New Reno is biiiiig. Finished up the mining towns of Redding/Broken Hills though. Working on New Reno & NCR in Fallout 2.
Played around three or so hours of Oboro Muramasa tonight. I think I'm almost done with the game now. It's been ridiculously easy and the backtracking all the way through one area just to get to another (sometimes with no enemy encounters, so you're just holding right/left for a few minutes...ZZZzzzzz) is getting worse, but it's also been enjoyable enough. After I clear the game, there's still Momohime's quest to do, but AFAIK hers is the same, just starting in the opposite direction. 
I think you have to clear it with both characters and do some other stuff to finally get the real final boss fight/ending.
Are you playing it the action way or the rpg way? I had assumed the action way would be pretty balls to the wall hard like NG and the rpg way would be piss easy.
The musou way, which I thought was the action mode, but it's the RPG mode. You can switch between the two styles at almost any time, by the way; I didn't notice much of a difference. Maybe I need to try it again, or maybe I'll just wait until I finish Kisuke's game and do Shura for Momohime.
I think I might have died once in the beginning when messing around and another when doing an optional "dungeon" (you warp to an area and take on a bunch of enemies; the game gives you a level recommendation before you enter and I went in early to try it)...it's been a cakewalk otherwise. You get a ridiculous amount of healing items to use (bought from merchants) too, plus you find food items you can use to make your own healing items with.
IIRC after you beat the game with one character, the other character can access these white barriers that you cannot enter the first time through. (EDIT: No, you have to beat it with BOTH characters apparently.
) This is where the harder trials are. There's also some additional modes that are supposed to be harder, including where you have 1 HP, but I've seen people saying that other than a trial or two, it's still too easy. I'm only at level 26 right now, but I have some swords that do 100+ damage, and it's just incredibly easy to slaughter any enemy encountered. This not Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry, no way, no how. Maybe I need to see about playing on a higher difficulty level (I don't remember there being an option though), but when I check around, no one else is saying it's particularly difficult either.
This GameFAQs post sums it up nicely. Since I'm still enjoying the game despite its shortcomings, I'd give it higher than a five. Maybe a seven, but I do tend to be overly-generous with my own ratings I think.
On a scale from 1-10, with 7 being average, I would probably rate this game as below average, maybe a 5.
The level design is terrible, you jut hold left or right until you encounter a bunch of enemies and then you kill them all and move on. Sometimes you have to jump up ledges to reach the exit, but there is no real platforming.
You have to press "up" to jump. I don't understand why they made this decision. There are plenty of unused buttons (especially in the classic controller control scheme). Pressing up to jump is fine for fighters, but is awkward for sidescrolling action games.
The combat is too chaotic, at least on shura mode (skipped musou mode completely). Basically, when you encounter a group of enemies you are locked in to a screen and you just have this long string of identical enemies to take out. They usually sort of just stand there and you walk up and jam on the b button until they are all dead.
The combo system is completely unsatisfying, you can basically keep hitting an enemy at any time, anywhere. And the fall from the air VERY slowly, which makes it easy to jump up and keep hitting them. There is no room for creativity because there are no limitations to the combat system. You have a ton of defensive moves, but nothing is balanced. Why should I block when I can dodge, since dodging won't cause my sword to break? It's like they threw in a bunch of combat moves without even thinking.
When you die you start right from the screen you died at, even on the more difficult mode. There is no penalty for not playing well, which is another sign the game was not balanced.
I can't rate the story. I can read Japanese quite fluently, but I just don't care. The game itself is dull, so I find it hard to get interesting in the text boxes that show up between boring fights.
The graphics are great, and I suspect that many people interested in this game will be happy with that.
Seriously, if not for this game's visuals and atmosphere, nobody would give a shit.
