Few 2D action games have aged as gracefully as Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and Vanillaware and Marvelous clearly know it. The hand-painted Wii hit from 2009, which got a PlayStation Vita port in 2013, is coming back as Muramasa: Revenant Blades, a feature-packed rerelease that renders the game in 4K, adds new weapons and combat systems, and ships with a fresh localization. The worldwide release date is February 4, 2027, on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. Marvelous announced that date on September 10, 2026, and it also marks Vanillaware’s first release on PC.
Polygon played the game for an hour at a Tokyo Game Show event in September 2026, and its October 8, 2026 preview had plenty of praise for it. The structure hasn’t changed: a side-scrolling action RPG that sits somewhere between a Metroidvania and an arcade slash-’em-up, set in Edo-period Japan. Players cross Honshu during a war over the swords forged by the legendary Senji Muramasa, blades said to grant power along with a bloodthirsty madness, and the fight draws ninja, samurai, evil priests and yokai into it.
Combat is the main draw. Momohime, for example, carries a short sword for quick combo-building attacks and a longer blade for slower, heavier strikes. Skills such as Haze Splitter (a flanking double cut), Moonslash (a crescent of energy) and Moonbeam (a rising slash that sends out a shockwave) work on cooldowns. Blades take damage and can temporarily break, so you have to decide when to guard, when to attack and when to switch weapons so the broken one can “heal.” Even so, the preview says the pace never slows down and describes the controls as tight and responsive.
Here is what’s new or bundled in Revenant Blades:
- 4K rendering of the base game, plus new weapons and combat systems
- Six playable stories from the start: Momohime and Kisuke, plus Okoi, Gonbe, Arashimaru and Rajaki, the four characters introduced as downloadable content in the Vita version
- 100 swords to forge and dozens of skills to customize, upgrade and master
- A new localization with an English voiceover
- A training mode for learning techniques and swords
- Fishing and a relaxing hot-springs option for downtime
- Extras: an illustration gallery, the full game script, and cutscene and character viewers
Physical copies will be available on PS5, Switch and Switch 2. The Switch 2 cartridge holds the full game. In North America the Standard Edition has an MSRP of $49.99 on PS5 and Switch and $59.99 on Switch 2. The Limited Edition costs $89.99 on PS5 and Switch and $99.99 on Switch 2. It comes with the game, a collectible art book of more than 120 pages, a limited CD with 10 tracks from Basiscape’s score, and a 10-inch by 14-inch byōbu folding screen with Vanillaware artwork. Marvelous says details on digital editions for console and PC will come later.
Vanillaware’s art direction has always been the reason people buy its games, and the in-game food still looks good enough to eat. A 4K version with all six stories unlocked from day one looks like the definitive way to play Muramasa.
