Developer: Vanillaware
Publisher: Aksys Games
Release Date: February 25th, 2014
Available on: Playstation Vita
The second DLC for Muramasa Rebirth continues the high bar of quality set by Fishy Tales of the Nekomata, and possibly even outshines the already great first offering.
A Cause to Daikon For puts you in the role of Gonbe, a farmer who’s upset because his community’s crops aren’t growing and the lord is continuing to tax them. After their constant appeals for lower taxes are denied Gonbe, along with the ghost of his dead wife and several of his farmer friends, decide to march on the lord and start a revolution. It’s a good premise that is aided by relatable characters, a good story, and some actual genuine humor. My only real problem is that the villain’s motivation is vague at best. He wants to gather a ton of extra rice for some reason or another.
Just like the first DLC, A Cause to Daikon For completely changes how you play the game. Unlike the other characters Gonbe is completely inexperienced with fighting. He goes into battle with little more than a hoe, a home made bamboo spear, and some farming sickles to throw. The changes don’t stop there though. Gonbe can’t do a lot of the high-agility techniques of the other characters. Dodges? Nope. Instead Gonbe will trip and faceplant into the ground. The high agility attacks of the other three characters are replaced with slow and sluggish swings. Special attacks become little more than stabbing more or swinging harder. Gonbe has one huge advantage to make up for this though. Like the other characters, waiting long enough to switch weapons allows you to do a screen damaging quick attack. Unlike the other characters when Gonbe does this he summons one of his friends as well. The friend will then mirror all of Gonbe’s movements, allowing them to hit twice or even a third time. It’s the biggest advantage Gonbe has and allows him to become a powerhouse despite his inexperience.
Gonbe needs to save his money for a nose reduction surgery.
Similar to Miike there’s a large upgrade tree for you to go to and that I barely cleared any of by the time I was done. Part of it was also because of another change from the other stuff: Gonbe is a poor farmer. As such he spends the game earning almost no money from battles. This makes exploration more important than in the main game, as you can’t simply buy healing items. Likewise, your Spirit is often low, making it difficult to get certain upgrades. Because of this I actually found A Cause to Daikon For to be more difficult than the stand alone game or the other expansion. A Cause to Daikon For was a little shorter than Fishy Tales, only taking me about 2 hours to finish. Similar to the first offering once you finish the game you can explore the full world, tackle the caves of evil, and fight the bosses from the main game.
A Cause to Daikon For continues the excellent offer of DLC for Muramasa Rebirth. If the next two offerings are even only half as good as the first two then we should start putting this game up as the golden pedestal of DLC done right.
