Gahh damn i've been on this VN for too damn long (Started it on june 2022 lmfao) but i'm glad that i took my time with this one. I think i was able to appreciate it the more i allowed it to sit with me from my numerous breaks between routes.

It pretty much ticks a lot of the boxes in not only what i'd want from a VN but an overall experience a whole. From it's colourful and stunning CGs, to its banging soundtrack and sound design. The voice acting in particular is great too, really adds alot to a plethora of scenes with Kageaki. I really can't complain too much generally speaking.

Mannnn was the story a rollercoaster if i've ever seen one. A really gritty and thorough perspective on morality, what is true justice? if it even exists, do the ends justify the means (Vice versa) and so on and so forth. All in which culminated a really strong character journey for Kageaki. He's definitely one of the more well written protagonists that i've encountered in the genre. I fw him pretty hard ngl, maybe not as emotionally charged as other VN MCs but i'm certainly a fan.

THIS IS NOT A STORY OF HEROES RAHHHHHHHHHHH

I had my reservations when I first started playing Full Metal Daemon Muramasa. The first few hours of the game had me feeling confused, frustrated, disgusted, and angry bordering on outright furious. I felt so repulsed that there were a few times I even considered just giving up on the game entirely.

But I'm so glad I didn't. Once I figured out what the game was going for, and everything clicked, I ended up loving it. I realized that the game was trying to elicit those emotions from me because they were the same emotions Kageaki felt every day of his life, and feeling that way helped me fit into his shoes perfectly. It's rare to see a story manage that so excellently.

As for the story itself, the writing is phenomenal. I was surprised by how much I fell in love with most of the characters. Kageaki is an amazing subversive protagonist, and Kanae and Ichijo were both fantastic and I loved both of their routes (though I prefer Ichijo a little more, I was surprised that she ended up being my favorite character), and the third route's love interest was so incredibly interesting as well, I can see why so many people love her so much.

(I think the only character I outright did not enjoy seeing was the underwear Nazi who just annoyed me most of the time. There's a few other characters I despised, but I enjoyed despising them. I just had no love for the underwear Nazi dude at all.)

From a philosophical standpoint, this game is nothing short of fantastic. While I don't fully agree with every point the game has to make, it makes those points incredibly well and hammers them home in a way that might just stick with me for life. There are plenty of "Revenge Bad" and "Killing Bad" stories in media nowadays, to the point that it feel a little oversaturated at times, but this is one of the stories that stands out among the rest. The "Law of Balance" is such a fantastic way of expressing the game's philosophy, and it does so with incredible finesse, I was left in awe of how well it managed to convey itself.

My only real criticism of the writing is that some scenes go on for a bit too long and overstay their welcome, particularly some of the fight scenes. Those scenes were the only times I found myself losing focus and just going through the motions, thankfully most scenes redeemed themselves almost immediately, so I can't be mad in the slightest. (Though I do hate that I was forced to do a math puzzle during one of the biggest fights in the whole game, that wasn't fun.)

I do have a second criticism of the game, but that has to do with the H-scenes. (If you have no interest in those, then please just disregard this whole section entirely.) This is a PC only visual novel from Japan meant for adults, so naturally they have to be here, that's just how it goes. Now, when it comes to H-scenes in games like this, there are two things I hate:
1. When the game comes up with some stupid justification for sex to happen (i.e. "we need to have sex to generate power!" or "The door won't open unless we show our love!!!" etc)
2. When an H-scene abruptly interrupts the story, and is seemingly forgotten about immediately afterwards as though it never happened or just feels overall irrelevant.

Thankfully, Muramasa doesn't commit the first, but sadly, it does commit the second a little too much for my taste. Most of the scenes do feel important and have some level of consequence for the characters, but there are a few that just didn't have to be there, and most of those depict... unsavory elements. There's one in particular I really wasn't a fan of, solely because the moment right before the H-scene fulfilled the H-scene's purpose already, so adding a violent H-scene right afterwards just muddied the waters for me. However, even with that said, the scenes are decently rare throughout the whole game, and the rest of the experience greatly outweighs the negatives that those scenes might have brought up. (Though you should probably avoid this game if you can't stomach stuff like that, you probably won't have a great time just because of how dark this game can get.)

Overall though, this ended up being my second favorite visual novel so far, right behind Wonderful Everyday. Granted, I'm relatively new to the genre and haven't played a lot of visual novels, so that could change soon. But my experience with this game was incredible. Even when playing it late at night when I couldn't get any sleep, this game enraptured me. I can see why it's considered one of the greatest visual novels of all time. Once I was able to click with the game, everything fell into place and I ended up loving the hell out of this game. I'd fully recommend it to anyone who's into philosophical and dark games like this.

(Getting the final CG was way more annoying than it had to be. Still totally worth it though.)

Muramasa:

Mi favorita (Hikaru best waifu). Brutal cómo el Narahara saca otra historia completamente distinta de la nada. La mejora de Ukyo es increíble, el tema que trata bestial y joder con Kageaki y las peleas en general. La relación con Hikaru es súper cute. Genial.

9,75/10

Full Metal Daemon Muramasa. This vn is complete trash. Almost fell asleep while reading it. And its crazy because i LOVE, i absolutely love the samurai setting. But this one. This is how you don't do a samurai series. This is just garbage. The characters are boring and have no depth whatsoever. The fights are repetitive and like any chuunige. The dialogue is cheesy and it's been on high for it is for I don't know how long now because even the creator is bored of this garbage. The only reason people hype this trash up so much and think its good is because of the art. If this series did not have the art that it had nobody would care about this series. And if we're being honest, if we're being completely honest and spitting facts as we always do, the art in Muramasa is not even that good, its mediocre at best. I've seen way better visual novels with way better art than Muramasa. This series is just so bad and anyone who likes it is clearly just doing so because it's popular. It's one of those vns that people only like so they can seem like they have great taste. Every vn list, every top ten vns or something, you GOTTA include Muramasa because if you don't include Muramasa its just like "OOH you just don't have good taste for Nanahara kamige." No. It's the opposite. Including Muramasa in one of your top ten or one of your favourite vns proves you're a fraud.

Bir eser aynı zamanda nasıl hem çok doğru hem çok yanlış hissettirebilir?

Basit, ne yaptığını çok iyi bilerek ve Muramasa da aynen bunu yapıyor. Narahara başından sonuna kadar ne yazmak istediğinden emin bir şekilde yazmış ve bu rota sisteminden tut oyunun rotalarının temalarına, karakterlerine, diyaloglarında ve en önemlisi Kageakide sonuna kadar hissettiriyor.

Muramasa gözümde objektif olarak mükemmele en çok yaklaşan eser. Aldığı bazı kararlar kesinlikle herkesin hoşuna gidecek kararlar değil ama eserin geneline baktığımda "Evet, VNDB'de ilk sırayı hakeden eser aslında bu." diyebiliyorum.
Peki Muramasa bu kadar iyiyse neden kişisel listemde daha yukarıda değil? Çünkü dediğim gibi, gözümde mükemmel değil. Dies Irae gözümde "bana itafen" yazılmış gibi hissettiğim tek eser olduğu için yeri her zaman bende ayrı olacak, keza Subarashiki Hibi de açık ara tükettiğim en iyi hikaye olduğu için Muramasa'yı geride bırakıyor. Ama bu demek değil ki Muramasa'nın hikayesi kötü, aksine Muramasa yine dediğim gibi ne anlatmak istediğini bilen dahi bir yazar tarafından yazıldığı için her rotası birbirinden ayrı hissettiren muazzam bir hikayeye sahip ama işte bu rotaların bazı noktaları var ki göz ardı edemiyorum.

Hero "adalet" kavramını muazzam bir şekilde işliyor ve daha iyisini düşünemeyeceğim bir sonla noktalıyor ama zorlama romance kısımları ve hikayenin ilerisinde okuduğumda farkettiğim (True Demon okurken) tutarsızlıklar beni fazlası ile rahatsız etti. Nemesis keza aynı şeyi "İntikam" kavramı ile çok iyi yapıyor ve yine daha iyisini düşünemeyeceğim, insanın içini burkan bir sonla bitiyor ama yine bu tutarsızlıklar ve genel olarak siyasi hikaye anlatımı benim gözümde düşürüyor hikayeyi.

Tyrant ve True Demon ise çok farklı hikayeler. Tyrant ve True Demon "intikam" veya "adalet" gibi felsefi konuları anlatmak yerine genel olarak daha çok Muramasa'nın kendi evrenin in hikayesine ve Kageaki'ye odaklanıyor. Dürüst olayım Tyrant'ın sonunu hiç beğenmedigim ve bad end'den hallice olduğunu düşündüğüm için üzerine konuşmak istemiyorum. True Demon ise apayrı bir mesele. True Demon, Muramasa'nın özünde anlatmak istediği herşey ve çok daha fazlası. Hem pacing hem kurgu hem de karakterler açısından bir şaheser bu rota. Epiloguedan önce yazılar akarken gözlerimin yaşadığını, boğazımın düğümlendiğini hissettim, yazılar geçtikten sonra ise Muazzam bir epilogue ile son noktayı koydu Muramasa. Evet, Muramasa bir başyapıt ama gözümde en iyi eser asla değil ve bunu söylemek içimi rahatlatıyor biraz çünkü Dies ve Subahibi'yi Muramasa geçemediyse hiçbir eserin geçemeyeceğine adım gibi emin oldum.

Ve böylece daha çok içimi dökmek ve Muramasa hakkındaki düşüncelerimi biraz daha sıraya koymak için yazdığım "inceleme" tarzı yazımı sonlandırıyorum. Muramasa herkesin okuması gereken bir eser ve tanıdığım herkese öneririm, kimseye seveceğinin garantisini veremem ama eşsiz bir deneyim yaşayacaklarının garantisini verebilirim.

Hero 9/10
Nemesis 9/10
Tyrant 8/10
True Demon 10/10

Never have I ever experienced a Piece of Media that has come this close to Perfection.
I am aware of its flaws, the First Chapter starts somewhat slow, the Nemesis route feels kind of weak compared to the Hero and Conqueror's route, and the amount of rape scenes it has (look I get the point it is trying to make but stop sexualizing that at least).
But its Peaks are just so high I can't help but ignore them.
The Protagonist, Minato Kageaki has so much depth and development throughout the Story it puts shame on many other well-written Characters. It's not just about that either, since the beginning of the story, it is shown how much Kageaki is brimming with charm and personality that you can't help but enjoy every moment he is on screen. Without a doubt, he's gonna stay as one of my all-time favorites.
The Themes are another highlight here, based upon War and Anti-heroism and how well it does to tackle those issues. That's not just the end of it, it also deals with Sin and Punishment, the Burden of Duty, and deals with them just as well.
I can keep going about everything it has but I don't want to add spoilers to this.
Overall, I feel like it's going to stay as one of my favorite media for a while, hoping I come across something as good again.

Allow me to play doubles advocate here for a moment. For all intensive purposes I think you are wrong. In an age where false morals are a diamond dozen, true virtues are a blessing in the skies. We often put our false morality on a petal stool like a bunch of pre-Madonnas, but you all seem to be taking something very valuable for granite. So I ask of you to mustard up all the strength you can because it is a doggy dog world out there. Although there is some merit to what you are saying it seems like you have a huge ship on your shoulder. In your argument you seem to throw everything in but the kids Nsync, and even though you are having a feel day with this I am here to bring you back into reality. I have a sick sense when it comes to these types of things. It is almost spooky, because I cannot turn a blonde eye to these glaring flaws in your rhetoric. I have zero taller ants when it comes to people spouting out hate in the name of moral righteousness. You just need to remember what comes around is all around, and when supply and command fails you will be the first to go.

Make my words, when you get down to brass stacks it doesn't take rocket appliances to get two birds stoned at once. It's clear who makes the pants in this relationship, and sometimes you just have to swallow your prize and accept the facts. You might have to come to this conclusion through denial and error but I swear on my mother's mating name that when you put the petal to the medal you will pass with flying carpets like it's a peach of cake.

One glance at FMD Muramasa might be enough to set off alarm bells, and a further look into its tagline "This is not a story of heroes," might even be enough to have them ringing dangerously loud so as to protect your poor eyes from any further perceived edge it may contain. I'm writing this in part to assuage these concerns; not because Muramasa doesn't contain at least some element of what it appears to be on the surface, but because it is so much more than just that.

If you've ever consumed a piece of media concerning itself with any discussion around justice, its meaning, its applications, or how it might affect both people and the world, I think there is a solid chance you will enjoy Muramasa. It's characters all have very different ways of coping with the unflinchingly brutal world around them, and some of its best and midnight black moments are when it puts these mentalities under a microscope to see whether they hold up under its crushing gaze.

This isn't to say Muramasa is some fun-sucking, edge inducing black hole of pure anti-enjoyability, far from it. In fact, I'd go so far as to say a good majority of the time I spent with this cast I done so smirking, cracking into a silent chuckle, or outright uncontrolled laughter. There is such a diverse array of humour from the many wonderful persons of Muramasa, and Minato Kageaki is as much the perfect straight man to them as Araragi Koyomi is to the Monogatari series.

I'd like to assert, however, that these two seemingly separate pieces of tone or not simply that. Muramasa's ability to portray a sense of humour, wildly entertaining character interests, and combine them with its darkest and most engaging contemplations are not only appreciated; but utterly essential to its success in storytelling. No matter what these people have done, or will do, its how it reminded me of their capacity to engage in day to day banter or interests that allowed those more powerful moments their due, lest the aforementioned black hole actually come into being.

Narahara's in depth world of mecha battles and meticulously crafted sword fights is a disgustingly entertaining battlefield of never ending conflict. It's clear however, that it uses this as a platform to form a strong refutation of such things and many adjacent crimes. It's at times far too gratuitous with it attempts at bleakness, and I don't doubt that many people sensitive to such portrayals will be instantly aware that it is so. However, for anyone who knows themself to not fall into that category, I urge you to give this wild ride a shot.

I think the fact this story refuses to allow its cast any semblance of reprieve for their actions says a lot about its intent. The illusion of heroism reflected in the mirror for standing against a great threat is completely shattered by a constant and brutal condemnation of their deeds. Muramasa is so utterly unafraid to remind us what it thinks lies at the end of the path it shows, and its gut wrenchingly appropriate to see the faintest of lights it sparks unable to illuminate that path.

This certainly isn’t a story of heroes; not for anyone already on the path. What it desires is something so elusive that by the end we are still so far from it, maybe even more so than when we began—and that is what stuck with me the most after the credits rolled.

“Peace is the noblest of pursuits.”