A crossover featuring a legendary samurai and Lovecraftian monsters, oh my!!
Who doesn’t enjoy a good crossover, like when Timmy Turner met Jimmy Neutron or when the Jetson’s met the Flintstones, all great crossovers. Well QUbyte interactive and Cyber Rhino Studios decided to take one of the most legendary samurai, Musashi, and have him face off against the Lovecraft creation Cthulhu and his monsters. Musashi vs. Cthulhu is fast paced action beat’em up game, it was released on PC in 2020 and was recently released on console in May 2024.
Gameplay & Feel
Musashi vs. Cthulhu is an easy to play but hard to master type of game. While the gameplay is simple and fun at first but the higher you go the more difficult it will become. The game doesn’t have a complex story to keep you interested but the challenge of trying to reach the top score in the daily rankings keeps you coming back time and time again. You can easily get addicted to the simplistic gameplay style and slashing challenges of the more difficult monsters.
Musashi vs. Cthulhu has a very unique movement control and that is you don’t move like you would in other games. The movement you make comes from slashing at enemies. You use the up, left and down buttons on the d-pad and Y, B, A to take out your foes. Enemies attack Musashi from both sides, the d-pad handles the left side and Y, B, A handles the right. Each monster has a weak spot that will designated on them so you know where to strike( High(Up,Y), Mid (Left,B) and Low (Down, A)). Some enemies only have to be hit once and then you have others like the fishmen, known as the “The Deep Ones”, that have to be hit twice in order to take down. Enemies like the cultists become harder to kill, by adding another weak spot as the game goes on. So you must hit both spots in order to take them down.
As I stated previously it’s a hard to master Musashi vs. Cthulhu, because you get penalized for missing a swing. So it makes you have to be careful and make sure you time them. By chaining your moves and getting combos, you help fill the lantern at the top left of your screen. When the lantern is full it will shield you from an enemies attack and help you if you miss a swing. Once used it takes time to refill your lantern again. You have 3 swords in the top left corner next to your lantern, that is your hit meter. After receiving a hit, Musashi will let out a burst of energy to push the enemies back, which gives you the opportunity to recuperate. If you are hit more than 3 times, you die and have to start over.
The bold comic book style design adds to its dark tone and theme. Musashi vs. Cthulhu is played in 3 environments, a wooden bridge, a wooded area and in front of the shrine of the evil one himself, Cthulhu. Although I wish there was more stages, the 3 we have fit and add to the immersion very well.
The Final Slash!!
Musashi vs. Cthulhu is small yet fun and thrilling game with plenty of replayability. You could really spend hours and hours trying to beat your current high score and compare yourself to everyone else in the world on a daily and weekly basis. The gameplay loop and variety of monster is enough to keep you happy and interested. For this game being only 5 dollars, I say go get it. You can jump in and out, spend 30 minutes for a quick playthrough or more slashing monsters to increase your score. An action beat’em that’s fun but requires focus to master.
This game was reviewed on Xbox and we were given a code by QUbyte interactive and Cyber Rhino Studios. The game is also available of PC, Nintendo Switch and PS5/PS4.
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