While the game game is often considered a samurai take on Legend of Zelda, the truth is a bit more complex. In reality, the game plays very much like a mix between The Legend of Zelda and the Pocky and Rocky series, since while Takamaru has his sword to attack enemies, the main attack will be projectiles like shurikens he can use against his foes. This is also a fast-paced game with stages, and you will need to keep moving to stay alive while using some of Takamaru’s abilities such as invisibility to avoid damage.
Some enemies, such as the various Tanuki will give you new weapons when you defeat them, and these can make Takamaru much more powerful, but this will also give you a limit on your ammunition before returning to a standard shuriken, Takamaru’s sword is used when you are up close against enemies and to deflect some attacks, and the sword must kill some enemies who cannot die from projectiles. This is part of what makes the game feel like a hybrid of the action-adventure format of Zelda and the run-and-gun style gameplay of Pocky and Rocky as mentioned above. There are also secrets to find as well, such as hidden treasures, extra lives and people to rescue, while also dodging some explosive traps that show up in the world.
The game has an interesting legacy both in and out of Japan, as the game was only released in the West for the first time a few years ago on the 3DS eshop, and was also released on Nintendo Switch online on Halloween 2023 complete with the added features of save states, rewind and more. That said, the game did have a presence outside of Japan before, with a remake /spin-off of sorts having been featured in several western game, including Nintendo Land on the Wii U as a minigame. In addition, the game received a remake of sorts that was released in the West in the form of a recreation of the game in Samurai Warriors III as a Wii exclusive mode.
This was the first Musou take on a Nintendo IP, and actually fit the game rather well,and as was pointed out by the YouTube channel marsbitrona in a video, the original Famicom game has many similarities with the Musou format. This is due to The Mysterious Murasame Castle being about taking down large amounts of enemies, which the original game did to increase the challenge. so the translation worked rather well. The exploding traps were even brought in from the original game, and the music was given a neat update.
In the years since it first released, The Mysterious Murasame Castle has developed its own legacy and following. Takamaru has appeared in a number of other games since, such as an appearance in Captain Rainbow, while the game disc made a cameo in the Pikmin series. Takamaru has shown also up in Smash as an assist trophy and was even considered to join the roster a few times before getting a Mii fighter outfit.
Now that the game has been given a wide release in the West, more people really should give it a try and see why people have praised it. It feels familiar to other Nintendo games while still having a unique feel of its own, and it was even the subject of the first live-action adaptation of a video game. For those who want to try a different take on the Zelda format, this is a must-play. Perhaps we have not seen the last of Takamaru and he will return one day in a new game, but for now, we have the original for all to enjoy.
Screenshots were taken in-game on Switch and captured by me.
Image of the Takamaru mii Fighter take from here
Disclaimer: This is a re-write of an earlier review on the site, done to revise and fix previous issues.
