is a 1992

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

developed by

Jorudan is a Japanese company headquartered in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It has been involved in the publishing and developing of video games since 1991, and is currently primarily known for operating jorudan.co.jp, a public transport route navigation website.

for the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

. The game was released by

Datam Polystar was a Japanese media company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo.About Us
." ''Datam Polystar''. Retrieved on Dec ...

in Japan on April 21, 1992, followed by English localized version produced by SETA USA and released in North America in December 1992. The title, which translates to "Warrior", is romanized in the

Kunrei-shiki , also known as the Monbusho system (named after the endonym for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) or MEXT system, is the Cabinet-ordered romanization system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Lat ...

style (''Musya'') instead of the

Hepburn romanization is the main system of Romanization of Japanese, romanization for the Japanese language. The system was originally published in 1867 by American Christian missionary and physician James Curtis Hepburn as the standard in the first edition of h ...

style (''Musha''), likely to avoid confusion with the unrelated

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

game ''

MUSHA ''MUSHA'' is a vertically scrolling shooter video game developed by Compile for the Sega Genesis. An entry in Compile's shooter series, ''Aleste'', ''MUSHA'' places the player in the role of a flying mecha pilot who must destroy a large super ...

''.

Gameplay

Imoto, bearing 16 units of health ( Qi (気 ''Ki'', meaning "life energy")), dies when the health is depleted. He carries up to three lives (命 ''Inochi''). The game starts with three lives; once the life count is zero and Imoto dies, the game ends. When Imoto defeats a boss, the words "monster defeated" (怨霊調伏 ''Onryō Chōfuku'', "Vengeful Ghost Submitted") appear and the player gains a scroll containing a new spell.

Plot

''Musya'' follows a pikeman (described as a spearman in the Japanese version) named Imoto (Jinrai (神雷) in the Japanese version), who must descend to the abyss to save Shizuka, a maiden. After Imoto survives a battle in which all other combatants perish, he travels to Tengumura Village, where he collapses. The mayor, Akagi (who is not named in the Japanese version), greets Imoto and tells him that Shizuka (しずか) needs to be rescued. Imoto heads into Tengumura Cavern (known in the Japanese version as Kihōshōnyūdō (鬼宝鍾乳洞)).

Regional differences

The game received several edits for the North American edition. For instance, the large testes of the tanuki character were removed for the North American edition. In addition, the manji (卍) shown to reveal the amount of spell scrolls held was edited away. The Japanese version of the game is one of the few games that uses

Japanese numerals The are numerals that are used in Japanese. In writing, they are the same as the Chinese numerals, and large numbers follow the Chinese style of grouping by 10,000. Two pronunciations are used: the Sino-Japanese () readings of the Chinese char ...

. The English version uses

Arabic numerals The ten Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) are the most commonly used symbols for writing numbers. The term often also implies a positional notation number with a decimal base, in particular when contrasted with Roman numera ...

. Japanese dialogue is replaced with English-language dialogue. In addition, ''Musya'' uses Japanese

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

characters in various parts of the game to represent modes and levels. For instance, in the Japanese version of the game, the English-language word "Pause" is not used; instead the word ''Ippuku'' (一服, meaning "break" or "to take a break") appears from both ends of the screen. In the English-language version, the word "Pause" forms under the word "Ippuku," with the "Pa" under the "一" and the "Use" under the "服." The tagline for the Japanese version is "Japanesque Horror Action" (ジャパネスク・ホラー・アクション), which was changed to "The Classic Tale of Japanese Horror" for the U.S. version.

Reception

Notes

External links

* {{Portal bar, Video games, 1990s, Japan 1992 video games Dark fantasy video games Datam Polystar Horror video games Jorudan games Platformers SETA Corporation games Single-player video games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Super Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Video games based on Japanese mythology Video games developed in Japan Video games set in feudal Japan