Muramasa: Revenant Blades brings 108 swords to PC

Vanillaware's Muramasa: Revenant Blades is finally making its way to PC, marking the studio's first port of the beloved 2D action title to the platform 17 years after its original 2009 Wii release. The game's defining feature is its massive arsenal of 108 swords, each equipped with unique abilities tied to a central mechanic inspired by Japanese folklore: the legendary swordsmith Muramasa's blades were said to be cursed and required blood to be drawn upon unsheathing.

The game transforms this superstition into gameplay by requiring each sword to "taste blood" before its special skill can be transferred to another blade. Director Wataru Nakanishi explained that this creates a cooperative dynamic between the player and Muramasa himself. "In this game Muramasa is an important character and will create these very powerful swords, but in turn the protagonists must collect souls for him, so they have this cooperative relationship based around this dark situation," Nakanishi said.

Revenant Blades represents a significant technical undertaking for the studio. The painterly hand-drawn art style that defined the original release required extensive restoration work for the HD update. While some assets were preserved from the original game, artists had to individually touch up and recreate others by hand to meet modern display standards. Nakanishi acknowledged the challenge, noting that despite the arduous process, the team succeeded in creating "warm and colorful art" that maintains the game's timeless visual appeal.

The PC version introduces a substantially revamped skill system that fundamentally changes how players interact with the game's massive sword collection. Rather than locking a single skill to a single equipped blade, the new system allows players to equip three ground-based and three aerial abilities across three different swords that can be swapped during combat. This creates far more tactical flexibility than the original game offered. Nakanishi explained that the old system caused players to gravitate toward the most powerful late-game blades, limiting gameplay variety. The new approach opens up numerous playstyle combinations that weren't previously possible, such as using Celestial Slash and Flame Barrage to launch enemies into the air with fire, then following up with an aerial skill to slam them back down.

The game's difficulty has also been rebalanced for the PC release. The original version featured dynamic enemy scaling that adjusted difficulty as players leveled up. Revenant Blades replaces this with fixed enemy levels tied to specific areas, allowing players to steamroll weaker opponents while potentially encountering significantly tougher challenges depending on their chosen path through the freely explorable map. Combat itself demands constant engagement, as blocking too many attacks will wear down a sword until it breaks, leaving players vulnerable. Success requires maintaining fluid combo strings and switching between blades to prevent them from breaking while chaining launcher skills into rapid slash sequences.

Revenant Blades expands the playable roster beyond the original game's protagonist. The PC version includes multiple characters first introduced in a 2013 Vita re-release, each with their own story campaigns. This significantly increases the game's overall content, making it a substantially larger experience than many players may remember. The possessed princess Momohime serves as the primary playable character, but the expanded cast provides considerable replay value.

The visual presentation appears particularly well-suited to handheld play, with vivid backgrounds and detailed sprite work that should translate excellently to portable displays like the Steam Deck OLED. The combination of the skill system overhaul and the expanded character roster suggests the PC version is the most feature-complete iteration of Muramasa released to date.

While Revenant Blades marks Vanillaware's first PC port, the studio has not committed to bringing additional titles to the platform. Nakanishi expressed openness to future ports if Muramasa's PC release proves successful enough to generate demand from players. The studio followed the original Muramasa with other acclaimed titles, including 2019's 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and 2024's Unicorn Overlord, but has historically maintained a console-focused release strategy.