Musashi vs Cthulhu | A PS5 Review

Looking for a true samurai legend? Not a cultural appropriating usurper? Well, QUByte has just the samurai for you! Enter Miyamoto Musashi. A legend whose legacy transcends mortal realms into that of Cthulhu's himself. Facing insurmountable odds against a never-ending army of faithful Cthulhu cultists and conjured creatures this feudal warrior from Japan does his ongoing legacy proud by donning his swords once again and fighting with both honor, and skill against the evil of all evils. It is through channeled respite, multiple swords, and willingness to stand his ground that Musashi takes on waves of otherworldly enemy creatures from both directions. Fighting to the bitter end in a hopes to face off against the fabled Lovecraftian horror.

Setup like a rhythm game where precisely pressed buttons mean the difference between winning or losing so too plays "Musashi vs Cthulhu". This 2D hand drawn stance based rhythm fighter has you playing as the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi as he wields two katana, and a mystic lamp against all odds. The swords swing to the left and right of him in an upward, middle, and lowered direction depending upon DPad or face button pressing. Making timing the difference from taking a hit, or cutting through the unwavering line of adversaries. With the lamp, which is charged by kills, Musashi is also afforded a free pass on one mistake per use. This sparing option grows increasingly harder to activate the more it is used though. Making the three sword hit counter Musashi's only thing standing between him and an dread filled death.

Along with the samurai of legend comes a laundry list of options and features to accent this otherwise straightforward button pressing action adventure. In the options or settings menu you can change language, various volume settings, UI input assistance, and even the nature of the startup of each playthrough, be it fast paced or not. 

One thing to note is that the UI setting will effect how you tell where to aim your sword. If it is on or temporary you'll see the required button press in front of the enemy as they close in. If it's toggled off each enemy has a visible heart-like weak point either up high, at mid level, or down low. Enemy types also vary according to these three positions making their weakness more noticeable. That being said some bigger enemies will take multiple hits to take down whereas the weaker variants will usually only take one swipe of the sword. All enemies come at you in a randomized fashion making reaction timing crucial to gaining that high score. Score of course is the tally of kills at the end of a run.

Speaking of high scores ... 'Musashi vs Cthulhu' has a fully fledged global and local leaderboard system with daily, weekly, monthly, and all times listings. letting you know where you stand against the game's best players. For completionists there also trophies to unlock for kill milestones, and feats rendered. Something than can be shown off from the main menu trophy room. 

As you make your mark in this alternate history timeline you'll earn trophies in the form of weapons, creature corpses, and other things each with a note noting the reason you earned that trophy. There's also a compendium hinting at alternate unlockable characters with a pseudo-historical entry on Miyamoto Musashi, and his body count that he got through your contribution to gameplay. Something to add a little backstory to the unlikely battle between the two legends!

The Verdict ...

While 'Musashi vs Cthulhu' is an interesting addition to the genre of rhythm fighters it sets itself back a bit by comparison to games like 'One Finger Death Punch'. Instead of making things less artificially difficult by using similar button presses for both sides that were only dependent upon timing and hit count requirements they opted to make the experience more punishing through a different button set requirement for each side. 

Gameplay gets confusing at times, especially with with the poorly telegraphed enemies, and the lack of a timing indicator of some sort. A spotlight as they come into striking distance would have been nice as would a proper UI input warning that gives players ample time to know what button to press before the enemy becomes too close. In the end 'Musashi vs Cthulhu' is not as polished as it could have been, and definitely could use some ideas from "One Finger Death Punch" to make it better. Overall it is a decent budget priced game, regardless, but could be better.