Normally I try to come up with clever titles for posts.

At first, I considered “The Only Thing That Can Stop A Bad Girl With A Sword Is A Good Girl With A Sword”, but that seemed excessively long.

Then I considered “Putting the Broad in Broadsword”, but that was (a) demeaning and rude and (b) inaccurate, as neither of the main characters uses a broadsword.

On the other hand, I am now desperately in need of a game featuring a Japanese anthropomorphic feline swordsman, so I can write a post titled “Putting the Kat in Katana”

Um.

So, back to Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae, the game I started off talking about before I decided to get all clever.  As you might have guessed, it’s a game about two women with swords, one of whom is the Bad Guy.  She’s been possessed by the spirit of an evil sword which is draining her life force and blah blah blah she’s bad, go kill her.

For no logical reason, she has a small army of mooks that you, as the Good Guy, need to brutally murder in your pursuit of vengeance.

I guess they come with the sword.

If you’ve played Oneechanbara – and if you haven’t, get on it – you’ll be familiar with the basic principle.  You get dumped into the middle of an arena, enemies spawn and try to swarm you, you kill them, occasionally you fight giant bosses.

UNLIKE Oneechanbara, this is a little more tasteful, with not much more than the occasional panty shot to roll your eyes at.  That may or may not be a plus, I’ll leave it up to you.

On “Normal”, I got my pleaty-skirted arse handed to me my the first boss, so I started over on Easy and cleared the game without too many issues, which then let me start a second playthrough on Normal with all of my upgrades from the Easy clear intact.  I suspect this is how you’re supposed to do things, but if you can clear it on Normal without doing a New Game+, more power to you.

It’s not a long game.  On easy, I cleared it in under an hour.  That being said, there are lots of upgrades to unlock and difficulty levels to clear, so it’s got some replay value.

What it is lacking in length, it makes up for with some very satisfactory swordplay and acrobatics.  Your character has a ton of different animations and watching her dash, roll, and slice her way through an encounter is a blast.  I suspect that this is REALLY designed for people who like to calculate frame counts in moves and put together sophisticated combos, but even a scrub like me can get some impressive moves out.

Two thumbs up.