I agree; off the top of my head, I can't think of too many games more beautiful than Muramasa, though I don't think anything will ever top Yume Nikki for me. I don't know if you've ever played Genji on the PS2, but it reminds me of a 2D sequel to that, which is magnificent, since the actual Genji sequel was a very straightforward God of War clone. Muramasa is also superior to its predecessor, Odin Sphere, in almost every conceivable way, aside from story. The story's definitely weak - Kisuke's is uninteresting, and Momohime's is incoherent - but in a game like this, I don't really want a whole lot of story. Muramasa reminds me of Super Metroid in a lot of ways, and Super Metroid was great partially because of a very minimal story; these kinds of games - especially when as beautiful as this - should be focusing mostly on exploration, I feel, though combat is important, too. The music didn't really stand out too much to me, but it's more memorable than your standard orchestral score, and aside from maybe one song, it isn't actively bad. The forging thing is cool, too, because you have a web of weapons to create, but it's not as overwhelming as a typical crafting system would be.

Thanks! That's the result of almost 28 years of solid gaming; the only other real hobbies I have are writing and baking, and you can only do so much of either of them.

Hey, what a coincidence! I just beat Muramasa not too long ago, myself! How'd you like it?