Now what if I told you that The Legend of Zelda and The Mysterious Murasame Castle share a similar relationship with one another? After the breakout success of the first Zelda title, developers within Nintendo opted to play with the basic design and attributes of the first Zelda in the desire of making a faster paced action oriented title. With the creation of a few new assets, a new story and a new protagonist in the form of Pit, the birth of the first Kid Icarus title was complete. Instead of opting to design a wholly new franchise with new technologies or approaches after Metroid, the team decided to play with the engine and initial design of the game, eschewing the labyrinthine side scrolling nature for a faster paced experimental platformer/shooter hybrid. People in the know will also be quick to inform you that Metroid and Kid Icarus share a bond by being created by the same team. These franchises are The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Kid Icarus. Avid video game historians and enthusiasts will be quick to tell you that this was also the “birth year” of three other notable Nintendo franchises that currently enjoy a strong popularity in the Nintendo-verse. The Mysterious Murasame Castle was created and released in 1986. You have brought up a pretty interesting observation however… Zelda is focused more on exploration, puzzles and discovery while The Mysterious Murasame Castle is skewed more towards combat, navigation and survival. “So you roam about a map beating foes while collecting crazy items? Oh, but that just sounds like a Zelda game!”
As combat is a big component to the game, Takamaru (as the player character) was given a mixed moveset consisting of long ranged projectile items such as enchanted “will-o-wisp” flames, throwing knives and stars, support items such as a magic cloak that would turn the character completely invisible and thus impossible to damage, and a short range katana drawn from the sheath should you find an opponent stumbling into your strike zone. The game demanded the absolute best of your ability to navigate its grid based design while making your way from one zone to the next avoiding or engaging the obstacles it would put in your way. Players encounter nimble enemies ranging from ninja foot soldiers to possessed lords with large AoE weaponry to various supernatural phenomena darting all about and generating mass pandemonium. Even in its now basic gameplay design, Takamaru is a character that is nimble, responsive and, through the acquisition of varied offensive and support power ups, given a number of ways to deal with the challenges that arose in the game’s “screen by screen” design. In some senses, The Mysterious Murasame Castle is both an action-adventure title and one of the earliest progenitors of the modern day “stylish action” or “twitch action” game genres.
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