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We have been keeping up with Muramasa: The Demon Blade. We read the interview in which the director namechecked The Legend of Kage. We've stared at screens. We've even seen video from as far back as last year's TGS and as recently as the Nintendo press event (though we saw only seconds then). We thought we knew Muramasa. We were not prepared for this video.

It looks like Odin Sphere, sure, but with sharper graphics and more beautiful settings. It also appears to be far more actiony than its predecessor, and also less beset by slowdown. It looks like, well, Ninja Gaiden crossed with Ninja Gaiden. Enjoy these seven minutes of amazing Muramasa footage.

It's been a long time, but we're glad Nintendo's press event and TGS have kick-started the release of news regarding Vanillaware's Oboro Muramasa Youtouden, coming here as Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Only a few days after the last release of screens, we have another ... couple of screens!

While we'd love to read hands-on impressions, or learn more about the release date for any region beyond "2009," we can state honestly that it's quite enough for us to look at screens of this incredibly beautiful game. We'll need a couple more months to take all this in before we'll need to play it or anything.

Well, actually, it isn't enough for us. Marvelous will be handing out Oboro Muramasa screen-cleaners at TGS, and we would definitely like to see one of those. In our hands.

Marvelous Entertainment told The RPGO earlier this week that they had three unannounced projects for the US in the works. NeoGAFfer Botticus reports that the latest issue of Nintendo Power confirms the identity of one of those projects as Vanillaware's Oboro Muramasa Youtouden!

The publication announced that Marvelous/XSEED plans to release the side-scrolling ARPG from the Odin Sphere creators as Muramasa: The Demon Blade sometime in 2009. Having heard absolutely nothing about the game's progress since troubling news in April, this announcement, in addition to letting us know it's coming out here, serves to reassure us that it's coming out at all.

Normally we can't wait for Wednesdays, the day that our fellow gaming brethren report all the juicy tidbits from the latest issue of Famitsu. This week was different, though, because we found out that a game we've been looking forward to might be in trouble.

According to the magazine, Vanillaware's Oboro Muramasa Youtouden is "struggling," making us super sad pandas. Not only does the game look gorgeous with its beautiful 2D sprites and atmospheres, but also -- well, actually, now that we think about it, we don't know much about this title other than how it looks. And, considering that we haven't seen any new information or media since last fall, we're not too surprised that it might be in danger of falling by the wayside. Keep in mind, though, that we don't know exactly what this "struggling" pertains to, so it may not be as scary as we think. Until further details are released, we'll just have to hope for the best.

In other Famitsu news, King Story seems to be doing well and should release in Japan this summer, showing that at least one game we're excited about is on track.

We spent yesterday going through the big releases that've been announced for next year so far -- Smash Bros. Brawl and/or Wii Fit likely topping your personal "must get" list -- but what about the second-tier games that don't usually receive much press or attention?

Though we haven't forgotten about the low-key releases, we've collected a selection of games and media to ensure that these titles stay on your mind too! Read on for our top ten list of awesome 2008 games that you totally forgot about!

We're already in agreeance that Oboro Muramasa Youtouden is one of the best-looking games announced for the Wii -- we shook hands on it, signed the appropriate forms, and even had a notary stamp the papers to make it official. Still, this first video glimpse of the 2D ARPG managed to leave us in a state of ecstasy, our skin alive with pleasure. What secret resource has Vanillaware tapped into that other developers have so far ignored? Most of the titles we saw at the Tokyo Game Show didn't look half as good as this.

You've likely seen these screenshots of Oboro Muramasa Youtouden already from when we covered the newly announced ARPG last week, but we'll grab at any opportunity to put the spotlight back on this beautiful looking game. Supplementing its weekly magazine, Famitsu has updated its site with direct-feed images, providing a more accurate display of the Vanillaware-developed title than what scanned pages can provide.

We have a couple more images past the post break for you to check out if you're interested -- though we can't imagine why you wouldn't be interested in the most gorgeous 2D game coming to the Wii.

Vanillaware, the same developer behind GrimGrimoire and Odin Sphere, both gorgeous 2D PS2 titles, revealed in Famitsu's latest issue an ARPG for the Wii, Oboro Muramasa Youtouden. It looks absolutely stunning, almost to the point where we're disappointed in other companies for not working on their own 2D games at a similar level.

Loading up the magazine scans, which you can see for yourself past the post break, was like sighting the promised land, a brand new colony, from a distance after months of wandering our ruined, post-apocalyptic Earth. JC fell to his knees beside me, tears in his eyes. The amaranthine sun slipped out of view behind us, leaving our caravan to celebrate its newfound hope. We had many hard months still to weather, but we'd finally found a place to call home.