, was fun in a beat ‘em up sort of way. I could also change weapons on the fly, which, depending on the enemy, did different amounts of damage.

Eventually I worked my way to an old man/Cyclops thing that also happened to be a screen-filling boss. I wailed in him for a while, hit the B button and initiated some special attacks, and, after a long, long time, eventually stood victorious. His health bar was seemingly limitless and I can’t say I was ever in any real danger, but beating the snow out of the guy was a reasonable amount of fun.

I hope Vanillaware is going to address the claims of repetition before its release, but either way I’m sure Muramasa is going to be something quite special.