The Mysterious Murasame Castle
A fast-paced action-adventure game set in feudal Japan, where players control Takamaru, a young samurai tasked with liberating Murasame Castle from demonic forces. Known for its intense difficulty and innovative combat system, blending swordplay with shuriken throws and strategic item usage.
Share this game
Story
In Edo-period Japan, Murasame Castle houses a gigantic stone statue known as Murasame. The people lived peacefully until one stormy night, when a shining golden object fell onto the castle from the sky. Deafening shrieks arose from the castle, and the shining object is later revealed to be an alien creature who gives life to the stone statue Murasame and takes over the castle. The alien creature extends its power to four other neighboring castles, giving the daimyō lords each an evil sphere of power.
The lords are taken over by the alien's evil power, and use the spheres to summon ninja armies and monsters to attack villagers. Hearing of these strange occurrences, the shogunate led by Tokugawa Ietsuna sends Takamaru, a samurai apprentice, on a secret mission to investigate the castle. As Takamaru, the player must infiltrate the four castles to defeat each castle lord, before going on to face the alien entity itself.
Gameplay Systems
The Mysterious Murasame Castle is an action-adventure game where the player controls Takamaru, who is tasked with traveling through four castles, consisting of Aosame Castle, Akasame Castle, Ryokusame Castle, and Momosame Castle, to obtain the four gems from the castle lords and reach the titular Murasame Castle to defeat the alien entity inside it. The player moves from different directions in a top-down view with no side-scrolling. The game only has a limited number of power-ups, forcing players to rely on their own action skills more than anything else. The game world has scrolls scattered throughout the castles for Takamaru to collect, and special raccoon suits may reveal power-ups.
Players are given a certain number of lives, and may gain additional lives by rescuing the castles' princesses and playing through bonus rounds after completing the first half of each level. One life is lost when Takamaru's health gauge runs out or if the time expires. When all lives are lost at any point, the game over screen will appear, in which the player can continue or save their progress. The appearance of enemy characters (including samurai , ninja and hannya ) borrows heavily from existing Japanese culture.
Each level, divided into two parts: the path to the castle, and the castle itself, is of considerable size, and Takamaru must defeat generic enemy characters to reach the innermost region where the castle-lord resides. The player's only weapons are a katana and shurikens ; upgrades to the shuriken can be obtained, but are lost whenever Takamaru dies. The katana can only be used when Takamaru is close to an enemy or projectile (excluding fireballs), while the shurikens can only be used when he is further away. The katana can also be used to deflect projectiles.
Other items include fireballs, which are more powerful than the shurikens; a lightning-themed explosive, which inflicts heavy damage to every enemy on screen; and a cloak, which makes Takamaru invisible and invulnerable to enemies and objects for a short period of time. When Takamaru reaches more than 99 lives, he becomes invincible.
About The Mysterious Murasame Castle
The Mysterious Murasame Castle is a classic video game released for the Famicom Disk System on January 1, 1986. Developed by Nintendo and published by Nintendo, this title has become a beloved entry in the retro gaming library.
This wiki entry provides comprehensive information about The Mysterious Murasame Castle, including release details, gameplay information, and story synopsis. Whether you're looking to revisit a childhood favorite or discover classic games for the first time, Emulator Games Wiki has you covered.
Some information sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 3.0.