PrinceWatercress plays Astal - Part 2 of 5

The difficulty heats up as we cross the nearby waters in our quest to rescue Leda. All the while, Jerado is watching...

First | Next | End

The Deep Forest

Love how both the water and the background cycle through the color spectrum.

Anyway, the water hurts you if you jump into it, but thankfully jumping over the pits isn't really that hard, especially since controlling your jump while bouncing off enemies is easy. Take it slow, as running has the potential to steer you into trouble.

The brown creature with the huge hand that flies around will try to grab the bird and kill it. Thankfully, you can hear it coming, and whacking it in midair will cause it to fly away immediately. If it keeps the bird for too long, however, you'll lose the bird...and a life!

You'll have to use some of the enemies here as stepping stones. To do that, simply jump on them.

The River Of Dreams

Jump on the giant turtle in the water (I'm guessing that's what it is), then pound the ground on it to get it going. Use it again whenever you need to reach things and get over obstacles that you won't able to jump over otherwise.

You'll see gem-shaped creatures jumping up and down on platforms. The turtle will eat these platforms automatically, and you can attack the gem creatures if you want.

The flowers will hurt you. Some of them can be jumped over, while others can be ducked under.

After a while, the turtle will be trying to lunge at a fish. There is a rhythm to how he lunges, and you'll need to recognize it as you will be sent flying into the air when his head returns. When you reach the end, the turtle will stop lunging...but he never gets the fish! Dammit!

The Forest Fiend

The boss here is a giant flower that you'll have to smash with your fists.

At the beginning of the battle, the flower spits out pods that turn into platforms that you can jump onto. Get one on, then whack the flower's head when it lowers itself. From this point, the seeds he spits will grow plants that spit two spores upward as an attack before dying. You can grab and toss the plants to get rid of them, and from there, whack the flower's head when it lowers.

After three hits, the flower will rise out of the ground and start moving around. It will keep creating those plants, but you can still wait for it to lower its head and whack its head in midair when it comes your way. Another easy boss when you know what to do, but using the bird to land the coup de grace makes it even easier at the end.

After you beat the flower, its head turns into a grey sphere and floats off. We finally find out what's going on with these grey spheres in the cutscene: they actually make Jerado even more powerful, and the more you look for Leda (who isn't there, according to our antagonist), the more powerful we unintentionally make him.