Murasaki

Murasaki is a distinctive indie shoot-’em-up developed by the Japanese doujin developer Katatema and published on Steam by PLAYISM. While it initially resembles a classic bullet-hell shooter, the game quickly establishes its own identity through unusual mechanics that blend fast reflex gameplay with puzzle-like strategic thinking. Instead of relying on constant streams of bullets and traditional enemy waves, Murasaki focuses on carefully timed shots, chain reactions, and environmental manipulation. The result is a shooter that feels both familiar and refreshingly experimental, offering a unique take on the danmaku genre that challenges players to think as much as they react. The story of Murasaki unfolds in a mysterious world threatened by an encroaching darkness. Players take control of one of two characters, Kairi or Satsuki, as they attempt to fight back against strange enemies and uncover the truth behind the looming crisis. The narrative is not heavily emphasized through lengthy cutscenes or dialogue, but it gradually reveals itself through brief conversations, boss encounters, and unlockable story segments that appear as players progress through the game. This subtle storyte…

In many ways Murasaki is the duo expanding upon their ideas, as they've always done, but this time they've taken it to a whole new heights, Irisu Syndrome's DNA can be felt all over this game, the amazing composer Takeaki Watanabe returns from Irisu Syndrome and once again it's a huge highlight, he gets to spread his wings, making far more chaotic and energetic music and it's a delight to listen to. But the game itself is an incredible take on bullet hell genre, taking the puzzle mechanics of Irisu Syndrome and bringing them over to this format and it works incredibly well.

You can read some other reviews if you want a description of the gameplay, I'm just here to say that yes it is good and yes I do recommend it.

It's alright.

Everything's satisfying about Murasaki. All of the levels are fun to play, and each remains fun throughout the level. Even the tutorial level is worth playing and replaying because it has such an interesting boss with such good music. The levels are fun even after you know them well, and aren't so quickly trivialized. Even the scoring is unusually satisfying. In similar games where you get points for killing enemies, knowledge of the level allows you to kill an entire wave before it even gets bullets off. Enemies flooding the screen with bullets is what makes the game fun, but preventing that fun gets you points more reliably. In Murasaki the enemy bullets matter more than the enemy for points, so the more-fun gameplay is also the higher-scoring gameplay. The bosses have a ton of character and move around the screen and react to your play in satisfying ways. If you damage a boss you'll interrupt the boss's dialogue. If you beat a boss quickly enough you'll get a 'duel' which gives you another harder round, which you can decline to save the run, just like you can more defensively clear the screen if you have to. The setting and story have a great tone, which reminds me a bit of D…

Usually when I play a shmup I either beat it once, go "Yeah that was cool I guess" and move on to something else, or, more likely, I don't find myself interested enough to put in the work to beat it while cursing myself for not being strong enough (Darius Gaiden whispers at me every time I put the soundtrack on, which is very often). I cleared Murasaki's main 5 stages with both characters and I'm still playing it, working on the hard mode stages and extra stage after going out of the way to do some of the challenges with the incentive of... actually wanting to see the lore and story bits that come with them because I'm genuinely interested. Something about this game really clicked with my brain. Adding a puzzle aspect and a focus on bullet eating was already good enough, though I have to admit that the game being especially kind with levels being separately selectable instead of the game being the usual one continuous run definitely helped ease me into things. Add on that you have a health bar that'll allow you to run into a few bullets here and there and be fine, though the game is not at all afraid to still bombard you with fast streams of bullets that WILL evaporate you if you a…