Muramasa Rebirth for PlayStation Vita Reviews

Combat is fast, with responisve controls, but I'd appreciate if the enemies had less HP and more tricks up their sleeves, since it takes unreasonable long time to take down most enemies even when you are clearly superior and they can't put a scretch on you. Some enemy types are rather annoying to deal with like that, they can't harm you, but will happily deflect most of your attacks. Not much fun to be had then.

Boss fights on the other hand are quite different and much more enjoyable, since each comes with its own playstyle. The pinnacle of combat for me were the second endings of each character, which are super fast paced and 90% of attacks ends up witch clash of the blades. Kisuke's 1st/3rd ending boss fight also had a nice emotional drive to it.

What was really disappointing is the repetivnes of the game: Locations are greatly copy/pasted, and you are required to basically just run back and forth through them with random fights thrown in more than I'd care for the playtime gets ridiculously inflated with that. Also inventory navigation/use could be more user-friendly if you want to use multiple items, you have to re-open the inventory for every single one.

This being considered a metrodivania game, I'd expect gaining new abilities throughout the game, but you gain access to the new areas simply by obtaining a specific sword. And the swords, in essence, are all pretty much the same, thus the gameplay does not evolve a bit over the course of game, which is a real shame.

For a metroidvania game on Vita, I'd say the Guacamelee! is a better choice. But when you play a Vanillaware game, you play it mostly for the art.