If there’s one thing that I don’t often see in gaming, it’s Japanese high school girls wielding swords. Someone should really check the health and safety regulations for such dangerous weapons but nevertheless, developers Zenith Blue have decided to equip these teenagers with swords in Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae – a frantic arena fighting game. Although originally released on PC in 2013, it’s now made the leap to consoles, for better or worse. Will it indeed bring us the surge of pleasure proclaimed within the game’s own description?
Well, Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae essentially offers little more than a story mode, which is centred on a teenage girl, Misa, who just so happens to be a Blade Templar, tasked with the role of protecting the world from demons. Misa’s latest quest is to save her classmate and former friend Suzuka from the control of an ancient sword – The Demon Blade – before it sucks all the life out of her. All manner of evil minions are ready to stand in our leading lady’s way but whatever it takes, she’s willing to end the curse and, if needed, killed Suzuka.
There’s a short tutorial to cover the basic attacks and ancient techniques needed to survive but after that it’s time to delve right in for some hacking and slashing. You’ll find Misa in a circular arena stage, where five waves of varying enemy types come at you from all directions. Taking them down requires a whole lot of hitting the attack buttons until they bleed and then eventually die with more hits. I have no idea how much health each of them has, and so just causing as much damage to whoever happened to be in my line of sight at the time, became the norm.
The majority of play turns out to be a high-octane combo fest without much thought; that is until the end of stage bosses turn up. After the five wave onslaught, a more powerful enemy will await you to end that particular stage and this sees a spell of tactical combat occurring for a change. As with most bosses, they nearly always have signature moves up their sleeves to keep an eye on before making a timely attack yourself. Working out when to dodge and when to slice the enemy was probably the few minutes per stage where I felt suitably entertained. I dangled the carrot then went in for the kill. Rinsed and repeated.
Considering the unappealing couple of stage designs included and enemy types that soon become samey, the onus was really on the gameplay to provide the variety. Fortunately, there’s a whole host of upgrades and skills to buy using skill points earned during stages. Unlocking the ability to counter, increasing the power of the ancient Zanshin technique or boosting your own health gauge, can certainly help with progressing through the stages. Do any of them make it a more enjoyable experience? No, and that leaves proceedings getting stale far too quickly.
Zenith Blue have certainly attempted to add variety to the enemies but putting the average graphical presentation aside, they all look a bit strange and some even seem out of place. These range from different coloured suited men wearing masks with swords to mecha-beasts that wish to stomp on you. Kudos for one of the brutish designs though, which is a cross between Venom and The Incredible Hulk, it looks extremely menacing.
Sadly, the ‘story’ was over in around an hour due to there only being six bosses in total and each of the waves flying by. Seeing as there aren’t any more modes to spend your time on, you’re left with a conundrum of either replaying the story on a harder difficulty, or heading on over to your console’s storage and deleting it. I certainly tried to squeeze additional life from Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae but the only benefit comes with the upgrades that carry over and that just wasn’t enough to repeat the combat monotony.
Fast, furious and extremely repetitive is the best way to describe Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae. Apart from the timing based manoeuvres, which seem pot luck at times to trigger, the combat is pretty darn fluid and non-stop. I can see how those who enjoy a challenge will be open to replaying the story mode over and over to grab all the upgrades and taking on the highest unlockable difficulties. However, I don’t see the value in a game that takes an hour to complete and doesn’t really enthral with the narrative. It feels like Zenith Blue are aiming to draw in the crowds using Japanese girls in skirts without actually giving them a reason to stay and play.
It wasn’t a pleasure to play and it’d have to get a massive price cut for me to encourage anyone to splash the cash. Steer clear of Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae unless you find repetition and short length to be desirable qualities.
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