Title: Musya: The Japanese Classic Tale of Horror (NA) Gousou Shinrai Densetsu: Musya (JP)
Release Date: 04/21/1992
Developer: Jorudan
Publisher: Datam Polystar
We are so close to the end of April 1992 already, it's hard to believe, with a large handful of games left before we move into the breezy summer months (though July 1992 is a pretty packed release month). This one is a strange one. A weird personal anecdote; when I first started buying games to build a collection rather than at random, I saw this game and got it confused with Hagane, one of the most valuable SNES carts that you can find. I assumed that I found a very valuable game for the price of a song at a used game store, only to find I had a, at the time, comparatively worthless game on my hands. Now, though, this game has shot-up in price like many other SNES games lately, and it is regularly going for around $100 on ebay and Amazon.
Background
You all remember Jorudan, right? The Shinjuku based developer that created GDLeen, one of the inscrutable early Japanese only RPGs that we played for this blog? They are also the creators of the weird metroidvania mech platformer Xardion? Well, they are back again with some Castlevania-lite action platforming.
The game is set during the medieval age of Japan, but it is unclear during which century in particular. The main character is not a samurai, but instead a spearman who wields a pike. After a particularly bloody battle, your protagonist, Imoto, takes refuge in a nearby village, which happens to be located near a cave that leads to the Japanese underworld. The demons, spirits, and general boogeymen who live in this cave have stolen the local shrine maiden with hopes of throwing open the gates to hell and unleashing their spookiness upon Japan and the world. Imoto then decides to descend into the cave and rescue the maiden.
This game, which surprisingly wasn't exclusive to Japan and did receive a limited North American release, does remind me of a Super Famicom game known as King of Demons which has as similar premise and play style.
Now the subtitle says a "classic Japanese tale of horror," but I am having trouble researching whether this was based on any particular tale. It certainly features a lot of classic Japanese spirits, monsters, and general Yokai, but it doesn't seem to be based on any particular story. Many "ghost" stories in Japan deal with more personal stories and serve as cautionary tales, less ghost-busting. There are a few action-oriented stories that come to mind, such as the slaying of the oni lord Shuten-Doji by the samurai Minamoto Raiko, but that is an exception. Usually a Japanese "horror" story will be more like "a traveling merchant meets a woman on a bridge who turns out to be a demon; he must hide in his house and refuse to let anyone in until an exorcism is complete." Usually they focus on one type of spirit or monster as well, but this type of "the gang's all here" approach to yokai and spirits was having its heyday in Japanese pop culture from the late 70s to the early 90s (and is still popular today; I mean look at Nioh).
Gameplay
This game is very much a Castlevania like by way of a Japanese visual motif. Imoto moves very slowly and his jumps are, normally, very shallow in their width. Imoto, being a spearman, can jab with his spear (his main attack), and spin his spear to deflect projectiles. Imoto can also do this weird crab walk shuffle if you hold the shoulder buttons down, though I can't see the purpose of this gameplay wise. Finally, and most useful of all, Imoto can do this crazy tall high-jump if you hold down up before you jump. This jump is so long-lasting that you can bypass many dangers just by jumping and hovering over things for a couple seconds.
Imoto has a few other tools that should be noted. He has an extensive health bar, allowing up to 16 hits before he dies, as well as three lives before having to restart a level from the beginning. Throughout each level are power-ups that will increase his armor or the range of his spear; if you die, though, you lose all of your upgrades. Finally, Imoto can find scrolls that allow him to summon some of the guardian spirits of Buddhism to do a screen clearing blast.
The game plays out over seven stages, though really you just play the first three stages twice, and then have an ultimate final stage to work through. Each stage caps off with a boss fight against a prominent and well known yokai. The repeating stage gimmick is explained as you find the shrine maiden about half-way through the game. You leave the cavern with her before she says that an evil priest is still trying to open the gates to the underworld, which means you have to reenter the cavern from the beginning to get back to the gate. In a weird choice, you can actually choose to say "nah" and just leave well enough alone, ending the game prematurely. The stage repeats are exactly the same except for the boss that you fight at the end (except for the third/sixth stage which even repeats the same boss).
There are some other gameplay choices that make this game a frustrating platformer. For one, Imoto's base spear, which you will be using most of the game because it is really hard to hold onto the power-ups, is super weak. Every enemy will take four or five hits to kill. As well, the game loves to flood the screen with enemies from all angles, and many of these enemies are much faster than poor Imoto. Finally, the respawn rate of enemies is almost instantaneous. In the first level, there are these slimes that hang from the ceiling and try to drop on your head; by the time you kill one of them and they "poof" out of existence, his replacement is already fading into existence. At one point, I used a screen clearing attack to kill all the enemies, and by the time the animation had finished and I could control Imoto again, the enemies had already respawned and were heading towards me. Its a little ridiculous.
Add onto this the fact that the platforming is really finicky; you have to be exact in your jumps with landing in the center of platforms or you will just fall through the platform to your death. This led to many frustrating restarts of levels.
The boss fights aren't too bad. They aren't as random as enemy placement feels, and are pattern based affairs. Plus it was a joy to see the reimagining of some popular yokai.
Design/Aesthetic
This is the one area where this game really sings. It is a legitimately creepy setting for a game. It starts with a cavern that is loaded with ghosts, and then enters some creepy catacombs; this opens to a huge room loaded with demon eggs that is really quite freaky. The final level in particular is very creepy, with a wasteland loaded with bodies and skulls impaled on spikes. The final boss arena is really creepy, with living mummies (a real thing that radical Buddhist monk sects would practice), surrounding a devilish altar.
The enemy design is top-knotch too, with very grim and fearsome incarnations of well known yokai. The first boss, for example, is a Tanuki, which in a lot of media is a cute and cuddly raccoon-dog, but here is a large bear beast that drinks alcohol and has huge testicles (at least in the Japanese version). There is also a Kappa (turtle goblin) boss that is quite leery, and the final boss is a pretty stunning sprite too.
I like the fact that this game leaned into the horror aesthetic; all the yokai seem foreign and otherworldly. Nothing is inviting or welcoming in this game. If the gameplay was just a little tighter, then I think this game would be talked about even still as a retro horror classic.
Music
The music utilizes a lot of samples from Japanese instruments. Overall, its okay...nothing amazing, but nothing grating on the ears.
Ads/Art
Final Verdict
Overall this is a neat game, but one that is not very fun to play. The novelty, though, is worth at least checking out. I am sure there are some kids who received this in the 90s that have fond memories of it. It is a bit of a collector's item nowadays, so expect to pay a pretty penny for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment