This is one of the first games that I learned about when I started reading video game magazines back in the mid-1990s. It's also one of Capcom's more unsung games, even though it is in the same vein as the two Gargoyle's Quest games.
Legend says the world was once divided into two different lands. One realm was ruled by humans and the other was ruled by demons.One day, six magical stones fell from the sky into the Demons' Realm. Inscribed on the stones were the crests of fire, earth, air water, time and heaven.Soon the demons began to fight over these magical crests and the realm erupted into civil war.Finally, the red demon defeated all the others and collected five crests.Not satisfied with the Crests of Fire, Earth, Air, Water and Time, the red demon challenged the demon dragon for the Crest of Heaven.After a long and desperate battle, the red demon slayed the dragon and gained the final crest. But the price of victory was high. The red demon was critically wounded."I have defeated the red demon! I shall reign supreme! With the power of the crest, both the demon world and the human world are mine!"
From here, you play as the red demon, Firebrand, and you must take the crests back and defeat Phalanx, who has taken over the demon world.
Area I: Colosseum
When you star the game, you'll be facing the demon dragon Somulo. Left and Right let you move, B lets you jump, and pressing B in mid-air lets you hover. Down lets you drop down from a hover, while Left and Right let you move left and right in the air. Y lets you attack. Head all the right to the dead end.When Somulo lowers his head, jump up and hit him in the head. If he spits any fireballs, avoid them as well as the flames that they create should they hit the floor. It won't be long until you drop Somulo.
When you leave the colosseum, you'll see the heads-up display. The four red circles in the upper-left corner are your health, and if you lose them all, you die. On the upper right is your current attack, item and talisman. (Those other two will be explained later.)
Head to the right, and Somulo will stick his head out. From here, you'll need to hover to avoid the fireballs, face Somulo and shoot him with fireballs with the Y button. Somulo will go down for good this time, and his head will turn into a jewel with a red gem. This is a life extension; grab it to extend your health meter by one point. The most points you can have is twenty.
Area I: Cemetery
When you enter this location for the first time, Firebrand - the Red Arremer that you're playing as - will headbutt a statue. You can press A to headbutt with Firebrand, though the A button will have different functions at different times. (More on that later.)
By headbutting statues, you can get coins (small gold is 1 G.P., medium silver and 5 G.P. and large skull is 20 G.P.) that make up GP, the currency of the game. You can have up to 999 G.P. You can also find small orbs with flames in them. Small flame orbs replenish one hit point, while a big flame orb will replenish them all.
Enemy can do contact damage in this game, so be careful. The white sheet ghosts take one hit, but they re-spawn. They only patrol a certain area, though. The guys with the axes will jump around and throw axes upwards, and they take two hits to kill.
One of the statues contains a sheet of vellum when you break it with the headbutt. The vellum allows you to store a magic spell that you can use against enemies. There are five sheets of vellum in the game. (More on that later.)
The pots contain random things, but you'll need to make sure that your fire projectile can reach and break them. Right now, you have the Fire technique, and it is just a small fireball that does minimal damage and only allows for one projectile at a time. You'll get better things along the way, though.
When you pause the game, you can see how many G.P. and crests you have as well as how many techniques, spells, potions and talismans you have. Everything will be explained in time. For now, you just have Fire for fire power. You'll be able to use and switch between other powers and items as you go through the game.
At the end of the cemetery, you'll meet the Hippogriff. Headbutt the statue to start the battle, then start shooting fireballs at it. The Hippogriff can dash at you, but you can stay out of its way and shoot fireballs at it when it is away from you. It will also go high into the air and shoot feathers downwards into the air. If you pay attention to where the feathers go, however, you can easily avoid them.
Sometimes the Hippogriff will return to the ground and turn back into a statue. Headbutt the statue to get the battle going again.
Bosses will turn more of a red hue when you do enough damage to them. If that happens, you're getting closer to beating the boss.
Once you do enough damage, the Hippogriff will turn back into a statue and glow. Headbutt the statue to defeat it and get a health extension.
Area I: Slope
In this area, your hovering abilities will be put to a basic test. The pillars crumble when you step on them, so you'll need to jump with B, press B again in mid-air, then use Left and Right to move while in mid-air. While in mid-air, you can't go any higher than you already are. Pressing Down will allow you to drop down, but you can press B to start hovering again while still in mid-air, just in case. As you go, avoid the spikes, and watch out for the spiders and axe throwers.
If you jump into a wall, you'll be able to stick to it. When that happens, you can jump off the wall at anytime and attack enemies, but keep in mind that Firebrand will always be looking away from the wall and will fire in that direction whenever you press Y. Also, when on a moving platform, Firebrand's arm and feet will be in different positions depending on how you're stuck to the side of the platform, and there are three different poses for just such an occasion: right foot on wall, left foot on wall and both feet on wall.
Near the end, there will be a platform. If you drop down and head left, you'll find an urn. The urn will allow you to store a potion that you can use at any time. (More on that later.)
Area I: Abyss
Here, you'll be putting your ability to stick to walls to the test. Be ready to hover when the moving platforms get close. Besides the spiders, there are also cracked walls where spikes are located. You don't want to expose those, as they will hurt you.
If you jump into the side of the cliff, you'll reach the top. Shoot down the pot to get a full health refill, then head right to face Arma, Phalanx's general. To advance through the dialogue boxes, press Y.
In your first battle with Arma, jump over Arma when he dives at you (when necessary) and avoid the fireballs that he spits. Arma is a pushover here, and when you beat him, you'll get the Crest of Earth. With this, you can turn into Ground Gargoyle, which allows you to tackle certain walls.
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