Part nostalgia-bomb, part note-taking and part FAQ, what started in GameTrailers as a video game blog is now on Blogger. This blog is a look back at video games, both popular and obscure, from the video game industry's infancy all the way to the previous console generation.
Now that you have the Rope, head to the well. You'll use the Rope automatically when you go down there. Just choose to go down there, and down you'll go.
Follow the path and you'll get the Water Scroll. This Scroll allows you to walk on water and shoot water bubbles that can put out flames. Switch to the Water Scroll and get the Bell. You'll have to return it by alternating between carrying and throwing the bell. The bell will sink and return to its original location if it goes into the water, so you'll have to throw it onto dry land.
The Water Crest is here, but you won't be able to use it yet. There's also a Minku, which you won't be able to reach, either.
To return to town with the bell, you'll have to take it to the cave behind where the Water Scroll was. This takes you back inside the mine. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to get out and return to the village from there, so if you need to return, you'll know how to get there.
Talk to Weaver (Weaver Dinnerretta). You can choose between the L-Gloves and the L-Quilt. The Legendary Gloves up your critical hit rate, while the Legendary Quilt will increase the rate by which your HP and BP recover when you sleep anywhere outside of the inn, and also bring your tiredness back down to 0% if you sleep outside of the inn as well. The Gloves are a lot more useful, to be honest. If you're doing so badly that you require the services of the Legendary Quilt, you're probably doing something wrong. Whichever choice you make, come back in three days to get what you chose.
When you return to town with the bell, Father White will give a statue of an angel. Father White will tell you that the Statue is a sacred key that opens the door that leads to the Fire God.
Remember that super long pole you could climb near the summit of Twinpeak Mountain? Return there and double jump off the very top of it, now that you have the Legendary Shoes. You'll be able to rescue Weaver Dinneretta.
When you check with Father White around 2:00, you'll hear the noises in the church. Father White lets you jump on his back and enter through where the bell used to be.
When you jump into the church, you'll meet Bubbles of the Thirstquencher Empire. She wants Lumina and has her guards shoot at you. After they fire blanks, she sends out her Vambee Soldiers.
The Vambee Soldiers will jump over the pews one at a time. Beat each one up so that they fall back in line behind the pews. Throwing them back also helps, as they start coming out faster the more time passes.
Every once in a while, these guys will throw a bomb that puts you to sleep. It doesn't happen often, and the bombs don't do much damage, but you will be stunned if it connects.
The guard on the right is woozy at 3:00 and falls at 4:30. The one on the left gets woozy at 6:00.
If you can survive until 7:00, the light will go through the bullet holes in the walls and kill all the Vambees. When you come out of the church, Father White will give you the Rope, allowing you access into the well. He'll also ask you to get the stolen bell, so agree to find it. You'll be rewarded for bringing it back.
When you return to the eye door, you'll find out Mannick is missing. Inside the door is a treasure box, which is the reason why Mannick bought the restaurant but also let the ghouls out. When he opens the treasure box, he finds an ugly belt. After chastising Mannick for putting the village in danger and especially for putting Hilda and her son Tim through hell, Mannick promises to change his ways and hands Musashi the UglyBelt.
Appraise the UglyBelt. You'll find out it's the L-Belt, or Legendary Belt. You can now double jump by pressing X in mid-air, which is a really fun ability to have.
After appraising the belt, Mannick will show up and tell you that the well has suddenly gone dry, and you'll need to find a rope in the nearby church to go down there and see what's going on. Double jump over the fence and talk to the pastor. Father White will tell you that someone stole the church's bell, and he's also locked outside due to the thieves and the fact that he locked the gate. He'll tell you that strange noises have been coming out of the church late night, and he'll tell you to come to the church around 2:00.
We've got a Legendary item, but we can't quite make use of it yet.
Now that you've smashed all four eyes, you can now head to the door behind Mannick.
But first, head back to the castle. Talk to KnightC (Knight Chucks). You'll learn Desperado Attack. Press Square, Triangle, Square, and Triangle to do a devastating attack.
The Powder is Soap, the OldPipe is a Flute, the OldGlove is a useless A-Glove (Army Glove), the OldSword is a Shovel, and the Shield is a Frisbee. All of these are useless and should be sold to the appraiser. The Cloth, however, is Legendary Cloth (L-Cloth)!
After you've rescued Knitter (Knitter Lunchetta), show her the L-Cloth. You'll have to rescue Weaver Dinnerella in order to make use of it.
GamesYouLoved is a UK-based website by retrogamers, for retrogamers that has been around since 2012. Since the site is based in the UK, there are more systems covered than would be expected in the US (Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Commodore Amiga and the rest of the micros), but there is definitely something here for everybody and more things such as memories of games, blog entries, convention and event coverage, and news on retrogaming products such as books, retro-styled games, and other things. GYL maintains a strong social media following on Facebook, Instagram, and especially Twitter (which I go through on a regular basis), and they also have a YouTube channel consisting of numerous videos covering a various amount of retrogaming topics. GamesYouLoved has grown a lot since its inception, and if you are into old video games, GYL is worth checking out.
You'll see some puzzles where you have to move a red block. Move it to the glowing red eye to continue on. Thankfully, the eye block puzzles aren't that hard.
The white cubes will either run into you or crush you. You obviously want to avoid them.
Jump down and left on that platform that slowly rises up and down.
After that part, you'll enter a maze area. Assimilate the nearby ghost to get the temporary Sublime ability. You'll have an out-of-body experience where Musashi's soul jumps out of his body, allowing you to fly through the maze and memorize the path through this maze, because once you return back to your body (either after taking damage or after enough time has passed), the room will get dark and those dark brown squares in-between the lighter ones won't be there. When I played through this game, I didn't even know you could do this, so I just jumped from one platform to the next and hoped I landed on the other side.
After crossing the upper road in the room where you started, you'll reach another maze. The Bincho Field here contains Carpenter Cubey. The chest here contains a Bedpan, but you won't find out it's a Bedpan until you appraise the item inside. Take it if you need the cash.
In the next room, you'll be dropping down in a darkened area, trying not to hit any spikes. Luckily, this part is even easier than the mazes.
You'll soon reach another maze. There is an area where you drop down. Take it and you'll save Knight Chucks, who will have another technique for you if rescue him from the Bincho Field. You'll then be able to teleport to the end of the maze after you rescue him.
We've got even more lava as we travel through more of the underground dungeon!
In the fourth section, you'll want to avoid falling in the lava. As for the rotating spike walls, tread lightly and be patient. At least the blocks here just spin horizontally.
In the fifth section, the blocks are stationary but move in a circular pattern. You'll also meet the flying Vambee, who will keep the pressure on as he flies above you. If he lowers down, hit him with a Cross-Cutter.
In the sixth section, move past the guillotines where they're all the way to one side.
In section seven, you'll have to traverse across a maze of thin wooden platforms. At the lower-left corner of this maze is Solder Hanky-Flanky, trapped in a Bincho Field. Go free him.
There is also a chest in this maze that contains an OldPipe. Yeah, you'll definitely be appraising that.
The exit is at the bottom center.
The eighth section has smaller platforms, fireballs that jump in and out of the lava and more guillotines. Time your jumps and movements carefully. You can stand between the two guillotines at the end.
The third eye is after this. Break it and take the teleporter out of here.
Now for the last area, which is opposite the door we entered last time. Jump on the floating platforms and watch where they go so you don't fall into the abyss. You'll be dealing with a lot of Vambees here, too.
Our adventures in the dungeon underneath the restaurant continue, and it appears that there are rotating cube platforms. Interesting.
Now that we have two eyes lit up, it's time to head to the other two doors. These doors will be in the area opposite from where Mannick and the first two doors are.
Before you do anything, though, head to that area with Bowl and use it to break the cracked wall between the two doors. Inside are three chests, which contain an OldSword, Cloth and 300 Drans.
Enter the door to the left in this area to start off yet another area. The rotating blocks are platforms, and it's pretty obvious you should be careful when traversing them so you don't slide off the sides due to them being too steep when you're standing on the blocks. Use your shadow when you're in the are
The second area contains a Bincho Field to break. Inside is Librarian Brisketta.
The cubes become rectangular prisms in the third section. Again, you'll want to be quick here.
Our adventures in the dungeon under the town continues with dark rooms, lava and bats with lanterns...
The bats with the lanterns will attack you by tossing the lanterns into the ground or ramming into you. If you Assimilate one of them when they get close, you'll get Firefly, which allows you to illuminate nearly the entire screen. You'll definitely want this power-up, even if it only lasts for a limited time.
The purple slimes will poison you if you touch them.
Take the left teleporter, then assimilate the Firefly technique again. Follow the path again. Take the left teleporter again. Take the left teleporter again. Enter the door nearby.
Now you're in a maze surrounded by lava! Block the arrows from the arrow shooters as you make your way down, then Assimilate one of the bats again when you reach the dark area. The chest here contains Powder, which you can take to the Appraiser.
You've found the eye! Now smash it and take the teleporter back!
It's now time to enter another section of the dungeon underneath the restaurant. This one will take a while...
Now it's time to enter the door to the right of Mannick. If you need to restore your HP and BP, just talk to him and he'll hook you up with some cake you'll eat immediately.
The first room has a ton of spikes and a bunch of moving platforms. You'll have to jump from one platform to another as they move in and out of the walls.
If you go across from the entrance, you'll be at a dead end. Instead, leap to the sides near that door to continue on.
Assimilating the Vambees gives you B.O., a powerful body odor that causes enemies to run away from you as long as it lasts.
Knocking or throwing the Vambees into the panels with the eye on them that are on the floor will close up the spike pits, allowing you to continue.
Don't let the Vambees get their hands on you. Otherwise, they'll bite you for a few seconds, leaving you unable to move for that time.
Going to the sides takes you to a pair of spike pits. You'll want to go to the right first. Avoid the spikes so you don't take a whole bunch of damage.
You'll want to go to the right side first. You'll be in a dark room where the blue fireball that bounces back and forth is your only source of light. Go up and right, then follow the path. Hit the Bincho Field with Lumina to rescue Bailiff Jerky. Go back to the first room and take the left path.
The path here is a mirror image of the path on the right side. The only difference is that when you follow the path to the second room, there's more spikes.
There will be two teleporters instead of a Bincho Field in the next room. You'll want to take the one on the right.
The cracks behind the huge flower before that wall you have to climb up hide a treasure box with a Shield. Take it for the money, because it definitely isn't a Shield.
The right wall in the room with the giant bowling ball flower that seems like a dead end contains another cracked segment if you look carefully. Use Bowl to break it.
You'll be doing some bowling at the bridge. If you can get all ten Vambees that stand around for you like bowling pins, you'll get a ton of experience to boost some of your stats up.
The platform with the eye that the Vambees stood on will take you up, allowing you to continue the area. Don't take it yet. Instead, jump to the platform leading to the doorway ahead. Break the Bincho Field to rescue Mercenary Potrowst.
Now you can take the platform. If you head to the right, a flamethrower will block your path. Going left will just take you earlier into the level. You'll have to trick it into facing one direction by having it hit you, then run around it and hit it with Lumina Rotation to get rid of it.
Next, you'll be avoiding crushing walls. Get to the other side and enter the opening in the first room, then jump on top of all the walls in the second. Break the cracked segment on the wall to the left with Bowl.
You'll do some more bowling. Once again, you can break the cracked wall ahead to find another Bincho Field and rescue Mercenary Stue. Just use Lumina Rotation on those Vambees first.
The next elevator takes you to a blue crystal. Smash it with Lumina and you'll trigger a teleporter behind you. When you head back to the eye door, you'll find out one of the eyes is lit up.
Now that Tim has been cured of turning into a Vambee, it's time to get rid of the Vambees once and for all...
Head to the cafe near the mountain path leading to the gondola. You'll find Bakery's Towst banging on the door. He has a headache and is pretty aggressive due to eating too many pork chops. (In the Japanese version, it's alcohol.) He'll tell you to go talk to Wanda and Macho at the inn. (Wanda is the waitress at the restuarant.) He'll run away before the ghouls start showing up.
Head to the inn and make yourself at home, then select "Chat." Talk to Wanda and Macho. They'll tell you monsters came out of the counter.
Head back to the restaurant at midnight. You'll see Vambees come out of the door. Enter the door as soon as it happen. Check out the opening behind the counter. You'll enter a dungeon-like area, with a trail of soda bottles (they're liquor in Japan). Go down the stairs and you'll meet Mannick. He wanted to get rid of the ghouls, so he went down into this dungeon.
You'll follow Mannick to a door with four eyes. You'll have to light up all four eyes in order to poen the door, and you'll have to go exploring to do that.
The door to the left of Mannick contains a dungeon. You may remember it from the Hard difficulty scenario from the demo disc. Balls of slime will driop from the ceiling, and large pink plants shoot bowling balls that quickly become bigger than you. You'll have to step out of the way, wait, or enter openings in the floor to avoid them. If you Assimilate one of them, you'll get Bowl. Use it to blow down cracked openings in walls at 10 BP a shot. Use the gauge to control the straightness of your shot and use Left and Right on the Control Pad to aim. You cannot move whenever you Bowl.
You'll start seeing narrow paths here, too. Take it slow so you don't fall.
The flaming Vambees are invincible. Use your block ability right in front of the flaming arrow shooters to get past the flaming arrows.
Now that we've cured Tim, it's time to learn another new move!
When you hand the Aqualin over to Hotelo, he'll head back to the village and the timer will stop. This was a pretty easy mission as long as you get used to the jumping, to be honest.
Head back to the village. When you leave the mountain, you'll find out Tim is well. You'll also head back to the grocery and get an Orange for Hilda. She'll sell them from this point on in the game.
Head back to the castle and talk to Clown (Clown Weinee). Now that you have the orange, he and Acrobat Sausages will perform. You'll learn Shish Kebab. Grab an enemy, then throw them upwards with Triangle. Hit Triangle again, and you'll impale them when they come back down.
Talk to KnightB (Knight Lardwick) to learn Crosswise Cut, assuming you haven't already. Tap both Triangle and Square for a double sword attack.
Now that we've got the Misteria, it's time to head back to town. But Hotelo has yet to bring back the Aqualin...
Find the Mayor, now that you've got the Misteria. He'll thank you, but tell you that Hotelo hasn't come back from Twinpeak Mountain. You'll have to head up the mountain again, and I have to admit, it's actually pretty fun to go through that area.
You'll find Hotelo after you cross that broken bridge. He's given up on himself, resigning himself to "fate." Pick the first option "What a let down!" He'll tell you that you have only 12 hours until Tim turns into a Vambee.
Your best bet to beat the clock is to climb the orange-brown walls whenever possible. This will really help. Head to the place where you met Jon with the four logs, and use the Earth Scroll to reach the poles. Swing across, then climb up the pole. Approach the running water at the top here to get the Aqualin, then drop down and head back to Hotelo.
When you take the elevator, take care not to drop down to the mechanism at the bottom. You'll be hit by the unviewable gears at the bottom. (Use your imagination. It's a black space, I know, but that's what I'm assuming is happening.)
Take the first platform on the left side of the elevator that you see, then head left to get out of this section. Follow the path and you'll be able to get out of the mine.
If you haven't already, talk to KnightA (Knight Brisket). He'll teach you Tenderize. To perform it, press Square, Square, Triangle and you'll do a three-hit combo with both Fusion and Lumina.
I don't even know where to begin with this one. I'll try, though.
Chilean Retrogamer has been on YouTube for more than ten years now. Initially started as a way to practice the English language while still at college, the channel ended up becoming more than that and not only has his English improved greatly, but the channel has spawned a lot of videos (and a lot of channels; seriously, there are so many mentioned on the main channel page it's not even funny) and Let's Plays. Retro (as he is usually sometimes called) has also taken to streaming games and putting the footage from streams onto YouTube as well, (im)mature humor and all.
If it has not been noticeable enough at the time of this writing, some of the Try It Out Tuesdays/Funk It Up Fridays from 2018 as well as some of the Let's Play ideas that I have done were originally brought to me after watching his videos. Even the Let's Play of the Master System version of Master of Darkness - which I played back in 2016 - would not have happened had I not seen him play the game on YouTube! The inspiration to go through the games has been amazing enough for me to send him $20 through PayPal!
I couldn't think of what to place for the video here, but I am enjoying the Old Laptop Chronicles Let's Play of Super Mario Bros. 3 to the point that I am putting the whole playlist for it up for all to watch from Part 1. It's been an amazing ten years...here's to ten more.
There's another Bincho Field here containing Chief Gravie if you use the first platform to fly around the Misteria cave. You'll also find a Minku here. There's also a treasure box containing an OldGlove.
Now that you have Misteria (and all the useful things) go back to the fork in the road below the giant fan and climb the wall to the right.
If you take the right fork, you'll enter the scrap depository. Assimilating the blue mushroom guys, falling into the pool of liquid Binchotite or getting hit by the worms will cause you to be poisoned. However, if you Assimilate the worms, you'll get Antidote. For 6 BP, you can instantly cure yourself. It's pretty much worth getting as long as you're in the mine. You won't be able to go much further to the right until later in the game, however, as the gap between the two wooden platforms above the liquid Binchotite pit is too wide to jump across.
When you climb up the wall, head to the right. Keep going right and you'll eventually enter another area with a liquid Binchotite pit. Use the elevators to climb up.
It's time to head to the Binchotite mine to get one of the ingredients to cure Tim...
Now that you have the Mine Key, you can unlock the door to the mine across from the Inn. Smashing the door with Lumina does nothing.
Once you enter, you can head left to the Grillin' River, or right to the Binchotite Mine. Take the right path to the Binchotite Mine.
The blue mushroom enemies are just like the brown ones, but they just poison you instead of making you tired if their powder attack connects. Be sure to bring some Antidotes or just avoid them altogether.
If you head to the Grocery at this point in the game, Hilda will be upset, saying it's all her fault for locking Tim out for staying past his curfew.
Avoid the glowing green blob monsters that will try to steal your BP, and watch out for the falling rocks.
Assimilating the glowing blobs will give you the Rip-off ability. It uses 10 BP at the outset, and as long as the balls of light spin around you, you'll have the ability to turn hits into BP gains. Whenever you take damage, the damage is nullified and you regain 10 BP instead. Rip-off disappears when the lights stop flying around you.
When dropping down to the area beneath the fan, avoid touching the blades before they come to a complete stop. There is a Memory Box underneath the first fan. From there, head left to the underground lake.
You'll be crossing conveyor belts in the next part of this area. At the fork in the road, take the conveyor belt that leads down. You'll find a Bincho Field, which allows you to free Knight Brisket. He'll tell you to come to the castle later to learn a technique from him. You'll definitely want to do this.
There's another Bincho Field to break near the first one. Get back on the main path and walk upwards on the conveyor belt that leads to the wooden platforms stuck to the wall. (At least you can change the direction you're going in mid-jump.) Breaking the Bincho Field here will allow you to free Carpenter Dicey.
You'll finally enter the underground lake that leads to Misteria. Carefully jump on the platforms that spin around this mini-mountain, and watch out for the fireballs that the black eel in the water spits at you.
Don't forget to break the Bincho Field underneath the main path along the way. You'll be able to free Cook Mary-Nade.
As if this "Mission Vambee" thing wasn't bad enough, someone has been bitten and you'll have to find the cure...
Chapter 3: Mission Vambee
Head back to the village and talk to the Mayor near the water fountain. He and Hotelo will tell you that Tim has been bitten by a Vambee, and he doesn't have long until he turns into one. The only way to save him is to make Remedy, which uses the herbs Misteria and Aqualin. Aqualin is found at the top of Twinpeak Mountain, while Misteria is found in the mine. Hotelo will have to get the former, while Musashi has to get the latter.
A man named Wid lives in the windmill, and you'll have to get the key to the mine from him. Ask him about the flower. Hotelo will tell you to talk to him during the night or in the early hours of the morning, as Wid sleeps throughout the day. The Windmill is on the edge of town.
While you wait, head back to the pipe area of the forest, head right and take the straight pipe. You'll find the Earth Crest. Use the Earth Scroll on it and the rock blocking your path up the wall will disappear. If you climb up there at night, you'll find a Minku up there.
During the early morning, talk to Wid by knocking on the Windmill door. He'll give you the key and tell you that Misteria only blooms between between 3 and 7 in the morning.
If you head to Twinpeak Mountain now, Hotelo will shoo you away.
In this entry, we liberate the Earth Crest, as well as find out what is going on behind the scenes in the Thirstquencher Empire...
Head back to Hell's Valley. It's the path to the right after you enter the road to Twinpeak Mountain. Use the Earth Scroll to roll the boulders into the spike pit to continue on. You'll also be able to rescue Knitter Lunchetta. She'll tell you about the Legendary Cloth, which has magical powers.
Once the door to Hell's Valley is opened, you'll enter the arena and face the Skullpion. Avoid the stomp, the charge attack and the earth breath attack. Your four helpers will put things in a basket, such as bombs and rocks. When the basket is directly above Skullpion, you'll want to use the Earth Scroll to bring the objects down and hurt Skullpion.
After enough of this, the Skullpion will be stunned and you can hit the blue sphere in its mouth with Lumina.
If Skullpion climbs the walls, use the Earth Scroll to knock him back down to the ground or else he'll hit one of your helpers. If any of your helpers are hit, they'll be temporarily stunned, and you won't be able to get bombs and rocks in the basket unless everyone affected recovers.
Sometimes Skullpion will spin its tail around and dig into the ground. If its tail hits you, you'll be poisoned, as indicated by Musashi's face turning grey and purple in the lower-left. Use an Antidote to cure Posion. If you don't have one, you can use one of the herbs that your helpers will put in the basket from time to time.
After enough damage to Skullpion's core, Skullpion will be defeat. You'll get Skullpion's core, liberate the Earth Crest, increase your stat limit level, increase your BP by 25 and restore all of your health.
After the battle, the Thirstquencher Empire will be irritated that you've liberated the Earth Crest. Fuhrer Flatski is irritated with Rootrick, but Bubbles tells him that Mission Vambee will not fail. Her sister Gingerelle teases her, but Flatski is in with the plan and hopes that Bubbles and Colonel Cappriciola will not let him down.
We meet up with Jon again, and open up the path to Hell's Valley in this entry!
When you come back from Twinpeak Mountain after getting the Earth Scroll, you'll meet Jon. He'll tell you to arm yourself with the Legendary Armor, and to find the five Scrolls and free them from their proper Crest Guardians. The Guardian for the Earth Scroll is in Hell's Valley. You'll have to head to the castle and ask Steward Ribson for permission to enter Hell's Valley. Jon will run off with Leno to find the next treasure.
When you ask Steward Ribson, you'll need four people to press four switches simultaneously in order to open the gate to Hell's Valley. You'll need Soldier Lardwick, Mercenary Meitlofe, Carpenter Carvey and Knight Lardwick. Once you've rescued them, you can head down there. Of course, you should have everybody rescued by this point.
With the collectibles out of the way, we can finally go after Rootrick!
Head back to the beginning of the path up Twinpeak Mountain. When you cross the river with the poles, head left instead of right. You'll find a Bincho Field, but you won't be able to reach it from here. However, you can reach a treasure chest with 200 Drans inside.
You'll reach a dead end, but if you go here after saving Steamwood, you'll meet Rootrick. He'll start trying to climb the wall in revenge of destroying the Steam Knight. He won't tell you where the Princess where, and he accidentally lets it slip that there's a scroll near this area. You'll have to climb on the reddish-brown nearby and use the Legendary Brace to climb to the top before Rootrick. As long as you can keep a steady rhythm, though, you should be able to make it up there long before Rootrick does. Just watch out for the panels that pop in and out of the wall.
When you reach the top, Musashi will trick Rootrick into going back to the bottom for his cape...and whack him in the back with Lumina, taking him out of the picture. We won't be seeing him again. (If you have a huge lead on him when you get to the top, Musashi will crush him with a rock instead. Either way, Rootrick's gone and he's not coming back.)
At the top is a monolith with a strange symbol. Strike it with Lumina, and the Earth Scroll will be yours. By using this Scroll, you can stun enemies with powerful tremors and cause boulders to fall. Afterwards, Lumina will talk to you via telepathy. Yes, Lumina is sentient, but only for this one part in the game. Lumina tells you to destroy the Crest Guardian. Sadly, Lumina shuts up for the rest of the game. I wish they took advantage of this more.
It's pretty obvious that Musashi is based on the legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, but the Five Scrolls are based on the Five Rings from The Book of Five Rings, which he wrote after he walked away from the life of a swordsman.
There will be a boulder blocking a nearby path. Pause the game, then go to the Sword menu and switch from "Norm" (Normal) to "Earth." Perform the Lumina Rotation move as normal. This time, though, you'll use the Earth Scroll. The tremors will cause the rock to fall down, and you'll get another shortcut down the mountain.
Don't forget to climb up the left part of for two things: a cave and a way to drop down further to the left, where a Minku will be. It's easy to forget about the Minku, so head down and get it now. We won't be heading into the cave until later.
Now that we've fixed the problems in Steamwood, there are some things we can do.
If you talk to Shepherd (Shepherd Beefalo), you'll find out how many Minkus you've found. There are 13 in all. Also, one of them might poop on the floor, but it disappears after a second.
The OldCrown you found is a Cakepan. Get rid of it. The OldCoin is a GoldCoin that has no value in the Kingdom. Sell it off, too.
Don't forget to talk to the Mayor after you've saved Steamwood to get another Longevity Berry.
Head back to the forest area where you rescued Guard Lumpwood and you'll be able to rescue Hawker Steakwood. He'll tell you about the Minku and their Longevity Berries if you talk to him at the castle.
There was a force field of steam that you could not get past before, but now that you've saved Steamwood, you can go to that area. You'll be able to rescue Maid Loinette.
The building with the picture of the treasure chest and the dragon breathing fire is the toy store. You can buy action and play with them in your castle bedroom. There aren't a lot of them available at the start of the game, but you'll be able to unlock more as you progress through the game.
Here, we do some more exploring to find some Minku and people to rescue.
Enter the side entrance to the forest. Go left at the fork, then take the path that has all those mushrooms and assimilate Hop from one of the pink plants at the other end of the path. Leap up the nearby mountain just by moving across it, and you'll find another Bincho Field containing Seer Bevealy. If you have difficulty knowing where to go next or where to find somebody, see her at the Castle.
Cross the pipe near her Bincho Field and you'll find a treasure chest with an OldCrown.
Go back up to where the Administrator's house and go back to where the short building with the fan on top is after midnight. You'll find another Minku there. Catch it for another Longetivity Berry to increase your HP by another 25 points.
When you go back to the castle, select "Visit" and you'll be able to talk to all the people you've rescued. You'll be able to tell which one's you've talked to from Musashi's speech bubble. Talk to Clown (Clown Weinee) after rescuing Acrobat Sausage, and he'll tell you he needs an orange for their stunt. This will come in handy later.
To save Steamwood, you'll have to close the valves in numerical order. Stand in front of the valve and press Square to work with it. The pressure gauge will rise. Press the X button when it reaches the "OK" zone. If you're successful, the valve gauge will rise. Otherwise, it will decrease. Repeat until full. Turn off the next valve gauge before the timer reaches zero, or else all the valves will re-open and you'll have to start all over again.
The front door will be your test run. Thankfully, it's pretty slow. When you get into Steamwood, just go up to the first floor and head right. The first two are simple, but it starts getting faster on the third one. It gets mighty fast around the fifth. Keep heading to the right to get all of the valves and get to the elevator on the first as quickly as possible on the first floor. On the second floor, keep going to the left. On the top floor, go left to reach the seventh valve.
If steam blocks a direct path to the valve, you'll have to leap onto a pipe near the valve in order to get to the valve. Be careful when you do this, because it is very, very possible to land next to the valve and fall right back to the bottom of Steamwood. The steam will stop blocking the path to it when you close the valve in front of it.
When you close all eight valves, you'll meet Administrator Fores. He'll tell you that you can use a shortcut to Steamwood from his house so that you don't have to go through the forest to return there. He'll also say there's a rumor going around that a masked man with a cape sabotaged Steamwood and he's heading to Twinpeak Mountain. We know only one guy so far with a mask and a cape, and that's Rootrick.
Head to the right to go through the opening that Fores walks through. You'll be back at the Gondola area.
We've gotten the first piece of the Legendary Armor...but now the village is under threat...
When you take the Bracelet to the appraisal shop, Connor (the appraiser) will identify it as the Legendary Bracelet, or L-Brace. This will allow you to climb certain walls with Fusion and Lumina.
The items that you find in treasure chests that need to be appraised can be appraised here. Most of the stuff you find is going to be useless, and the useless stuff can only be sold here. He won't be able to buy anything that you've bought from other stores, though.
The OldBook is a Comic, which is useless and is worth 400 Drans. The Dagger is a useless Penknife that you can sell for 800.
After you appraise the L-Brace, you'll find out there's steam all around you and that the music has changed. Mayor Govern and his wife Mrs. Govern will tell you that Steamwood has broken down. Steamwood powers not only the village, but the entire kingdom, and if it blows up, the whole kingdom's going with it. You'll have to go up the cliff near the gondola and talk to Administrator Fores to see what's going on. You won't have a choice but to accept this mission.
Go up to the gondola area and leap into the wall nearby. Alternate between X and Triangle to climb up the wall, and you'll find Administrator Forest. Talk to him, and he'll not only let you enter Steamwood, but you'll also find out that Steamwood will blow up in exactly 24 hours. He'll also give you the Manual, which explains how Steamwood works.
You have exactly 24 hours starting...now. Take the side path to the forest and go to the right. Climb up the wall that was originally a dead end. You'll reach the entrance to Steamwood.
Near the entrance and to the left is a treasure box containing an AgedCoin.
At the entrance, go up to the door. Musashi will automatically use the manual.
Here's another channel that I've been wanting to promote since I've started Another Promotion Blog.
Spidermwa is one of those Let's Players from an "unusual" location in the world. Most of them that I've seen are either from the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom; Spidermwa is from Finland. Then again, Pewdiepie is from Sweden, so it's probably not THAT unusual.
Spidermwa has been on YouTube for years and has covered so many games from the early '80s heyday of Atari and Colecovision, games for Commodore 64 and Amiga, Nintendo games during Nintendo's empirical run in the United States, arcade games through the ages, PC games from the days of MS-DOS and beyond, and even Steam and indie titles of the present day. He hasn't covered EVERY single system, but what is there is pretty impressive.
There are also streams on Twitch and YouTube every so often, and there's no telling what Spidermwa might play on those. It may be a game for C64 or Amiga; it may also be a very recent release for PC. Spidermwa has been doing this for a couple of years now, and it's not often you find a Let's Player who shows off a game for the 8- and 16-bit micros. Those interested in games for C64 and Amiga are advised to check this guy's sometimes humorous Let's Plays out; he totally deserves the followers.
It's time to head down the waterfall by using a raft from those trees we cut!
From the third log, head to the left and you'll find the tree you'll need to cut to get the fourth log. From there, all you need to worry about is scaling Twinpeak Mountain. It won't take for you to reach Jon, though.
When you talk to Jon with all four logs, you'll learn that his secret is not about the Five Scrolls. Instead, it's about the Legendary Armor, the armor in the legend of Brave Fencer Musashi. There are five pieces in the Armor, each with their own unique power. One of the pieces of the Armor is at the bottom of the river, and you'll need to head down there to get it. Thankfully, the logs that Jon told you to bring will be used to build a raft.
After it's built, Musashi will jump aboard. You can steer the raft with the Control Pad and also make it jump along with you with the X button. If you run into anything that will damage it, like rocks or walls, you'll lose one log. Lose all four logs and you'll have to start the whole section over.
This section will definitely take some memorization to get through if this is your first time playing. The coins that you can follow (and collect a lot of, when you get good enough) give you a good idea of where to go.
You'll go faster on the waterfall, so be careful as you follow the coins so you don't run into rocks on the way down.
Near the end, you'll see Thirstquencher soldiers with spiked balls on fishing poles. If these spiked balls whack you, you're taking a hit. If you're on one or two legs at this point, you'll be walking on eggshells at this point trying wildly not to take any more damage.
When you finally make it to the end, you'll be at a previously unexplored part of the entrance area leading to Twinpeak Mountain. Jump up the stairs and make a U-turn to find a treasure chest containing a Bracelet. You'll need to appraise this to find out what it really is, however...
If you keep going south, you'll find another area that has a Bincho Field and a treasure chest, but your path will be blocked by a rock. You won't be able to do anything here, but you will be returning to this area later.
From here, you can drop down to the entrance and return to the town.
In this entry, we get down to exploring more of Twinpeak Mountain...
At this point in the game, you'll find various treasures, but you won't be able to do anything with them. Some of them are going to be things you can actually use, while other things are going to be worthless. Until you can find the pawn shop in town and bring them in to the appraiser there, you won't be able to do anything with what you find.
The platforms that move in and out of the wall do so very slowly. More than likely, you won't have to wait to use them as platforms and clear both of them.
The caves are just simple platforming areas. The first one is dead simple: just jump from platform to platform.
The area after the first cave is a dilapidated bridge than can still be crossed provided you're careful. There are soldiers on the bridge, but there are also soldiers in the background that try to snipe at you.
There are vines underneath the bridge, and one of the gaps in the bridge has a vine you can climb down. Carefully jump from one platform in the river to another and you'll free Shepherd Beefalo from the Bincho Field. He can be pretty easy to miss.
Before climbing back up to the bridge, jump to the vines to the left. Underneath the left end of the bridge is a Dagger that you can appraise.
The second cavern contains mini-waterfalls, and you'll have to wait until they stop running down to the water below so you can continue on without taking damage.
After the second cavern, go to the right, but don't go up the wall just yet. Instead, keep going right and you'll find a tree. Strike it down with Lumina Rotation to cut it and get your first log.
From there, climb up the ridge on the wall. You'll find out it's a tail of a dinosaur skeleton.
Don't forget to go down the pole after you go get up there so you can rescue Knight Lardwick. He'll tell you his brother, Soldier Lardwick, is somewhere else on the mountain.
After you go back up, use the platforms that spin back and forth to get further into the mountain. If you fall and hit the water, you'll respawn back at the last patch of dry land you were on. After the spinning plaforms, go down the next pole to get the second log and rescue Carpenter Carvey.
Go back up and jump on the poles to swing on them. Jump off of them to get from one pole to the next. Climb up the pole and cut the tree here to get the third log.
In this entry, we free Jon, then head to Twinpeak Mountain...this time for real! The music here is pretty good.
If you go to the store on Skyday morning, you'll be able to get stuff at a small discount.
Press the Select button and charge up the Lumina gauge until it fills up to go to sleep if you can't reach the inn or your room at Allucaneet Palace. Time will pass quickly and you'll get less tired as you sleep, but you'll quickly lose BP.
When you free Jon, he'll tell you to meet him at the top of Twinpeak Mountain...and to cut down four trees on the way up. He doesn't tell you why, as he sees someone coming and quickly leaves.
With that done, it's time to head to Twinpeak Mountain. Keep heading left and you'll eventually reach a new area. If you've ever played the PS1 demo for this game, you'll know that this is the Medium difficulty mission from said demo.
Go all the way to the left when you reach the new area and use Lumina to free Mercenary Meitloife.
You can climb on the poles by jumping on them and holding Up and Down on the Control Pad. At the top of said pole are BP refills, so take them if you need them.
On the other side of the poles is a treasure box. This particular treasure box is a Memory Box. These act as temporary save points of sorts that you can go back to when you die. You'll return to the last Memory Box where you stored your memories up until that point, but you'll lose half of all your money. The Memory Box data also disappears if you turn off the PlayStation.
You'll see Leno on the other side of the thorns. Go in the direction he barks and you'll find the cemetery. Be sure to clear out the enemies as soon as they appear.
When you get to the cemetery, Leno will lead you to the grave where the key is hidden. Just walk up to it and you'll get Jon's key. Leave the cemetery and you'll be back in Meandering Forest.
Head back to Jon. He'll tell you to come back after midnight to free him so somebody won't see.
Here, we document our first explorations through Meandering Forest. You'll be going through this area a couple of times.
Next to the Mayor's house is one of four entrances out of town leading to Meandering Forest. Here you can jump onto a pipe and walk along it to find some free money. Just watch out for the steam if you decide to explore this area to the east, as it can damage you. You'll also find the Musician Pianissimeat and Acrobat Sausages if you take more of the pipes and walk to where they end.
Enemies here will include green soldiers with lances, pink flowers that hop around and potted plants that will spit three-way shots at you. The mushroom enemies will hit you with sleep powder if you are too close to them after you strike them.
In case it gets dark, you will have a limited field of vision lit up around you.
There is a secret passage that takes you to a Minku. These guys will show up at night and will run around like crazy. You'll have to chase after them and pick them up, but when you do, then run away and leave a Longevity Berry. This will fully refill your health and add 25 HP to your maximum health.
Head back up to the area leading to Twinpeak Mountain during the night. You'll be able to find another Minku next to the path leading down to the village. At least he's easier to catch than the one in Meandering Forest, as you won't have trees blocking your path.
To get past the thorns, you'll have to Assimilate one of the pink flowers. This will give you Hop, which allows you to jump on and over the thorns. When you're over them, press Circle to cancel the move. You'll lose the ability, but there's a jumping flower nearby for when you head back.
Now to see what the Mayor knows about the Five Scrolls...
When you go to the inn, remember that the more money you have, the more you'll be able to heal up.
Now that you've rescued the dog, go back to the mayor's house. He'll tell you about a man near the exits to the forest, and tells you to go to him for more information about the Five Scrolls, since the mayor doesn't really know much about them after all.
Go to the center exit to the forest and you'll meet the man in the stocks. He'll thank you for saving his dog, and ask you to bring some bread and water. Thankfully, you can find some bread in the bakery. As for the water, press Square at the well next to the church. (If you bring him one item but not the other, you'll hear his thoughts if you talk to him.)
Once you have both items, talk to the man in the stocks again. He'll tell you his name is Jon, and that he's a treasure hunter. Musashi comes to the conclusion that he's a thief, but Jon tells him that he has a secret...but only if he sets him free. You'll have to find the key first, but he tells you that the key is hidden in a grave in Meandering Forest. There's a spell cast on Meandering Forest, so he tells you to take his dog Leno - the dog you just saved - with you. He got lost trying to find the key before and ended up in Meandering Forest, but this time hopefully won't be a repeat. Just go in the direction he barks and don't let him get hurt so he doesn't run away.
Due to Ye Olde YouTube Limits, this is split into two parts. Here's the first one.
Here's the second one.
The door with the jar and the cone above it is the grocery. Here, you can buy healing items that can replenish your HP as well as cure status ailments.
The door with the bread is the bakery. The various breads here will replenish your Bincho Points (BP). Your BP will slowly dissipate by the hour (in game time) and when it's down to zero, your health will go down. I'm guessing that Steward Ribson was right in saying that you have a temporary Bincho field surrounding you since you were summoned. Be careful with the items that are here, however, as the milk can spoil after a few days and the bread products can soon get moldy. When that happens, these items become far less effective to the point that they're absolutely useless.
If a door is not open, you can knock on it. During the daytime, you can knock on doors to talk to more townspeople and get some more information.
One of the homes has an awning next to the entrance as well as a weathercock on the roof. This is the mayor's house. When you talk to him, he'll figure out who you are pretty quickly. He'll ask you to find the neighborhood dog, and if you bring him back, you'll be made a citizen of the town and you'll get some information on the Five Scrolls. Accept the task. You'll find out the dog is in Twinpeak Mountain, but access is forbidden and even he can't let you in.
Leading out of the village is a series of entrances to the Somnolent Forest. One of the paths lead to a short area. The green soldier carries a spear, the little white lump of an enemy tries to eat you and the ghosts will try to shrink you down to fun size (if they aren't teleporting somewhere nearby when they see you, that is). The Bincho Field that you'll find here will have your first rescuee: Guard Lumpwood, who returns to the entrance to Twinpeak Mountain to guard it. If you talk to him there, he'll let you pass through to Twinpeak. (Before you find him, Macho will be guarding it and will then head home at 20:00, leaving the path unguarded and giving you the earliest opportunity to sneak over there.
Whenever you free somebody from a Bincho Field, your max BP will increase by 5 points. These will definitely add up over time, so it's best to free everybody.
There are four stats in the game, and these stats increase as you play through the game. They are as follows:
Body: Musashi's strength. This increases as you defeat enemies.
Mind: Reduces the amount of damage you take from enemies. This increases as you run around throughout the game, so this is obviously the easiest stat to increase.
Fusion (Fus): Fusion's attack power. This increases as you attack with Fusion.
Lumina (Lum): Lumina's attack power. This increases as you attack with Lumina.
There is a limit to the amount of levels you can power up to in every chapter, and once you reach it, you won't be able to level up anymore until you beat the current chapter. When you reach the last chapter, you'll be able to reach the maximum level of 30.
Head back up to the gondola and talk to Guard Lumpwood. You'll be able to enter Twinpeak Mountain.
When you enter, you'll get some pretty epic music and the sound of a waterfall. When you see the sign, go left. Break the Bincho Field you see to free Soldier Lardwick. He'll ask you to free his brother, Knight Lardwick, who is located somewhere else on the mountain.
You'll see the dog on a small island, but a white blob with teeth blocks your path. Find one of those ghost enemies and assimilate his powers to get Shrink. Use it on this blob, then walk on it to flatten him and get it out of the way. Thankfully, it doesn't re-spawn once you beat it.
To rescue the dog, hold the Control Pad towards the dog and press Square or Triangle to pick him up. You'll have to throw the dog over the river in order to keep the dog from getting wet and respawning back at the island. You can't fight enemies while you're carrying him. If he falls into the river, he'll return to the island where the bone is and start chewing on the bone again.
Once you head back to the gondola area, the dog will instantly head back to the village. Mission accomplished!
For the third part of the boss battle, stay away from the Steam Knight's shadow when the Steam Knight jumps around so you don't get squashed. Whenever its Bincho Crystal is exposed, strike the crystal. You'll still be avoiding the ball and chain attacks from the first two rounds. Use Lumina to do more damage per strike.
When you beat the Steam Knight this time, it'll be for good. The ball from the ball and chain will come off, and after the Steam Knight is thrown through the town wall, Musashi will crush the steam knight with the ball to destroy it once and for all. Musashi then falls asleep as he wonders where Rootrick took Princess Filet.
Chapter 2: A New Journey
Musashi then wakes up in a guest room in Allucaneet Castle. Steward Ribson and Butler Livers. You'll obviously have to find the Princess to go back home, but you'll also have to take down the Thirstquencher Empire as they want Lumina. Once it absorbs the Scrolls of Earth, Fire, Water, Wind and Sky, the bearer of the sword will have extraordinary powers.
You'll then find out Seer Bevealy, the only person who knows where the Five Scrolls are, was kidnapped along with everyone else in the castle and sealed in green Bincho Fields. These Fields can only be broken with Lumina.
You'll then receive the Rescue List, which shows all the people you have to rescue. You'll also receive the Sensor Watch. In case you're near a Bincho Field, the circle around Lumina will glow red.
You'll learn that Grillin' Village is at the foot of the castle. You'll also find out that the guest room can be used as a free inn, just in case. You'll also have to head to the library to meet Scribe Shanky, who can read any info you might be interested in having.
The info in Scribe Shanky's books will tell you about the Legend of Musashi, Binchotite, the Allucaneet Kingdom, the Thirstquencher Empire, and...Shogi? I guess that will come in handy later.
Scribe Shanky will tell you the gondola is out, so you'll have to glide along the zip line with Fusion and Lumina.
When you head to the village, you'll get an interesting cutscene of Musashi zipping down to Grillin' Village.
Now that the main game has finally begun, you'll notice the day and time under the money and ability that you have. There are day and night cycles in the game, and as time passes, it'll transition from morning to afternoon to evening to night as you play. Since you're in a simple village, the stores are obviously going to close in the later hours. The time cycles are not real-time, as they pass every few seconds in fifteen minute intervals.
If a store has closed, you can always press O on the door to see what the hours are. They all have different hours, and some stores will be closed on different days.
The seven days are Skyday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
If you need to move the camera around in the overhead view, use L2 and R2.
There are signs for all of these stores located above the entrance that shows what services they provide. The bed indicates the inn. Unlike the other shops in town, the inn will always be open even in the middle of the night if you need to heal.
Now that Spiral Tower has risen from some sort of body of water, let's go up it!
Now that Spiral Tower has risen from the water, it's time to go up the tower. Hug the tower wall and keep heading to the right, and avoid the rolling wheels that come down the hill to squash you. They'll alternate from one side of the spiral pathway to the other, and even though the camera pans upward as you run up the path, you'll still be able to dodge them without a hitch.
You'll eventually find the entrance to the tower at the top. Go in.
When you enter the tower, you'll get another hint: "When the Guardian Flame is blanketed with darkness, a light will lead you above." To do this, climb up the spiral path. You'll eventually see a bell above a flame, and Musashi will get the idea of covering the fire with the bell to put it out.
Aside from the soldiers, you'll also see bats fly at you in groups of three. When they come at you, strike them with your sword. They leave plenty of power-ups, especially money that you'll really need.
Use the Gunshot ability to shoot at the rope near the door at the top. To do that, just face the rope and press Circle to use Gunshot. This will cause the bell to drop onto the flame, and cause light to flood the inside of the tower. The doors that were blocking your path earlier will now open for you. Step into the light, and you'll be teleported to the top of the tower.
Now that you're at the top, all you have to do now is to get Lumina. There's just one problem: that stone head that you had to deal with earlier is here at the top of the tower, and this time the jewel on its forehead has formed a barrier that protects Lumina. Meanwhile, a whole bunch of red soldiers with swords are pouring out of the doors.
There is a plate in front of Lumina, and if you stand on it, the barrier surrounding Lumina will disappear. Of course, when you step off, the barrier is reformed. You'll have to get one of the enemies to do the work. To do that, hold R1 and press Square when you're facing one of the red soldiers. When the sword latches on, keep mashing the Square button to get the Stun ability. Stun one of the soldiers, then move them onto the plate and get Lumina before the soldier you stunned comes to. Lumina is now yours.
Of course, when you do that, the stone head will have a mind of its own and shoot its eye beams at the platform leading to Lumina, blowing all the soldiers away in the process and causing Musashi to fall. This causes the stone head to topple down the side of the tower, causing Musashi to run down the side of the tower away from it. Jump when Musashi gives you the prompt to do so, and you'll be back at the bottom of the tower...but the stone head will still roll towards you!
At this point, dodge any boulders that are in your way, and jump over the pillars in the ground when you see them. Don't worry about the soldiers, as they'll try in vain to run faster than you when they see the stone head coming their way. Near the end, you'll get one last prompt from Musashi to jump. Do it so you can clear the stream. At the end, you'll reach a doorway in a wall that the stone head can't break through. You'll be back at Allucaneet (pronounced "All you can eat") Castle.
When you enter the castle, you'll find Princess Fillet...but a man in an iron mask is holding her hostage! This is Rootrick, and he wants Lumina in exchange for the Princess. Musashi isn't going for this, and when he advances towards Rootrick, a flame trap drops from the ceiling, surrounding Musashi with flames. The Princess tells you to use Lumina. This leads to a tutorial on Lumina Rotation.
To use Lumina Rotation, hold R1 until the gauge on the lower-left is full. Keep R1 held down after this and press Triangle, which is the button you'll be pressing to use Lumina. This will cause Musashi to spin around with Lumina in front of his, taking out anything or anyone near him. If this attack reminds you of the spinning sword attack from the Zelda games, give yourself a pat on the back because I'm pretty sure this is what it's lifted from.
By performing the Lumina Rotation, Musashi is able to extinguish the flames, but Rootrick knocks Princess Fillet out and teleports away with her. You'll then fight your first boss of the game: the Steam Knight, which stomps through the roof of the throne room and lands a couple of yards away from Musashi.
Thirstquencher Empire
Steam Knight
You may remember this as the Easy Mode mission on the demo version for this game.
When you fight the Steam Knight, you'll see arrows pointing at the legs of the Steam Knight. Wait for the steam to stop coming out of the legs, then pound on the legs with Fusion. When the steam stops shooting out, however, you'll have to deal with the ball and chain that the Steam Knight swings at you, which homes in on your current position at the time it throws it out. Stay on the move and this won't hurt you.
Sometimes, you'll see chandeliers come down during the battle as the Steam Knight attacks with the ball and chain. Stay away from them so they don't fall on you.
If you need to, press the Triangle button to swing Lumina and do some more damage. Unlike Fusion, a short, thin blade that has fast strikes and can lead to combos that do wicked amounts of damage, Lumina is a large sword that just does one vertical strike and has no opportunities for combos. However, since you can perform Lumina Rotation to deal even more damage (and on multiple nearby enemies, at that), the sword's not all bad, so using both swords is essential for beating the Steam Knight as well as the entire game.
As you do damage to the legs, the legs will show wear and tear. When you complete destroy one of the legs, the Steam Knight will then be temporarily stunned. Tear off the flag underneath the torso by attacking it, and you'll expose the Bincho Crystal in its core. While it's exposed, attack it repeatedly with Lumina until the Steam Knight gets back up. This will cause the Steam Knight's life bar to go down. From here, you'll have to use the same strategies of waiting for the steam to subside and avoiding the ball and chain before attacking the other leg. Remember that the steam will damage you and knock you into the air if you run into it.
The Steam Knight can also shoot out fire that can turn into a flame ring when it hits the ground around you, similar to the one you extinguished when you confronted Rootrick. Like last time, use Lumina Rotation to put it out. You'll have to be faster than last time, though, as the ring of flames will soon try to converge on you and damage you if you can't perform it in time.
When the Steam Knight's life bar is emptied, it will be knocked to the other end of the throne room, unable to move. Go up to the center of the Steam Knight (where you attacked the Bincho Crystal) and pick it up with the Square button. Press Square again to toss the Steam Knight through the wall. This starts the second part of the fight.
Stay away from the Steam Knight after you throw it into the wall, as it will crush you while turning around and exposing its other two legs. From here, you'll be using the same strategies to fight the Steam Knight once again, but this time you have the additional dangers of falling pillars, as the Steam Knight will attack them with its ball and chain, causing the pillars to come down and potentially squash you if you're under them before they land. The Steam Knight can also grab them and throw them at you, but the Steam Knight lifts it up for a moment before tossing it, giving you enough time to run to the other side of the path to avoid them.
When you destroy the other two legs, you'll be able to toss the Steam Knight the same way you tossed it out of the throne room.
This RPG doesn't get enough love. That's too bad, really.
The game begins with Princess Fillet, Steward Ribson and Butler Livers. escaping deep into the castle to the Binchotite Crystal, which is larger than usual. Alchemist Leanman tells the Princess she must perform "Hero Summon." Scribe Shanky is also there, waiting to meet Brave Fencer Musashi.
The Princess successfully casts the spell, and everyone is disappointed that Musashi is not who they expected him to be. Musashi is asked to go to Spiral Tower to get Lumina before the enemy does. Musashi gets a samurai's blade known as Fusion. When it pierces an enemy, it absorbs and assimilates an enemy's power. You'll also get Lumina's sheath, which you'll need for Lumina.
Chapter 1: The Journey Begins
The controls are pretty simple. Press X to jump and Square to swing Fusion. If you hit an enemy, keep mashing Square and you'll be able to perform a four hit combo with it. Sometimes you can stun enemies, too. If you press Square while you're right on top of an enemy while it's stunned, you can pick them up and carry them around. Press Square again to throw the enemy forwards. Any enemies in the trajectory of the throw will also be bowled over.
As you fight enemies, you'll be able to pick up items. Coins will give you money, which are known as Drans in game. The larger the coin, the more it's worth. Hearts will restore some of your health, while the translucent yellow spheres will refill your Bincho Points, or BP. This is used for the abilities that you absorb from enemies with Fusion.
Your path will be blocked by three rocks. Move into the center rock and use the Control Pad to push it out of the way.
Watch out with some of the traps that the enemy soldiers have. Jump over the column lying on the ground that the three soldier push towards you, and keep going forward when the soldiers push the columns to your right down in an attempt to flatten you when you're near the end.
You'll come across a stream that's too wide to jump over. You'll soon learn the Assimilate ability at this point. To use it, hold R1 until the speed gauge at the lower-left corner of the screen is full, and press Square when you're facing the enemy you want to assimilate the ability of. Keep tapping Square repeatedly after the sword makes its mark, and you'll soon get the ability when the lower-left gauge is run. Here, you'll practice this against a blue soldier, who gives you the Gunshot ability when you assimilate him. Use Gunshot to hit the logs at the other end of the stream, and you'll knock the logs down to form a bridge. Strike the statue that blocks your path soon afterward with your sword to get rid of it.
You'll soon be at Spiral Tower, but there's no tower. Destroy the four statues surrounding the perimeter, and avoid being shot at by the rotating statue in the center. When you destroy a statue, a floor switch will be uncovered. Step on all four of them to make Spiral Tower rise up.
Yes, you can destroy the statuettes in the background. It takes a bit of doing, but it can be done.
You'll meet the small white robots here again. When you reach the end of the stage, you'll meet up with two robots...one is the gold one you've been seeing throughout the game, while the second one is a crimson recolor of the gold one.
This section isn't very long at all, as you'll fight the bosses soon afterwards. You'll see Benglar, but he'll run away and leave you with two bodyguards of his. They look like the first boss, but they have an even more robotic appearance to them. One is blue, the other is gold.
If these guys aren't jumping around and trying to punch you, they'll usually try to surround you at any given time. Comboing into your blaster power-up is a must here, since the chances are about 50-50 that they'll block your regular combo attack. They also have a nasty slide attack that can not only take you off guard but also works as an embarrassing way of taking your blaster power all the way down if you get hit while it's less than full. If you can stay at one side of the screen and fend these two guys off, you'll have a much easier time as they won't be able to get behind you.
Stage 7
Apparently the red and blue guys also have a white-clad cousin. At least he looks interesting, since he almost blends into the snow and looks like one of those guys from the Battle of Hoth.
You'll also meet a white version of the robot. Nothing much interesting here, except you have two motorcycles you can throw at it to make destroying it easier. By this point, you'll see missiles falling from the sky...again. It won't be long until you come across another base, where you'll fight off some more robots as well as more big guys.
In the next section, you'll meet a new enemy: some red-headed alien people in yellow spandex. As you fight them, they'll turn a bright white, which keeps you from putting them in a throw attack. They'll try to knee you and rush straight at you with a sliding kick.
You'll then fight four robots at once afterwards. Throw one into the other for your best bet at survival. If you can somehow get them to accidentally destroy one another with their lasers, that's great.
After taking down the four robots, you'll be making your way onto a freight elevator, where you'll be fighting enemies on your way through the horizontal shaft. You'll then be making your way towards another elevator, where you'll face some more enemies (including a few purple-jumpsuited aliens) and a big ugly green guy in a mechanical onesie who serves as the next boss.
He'll jump onto the roof of the escalator and bring it all the way down. If you stand under him, you'll be primed to get the first strike on the guy. He has a two-punches-followed-by-a-lunging low kick combo, an extending arm, and a nasty standing low spin kick. If you can fill up your blaster, do that and use it on everyone on screen. The more damage you can do on this guy at any possible time, the better. Of course, if he's blocking a lot of your attacks, don't be afraid to combo into your blaster.
Your air attacks will work quite well here, as well, since he'll try to move and/or jump towards you.
He sends a lot of henchmen after you, including the robots and the aliens. Throw people into him, combo into your blaster, use your full screen attack...whatever you can. Because this guy's nuts.
Final Stage
Go to the right at the beginning, because you can't go left unless you want harder enemies. Derp. Beat everyone up and you'll go to the next section.
At the end of the second section, you'll fight four big guys at the same time. If you stay at the right side of the screen here and combo into your blaster, you shouldn't have a hard time at all.
The third section is a control center with a jet in the background. After fighting a bunch of enemies, you'll fight two burly guys and two large robots. Take down the large robots first by throwing the burly guys into the robots.
After beating those guys up, you'll be doing some more fighting before you fight another clone of the Stage 1 boss.
Once you finish him off, you'll be in the next section...and so will Benglar! He'll run away again, so go towards the crate and destroy it for a full power-up. You'd better take it before you destroy the last normal enemy, otherwise you won't be able to have access to it.
The boss battle is Benglar. He'll be in some sort of battle mechanism in the forthcoming elevator. Throw the enemies into him, and watch out for the lasers that come out of the ceiling panels next to him. There are three on each side, and you can easily tell where the lasers are coming from. It's always center, right, left. After three laser attacks, all six lasers will fire at the same time, so either stay right under him or walk all the way to the nearest wall before they all fire!
When you knock Banglar off of that machine, you did it! Enjoy the ending, which I'd rather not spoil for you!
