Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae (PlayStation 4) Review

In Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae, players control Mitsurugi as she fights hordes of enemies before confronting a boss at the end of every level. The game is a cross between a hack and slash in the vein of Devil May Cry and God of War, and arena-based fighting. All fights against enemies and bosses take place on a small arena, with each level having Mitsurugi fighting against five waves of foes before confronting the end stage boss.

Combat is decent, with Mitsurugi relying on both her sword and fists throughout. There's a small, but varied, selection of moves to utilise, including slashing when in mid-air, a downward thrust kick, and a special sword swipe attack that can be unleashed by holding Down and releasing the Circle button, among other techniques. Building up a high combo fills up a special meter located next to the health and sword energy bars, which ties into an interesting mechanic of combat. After enemies have been weakened, Mitsurugi can perform a sword sheathe that deals heavy damage to foes, but if the meter is high enough, performing the move causes them to instantly die, which is quite satisfying. Defeated enemies and ones affected by her special attack will drop either health or points that can be used to upgrade her energy and different attacks.

Although the combat is fun, the remainder of the game is a barebones, repetitive experience. First off, only two modes are available for selection: story and tutorial, while secondly, playing the story is a monotonous affair as every level involves fighting wave after wave of enemies, which quickly becomes tedious after the first fight. Additionally, the variety of bad guys to slice and beat up is very limited, with only three different types in total, two of which have slight variations in colour to indicate how aggressive they are when attacking. Despite this, the enemies are rather braindead, as they largely just move around Mitsurugi, occasionally attacking; any real challenge comes from the boss fights.

As mentioned before, while the fighting mechanics are enjoyable, they lack polish. The only way to lose a combo is if an enemy attacks Mitsurugi, meaning even if moving her around and not attacking, there is no need to worry about losing the current combo. This problem extends to the sword sheathe technique, as well, since the only way to lose all energy from the meter is if she gets hit.