Secret of Castle Murasame FDS

[Graham Mitchell]

I acquired a beautiful, fully-functioning Sharp Twin AV Famicom with Disk System installed, and I recently acquired a CIB copy of Murasame.

For those who don't know what this game is, here's a little video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4NUa-vydI

The frame rate in the video is somewhat misleading-it plays quite a bit smoother than what you see here.

It's a great 1st party Nintendo title that has never, ever seen the light of day in the US, and despite some frustrating control issues (you can't move or attack diagonally) it's quite fun!

Although I'm not sure about the details, references to the game have appeared in some more modern Nintendo Fan-Service games like the Super Smash Bros. Series and Animal Crossing, and the game is currently available for download for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan.

The game has some heavy Japanese cultural base, and outside of Metroid, is possibly the darkest and most violent game I know of that Nintendo developed in-house. (Which isn't to say that it's on par with Splatterhouse or anything, it's just that there weren't many first-party NES, or SNES titles that involved stabbing people, throwing sharp objects at people, or burning them with fire.) These factors may have a part in why we've never seen in the game in the West.

It plays a lot like Sega's The Ninja/Ninja Princess but with some puzzle-solving aspects, and lots of secret items to find. To be honest, for some reason the game reminds me of the overhead sequences from Blaster Master more than anything else (especially the castle exploration levels.)

Does anybody have a lot of experience with this game or know much about the history of it? I really can't tell which team at Nintendo developed this. Because of the FM sound, it's tougher to identify a Gumpei Yokoi game by the sound scheme. A lot of the overhead sequences look a lot like the Legend of Zelda, and the illustrations in the manual appear to be from the same artist who did a lot of the paintings in the original LoZ manual (the anime-style pics in the story section.)

Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the game. It's pretty cool, and worth checking out if you're into the 8-bit Nintendo era. It's pretty accessible for non-Japanese speakers.

[aclbandit]

I love this game. It definitely makes me think of what Zelda would be if it were an extremely difficult, high-action arcade title.

Still haven't beaten it. Maybe I suck at it or something, but I still cite it as the hardest game I've ever played.

[Graham Mitchell]

I love this game. It definitely makes me think of what Zelda would be if it were an extremely difficult, high-action arcade title.

Still haven't beaten it. Maybe I suck at it or something, but I still cite it as the hardest game I've ever played.

It's pretty damn tough. I can't even make it through the path to the second castle. I guess it just takes a lot of practice...and luck. knowing where the secrets are helps a bit, and memorizing enemy patterns is also useful. Really, I think the trick of the game is knowing when to use your B-button power/bomb thingy to keep yourself out of a jam.

[Arasoi]

I own this one, one of my absolute favorites on FDS. It's surprising it never came out over here, considering how good it is.

[Nico87]

Ordered together with Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom.

Thanks guys! :)

By the way, can you save your game on SMB for the FDS? If so, I'm picking up that aswell.

[aclbandit]

Ordered together with Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom.

Thanks guys! :)

By the way, can you save your game on SMB for the FDS? If so, I'm picking up that aswell.

As you should. It's some seriously good stuff.

Also, no. No saving in SMB1 or SMB2j. At least AFAIK.

[Graham Mitchell]

As you should. It's some seriously good stuff.

Also, no. No saving in SMB1 or SMB2j. At least AFAIK.

On the FDS? Really? I just ordered SMB2j myself and I remember reading that there was saving. I remember there was some discussion of cartridge bootlegs that were identical to the disk version except that the saving was disabled.

Anyway, EVERYBODY should get play Murasame, so good job, Nico87. The more I play it the more I notice the similarities with Zelda. A lot of sound effects are recycled from LoZ.

[Kiddo]

IIRC if you hit "retry" from a game over screen, your high score and the last "World" you were on should save. I can't remember quite beyond that though. I myself am not satisfied without a Game-Over-less game clear.

[Graham Mitchell]

IIRC if you hit "retry" from a game over screen, your high score and the last "World" you were on should save. I can't remember quite beyond that though. I myself am not satisfied without a Game-Over-less game clear.

I got my FDS copy of Super Mario Bros. 2 in the mail today and, sadly, it doesn't save ANYTHING. This is just more evidence that SMB2 is the cruellest joke ever played on little kids. It's wickedly difficult.

It's kind of an odd FDS game, too. The game doesn't even access the disk after it loads the game once, kind of like Ridge Racer on the PS1...the whole game appears to fit in the RAM. In addition, side B of the disk is blank from what I can tell. Side B isn't even labeled. (It was unopened until I desecrated it this evening, so there's no way the label was tampered with.) Odd. What's the point of releasing it on the FDS if it doesn't save? Other than to sell more FDS hardware, of course (I'm sure people bought the machine just to play this game when it was released.)

[aclbandit]

I got my FDS copy of Super Mario Bros. 2 in the mail today and, sadly, it doesn't save ANYTHING. This is just more evidence that SMB2 is the cruellest joke ever played on little kids. It's wickedly difficult.

It's kind of an odd FDS game, too. The game doesn't even access the disk after it loads the game once, kind of like Ridge Racer on the PS1...the whole game appears to fit in the RAM. In addition, side B of the disk is blank from what I can tell. Side B isn't even labeled. (It was unopened until I desecrated it this evening, so there's no way the label was tampered with.) Odd. What's the point of releasing it on the FDS if it doesn't save? Other than to sell more FDS hardware, of course (I'm sure people bought the machine just to play this game when it was released.)

It's an evil-difficult game, yup. I loved every minute of it and I'm never playing it again :P. It doesn't actually load the WHOLE game into RAM; I think it's only half of it. I'm fairly certain that after world four, it will load the other half of the game into RAM.

Enjoy it, though-- take a day to just sit down and play through it. Don't break the controller. Famicom controllers are expensive ^_^;

[Nico87]

Got the game yesterday, and played around for about 30 minutes. What am I supposed to do here? I'm walking in circles, big-time. I always end up in the room or whatever with the 5 doors (?).

[Graham Mitchell]

Got the game yesterday, and played around for about 30 minutes. What am I supposed to do here? I'm walking in circles, big-time. I always end up in the room or whatever with the 5 doors (?).

The game is essentially linear, so if you explore enough you will find the boss and advance into the castle. Are you in the castle or still outside running around in the woods?

The castle is a bit more of a puzzle. It's like Zelda where you need to kill the major enemies in the room before the doors open. Some rooms have little midgets that look like they're shooting snakes at you. You need to kill all the midgets and a staircase will drop down for you to advance.

Also, while in the castles the game gives you hints about where to go next. You'll see the boss running through certain doors occasionally. Follow him!

The game is really hard, so you will need to search for powerups. They are found by slashing in certain areas. I recommend running around all 4 corners of every screen while tapping the A button repeatedly to find stuff. Also check any odd-looking nooks or crannies. That usually signals that there's something to grab. The manual is in Japanese, so it took me awhile to find out that the blue sandals let you walk on water. This is ESSENTIAL for passing certain areas of the game.

Hope that helps, and good luck! It's hard!

[Nico87]

Thanks, Graham!

Well, basically I'm just running around in the woods 'till I get to the room (?) with five doors. When I walk out of it again it just takes me to where the game starts.

Guess I'll play around some more when I get back from work!

[Graham Mitchell]

Thanks, Graham!

Well, basically I'm just running around in the woods 'till I get to the room (?) with five doors. When I walk out of it again it just takes me to where the game starts.

Guess I'll play around some more when I get back from work!

Oh, I see. It looks like you're back at the beginning because they recycle rooms a lot, but you're actually in a new area. Just keep pushing forward. Try slashing around those doors, too. There's usually goodies in them.

The later levels get crazy frantic. The screen gets frantic, like robotron frantic. Its crazy to watch your character deflect 25 shurikens in 3 seconds. Its worth playing through just for that, but you'll die a lot before you get warmed up enough.

[bombman]

I love SMB2... I played the Famicom Mini version and even beat Worlds A-D (although I can't really say it was worth the trouble.) Gets a lot of undeserved hate imo, mostly from people who suck at games.

[SparTonberry]

SMB2 was a single-sided game.
From what I understand, it was intended that Japanese kids back in the day could take the disk to a store and pay to download a different single-side game to the other side of the disk.
I've heard SMB2 only saved the number of times you finished the game (I hear you needed to finish it 8 times and then you could hold A and press Start to go to World A.)
I'm not sure, but I suspect SMB2 could run 4 worlds before it needed to load data (I think the blank screen before world 5 on VC was a bit longer, but it could be my imagination, as I'm sure the VC had fast loading). That would explain why you can't warp past World 4 (and I don't think there was a backwards warp either from 5+ to 4 or earlier).

[Koa Zo]

Nazo no Murasame was re-released on GBA as Vol.26 of the Famicom Mini Series.


I love this game. It definitely makes me think of what Zelda would be if it were an extremely difficult, high-action arcade title.

Still haven't beaten it. Maybe I suck at it or something, but I still cite it as the hardest game I've ever played.
It sits in my mind as one of the hardest ever. I sadly gave up on it after a few dozen plays. Always wanted to come back to it, but the GBA is in storage more often than not, and other games keep taking precedence.



The later levels get crazy frantic. The screen gets frantic, like robotron frantic. Its crazy to watch your character deflect 25 shurikens in 3 seconds. Its worth playing through just for that, but you'll die a lot before you get warmed up enough.
The speed of the game is what really blew me away when I first played Nazo no Murasame. First impression was that it was a hyper charged Zelda-hybrid.
I can hardly imagine how radical the game must have been back when it was first released! \\^_^/

[Graham Mitchell]

Nazo no Murasame was re-released on GBA as Vol.26 of the Famicom Mini Series.


It sits in my mind as one of the hardest ever. I sadly gave up on it after a few dozen plays. Always wanted to come back to it, but the GBA is in storage more often than not, and other games keep taking precedence.


The speed of the game is what really blew me away when I first played Nazo no Murasame. First impression was that it was a hyper charged Zelda-hybrid.
I can hardly imagine how radical the game must have been back when it was first released! \\^_^/

I'm wondering what my response to the game would have been back then, as well. There are a lot of baaaaaaaad early famicom games from back then. They just look cheap and awful. To some degree, Murasame has a limited color palette and the characters aren't very detailed, and reminds me of some of those early FC games. However, it's fast, smooth, and the sound is awesome, so I think those aspects really would have won me over. But I think the difficulty would have made me cry.