Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Vanillaware) - Out now

Yeah, I'd imagine that Atlus, NIS, or even Marvelous themselves would be the "mystery" publisher that's localizing it now.

Siliconera has a list of publishers that Marvelous has worked with in the past, all possible candidates:
A new publisher will be announced as early as tomorrow. Aside from working with Xseed, Marvelous’ games have been handled by Atlus, Ignition Entertainment, Natsume, and Ubisoft.
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Somebody at Atlus noticed their wallpapers, and went "oh, yeah, we can swag the shit out of this.". Hopefully. Well, as long as it's still on the same path, I don't really care a ton about who has their name on the box.
 
I forgot about ubisoft. I have a funny feeling that they are most likely the ones going to do it. Rather have Atlus, but I'll take whatever we can get.
 
When I saw Siliconera's list, I figured that Ignition was another likely candidate, as they've been steadily increasing their profile with bigger titles like handling the worldwide release of KOF98UM and KOFXII. I can't say whether this will turn out well or not; I guess with any luck, Ignition hopefully learned from their mistakes with Lux-Pain's localization.
 
I hear KOF98UM turned out pretty well, so I think it'll be ok. Granted, the port was much easier compared to Lux-Pain, but I think Muramasa fits somewhere in the middle of that, as far as translation goes. The other games they've ported like Metal Slug 7, Dokomodake, and Blue Dragon Plus turned out ok, too.
 
http://www.siliconera.com/2009/04/21/mystery-publisher-behind-muramasa-the-demon-blade-revealed/
Along with Shane Bettenhausen's statement, Siliconera brought up a good point about Lux-Pain; Marvelous translated the in-game text themselves, then shopped out the voice dubbing duties to Ignition. That sort of setup would explain why there were places where the voice acting didn't match the text on the screen.

Those worried for the quality of Murarama’s localization after Ignition’s last published game, Lux-Pain, can lay their concerns to rest, claims Ignition’s Shane Bettenhausen. In a subtle comment left on NeoGAF, Mr. Bettenhausen had this to say:

"The Lux-Pain localization situation (that occurred before my time) will have absolutely no impact on Muramasa. I believe that you’ll be pleased with how this one is handled. Cheers…"

By “situation,” we assume Mr. Bettenhausen is subtly referring to the fact that MMV translated Lux-Pain inhouse and left the English voice-over work and publishing duties to Ignition.
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E3 interview with director George Kamitani:

Mostly about the game, but this aside is something I really like:
IGN: So, on the Wii, you can achieve a display resolution that only goes up to a certain point. But other systems offer more power and more resolution, and could potentially make the 2D art look even more beautiful. So why the decision to stick with the Wii when a game like this could maybe look better on, say, the Xbox 360?

Kamitani: That question's been asked many times. It's not that I definitely wanted to do the game for Wii, though I wrote in the original design document that it's for Wii. The reason is that our PS2 know-how could be brought over straight to the Wii. Actually, I made presentations for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but it was just too expensive.
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Their studio is too small, but they seem to keep rolling on poor sales, and different publishers for each game as they're dropped each time. I'm just glad they're able to make this.

Shame though, their game would be gorgeous because 2D especially shines with higher resolution.
 
[quote name='dallow']Their studio is too small, but they seem to keep rolling on poor sales, and different publishers for each game as they're dropped each time. I'm just glad they're able to make this.

Shame though, their game would be gorgeous because 2D especially shines with higher resolution.[/QUOTE]

Odin Sphere did really well and became a GH
 
Then you have to wonder why Atlus didn't continue their partnership with them.

There's a quote from Vanillaware about their art for the game.... ugh, but can't find it.

I did like this, go Shane B!
“For Muramasa we decided to stick with the original Japanese voices and only localize the text,” Shane Bettenhausen, Business Development Director at Ignition, told Siliconera in a post E3 phone interview. “We felt the game was deeply steeped in Japanese tradition, mythology, and culture that trying to dub it, trying to make something more Western is really not a service to the product.”

“Who wants some goofy anime voices in this game?” Bettenhausen joked.
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EDIT: Ah, found the other quote:
“When we draw the graphics, we create them in high resolution from the beginning, and then shrink them down to fit the available memory when we convert them into game data.”
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XSEED isn't even publishing this anymore. (and there's no way XSEED could ever make a better offer than Atlus anyway, haha)

MMV in Japan, and Ignition in USA.
This game won't do nearly as well without the Atlus label sadly.
 
GameStop announced the pre-order bonus for Muramasa:
http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=73359
230532_bonusLG.jpg


I don't see any "GameStop exclusive" labels, so this bonus might appear at the usual stores (Amazon, GameCrazy).
 
That's pretty cool. I'm still waiting to see how the framerate is. The unstable framerate is the only reason I didn't get Odin Sphere.
 
nice we also get the preorder.
an early review on rpgfan wasn't terribly kind, but there isn't mention of a slowdown issue
 
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/52335.html


I read in the newest NP mag that the producer of Odin Sphere was quite embarrassed by the framerate problems in OS, and made it point to address it w/Muramasa. I don't remember that was ever a complaint in the Japan version in the Famitsu reviews and the eurogamer review of the Japan release did not cite any framerate issues either.

Sounds like the main problem with the game was too much backtracking despite relatively short length.
 
Siliconera is reporting that Marvelous might be porting Muramasa and other games to the PS3 and Xbox 360. I have no problem with the Wii, but I know that I'd rather have Muramasa in high definition than in standard definition.
 
This game looks really cool. Will be keeping an eye on it and seeing what reviewers say about length and whatnot. Probably won't pick it up til it's cheap though (assuming I like what I read), can't really afford many games atm.
 
Got a chance to play a bit of the Japanese version and I fell in love with it. The artwork is so beautiful that I could just stare at the screen for hours. =P Now I just gotta hope that the localization is done solidly.
 
oh snap! narration by Mango D!!

wtf talking about advanced technics n shyt. lol, I can hear u button mashing!!

stop acting like u kno how to play!!
 
Its very unlikely that Gamestop's date is correct. IgnitionEntertainment's pre-release "get it before you can buy it" party at the Nintendo World Store in New York is on Saturday the 5th. I find that compelling evidence.
 
so i went to my local GS and i asked about the pre-order bonus. the dude checked to see if they were getting any, and lo and behold they already got one (the only one) in, so he gave it to me right then and there. it's pretty slick. now i just need the game!
 
No one posted the Nintendo Power review? I don't have a link on me but I read it.
About the only positive they said about the game was the beautiful 2D graphics, but everything else was negative.
And yet, they gave it a pretty good score.
I don't understand.
 
[quote name='Snake2715']yeah i have a feeling these preorder bonuses are going to be few and far between.[/QUOTE]
i think you're right. my store got one.
 
it's probably backordered because the release date was incorrect, once it passed, title went to backorder status in their system instead of preorder since it releases 9/8
 
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