E3 Hands-On: Muramasa Rebirth and Ys: Memories of Celceta

Over at the Sony booth, there were a ton of Playstation Vita games to check out. Two that stood out enough for me to try them (and that didn’t have a line) were Muramasa Rebirth and Ys: Memories of Celceta.

Muramasa Rebirth is a PS Vita port of the Wii game Muramasa: the Demon Blade. A game I’d always wanted to pick up but never did when it was on the Wii, I couldn’t resist trying out the E3 demo.

At the demo, you could choose from Momohime or Kisuke. I chose Momohime and accepted the offer for a tutorial. It was a thorough one that explained the ins and outs of the game’s combat mechanics.

The game played really smooth. The controls handled really well on the Vita. Nothing was too hard to pull off, but the moves your character did on screen looked impressive nonetheless.

Combat was really fun. I didn’t get to try much beyond a few basic enemies, but the massive amount of moves you can do on them really made it fun. I liked the ability to switch between weapons, which if you had the meter for it, would be an attack in and of itself.

The game is made by VanillaWare, meaning it looks stunning. The character designs of the main cast and the enemies really stood out. It has a cute, but impressive art style.

The next game I checked out was Ys: Memories of Celceta. A bit like Muramasa in that I had always wanted to try out the series but never did, I have yet to play Ys despite how tempted I am whenever it’s on sale on Steam.

I did not play much of the game, but I did get a feel for the combat system. You control three characters that you can switch between. Each have basic attacks, special attacks, and a super attack of sorts. They all differed.

The game played very well. Although I didn’t get too long with it, I did enjoy the hell out of what I did. The graphics aren’t anything to write home about, but the design was interesting. The animations for the attacks popped out.

Ultimately, Muramasa Rebirth and Ys: Memories of Celceta both left me wanting more. If the Dragon’s Crown PS Vita version ends up being as good as the PS3 version, I will have to pick one up just to play these three games as they’re enough to sell me on the handheld.