Nazo no Murasamejou or
The Mysterious Murasame Castle. The game was released through the
Famicom Disk System and was never released outside of Japan.
At a Japanese castle during the Edo period, a great storm brings a stone idol named Murasame to life. Murasame casts darkness over the land and hypnotized the leaders of the villages to do it's bidding using five magic orbs. With his new found power, Murasame plans to overthrow the shogun and become leader of Japan. A swordsman named Takamaru has been sent to defeat Murasame.
The game has a top down perspective, similar to
The Legend of Zelda, but the gameplay is much different. The game is linear rather than encouraging exploration and the emphasis is on action rather than puzzle-solving. The player never gets new equipment, but can power up the shuriken.
Koei's
Samuari Warriors 3 for the Wii features a special mode based on this game in addition to having Takamaru as a guest character.
