The Mysterious Murasame Castle

Nazo no Murasame-jō(謎の村雨城,"Mystery of Murasame Castle") is a video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Famicom Disk System on April 14, 1986.

Nazo no Murasame-jō was one of the earliest games for the FDS, and was one of the first original titles along with The Legend of Zelda. However, unlike the latter, Nazo no Murasame-jō never saw release outside of Japan.

Plot
The Game takes place in Edo-period japan, and stars the Samurai, Takamaru. There was once a castle, named murasame castle, that housed a giant stone statue known as "Murasame." One day, during a stormy night, A mysterious shining gold object fell into the castle. A loud shreik was heard, and the strange alien object gave life to the giant statue, and took over the castle.

The object later took control of the daimyos of the 4 nearby castles, Aosame Castle, Akasame Castle, Ryokusame Castle, and Momosame castle, by handing each a mysterious orb of power. The possesed daimyos made thier troops cause havoc in the once-peaceful lands of Japan.

Hearing of this, the fourth shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna(who was the ruler of japan at the time) Sent the apprentice samurai Takamaru on a secret mission to stop the madness caused by the evil entity.

Gameplay
The gameplay is very similar to The Legend of Zelda, enough to be called Zelda's "sister" game. Like Zelda, the game is top-down, non-scrolling. However, unlike the Legend of Zelda, which is open-ended, and exploration/puzzle based, Nazo no Murasame-jō is more linear, is fast-paced, and action/skill based. Takamaru is equipped with a katana, and some shurikens. Like in Zelda, you fire a projectile, this case being kunai, when you're far away from an enemy or projectile. When you're near an enemy or projectile, you slash away at the foe, or deflect a projectile, besides fireballs. You can occasionally obtain other items as well, by finding tanookis.