Basically it's a side-scrolling Devil May Cry. It features 2 characters with 2 distinct combat styles (think of Dante and Vergil; in fact, Shang could be Vergil’s distant cousin from China — his Kee swords bear great resemblance to Summoned Swords), style-based combat system, and great visuals. Sadly, translation is atrocious, there are many typos and in some instances English text doesn't even remotely correspond to Chinese audio. Also, story is somewhat basic and clichéd. But the gameplay is great, combat is satisfying, so if you're a fan of hack and slash games (like me), Mirage is a must have. If you're not, well, at least give it a try.
P.S. Oh, and don't be fooled by “Local co-op” label on Steam — Mirage has only “Duel” mode available from the start. In order to unlock “Boss Rush” and “Tower” (Bloody Palace) modes you have to finish the story first. There's no co-op for story mode…

Developed by a group of chinese developers. This is one of those very much underrated game out there. Maybe coz it is developed by a relatively unknown company that not much people is playing it. But it is definitely one of the best hack n slash game. You can use two different characters with totally two different skill sets. Certain boss are best defeated by one of the characters and you are allowed to switch to the one during in game fighting. Definitely highly recommended. A pity developers bail out from creating part 2 due to lack of sales ... Great game.

Nice graphic, nice action combos and effects. As a chinese, I think the voicecasts are not good, and the english translation is also not as good as I expected.
It's a good game anyway.

Rain Blood Chronicles: Mirage is best described as a 2D Devil May Cry with co-op capabilities (although its kind of wasted). It features a very solid combat system and some good ways for stylish play. The two characters play like Dante and Vergil with unique movesets and combo capabilities and can be switched between, ammounting to something akin to "styles". For a company that never did an action game before Rain Blood is a really solid game and better than any other recent offering in this genre

Unfortunately it has issues and is held back by some little annoyances like wonky hit-/hurtboxes and physics that can make you drop combos sometimes. Additionally being able to "merge" your sprite with the enemy (the players sprite occupying the same space as the enemy) creates problems in positioning, especially in the air where the enemy can just float through your barrage of attacks that start their hitbox far in front of the player.

The style meter has also this anoying tendency to be weighted towards parries, ultras and air combos and not towards actual variety of moves. It compounds the problem of upgrading your characters abilities and items since the rewards for defeating enemies are proportionally based on the style meter. Once you hit S rank (which is hard in of itself without hitting an ultra or parry) every hit you land is converted into gold currency which can be used to buy upgrade items. However sustaining or reaching S rank is hard without constant air combos, no matter how cool you think your ground combo-streak actually is or was.

After you beat the game's story on normal or hard your characters will potentially not even have all their skills unlocked. The unlocked Endless Tower mode helps to grind out the currency to upgrade but its kind of a waste that the player is potentially not allowed to use all their moves in Story Mode.

Another flaw are a few relatively boring bosses with very predictable move-sets with annoying stun-locks thatbreak the flow of a battle if you get caught. Especially the first boss you encounter Sword Addict has some annoying launcher move that goes on for at least 15 seconds. It doesnt do much damage, even on Hard or Very Hard, its just a very long and boring animation to watch.
The game also has a few problems in that regard on higher difficulties and higher floors of Endless Tower where you fight multiple boss-type enemies at the same time. The coding does not take into account that depending on RNG attack patterns even the basic enemies can infinitely stunlock you without recourse (until you unlock an expensive accessory which makes switched characters invulnerable for a very brief moment).

Other bad design decision are buff-enemies that produce an invulnerability-shield after a certain amount of damage has been done to them, probably to prevent the player from ending a fight too quickly. This makes for boring encounters where the player is forced into a cycle of waiting and attacking instead of being stylish and skillful.

I would wager that the only "proper" and interesting boss in the entire game is the endboss which has three separate phases and a very large variety of moves that requires you to pay close attention to positioning and timing.
Unfortunately I did not encounter this boss once in Endless Tower, even after Floor 30.

On another note Endless Tower does not let you save your progress even if you do not get killed on a floor, making reaching higher floors very time-consuming and exhausting as you always start at Floor 1. Or if there are Floor checkpoints I did not find them even after 30+ floors which took close to an hour.

In conclusion Rain Blood Chronicles is highly recomended for fans of the cuhrayze even if it is flawed in some regards. I hope the company will make a sequel (as the game does end on a cliffhanger) and continues to improve on the concept.

A hidden shiny gem.

This game is fusion between Muramasa the Demon Blade + Devil May Cry

Solid beatemup game. The very beginning is misleading with the seemingly low quality because the game is actually very well put together. Decently challenging, but heavily rewards skillful play. Missions are longer than they should be for the DMC-style ability unlock system, and achievements don't seem to be working correctly, but I fully recommend this super cool chinese game of killing mans.

This game is simply amazing. Beautiful art design, blood-pumping soundtrack, deep battle system, replayability. It's like Castlevania + Devil May Cry + Chinese Wuxia films. Definitely worth buying!

Watch my full review of the game here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR9wzK4nB1Q

+ Solid combo based combat
+ Beautiful visual design
+ Epic boss battles
+ Great soundtrack
+ Fun dialogue

- Technical issues
- Boring level design

A very deep combat system brings Mirage's old-school roots to the forefront. Beatiful 2D art and animation seal the deal, despite the terrible translation of a story that wan't that good to begin with. If you like a game that rewards mastery over button mashing, and enjoy some eastern art prettyness, this comes very highly recomended. Just don't expect a deep tale or compelling character development.

The Best:

-- Distinct character mechanics
-- Excellent combat system
-- Gorgeous 2D art

The Worst:

-- Horrible story
-- Terrible translation
-- Only partial controller support.

References: Muramasa: Demon Blade; Devil May Cry

Engrish translation? Check.
Pretty nice soundtrack? Check.
Fancy slashing combo system with diversity of two characters? Check.
If you want a game with fun combat and unnecessarily hard platforming, this might be a game for you.