This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Console History has just been reorganized. In an effort to bring the haphazard early entries — assembled alongside a growing scope for the series — into a better semblance of chronology, I’ve looked through the entire catalogs of early consoles like the Famicom/NES and PC Engine/Turbografx-16 to make sure I caught all the games I might want to include. That means we’re embarking on what should hopefully be the last detour from the nominal timeline, to fill in a few more early games that I missed the first time.

For this entry we’re going almost all the way back to the beginning. The earliest game I’ve covered in this series is The Legend of Zelda, which released on February 21, 1986 in Japan as a launch title for the Famicom Disk System add-on to Nintendo’s Famicom. Less than two months later, on April 14, 1986, The Mysterious Murasame Castle released in Japan, also for the Famicom Disk System. Unlike Zelda, it wasn’t localized outside of Japan until decades later.

Before I get to the game, I should talk about the Famicom Disk System. I’ve covered a few of its games already: in addition to The Legend of Zelda, both Metroid and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link also first saw life as a Famicom Disk System games, although all three were later released on standard cartridges in the US, and I played those versions for this series. The only game I emulated in its original Famicom Disk System form is Esper Dream, but even then I didn’t really get into what the Famicom Disk System is.

In the mid-1980s, it was expensive to manufacture the cartridges that Famicom games used, and they couldn’t store very much data either. Cartridges also lacked a useful feature that Japanese home computer games had: the ability to save one’s game. Without rewritable storage, cartridge-based games had to rely on passwords for saving progress, if they allowed saving of progress at all. To address these shortcomings, Nintendo developed the Famicom Disk System as an add-on for the Famicom, using proprietary floppy disks called Disk Cards as a cheaper (and rewritable) way to store games. They even rolled out a series of Disk Writer kiosks in retail shops across Japan where players could bring their Disk Cards and, for a fee, copy new games to them. This was a strategy to enter the game rental market, after tradiational game rentals (which were dominated by home computer games) were outlawed in Japan due to rampant piracy. Amazingly, Nintendo continued to support the kiosks all the way until 2003, long after the Famicom Disk System itself was obsolete.

By the late 1980s, the production costs of cartridges had dropped, their storage capacity had grown, and integrated batteries allowed for saved games. Given that Disk Cards had their own issues with durability, Nintendo returned to a focus on cartridges and discontinued the Famicom Disk System in 1990, having never produced it outside Japan. For a while, however, the Disk System made it possible to make bigger and more interesting games than could be done with cartridges; both The Legend of Zelda and Metroid wowed players with their large explorable worlds, and both spawned enduring series that rank among the most famous games of all time.

The Mysterious Murasame Castle is less famous, at least outside Japan, where it enjoys a moderate legacy. Developed jointly by Nintendo and Human Entertainment, it was originally intended as another launch title for the Famicom Disk System, but its release was delayed. It shares some underlying code with The Legend of Zelda, as can be seen and felt in its top-down, screen-by-screen exploration. But where Zelda took inspiration from action role-playing games on home computer systems and gave players an open world to explore, The Mysterious Murasame Castle leans more heavily into action, incorporating elements of arcade shoot ’em up design across a series of levels.

There’s barely any story here, and none of it is shown in the game itself. Unable to find a copy of the manual, I looked to an online guide to provide the premise. It is the Edo period in Japan, and some strange entity from the heavens has fallen to earth and possessed the statue of Murasame in the titular castle. It proceeds to control the minds of the daimyo of the four nearby castles, and together they begin terrorizing the vicinity. The shogunate sends Takamaru, a skilled warrior, to investigate; players control him as he arrives at the first of the five castles.

Takamaru is a samurai, and the developers did a great job at making him feel like one. He attacks enemies with the A button, but the actual attacks are contextual. Usually he will throw knives (don’t call them kunai), which can be upgraded to shuriken or even fireballs, but if an enemy is close enough, he will draw his sword for a quick slash instead. I love this sword attack. Just like samurai in the movies, Takamaru’s sword is usually sheathed, but his hand is always on its hilt, ready to draw. When he does strike, he uses a wide slash that affects everything in an arc in front of him. Often that’s one or two of the many, many ninja who constantly appear to attack him, but just as often it’s one of the ninja’s thrown shuriken, which Takamaru can deflect with an audible clang.

He’ll need to cut down incoming projectiles regularly, because — like Link before him, in The Legend of Zelda — he moves slowly. Positioning in The Myserious Murasame Castle is just as important as it is in Zelda, but here the enemies and attacks come quickly and relentlessly. Ninja are constantly appearing, but not out of thin air as Zelda’s baddies often do. They leap from bushes, clamber onto the sides of the screen, or emerge from underwater. Sometimes they stick to the scenery and throw shuriken, other times they dart across the screen, angling for both ranged and melee attacks (assuming that bumping into Takamaru counts as a melee attack). In a lovely detail, they often retreat again too, leaping away after launching a few attacks. But more will soon come to replace them. To survive, Takamaru will need to be constantly on the move, and constantly attacking, cutting through ninja and deflecting their thrown weapons.

Even so, battles in The Mysterious Murasame Castle are tough, and Tamakaru can only take three hits before expiring. Early on, I was barely able to get through a few screens before losing all of Takamaru’s lives and starting the level over again. I soon realized the importance of powerups, something the designers borrowed from shoot ’em ups. The same online guide told me what they do. Some change the way Takamaru’s thrown weapons work, increasing their speed, or letting him throw three at a time in a spread pattern, or (my favorite) four at once, in the four cardinal directions. Others boost Takamaru’s movement, like the blue sandals that let him walk on the surface of water instead of slowly wading through it, or — most importantly — the red sandals that double his movement speed. Getting a set of these powerups helps a lot, and they don’t have any time limit. They last until Takamaru dies.

The downside, of course, is that they only last until Takamaru dies. If he falls, and still has lives left, he’ll respawn on the same screen, but with his standard movement and dinky throwing knives. Which meant I often found myself in a failure spiral early on. Once I lost my first life, I’d be much less effective in combat and would quickly lose the rest. I eventually learned a more effective way to play, which is related to how the levels in The Mysterious Murasame Castle are structured.

Takamaru must tackle each of the five castles in order, and each is divided into two levels: the oustkirts of the castle, and the castle itself. In both, Takamaru is simply trying to find his way through, to the final screen, whether that’s the entrance to the castle or the room containing the evil daimyo boss. Typically there are a few side paths that lead to dead ends, or branching paths that offer different ways to the objective. But all of these might be worth exploring, because many of the powerups in The Mysterious Murasame Castle are hidden in boxes that only appear when Takamaru walks over them. Some are even hidden in walls, and only revealed if Takamaru tries attacking the wall in that exact spot. They always appear in the same place, however, and they’ll reappear if Takamaru enters that screen again.

Finally find the beloved red slippers, only to succumb to a swarm of ninja a few screens later? Just walk back and get them again. Once I realized this, I adopted a three-phase strategy for tackling each level. First, I would focus on exploration, not really trying to reach the end. I would make sure I walked across every part of each screen, attacking as I went, to reveal any hidden boxes that might be there. Once I found the locations of the critical powerups I wanted, I shifted towards finding a route through the level. Eventually, I had built up a mental map, complete with locations of powerups and enemies, and I would work on executing a perfect run through the level, knowing exactly when to hurl a few shuriken or unleash a quick sword strike as I cut a path to my destination.

Every phase of this strategy is fun, because the action in The Mysterious Murasame Castle is so well tuned. Hurling a flurry of shuriken, knocking incoming projectiles aside, and dispatching a group of ninja with a single well-timed sword slash all feel great. It’s also immensely satisfying to overcome the stiff challenge. In some rooms — like the sealed gates in the castles, guarded by special enemies with undeflectable projectiles and some fireball-spewing scenery to boot — I could get through but took damage every time. Until I worked out the route to take. Enter, immediately cut to the right, eliminate the guards on the right side with a sword slash or a few throwing knives, cut back to the left to dispatch the guards on the left, and finally upwards to kill the final guard, dodging left or right as needed. Never stop moving.

Some special enemies are, like Takamaru himself, larger than the typical ninja, and far more formidable. They tend to pop up at screen exits, blocking the way and hurling fireballs or bombs, and they take a lot of shuriken hits to defeat. But only one sword slash. Once I had my route through the level worked out, I would charge through a screen, kill a few ninja, dodge aside as the big guy appeared and threw his first bomb, and then cut him down with my sword, all without breaking stride. Sometimes, I did that for several screens in a row. It was awesome.

Other enemies, especially those inside the castles, are simply too risky to battle directly. If I couldn’t run past them, I would use one of Takamaru’s limited-use smoke bombs (activated with the B button) to become invisible and invulnerable for a few seconds. Takamaru can’t use his thrown weapons while invisible, but he can use his sword to quickly eliminate any troublesome threats. Strategic use of Takamaru’s smoke bomb — or, if I was lucky enough to find it, the lightning strike that replaces the bomb and eliminates all enemies on the screen — became part of my planned routes, used on specific enemies along the way.

There are bosses too, the daimyo of each castle. They tend to be more about ranged combat, launching patterns of projectiles that Takamaru must dodge, while he also figures out how to hit them with his own thrown blades. In a reversal of the typical behavior, the daimyo’s projectiles can block Takamaru’s, so he must find an opening without getting hit himself. Pleasingly, Takamaru can retreat from the daimyo to go collect powerups again if needed, which helped a lot as I learned how to tackle each one. They’re tough, but ultimately provide interesting and satisfying challenges.

Overall I was really impressed with The Mysterious Murasame Castle, and I suspect it was highly influential in Japan because I already see bits of it in later games I’ve covered. The larger characters and general layout of the screens in the outdoor levels reminded me of The Magic of Scheherazade, which released about a year later in September 1987. The hidden powerups that always appear in the same locations brought to mind the hidden coins in Wonder Boy In Monster Land, which released in July 1987 and has a similar emphasis on finding ideal routes through its levels. Mostly I was reminded of Valkyrie no Densetsu, released in March 1989, which has many similarities to The Mysterious Murasame Castle. The way Takamaru falls on his back for a second, legs failing, after taking a hit is copied almost verbatim for the valkyrie. Both games combine shoot ’em up mechanics with action-adventure elements, and emphasize shooting (or cutting) down incoming projectiles as a means of defense. Finding powerups to boost attacks is key to success in both, although the valkyrie is more focused on ranged fighting.

I’m sure I’ll find more games that owe a debt to The Mysterious Murasame Castle as Console History rolls on. Its action simply feels so good, other developers must have wanted to copy parts of it. This also means it’s still worth playing today. Which is probably why it keeps getting ports: it was released for the Game Boy Advance and Wii Virtual Console in Japan in the 2000s, before finally getting a release outside Japan for the 3DS Virtual Console in 2014, and more recently as part of the Nintendo Classics series in 2023. That means Switch owners can play it if they have the Nintendo Switch Online service, although I don’t know if that version is translated into English. If not, it doesn’t really matter; there’s barely any text in the game anyway.

Still, if you use emulation to play the original Famicom Disk System version like I did, there’s a fan translation available from Spinner 8 and InVerse that’s easy to apply. I used the Retroarch frontend and Mesen emulation core to play, but you’ll need to find a Famicom Disk System BIOS file before that will work. I went into more detail on that in my post about Esper Dream.

Next, we’ll be jumping forward slightly, past Dragon Quest and Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord, to a game that released shortly after the latter in July 1986. Stay tuned!

Next on Console History: watch this space!