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Momohime and Kisuke, a couple of real sharp dressers.
Legend tells of the swordsmith Muramasa Senji, whose blades, though unparalleled in quality, carry with them a terrible curse. Though these "Demon Blades" can cut through anything, they compel their wielders to uncontrollable bloodlust, and they must draw blood before being resheathed... whether that blood is from an enemy or the swordsman himself.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade (or just Oboro Muramasa in Japan) is a 2009 action-RPG game, made by Vanillaware and released for the Wii, that tells the stories of Kisuke, a fugitive Iga Ninja determined to recover his lost memories, and Momohime, a Narukami princess who is possessed by the spirit of an evil swordsman, Izuna Jinkuro, and is helping him to return them both to functional bodies. Armed with Muramasa's earthbound spirit and his demonic blades, the pair battle through Feudal Japan, searching for their destinies on battlefields soaked in blood.

In 2013, the game was ported to the PlayStation Vita as Muramasa Rebirth (still just Oboro Muramasa in Japan), with an updated script and controls. In addition, Muramasa Rebirth got Downloadable Content, which took the form of an alternate mode; called "Genroku Legends", it features nothing regarding Muramasa or his Demon Blades, instead focusing on completely different/new characters in four three-chapter-long stories that take place in the same universe.

  • The first story is Fishy Tales of the Nekomata (released in January 2014), starring a tortoiseshell cat named Miike. When her masters, Okoi and her brother, are murdered on the command of the despicable Netsuzo Wakamiya purely for his own self-benefit, Miike becomes a nekomata and starts down the dark path of revenge to slay Wakamiya, the people he hired to kill Okoi, and anyone who gets in her way. She's able to fight using three forms; "Okoi", her default human form which fights purely with hard-hitting scratches and slashes of her claws; "Miike", her original cat form which can summon supernatural blue fireballs in a variety of patterns (or summon a massive army of tortoiseshell cats from the sky to overwhelm her enemies); and "Avatar", where she becomes a monstrous cat demon in one of two ways ("Monster Cat" where she becomes a giant ferocious cat, and "Avatar" where she joins with a bunch of other cats to form a giant floating Cat Head).
  • The second story is A Cause to Daikon For (released in February 2014), starring a farmer named Gonbe. With all the farmlands of Oone dying and unable to yield much crop, and their governor Mamedayu Hatono taxing them to death, Gonbe sets out on a quest to save his village from starvation, one way or another. In addition to fighting with a hoe, a bamboo spear and throwing sickles, Gonbe is aided by his fellow farmers, Tagosaku and Moheiji, whom he can call in to fight alongside him; he's also assisted by the spirit of his deceased wife Otae, who hoists and tosses him around for most of his attacks and can also force Gonbe's soul back into his body on death during battle, reviving him.
  • The third story is A Spirited Seven Nights' Haunting (released in July 2014), starring a ninja named Arashimaru. Originally a member of the Iga ninja clan, a shocking revelation on his last mission causes Arahimaru to turn traitor and seek vengeance upon the clan; however, during his fight with pursuers, he inadvertently desecrates an ancient shrine, angering a water goddess named Inaraki into cursing him to death. With only seven days left to live, and armed with Inaraki's divine aid (purely so he dies to her curse and not to his enemies), Arashimaru races to slay the Iga clan's leader before he perishes. Unlike Kisuke, who relies solely on his sword-fighting skills, Arashimaru fights with throwing kunai, a kusarigama-style sickle for melee attacks, and high power throwing bombs that he can also detonate mid-dash-attack to wreathe himself in flames or detonate at his feet for his "Explosive Fragment" Secret Art; utilizing a Secret Art in the air will summon Shirohebi (Inaraki in Snake form) to assault the enemy with a lengthy barrage of homing fireballs, and Arashimaru can also learn various Ninja techniques via Training, such as Triangle Jumps or Utsusemi.
  • The fourth story is Hell's Where The Heart Is (released in September 2014), starring Rajyaki, a female child oni... who also happens to be the youngest daughter of King Enma, Lord of Hell. Having misplaced the sacred treasures of the "Seven Gods of Fortune", Rajyaki was on a mission to recover them when former monk-turned-playboy Seikichi accidentally proposes to her, to which she accepts and decides to try and be the "bestest" wife she can be, while taking him with her on her mission (via stuffing him into a magical bag). Rajyaki, similar to Miike, has three forms she can access for combat, all of which (due to use of one of the aforementioned Fortune God treasures) are her at different ages; as a Child (her default form), she hits hard and fast with a large hatchet and can summon a large demon-faced hammer for her Secret Art. As an Adult, she fights with cumbersome but devastating swings of a Kanabo (classic Oni Club), with her Secret Art summoning a fireball that she smashes into the enemy at high speeds; lastly, she can transform into a massive, hulking Demon (who looks similar to Raijin from the Muramasa storyline rather than the normal Oni) that destroys everything via overwhelming flurries of punches or turning into a moving Fireball (both attacks of which end with a massive and damaging explosion). Lastly, some of Rajyaki's attacks in all forms, if they damage an enemy enough, can deal "Crushing Blows", wherein she's surrounded by an aura and does more damage.

This game contains examples of:

  • Above the Influence: Torahime gives Kisuke permission to do whatever he wants to her during their hot spring encounter, and he does nothing. He wants nothing more in the world, but he doesn't want to take advantage of her desperation or her time limit.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade:
    • The Demon Blades of the title can cut demons, gods, dragons, and pretty much anything else. As with the Muramasa blades of legend, dip one into a river and any leaves floating by will be cut in half. And in his second ending Kisuke manages to cut Jinkuro's soul out of Momohime without harming her. Now that's sharp.
    • The Oboro Muramasa, which can only be acquired after forging and finding all of the 107 other swords, is so sharp that it cuts fate. Or in practical terms, it allows for Mental Time Travel. Just because the sword is really, really sharp.
  • Action Girl: Sayo the Onmyoji and Raijin the thunder goddess, as well as Okoi and Rajyaki in Rebirth. Torahime is one according to the narrative, and Momohime is one according to promotional materials, but they each have quirks like Informed Abilities, being taken as a hostage, or being body jacked, that muddle their Action Girl qualifications. See their respective Faux Action Girl entries on the Character page.
  • A God Am I: The Shogun, after being possessed by Inugami. Jinkuro as well, following his failure to retrieve his sword in Hell.
  • Airborne Mook: Pheasants, Kite Ninjas, Tengu and Poison Moths.
  • Amazonian Beauty: Raijin, an incredibly muscular lightning goddess and the boss of the Heaven stage. Rajyaki the demon girl from the fourth DLC chapter can also transform into one.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Tries to justify it for characters in cutscenes by giving them turning animations in which they swap whatever they're holding to their other hand. Out of cutscenes, though, everyone does this, with the major example being Arashimaru, whose Distinguishing Mark changes shoulders when he turns around while shirtless in the hot springs.
  • And the Adventure Continues: Kisuke's second and third endings. The narrator even lampshades it in one of them by mentioning that the events of the game are the first story of 20. Momohime's second ending is also like this, with her leaving her new adopted home to unravel the secrets behind her Identity Amnesia. Arashimaru's second ending looks like it will be this, with Jiraya and Tsunade setting out together to thwart the schemes of So Xian, but the narrator decides to skip ahead to the end and give the audience a "sneak peek" of the final battle.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different:
    • This happens during several scenes that require the player to speak with every NPC in the area before the story will continue. Many times the character the player controls is not the main character of the story.
    • Mostly averted for all of the hot springs encounters except in the fourth DLC chapter, where Seikichi is controlled by the player instead of Rajyaki.
  • Animalistic Abomination: The fight with Inugami has this in spades. The entire battle is incredibly disturbing, with organic wound-like holes appearing midair to stab you with skeletal swords, the boss's body distorting disturbingly, and with one attack involving him becoming something that resembles an near-infinite spear of teeth and mouth.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: If you fail an Enemy Lair, the game will return you to the lair's entrance and any items used inside the lair will be returned.
  • Anti-Hero: Kisuke. He's the nicer of the two, by the way - Momohime is virtuous enough, but Jinkuro, a master swordsman, possesses her. He's not kind.
  • Anti-Villain: Yukinojo is The Dragon to the Shogun, but expresses deep regret over his role in Torahime's and Momohime's deaths, especially the latter once he learns what that has lead to.
  • Artistic License – Physics:
    • No matter where your character gets flung to after a blade breaks, the lower half of the weapon will always land near your character, allowing them to quickly pick the weapon on the spot.
    • You can put out flames by slashing them with your blade.
  • Asian Fox Spirit: Kongiku and Yuzuruha, as well as the other fox spirits that accompany them.
  • Aside Glance: Both characters do this occasionally when in the hot springs.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
    • Momohime's fourth boss, Ippondatara. You have to fight his giant foot first (which refers to a legend regarding one of Kyoto's mansions), then his huge body. From time to time he will turn into the harmless Inosasao (a giant boar with bamboo leaves on his back).
    • And then there's the giant centipede, the second boss in Kisuke's story.
  • Author Appeal: Naturally. Big breasts (Kongiku), big butts (Yuzuruha), muscular women (Raijin, Rajyaki when transformed) and delicious-looking food (even the simplest rice ball).
  • Awesome, but Impractical: A lot of the Secret Arts take a long time to figure out how to use right.
  • Badass Boast: Before fighting him, Bishamon boasts "Each time I strike you, feel the pain of several blows at once!"
  • Bag of Sharing: Once you beat both Kisuke and Momohime's stories on a file, their separate sword inventories will combine into a shared collection of all the blades the both of them own, regardless of when, where, or on whose story you acquired them from. For all intents and purposes, there is a branching tree interface from the Forge menu, showing you the blades obtainable through story-progression from the two characters. To elaborate further, you can use Momohime's Soul and Spirit points to craft available blades from Kisuke's branches or vice-versa. And once the blade is crafted, either of them will be able to equip the blade since it is already recorded in the same inventory.
  • Beat the Curse Out of Him: Sayo claims attacking Kisuke with her Buddhist charms will show him the light. She's right and it restores his memories. At least, if he survives the boss fight.
  • BFS: The Long Blade weapons are actually larger than the characters.
  • Big Bad: Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the Shogun, was the one who was ultimately behind the attack on the Kagami clan and the theft of the Kuzuryu Muramasa, which kicks off the plot for both Momohime and Kisuke.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • Momohime's second ending is this. Jinkuro and Kisuke score a Mutual Kill on each other in the final battle and Jinkuro uses the soul fusion art to save Momohime's life. Months later Momohime is shown living a quiet life in the country with an elderly couple, alive and healthy but stricken with Identity Amnesiaand possessing instinctive mastery of the Oboro style. She proceeds to leave on a journey to discover who she was after rediscovering her skills.
    • Momohime's third ending, though it arguably counts as a Downer Ending as well. While Jinkuro avoids stabbing Momohime and possessing her, it's highly implied that instead her fiance (Jinkuro's intended target) was possessed instead... giving Jinkuro lots of power that Momohime couldn't give and allowing him to cause lots of chaos. Of course, Momohime tends to bring out the best in Jinkuro, and it's not like Yukinojo didn't have it coming, so it's not as bad as it could be.
    • If not for the purposefully ambiguous hope that Arashimaru might be saved and Shirohebi freed, the Seven Ghostly Nights' Curse's second ending would be dark as all get out.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: Moreso during Momohime's story, but it comes up in Kisuke's too. It can hardly be said that most of the characters are particularly nice people. It's generally pretty easy to forgive them, though.
  • Blade Spam: Several Secret Arts are some variation of this, including somersaulting or spinning while holding the sword, or the Wasp Swarms which feature the character swinging the sword dozens of times per second while gliding forward.
  • Bonus Dungeon:
    • The swords that Kisuke and Momohime earn in their first endings allow them to break the white barriers which block the other playable character's regular dungeons.
    • The enemy lairs/Caves of Evil are this, pitting the player against a swarm of enemies and bosses, including the aptly named level 92 Enemy Lair "Total Pandemonium/Night of Absolute Chaos". You have to fight through multiple waves of almost every type of enemy in the game. This includes some of the bosses as well as clones of the player characters.
  • Boss in Mook's Clothing:
    • Onis and horse and bull demons, with huge amounts of hit points, high combat resistance and plenty of attacks that can instantly break your sword. The green ones are even worse, as they take longer to stun than the red or blue ones.
    • One of the Enemy Lairs require you to fight four onis at once, and Total Pandemonium/Night of Absolute Chaos makes you fight five, all with boss-level health. Good luck with that.
  • Bowdlerization: Not as bad as the games the 80s and 90s were infamous for, but it's gotten a lot of flak for being overly concise and cutting poetic language (and sometimes whole lines that don't matter to the plot) out in favor of getting straight to the point. This seems to be an unfortunate habit of producer Ignition — when they don't simply go for a full-blown "Blind Idiot" Translation.
    • Sometimes plot-critical information does get left out. Namely just how Kisuke recovers his memories. Luckily the story is unrelated to progression.
    • Fujin has a line in the Japanese (to Raijin) that amounts to "You know I'm crazy for you. You and that big butt of yours." The English has "I'm very fond of you." And there's plenty more where that came from.
    • While Kisuke and Jinkuro are calm, sardonic characters, much of the English dialogue is a chain of panicked exclamations. Lines like, "Maybe I hit my head because I really don't remember what went down. If any of you know what happened, I'd love to know the details," become "I just don't understand! I must have hit my head! Please! Tell me what you know!"
    • It's particularly bad when some things are just plain wrong within the scope of the gameplay: "You can no longer carry any more items" should have been "You can no longer carry any more of this item."
    • The Vita port was re-translated to fix this, leading to the language becoming a lot more flowery and accurate to the spoken lines.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: The Narukami Bracelet/Thunderous Bangle won after winning the Total Pandemonium/Night of Absolute Chaos enemy lair. This accessory makes all your blades unbreakable, meaning you can spam Secret Arts, block everything without wearing down the blade, go on a slashing spree, in short, it makes you practically invincible. However, you get it by beating the secret final dungeon and there's nothing left in the game at that point.
  • Breakable Weapons: The swords in the game have a "Soul Power" meter, which wears down whenever you block attacks or use each swords' unique "Secret Art". As per the legend of the Muramasa swords, they repair themselves when they are resheathed or by devouring the souls of defeated enemies.
  • The Cameo: Each installment of Genroku Legends involves at least one character from another story, chiefly the main Muramasa storyline (ignoring all the NPC's throughout the main world).
    • Jinkuro and Rankai appear in Miike's first ending; Jinkuro is one of the people hired to try and take care of her when she haunts the Wakamiya clan in her rampage of Disproportionate Retribution. Being Jinkuro, he Curbstomps her with ease and winds up cutting her tails off, rendering her powerless... But not before she curses him with illness and inevitable death, which is what leads to Momohime's storyline. Rankai, Walking the Earth after Monohime's first ending, shows up in the scene afterwards. Kongiku also appears in the hot spring.
    • An older Sayo shows up to help resolve Gonbe's problems in his second ending, revealing not only that he was reliving his and his allies' failed revolution for 14 years, but also that he's been dead all this time; she helps him and his wife achieve peace and ascend to heaven, then erects tombstones for them. Additionally, the "Infinite Light", whom Gonbe prays to when he first sees ghost Otae, is the title of Amitabha, whom Kisuke meets in his first ending.
    • Rajyaki shows up toward the end of Arashimaru's first ending; also counts as an Early-Bird Cameo, since this was Rajyaki's first appearance in Muramasa Rebirth before her story was even announced proper. Mumyo also names Oboroya Senjyu (who taught Jinkuro the Oboro style, and saved Kisuke from death via soul fusion) as being his student in the second ending; lastly Kisuke's mentioned during the story as having been abducted like Arashimaru was, and he is again mentioned in the second ending in reference to his story's third (or, less likely, second) ending, as a wandering swordmaster helping Jiraya to destroy Orochimaru.
    • The entire plot of Rajyaki's story gets off the ground thanks to Seikichi propositioning the Jinkuro-possessed Momohime when he sees her sitting on a rock and eating a rice ball. She is on Earth in the first place because she tried to show the treasures of the Seven Gods of Fortune to Raijin (Momohime's seventh boss) and accidentally lost them in the process; the treasures appearing throughout the Genroku Legends. Her second ending features Dengoro, Arashimaru's younger brother, as a local lord and enthusiast of the supernatural after his experiences in "A Sprited Seven Nights' Haunting". King Enma, first shown in Gonbe's story, shows up in the first ending, albeit in human form (though his true face temporarily appears over his human body when he speaks). Finally, you can also meet Yuzuruha, Otae and Shirohebi in the same hot spring.
  • Casting Gag: This is not the first time Miyuki Sawashiro voiced a female protagonist of a Vanillaware title, she's also Velvet from Odin Sphere.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: One of the plot points of Arashimaru's story is that he stole and hid a treasure from the Okabe family that several people want. It's eventually revealed to have been hidden away in Shirohebi's shrine this whole time, which she gives back to Dengoro as part of her deal for Arashimaru's funeral and blessing the Okabe family. It's then revealed in Rajyaki's second ending that the treasure is in fact Bishamonten's trident, which ended up in the family's hands after Rajyaki lost the treasures.
  • Combat Tentacles: The optional boss, Oodako the giant octopus, with his attack style is using his tentacles as whips.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: See the entry for "Ninja" below. Then again, when you match up a lot of normal ninja against one with Implausible Fencing Powers described below...
  • Continuity Nod: The way Mumyo steals Arashimaru's body in the second ending is the Soul Transfer technique, which it turns out he invented (along with Oboroya, who was his student); he's even wielding the Kuromitsu/Dark Ressurection Sword required for the technique. Later, when he's fighting Jiraiya and Tsunadehime, they reveal that they're wielding Demon Blades of their own to combat him; these Demon Blades are explicitly named Descent Into Misery and Threads Of Fate, the swords you obtain in the Muramasa storyline from Momohime and Kisuke's first endings (and are both required for obtaining their second endings).
  • Creepy Centipedes: The giant Oomukade boss.
  • Cursed with Awesome: There is one advantage to playing in Fury Mode: poison and burn deal damage proportional to your total health. Since you only have one health in Fury Mode, getting poisoned or burned won't actually damage you.
  • Cute Monster Girl:
    • We're talking a game set in Feudal Japan. Kongiku and Yuzuruha are standouts here. Raijin (who resembles an oni) is quite attractive, but her beauty is mostly overshadowed by her brash and aggressive nature (almost to Ladette levels, go figure). The only times it surfaces is when she's knocked out of the sky (she lands on her rump and takes a moment to tend to her rear in a typical Cute Clumsy Girl fashion; notably, her voice raises from sultrily deep and tough to innocuously cute) and briefly after the Boss Battle with her when Fujin calms her down. And once you beat her, she is just adorable. More are added for Rebirth; the first main character is Miike, a female Nekomata in the form of her human master Okoi, and the second is Rajyaki, a small Oni girl. Meanwhile, Gonbe is assisted by his wife's still-attractive ghost, while Arashimaru's snake familiar is actually a shapeshifting minor deity out for his blood.
    • Gender Flipped with Fujin, a small and adorable imp, not to mention Raijin's more laid-back romantic partner.
  • Dance Party Ending: The first ending of Fishy Tales of the Nekomata.
  • Dead All Along: Most of the central cast are undead: Momohime doesn't really count, although she was presumed dead after Jinkuro cut her; Kisuke was mortally wounded by his brethren after betraying the clan for love, and returned to life through fusing with an angry ghostly swordmaster; Torahime was assassinated by the Shogun, and is sent back by Amitabha for a limited time to exact vengeance and save the world from the Inugami alongside her army of ghosts.
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: An interesting juxtaposition considering the optional Harder Than Hard difficulty and scaling enemy level: while it's extremely easy to die, doing so outside of a boss battle just causes you to respawn in the same screen you were killed with full health and swords at full strength, retain all experience points earned, regain any health items you used during the fight, and you might not even run into the same battle that killed you previously. On the other hand, you can't cook stat-boosting meals within battles, so the items remain consumed unless you reload a save. On Shigurui/Fury difficulty, you really want to make use of those stat-boosts, especially against some of the bosses, but you die—and die a lot—so it's a matter of deciding if it's worth cooking a meal and being prepared for the tedium of resetting the game if you run out of ingredients.
  • Decoy Protagonist: While the story selection screen claims Momohime's story is about her, she has little involvement with it. The real focus of the story is on Jinkuro.
  • Demonic Possession:
    • Technically he's human, but Jinkuro's (accidental) possession of Momohime's body counts as this.
    • Averted for Kisuke; he was granted his knowledge of the style by Jinkuro's master, Senju, but the technique used is more like a spiritual Fusion Dance, essentially causing Senju to cease existing but imparting ALL his knowledge and abilities to Kisuke, whose personality isn't changed to any significant degree.
    • There's also The Shogun, who is possessed by the Inugami... Though since he DID want the sword the Inugami was sealed into in the first place, and we never see his personality before you fight him, the extent of the possession is a bit muddled.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: Blocking during the few frames where you take damage has the character you're playing make the knockback and damage from the hit reverse itself, sending you back to where you were when you got hit without any damage and without the spirit gauge decreasing. It's as difficult to intentionally perform as it sounds, and it's also an incredibly useful technique in Fury mode.
  • The Disembodied: Momohime, following her possession by Jinkuro.
  • Doppelgänger Attack: Kisuke's Haze and Phantom Secret Arts and Momohime's Flash and Misty Slash Secret Arts.
  • Draw Sword, Draw Blood: The eponymous swords cannot be sheathed until they have tasted blood. It there's no one around to kill, the swords will turn on their wielders. Only the Oboro style mastered by the protagonists can control their lust for blood.
  • Drought Level of Doom: In the DLC "A Cause to Daikon For" money is, fittingly enough, extremely difficult to come by. Unless you grind for an absurd period of time, you're not likely to be able to afford more than a single meal or a few radishes to cook on your own throughout the entire story. The drastically reduced availability of healing is offset somewhat by abilities you can gain that increase healing received or allow you to revive once per battle, though these only typically become available toward the end of the story.
  • Dueling Player Characters: Momohime and Kisuke's second endings feature the other as the final boss.
  • Easy Road to Hell: One of the Dead Men in Hell narrates how he got there after you defeat Big Oni.
    But forget about me. It's my son Yasohachi that brings me to tears. Of all things, he skimped on my funeral! As a result, I dropped straight to Hell.
  • Endgame+: Once you beat a character's final boss and go through the ending, you'll be taken to before the boss fight the next time you load, but additional features and weapons will unlock depending on which ending you viewed:
    • Beating the game the first time will net the player the "The Threads of Fate" sword (for Kisuke) and "Descent Into Misery" sword (for Momohime), which can break the white barriers and are required to get both second endings. Both characters also unlock the ability to warp between all the shrines in the game, and can refight their bosses plus each other's bosses. Additionally, beating both character's stories will merge their sword collections, which is vital for getting all of the swords, as some can only be forged on a combined sword chart.
    • Beating both character's alternate final bosses will get them another sword: "Shimmering New Moon" for Kisuke and "Blade of Tortured Souls" for Momohime, which are needed to forge other blades.
  • Escape Battle Technique: The Smoke Bomb item allows you to Smoke Out of any random encounters, though you'll get none of the rewards aside from any Souls you may have gathered before escaping.
  • Even the Girls Want Her:
  • Every Japanese Sword is a Katana: Averted. The many, many swords Muramasa can forge for the heroes are pretty evenly split between katana and nodachi, which are longer.
  • Everything's Better with Rainbows: Swords that allow you to break the Color-coded barriers are arranged sequentially using the colors of the rainbow, albeit with minor differences - The fifth color is light blue, the sixth is blue, and there is an extra eighth color, which is white.
  • Evil Weapon: The Muramasa swords, which drive their wielders mad with bloodlust and can only be sheathed once they've tasted blood, as per Japanese folklore. In setting too, they regenerate if broken, faster if drenched in blood, and contain terrible magical powers. The protagonists are able to resist the less-savory aspects of their use with their Supernatural Martial Arts.
  • Experience Booster: The Master's Handbook accessory increases earned EXP by 5%.
  • Flaming Sword: Some of the Muramasa blades are wreathed in spectral flames.
  • Flaming Skulls: The Kagami Warrior Souls are floating skulls engulfed in blue flames. They take control of large Samurai Animated Armors and will visibly fall off from the armor's neck when they trip from an airborne attack, only to re-attach themselves to the armors a few seconds later.
  • Flash Step: The characters can perform a blurred dash if the player taps (on Wii) or presses the stick (on Vita) left or right while holding the attack button. It can be executed three times consecutively and also works in mid-air. This mechanic also doubles as a Dash Attack as the characters will slash through any enemies they come in contact with during the dash.
  • Food Porn: The food that you can buy at any of the restaurants or cook yourself. And then eat via repeated presses of the A/X button. This game will make you hungry.
  • Full-Boar Action: The boss Ippondatara has two forms: a giant demon whose foot is larger than the player, and an enormous boar named Inosazao. Momohime's interactions with him in a hot spring after the fight indicate that the latter is his true form.
  • Fuuma Shuriken: Two are used by Kurozaru, the first boss that Kisuke fights against, and some of the higher-level ninja enemies wield them as well.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: The party in A Cause To Daikon For is mentioned to split up to groups of two at most whenever they're moving, yet Gonbe is able to summon his two assist characters wherever he is. This is likely to compensate for the fact that he's a horrible fighter by himself.
  • Gender Bender:
    • Jinkuro possessing Momohime.
    • According to the original myth, Raijin is male.
  • Giant Foot of Stomping: The first part of the Ippondatara boss fight involves you having to avoid his giant foot while attacking it and eventually riding it up into the clouds where the actual boss is.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Many of the bosses, such as both characters' first ones, come out of nowhere.
    • In particular, Momohime's final boss. The story goes from storming main adversary Rankai's base (thought process: the final fight might be against Rankai, and perhaps he'll even pull a One-Winged Angel), to Yukinojo showing up with the blade that Jinkuro's been searching for the whole game (thought process: a rematch for the blade), to two random Gods appearing due to your Rage Against the Heavens, taking the blade, and forcing you to fight them and a giant statue.
      • Another possibility was Amaterasu, who was the one who sealed the gate to Heaven in Ise after Jinkuro beat Raijin. You'd expect the Sun Goddess to take matters in her own hands when Jinkuro tries to enter Heaven again, but unfortunately you do not get to battle her.
    • The bosses of both character's second endings: each other. Aside from a few optional hot spring interactions, Kisuke and Momohime don't interact with each other at all, and nothing that either of them do in their stories has any effect on anything the other character does, right until the moment where they appear in the other character's pre-boss cutscene. In Momohime's route, there is at least a justification, however thin, for why this happens as Kongiku did break Inari's laws by stealing the mask, Yuzuruha has been hunting Kongiku down to punish her, and Kisuke takes Yuzuruha's advice at face value. But in Kisuke's case, there's no discernible reason how Jinkuro got the idea to attack the shogun and what led up to that besides the need for a boss fight.
  • Giant Spider: Tsuchigumo.
  • Golden Ending: Momohime's third ending in particular, a Belated Happy Ending that might overwrite the Bittersweet Ending of her second ending—it's complicated. Momohime is happy and healthy, Jinkuro finally gets what he wants and uses it to protect her, and Kongiku gets to stay with her beloved lord and master in human form.
  • Gonk: The Monk enemies have vertically long jaws. This makes them stand out from the rest of the characters who have normal face proportions.
  • Gradual Regeneration: The Auto Recover effect restores 1% of your HP every 5 seconds.
  • Grand Theft Me:
    • Happens to Momohime; Jinkuro, her possessor, accidentally possesses Momohime while trying to possess Yukinojo, another powerful samurai and Momohime's betrothed.
    • Also happens to Arashimaru in his second ending.
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Momohime's normal and second ending both involve this.
  • Healing Checkpoint: Save points will restore your life and swords' soul meters in addition to their usual function.
  • Henohenomoheji: Scarecrows have these on their faces.
  • Here We Go Again!: Momohime's second ending basically puts her in the same position Kisuke was in at the start of his story.
  • Hero of Another Story:
    • Momohime and Kisuke to one another. Aside from occasionally encountering one another in hot springs and in certain endings the two do not interact with one another.
    • The DLC characters' stories in Genroku Legends show the events that lead up to the main story.
  • Hitodama Light:
    • Green ghost lights represent souls that can be gathered for crafting the Demon Blades (or learning skills in DLC chapters). They're found either floating in stages or released by dead enemies.
    • Ghost NPCs usually have a couple lights floating nearby and hostile ones use them as an attack.
  • Hot-Blooded: Raijin is of the "electrocute first, ask questions later" mold. The Boss Battle with her is instigated because she feels Fujin's younger brothers, the Small Oni, have been treated poorly and not even her boyfriend can talk her out of it, despite the possible collateral damage a storm (or Raijin's fat ass falling out of the sky) would cause.
  • Hot God: Raijin. Fujin is more a "Cute God" than anything, but he still counts. The two double as a God Couple.
  • Hot Springs Episode: Momohime and Kisuke can talk to monkeys, who lead them to a hot spring in the mountains, which serves as a healing pool, or a place to resharpen any broken blades and fanservice as Kisuke wears a Fundoshi while Momohime is clutching a Modesty Towel to her chest, leaving most of her side exposed. It's noticeably the first (and aside from one ending, the only) place you meet the protagonist you didn't pick to plays as. Momohime is particularly mortified at Kisuke seeing her in only a towel, lamenting he has "seen what she hasn't even shown her lord." Kisuke also finds his Torahime during one his hot spring visits, and she's also only wearing a towel, and unlike Momohime, actually has it fully wrapped around herself.
  • Hyperactive Metabolism: Eating restores health and grants you "Spirit", necessary for forging swords. Subverted in that you do need to wait in between eating anything for them to get hungry again, but it never takes you any longer than maybe 30 seconds to digest a whole bowl of noodles and be ready to keep eating (and the Mad Tummy/Rapid Digestion skills given by certain swords and accessories can further reduce that time).
  • Iaijutsu Practitioner:
    • Both playable characters Momohime and Kisuke can unleash Quick Draws, powerful attacks that allow the user to perform a flurry of slashes against all on-screen enemies by drawing their blade. This is accompanied with a Black Screen of Death as sword lines appear from random directions.
    • The Quick Draw animation is also used every time the character is about to break color-coded barriers, but on these occasions, they will re-sheathe the blades to their scabbards as soon as the barriers break.
  • Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: "Muso/Legend" for "Easy" and "Shura/Chaos" for "Hard." The creators describe Muso/Legend as being more RPG-like, while Shura/Chaos is more arcade-like. Then there's the unlockable "Shigurui/Fury" mode, which has the same difficulty as Muso/Legend, but also permanently keeps your Life Flame at 1.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers: The Oboro Style both characters use is all about this. They explicitly state that mastering it not only makes you immune to the bloodlust that wielding Muramasa blades normally causes (and by that extension, the insanity caused by the countless angry recently-dead spirits wandering a battlefield Kisuke visits), but also allows you to battle the God(dess?) of Thunder with a metal blade. And those are just the side effects of the actual purpose of the fighting style, which is of course being able to easily kick metric tons of ass.
  • Just Eat Him: The Big Oni to Jinkuro and Momohime. It results in a stomachache for him.
  • Kamaitachi: The series of swords named after the youkai of the same name, going from 3 Kamaitachi to 5 Kamaitachi. The user spins holding the sword out in a rainbow like arc, and the number indicates the total of clones plus the user that use the move.
  • Kimono Fanservice: Particularly seen with the demonic fox babes Kongiku and Yuzuruha. Same with Shirohebi in A Spirited Seven Nights' Haunting.
  • Kudzu Plot: The story lines and multiple endings are all connected to one another in interesting ways.
  • Level Grinding: The player can simply exit an area that way previously cleared from enemies and re-enter it to make all the defeated mooks re-spawn, allowing the player to defeat them again and again. The ice stages contain most of these that are exploitable, being tight, mook-filled areas that allow faster transitions in between.
  • Level Scaling: Enemies are always scaled to correlate to your level. Even when over-leveled, enemies never get any easier. The earlier Enemy Lairs don't fall too far behind when you are dozens of levels above the recommended levels, the bosses get more vicious, and the regular enemies deal more damage and have more hit points. In fact, considering that you recover full health when you level up, Enemy Lairs become much harder if you level up to 99 before entering them.
  • Level-Up Fill-Up: Leveling up restores your life, which can come in handy in a boss fight or Evil Lair.
  • Life Drain: Blades with the Absorb Life effect heal you with every slash made to an enemy.
  • Lighter and Softer: The fourth DLC chapter, Hell's where the heart is, is more humorous in nature and was the only story where both endings are happy.
  • MacGuffin: Momohime and Jinkuro's story focuses on finding the whereabouts of the latter's lost sword Kuromitsu. It turns out that Yukinojo had it all along.
  • Master-Apprentice Chain: The Genroku Legends provide a lot of backstory and reveals a chain of masters and apprentices:
    • Mumyo invented the Soul Transfer technique and taught it to Senju Oboroya, who passed it on to Jinkuro along with the Oboro style. After Jinkuro murdered him, Senju merged with Kisuke, bestowing the Oboro Style upon him. Before succumbing to Miike's curse, Jinkuro uses the Soul Transfer technique to possess Momohime, and in one of her endings merges with her to bestow the Oboro style on her as well.
    • The second ending of "A Spirited Seven Nights' Haunting" ties into Kisuke's third ending, with Hiroyuki/Jiraiya and Tsunadehime seeking him out to learn the Oboro Style after he returns to Japan.
  • Mercy Invincibility: Getting knocked back into the ground gives you an invincibility period until your character picks the broken blade and stand up.
  • Merger of Souls:
    • The technique Senjyu uses to resurrect Kisuke.
    • Momohime's second ending has Jinkuro using the same technique as Senjyu to resurrect Momohime in the same fashion.
  • Metroidvania: An extremely borderline case. Rather than granting you new abilities that help you overcome obstacles, the game just lets you use swords to open doors without gaining any new skills from them.
  • Mirror Boss: Kisuke acts as this for Momohime, and Momohime for Kisuke. And at the end of Total Pandemonium/Night of Absolute Chaos, you face both of them together.
  • Money for Nothing: While you'll be running low on cash for most of your initial playthrough, it's not much of a problem since Death Is a Slap on the Wrist and most items are best used during boss fights. Once you beat the game and start re-beating bosses/beating enemy lairs so you can get new accessories and swords (and level up high enough to be able to use the latter), you'll soon end up with far more cash than you can ever spend. The same goes for Souls and Spirit, which are used to forge new blades, and so do nothing but pile up once you've forged 'em all — Spirit is especially egregious, as it's exceedingly inexpensive to grind and comes in quantities resembling Pinball Scoring, so you'll never be all that hard pressed for past the early stages of the game.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Kisuke, for obvious reasons whenever he's in the hot springs.
  • Multiple Endings: Three each for Kisuke and Momohime. The second ending for both characters involves fighting the other character to more or less a stalemate instead of their usual final boss, while the third uses the Oboro Muramasa's ability to "cut even fate itself" to return both characters back to the moment in time when their story would've normally begun, but with all their memories up until that point intact as well as carrying the eponymous Oboro Muramasa. For Jinkuro, this isn't a particularly good deal, since the reason he used the body possession skill to begin with was because his own body was close to dying anyway... which he does soon afterwards. However, it is heavily implied that he took over Yukinojo's body before he died to be married to Momohime. Between him acting differently, all of a sudden disagreeing with his father, and naming his "new" fighting style (which is actually just Oboro style) Izuna style, Izuna being Jinkuro's last name. In the end he fooled EVERYONE, even most gamers. Not bad for an old guy. DLC characters get two each.
  • Mystical 108:
    • The total number of blades to obtain and forge.
    • Rankai always carries a 108-bead Buddhist o-juzu/rosary.
    • Also the number of children that Lord Enma has, with Rajyaki being the youngest.
  • Naked People Are Funny: Seikichi is a complete Butt-Monkey and is the only character who goes into a hot spring without any kind of cover other than his hands.
  • Named Weapons: Each Muramasa's sword has its own name. The Vita re-release translates many of them into English.
  • Narrator: In any given ending. Breaks the fourth wall hard.
  • Ninja: Kisuke and Arashimaru are ninja. Some of the Mooks are ninja, Kisuke's first boss and all Arashimaru's bosses are technically ninja as well.
  • No-Sell: If you attempt to use a Quick Draw during the second ending boss fights, the other Muramasa user will employ the same technique, and the two will cancel.
  • Obvious Rule Patch: You're only allowed to relaunch an enemy in a helpless state once after they hit the ground. Even if you bypass that by constantly launching the enemy while in the air (which is very easily doable in Rajyaki's child form), enemies become invulnerable to attacks after a certain point, until they recover.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Yukinojo's reaction after being informed that "Momohime" has the capability to kill.
    Momohime in appearance, but not in character? I can hesitate no longer!
  • Offscreen Start Bonus: A PS Vita exclusive: at the beginning of both character's intro stages, there's a barrier you can't break yet until you finish the area and get the sword required to break it. Immediately turning and inspecting this barrier earns you the "Aren't WE precocious?" trophy.
  • One-Hit Kill: Blades with the Death Blade effect have a chance to instantly kill any lesser mook.
  • One-Winged Angel: Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, after being defeated, is taken over by the spirit of the Inugami (literally "dog god") inside the Kuzuryu Muramasa and transforms into a huge demon dog.
  • Optional Boss: Both Kisuke and Momohime have their own set of bosses, but they can use the swords they get in their first endings to access the question-mark areas, which are the dungeons that the other playable character goes through in their storyline, and battle their bosses. In short, a story boss for Kisuke can be a Bonus Boss for Momohime, and vice versa.
  • Orgasmic Combat: If you attack Raijin when she falls on the ground during her weakened state, the screams she makes can come off as orgasmic sounds.
  • Parrying Bullets: Enemy projectiles can be deflected back at them with a proper timing of the attack button. Some ghost enemies can only be defeated by sending their "Flames of Rancor" projectiles back at them, and the game explicitly mentions this tactic. This ability slowly consumes Soul Power for every deflected projectile.
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: Due to how enemies scale with your character's level, almost any small areas filled with enemies count. But there are notable examples of these:
    • The game allows you to visit the areas covered by the other protagonist's storyline as long as you have the proper barrier-breaking ability. Which means, you can endlessly fight the bosses of some shrines for as long as you want. And because depleting a boss's life gauge will grant you plenty of Soul powers per gauge, you can essentially refill your HP in the middle of a fight, while gaining up to 2-4 levels per boss fight.
    • For regular mooks, the cold mountain areas, especially the Hida region spawns a lot of Yuki-onna for you to fight. They always come in numbers but move slowly and have lesser HP than the regular ninjas, allowing you to easily dispatch them regardless of the blade's category. They also attack by flinging icicles at you which can be reflected back. Combine all of these with the game's mechanic of giving you extra EXP after fights for actions such as deflecting projectiles and being unscathed, you can easily accumulate levels by repeatedly going back and forth in an area (as the enemies will always respawn even if you go back to a previously-cleared area).
  • Pensieve Flashback: How Kisuke recovers his memories. After fighting the exorcist Sayo, he sees himself in a memory of when he made a deal with Oboroya Senjyu in exchange for having a second chance at life.
  • Perpetual Poverty: Done well in A Cause to Daikon For. By dramatically reducing the money you receive from encounters, it both enhances the feeling that you're playing as a dirt poor farmer and avoids the problem games have with a money-driven plot when you're given far more money than you would need to solve said plot.
  • Power Fist: Raijin can channel lightning into her fist for a massive punch that can instantly shatter your blade if you attempt to block it.
  • Power-Up Food: Although any food with an effect like this has to be cooked by you, unless you just want the healing or Spirit.
  • Public Domain Artifact:
    • The man himself, Muramasa Senji, appears in this game to make swords for you.
    • Additionally, many of the swords you earn by defeating bosses are historical blades; swords like Nagasone Kotetsu and Ichimonji Norimune (and ironically enough the Goro Masamune, forged by Muramasa's rival) feature prominently as barrier-breakers.
  • Pun-Based Title: The A Cause to Daikon For story from Rebirth is likely a pun on "A Cause to Die For".
  • Rage Against the Heavens:
    • After failing to find the Kuromitsu Blade in Hell, Jinkuro assaults Heaven in order to obtain immortality. His final boss fight occurs because Heaven got annoyed enough to send down one of the Thirteen Buddhas to tell him to cut that shit out.
    • Kisuke impulsively plans to cut Amitabha (the reigning Buddhist deity, basically) in his normal ending, but quickly abandons the idea as futile once he actually meets him in person.
  • Random Encounters: When an exclamation mark appears on-screen, enemies will immediately appear on both sides, initiating a fight. Though these encounters can be reduced by making use of the Ninja Feet effect from Cooking certain recipes.
  • Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Momohime and Torahime have pale skin and long dark hair.
  • Reincarnation: In Kisuke's first ending, Kisuke and Torahime are reincarnated after Torahime pleads Amitabha to allow her to reincarnate with Kisuke until he achieves Nirvana.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Tsuchigumo has lived in Mt. Katsuragi for 1000 years.
  • Reforged Blade: Kuromitsu is forged from a hatchet of Hell's Torturers.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Those who wield the Oboro Muramasa retain their memories after the blade sends them to a Mental Time Travel.
  • Scenery Porn: To be expected of rural Japan. Then again, this is by the same developers as Odin Sphere.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Inugami, the Dog Demon, inside the Kuzuryu Muramasa.
  • Secret A.I. Moves: The attack both characters rarely use on you when you fight against them in the second ending, which is unblockable and works more or less like a melee version of the spam attack described below. Considering how few human-sized opponents with large amounts of HP the game has (and the few it does fall easily to repeated spamming of the Game-Breaker special attacks the second you knock them down), being unable to use it isn't that much of a loss from a gameplay perspective. Not that it wouldn't be nice if you could...
  • Sexy Packaging: One of the Japanese covers for the game's soundtrack has one of Oodako's tentacles covering Momohime's otherwise exposed crotch and her breasts almost falling out of her kimono. Another has Yuzuruha sitting in a seductive pose, lifting her kimono with her foot barely acting as a Scenery Censor, a third has Torahime naked in a Boobs-and-Butt Pose with one arm covering her breasts and her buttocks obscured by her flesh turning transparent, and a forth is of a naked Momohime seen from behind with her shoulders, back, and butt covered in tattoos, glaring over her shoulder while drawing a sword.
  • Shared Life-Meter: The game is... complicated about this. Bosses have two health bars, one large one and one small one (that keeps feeding the large bar whenever it's depleted while slowly depleting itself in the process.) Whenever multiple bosses are fought at once, they have separate large bars, but they all get health from the same small bar (although the small bar is then split up into separate bars, one for each boss, denoting their own portions of the health meter.)
  • Sharing a Body: Momohime's and Jinkuro's souls reside within Momohime's body. Although it's only one soul at a time. The character you get to control during combat would be Jinkuro, or specifically labeled as "Momohime Jinkuro", while in non-combat cutscenes and in hot spring locations, Momohime takes back control of her own body.
    Momohime Jinkuro: One Body. One Soul. That's the way of the universe.
  • Shipper on Deck: Yuzuruha for Kisuke and Torahime.
  • Shoryuken: The Phantom and Meteor series of specials. The former is of the normal, single-hit sword variety with an increasing amount of shadow clones for higher levels of the move performing it simultaneously, up to covering pretty much the entire screen horizontally with them, while Meteor is a quickly repeated multihit variety that also creates a geyser of energy with each attack.
  • Shout-Out
    • One of the bonus bosses are The Seven Samurai.
    • Kisuke and Momohime can fight Oodako, a giant octopus-like sea monster, in the middle of a hurricane. In Rebirth defeating it earns the trophy "From the Depths of R'lyeh".
    • The plot of the 4th DLC chapter is very reminiscent of the initial plot of Urusei Yatsura.
    • The Vita trophy for getting a 999-hit combo is called "Hours, Persons, Doors".
    • One possible English translation for Momohime's name is Princess Peach.
    • Kurozaru has a striking resemblance with Michaelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Starting with the iconic orange bandanna over white eyes, a stout build, bald head, greenish body, and a yellow plate armor in his chest. And to top it all, both are ninjas. The only differences are that Korozaru doesn't have a turtle shell on his back, and he fights using two large ninja stars instead of nunchucks.
    • In Kisuke's storyline, an allied Kagami Clan Samurai mentions that the enemy has approximately 1,500 men, while their side only has 300.
  • Shown Their Work: The games are Trope Overdosed with reverences to Japanese religion and folklore.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Kongiku and Yuzuruha are technically this. Kongiku comes off as being depressed and worrisome, while Yuzuruha is more cheerful and laid-back.
  • Simple, yet Awesome: The Flash Secret Art spawns a lightning ball at the enemy's location, instantly damaging them. This is one of the Secret Arts with the shortest cast time and delay, allowing for an easy Spam Attack. It also applies to bosses - even if the boss is off-screen, the Secret Art will definitely target them. Spam this in a one-on-one boss fight and watch their health bar drop down quickly.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Kisuke is at least close to this in the localization of Muramasa Rebirth.
  • Slap-Slap-Kiss: If you take Kisuke's second ending as canon, the protagonists' interactions in the hot spring can be taken as this... or, if you squint, as She Is Not My Girlfriend.
  • Smoke Out:
    • Some Mook ninjas do this, although they usually use it to reappear back to their original spawning location on the screen. Those same ones also tend to carry regular bombs.
    • Smoke Bombs are also an item you can carry, which you can use to escape battles you don't feel like fighting.
  • Spam Attack: The Earth Hornet series of specials, consisting of rapid stabs as can be expected from the sword variety. Stronger versions of the attack can be extended by mashing the attack button repeatedly, which also propels them forward at impressive speeds. The final sword's special also qualifies, combining it with lots of shadow clones that shoot out pretty much every other type of projectile from other types of specials, finishing it all off with the user shooting out a huge Sword Beam.
  • Spectacular Spinning: The vertical spin (Cyclone, Gale, Wind, Whirldwind) and horizontal spin (Hell Spinner, Dragonfly, Swallow Saw, Moon Ring) Secret Arts.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Momohime's fiance's name is Yukinojyo in the original Wii release and Yukinojo in the Vita rerelease.
  • Spin Attack: Lots of varieties. The vertical ones are by far one of the best specials in the game, as they have a large damage area, are easy to use, can be used repeatedly without breaking the sword, grant a long period of invincibility and one variety of them also has full horizontal control during its activation.
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix: Seemingly hand-drawn 2D characters and backgrounds accompanied by 3D special effects and background objects.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Exaggerated with Raijin, by far one of the tallest women encountered in the game.
  • Stealth Pun/Visual Pun: Raijin has thunder thighs.
    • In Japanese Mythology, Raijin carries small hammers to beat on the ring of drums behind him and thus stir up thunderstorms. Naturally, Muramasa's take on Raijin keeps them, but when you consider that this Raijin is outright ripped as opposed to slightly chunky, perhaps those hammers also double as dumbbells.
  • Stockholm Syndrome: Momohime suffers from it big time, to the point where her first ending has her become a nun for Jinkuro, despite a fair portion of the plot being his fault and him possessing Momohime because she took the hit intended for her fiance.
  • Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl:
    • Kisuke and Momohime encounter the ghosts of murdered women as NPCs. Skull-headed onryo also appear as enemies and launch "Flames of Rancor" that can be deflected back at them.
    • Otae, Gonbe's wife in the second DLC chapter, takes this form when she returns to the human world to help her husband.
  • Stripperiffic: Raijin is basically topless (much like how her namesake is bare-chested); the only reason you can't see her nipples are because of the strategic covering provided by her shawl.
  • Sword Beam: Not quite as many types as others, mostly limited to the Cresent type specials as others such as Sakuya generally take the form of projectiles and shockwaves, some may even pass as Razor Wind due to their almost transparent or white appearance. The Waning Moon Secret Art even has your character charge the attack for a while, and let out a large projectile in front, strong enough to stagger humanoid bosses.
  • Sword of Plot Advancement: The Oboro Muramasa, only forgable once you've collected every other sword in the game and required to unlock the last two endings. Unusually, it is also the game's strongest weapon and there is no Infinity +1 Sword to eclipse it.
  • Synchronization: Jinkuro states that Momohime's body could die if any harm comes to her soul. That's why he had to rescue her kidnapped soul in hell, otherwise it would be a lose-lose situation for the both of them.
  • Taking You with Me: Kisuke does this in Momohime's second ending.
  • Theme Naming: Some of the barrier-breaking swords you get from bosses are named after them or something related to them (the boss fight in Iga nets you the Iganokami Kanemichi, defeating the Tsuchigumo earns you the Kumokiri, literally "spider slicer", etc.)
  • Those Two Guys: Yasohachi and Kumagoro.
  • Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Fujin and Raijin. Raijin is a hulking, muscular woman while Fujin is tiny (and green). To a lesser extent, Kisuke and Torahime as well. Also Seikichi and Rajyaki in the second ending.
  • Title Drop: The final sword is called Oboro Muramasa, which is the game's Japanese title.
  • Tsuchigumo and Jorogumo: A tsuchigumo is fought in a web-filled castle room. He captures Torahime and her soldiers, and is fought alongside his children, who also appear earlier in the dungeon leading to him. A jorogumo, Dayu the Courtesan, is the final boss of the final DLC Hell's Where The Heart Is, seducing Seikichi to lure out and capture Rajyaki.
  • Tsundere:
    • Raijin (go figure) is a fair example, though she's a lot more "tsun" than some others listed on that page.
    • The way Jinkuro treats Momohime occasionally seems like this as well. Particularly given that he sacrifices his soul for her in two of her endings... and ends up marrying her in Yukinojo's body in the third.
  • To Hell and Back: Also known as the point where the enemies become dicks.
  • The Unfought: Fudo-Myou and Amitabha. For the first, you only get to tear up a statue of him, and when the real one shows up he immediately overpowers Jinkuro in a cutscene. For the second, Kisuke targets him at the end of the game, but gives up the idea once he realizes just what he's up against.
  • Unishment: Yama does this in Gonbe's first ending, after he and the party go to Yama to complain about the awful work conditions on the demons' behalf, by banishing them all from Hell and forcing them back into their bodies. Of course, given that this is Yama, it's also very likely intentional.
  • Unorthodox Sheathing: Kisuke does this by throwing the sheath in the air and catching it with his sword.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: None of the villagers seem the least bit put off by the half-dozen skulls hanging from Kisuke's waist.
  • Uptown Girl:
    • Torahime (high family), Kisuke (common ninja).
    • Also qualifies with Kisuke and Momohime if you choose to see Kisuke's second ending as canon, where he becomes Momohime's protector.
  • Variable Mix: Area music seamlessly switches instrumentation during battles. An area has two background tracks, one solemn music which plays as you normally travel through the stage and a more upbeat variant of the track, which plays alongside the normal track during enemy encounters.
  • Villain Protagonist: Jinkuro, whose entire story is basically him repeatedly trying to cheat death by various means and bulldozing over anyone who gets in his way.
  • Visual Innuendo: Momohime's artwork has her holding a nodachi in a suggestive pose.
  • Voices Are Mental: Averted, but when Jinkuro is borrowing Momohime's body, "her" voice is noticeably lower than in the few instances she gets to use her own mouth. Amusingly, Momohime Jinkuro also uses "washi" — a personal pronoun used exclusively by old men.
  • Walk the Earth: Kisuke and Momohime's second endings, as well as Kisuke's third.
  • Weird Moon: A green moon can be seen in the background during the fight against the Blue Monk (Momohime's first boss battle).
  • Whole-Plot Reference: "Genroku Legends - A Cause to Daikon For" is a retelling and expansion of the plot of the infamous Famicom kusoge Ikki, which is about two farmers named Gonbe and Tago staging a two-man farmer's revolt after being overtaxed and exploited by the lord of their province. Even their weaponry is nearly identical - throwing sickles and an improvised spear made out of a bamboo stalk.
  • Womb Level: Momohime and Jinkuro's story, in an oni's stomach. With stomach acid that deals damage if you stand too long in the stuff and don't get to slicing.
  • Yandere: Kongiku, who on one occasion threatens to tear apart Momohime's soul if Jinkuro gets too fond of her.
  • Youkai: The game's based on Japanese mythology. Naturally, there are plenty: the kitsune that serve Inarimyojin assist Kisuke and Momohime, with Yuzuruha and Kongiku taking human form to serve as guides; tengu and kappa are common enemies, as are the karakasa-type Obake, although they look slightly different from their usual form (that being a one-legged umbrella monster with a single eye and a mouth with a long tongue). Every boss (other than named characters like Kurozaru and Torahime) is based on famous Yokai and legends.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Although Momohime is wearing a kimono rather than a skirt, the hemline for it is quite high, exposing her thighs and thigh-high stockings.
  • Zip Mode:
    • There are people and boaters who will take you to other regions for a small fee.
    • Once you see a story's ending, you gain the ability to warp between shrines with that character.
    • With the addition of Arashimaru's DLC, it's possible (for the DLC characters) to skip the entirety of Momohime and Kisuke's dungeons, warping straight to the boss gate at the end.

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