PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Witch Class) - Part 8 of 8

...and for the fifth time, we've beaten this game. Three more classes to go.

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At Axis Castle, enter the doorway to the west of the one leading to the throne room. Go south, then go down the stairs. From here, you'll be in a very alien-looking dungeon. Be ready to tear through enemies and the enemy generators that spawn them, including brown bugs that just charge at you in non-diagonal directions. If you're lucky, you can get some rings off the yellow pillbug enemies that are here as well as the purple enemies.

You'll then face Judas. Stay on the move, run around the room in a circle, and keep as much distance as possible while attacking Judas and avoiding the multiple boomerangs he throws. Make sure you are not right up on the wall, or else you can get caught on the spaces between the pods that make up the walls, which can get you trapped and vulnerable to taking a whole bunch of damage. After the stat boost, you'll be in Ciria Village, where the villagers will be cheering you on while telling you to head east to Balamous Tower. East of Balamous Tower is a path leading to Melba Village, so if you need to heal up at the tavern, you can do that.

You'll have some very narrow areas to move and shoot through in the tower, so getting the reflect mirror that will let your attacks bounce off walls is a must. Also, be ready to blaze a path to a staircase and then get right to it, as you will be overwhelmed if you try to fight all the enemies at this point.

You'll then face Natas himself. Move from one lower corner of the room to the other while aiming diagonally north, and stay away from the hands. You'll take out the hands and even a few projectiles coming out then be able to aim at the ORA Stone, and while the hands will re-spawn, taking out both hands will make things easier. If all else fails, you may have to go up to an upper corner and aim at the ORA stone while absorbing all the damage in one last-ditch effort. Once you beat Natas, you'll be able to take the ORA Stone and beat the game! You've just beaten Dungeon Explorer!

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Witch Class) - Part 7 of 8

Ah, yes. The maze. I managed to find another room that leads to power-ups this time around.

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If you talk to the king at Axis Castle, he will tell you to go north of the castle and enter Ratonix, and to watch out for Octopolus. You'll also get the magic charges, as usual.

Here, you'll have a dungeon with some of the darkest color schemes I've ever seen in a video game...and you'll also have a staircase maze. The skeletons drop White charges, while the mud creatures drop the Black charges.

Start by going west and going downstairs. From there, take the stairs that are further to the east. Go down the next flight of stairs, then go up the stairs to the north. Take the next set of stairs that you see, then take the stairs to the north. Take the stairs to the north, then grab the seed if you need to replenish your health and take the stairs to the north again. Take the stairs to your immediate east, then do it again. Go south to the next set of stairs, then go up another flight of stairs to the east. Go east down some stairs, then take the stairs going down to the south. Get the stuff to the north, then take the stairs to the south. Take the stairs to the west from here. Go down the lower set of stairs to the east (the higher set leads to an Intelligence crown, and while you will go back from this room, getting back isn't too hard), then go up the stairs to the immediate east afterwards. Take the next set of stairs that you see, do it again, then take the stairs to the east. Take the stairs to the south, then follow the path and take the stairs at the end. You'll face Octopolus.

To beat Octopolus, stay to one side and keep aiming at the eye in the center. You'll take out all the other eyes surrounding Octopolus' weak point before decimating the weak point itself before anything re-spawns, even though you don't need to do this and you can just destroy enough of them to get a clearer shot on the eye int he center. After the stat boost, you'll find out that you're on the way to Mistos and that you'll have to go underground and face Halatos. Follow the path to another dungeon.

Here, the ground is red and the enemy generators blend in with the floors rather easily, so watch for any part of the floor that is flashing. Despite the massive amounts of staircases here, it is easy to get to where you need to go. Just watch out for the massive amounts of blue eyeballs flying around, the flamethrowers and the orange demons that are very fast.

Near the end of this dungeon, you'll be dealing with enemy generators that spawn blue flames. If you see the blue flames, off-screen them immediately as you make your way to the south. You'll eventually face Halatos.

To beat Halatos, stay in one of the lower corners and fire diagonally to the north. You'll take out any flames that are shot at you while also slowly dealing damage to Halatos. Keep in mind that you can be poisoned during this battle. Once you beat Halatos, head all the way east and you'll find the ORA Stone! Grab it, then take the nearby stairs. You'll meet Judas, who tells you to head to Axis Castle. Just go east when you leave the house and you'll be there.

Of course, once you go to Axis Castle, you'll notice that the music in the castle is slower. When you talk to the king, you'll find out that he is Natas himself! The soldiers will tell you to go under the castle thru Roterroad to head to Balamous Tower, and to be careful of the plant pods.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Witch Class) - Part 6 of 8

Two more easy bosses...well, as easy as they're going to be.

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Once you go back to where you got back into Axis Castle from, go east. You'll eventually come across a wall of fire that cannot be passed through; turn back and go north as soon as you are able. Go east, then go north. You'll eventually find stairs leading up; take them. After another room, you'll be in Cursoka Village.

Watch out for the dwarves, spiders and worms and take them out on sight before they get you. Head to the northwest corner and enter the house you find there, then go down the stairs for another dungeon area. The skeletons with the purple shoulder pads are fast, and the fly enemies will bounce off the walls.

You'll eventually encounter the Splatter Slime. Keep your white magic ready, move around the room in a circle to avoid the Splatter Slime and the slime enemies that it spawns (in three new colors!) and hit the Splatter Slime when you get enough distance. The Splatter Slime will go down in no time, and once you increase one of your stats, you'll be able to go back to Axis Castle by going west, but if you go south, you'll head towards Raraport and face yellow pill bugs, gray soldiers, orange soldiers and red dwarves, the last of whom will overwhelm you if your strength isn't high enough and you're not using White magic.

To beat the Gargon, stay around the southeast or northeast corner and keep firing at the Gargon. You'll be hitting fireballs while trying to attack the Gargon, but at the same time, you'll be able to clear a path. The Gargon may move back and forth every so often, so be ready to change your aim if you need to. If you have the reflect ability for your attack, this is even easier. If you can heal with your magic, you can stay at the top center and keep firing from there. It may take a while, but the Gargon will go down long before you do.

You'll then go through yet another dungeon. Push the rock, go up the stairs, and you'll be east of Axis Castle.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Witch Class) - Part 5 of 8

In this entry, we take on Cyclopus and the Reaper of Death, and we have a fine time breezing through this part of the game.

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From here, head back to the fork in the road with the house that was near Cherry Tower. From here, take the path on the right to the north. From here, take out the enemy generators, the purple spiders (which can drop white charges) and the dwarves (which can drop black charges) who throw maces and the barbarians (who look like the Elf) as you head east. Sometimes, the evil dwarves will drop blue potions. You will eventually find a path to the north; don't take it yet. Instead, continue east. The man in the house you find here will tell you that the nearby stairway will take you to Karma Castle; from here, you can head to Stonefield.

The purple pillbugs are even faster than the silver ones, but they still drop white charges on occasion. The green guys in the armor are also fairly fast, and they can drop black magic charges. 

The oval shaped balls that bounce off the walls come out of generators that cannot be destroyed.

You'll eventually face Cyclopus here. The boss here will chase after you and will only fire diagonally, much like Bullbeast. Get a good distance away, hit him a few times, wait for him to teleport, then keep away from him and repeat the process.

You'll end up back outside, and you'll be able to head to the nearby Karma Castle. Go into the castle. You'll meet Judas, who tells you to go underground through Rallymaze.

The glowing white balls that shoot out damaging white orbs of light cannot be destroyed, and neither can the white orbs. At this point, you should have enough agility to run through rooms very quickly; it may just save you in case you lose a lot of health. Also, the purple enemies here can drop the occasional black magic charge and the occasional blue potion.

You'll soon face the Reaper of Death. He will split into four and have himself and his clones go after you; keep your distance and take them out one at a time. They'll all fall before you know it, but one of them takes for damage than the clones. You'll need to find out which one is real, then take out two of the clones so the clones can't be brought back. and you'll soon be back at Axis Castle. From here, you can go to other areas and also go to the castle proper. The side door areas are now open, so you can skip a good amount of the game in case you have a password that takes you this far.

The side entrances of the castle lead to the multiplayer arena, where you and a bunch of friends can fight each other. Also, talk to the King. The King will tell you to go to Cursoka Village east of Karma Castle - and beware of the Splatter Slime - if you talk to him at this point. Yes, you still get the magic charges.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Witch Class) - Part 4 of 8

I'm surprised I blew through the battle with Alexis so quickly.

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You'll now be in a very linear maze-like area. There will be purple soldiers coming out of the enemy generating holes, but there will also be purple worms that will come out of them, and they will be waiting to fire at you. You'll especially want to be careful against them, as they can poison you. If you're poisoned, your HP will slowly drain for some time as long as your HP is purple. Thankfully, you can fire over the rock walls, making getting rid of the enemy generators around here easier.

You'll be going between above ground and underground as you go through the maze. The red slimes are very easy to take care of. Once you get back above ground, go west. If you went here at the beginning of the game, you wouldn't be able to cross this river, but now that you have, you can walk onto a bridge and go west to the Water Castle. Be sure to take out the brown soldiers on the islands, as they can throw projectiles at you. Sometimes they can leave axes that increase your attack speed. You'll eventually come across a big opening in a castle to the west; this is where you go.

The gray pillbug enemies are a little faster than the ones you've seen earlier. There are also gray bug-shaped enemies that fire short-range beams; be sure to get rid of them too. There is also a lot of fire and conveyor belts around here, too, so watch your step.

Thankfully, the purple enemies here that are fairly fast have no projectile and only move towards you. They can also drop black charges, but they can also drop health potions if you're lucky.

The dark purple lizards are slightly faster than the green ones you've seen at the beginning of the game.

You'll eventually meet the Tigerbeast. Hope you have a high agility stat! From here, outrun the Tigerbeast, and when you reach the bottom of the screen, turn around and shoot. When the Tigerbeast gets close, run south again to the bottom of the screen. Be ready to heal, too. Keep repeating this until he dies. From here, you can keep moving south until you find a staircase in the floor. Enter it. You'll soon be able to get out of this castle. Sadly, you don't get a gem to improve a stat after beating the Tigerbeast, although I have noticed while making these blogs that you do get more health.

Once you're back outside, you'll start seeing zombie heads that come out of the ground and head straight for you. Kill them on sight as soon as you see them; as they are fast and can be trouble. You'll also start seeing metal slimes. Thankfully, they're the easier enemy here. You'll need to head west, where you will eventually come across a tower. The nearby house tells you that this is Cherry Tower, and not to fall for Alexis' beauty.

As you make your way up the tower (which has very nice walls that look like dice), you'll have to deal with more enemies, including cyan zombies, guys in green with white beards who shoot projectiles at you, yellow floating eyes with green irises who will poison you and sap away your HP if they touch you (your HP will be in purple if you are poisoned), spike ball spitters, a blue gnome much like the guy we saw near Princess Aki's prison cell who will also net you a stat-increasing gem and full health if you defeat him, and eventually Alexis herself. The yellow eye enemies will drop white charges, while the guys in green with the beards will drop black charges and the occasional crown of intelligence. 

As the Witch, you'll want to use your White magic charges to stay healed up whenever you can. If your intelligence is high enough, the Black charges will destroy everyone on-screen while you're here.

To beat Alexis, stay on the move and keep shooting when you can, always walking around in a circle and avoiding the black fireballs she shoots out that will follow you around. If you don't have reflective projectiles, you can stand in one of the upper corners and keep firing away, moving when you need to in order to take out projectiles. You may need to run away eventually, and if you do, just keep moving around the perimeter of the room. You'll eventually be able to improve one of your stats and level up. 

Once you're back outside, go southeast. You'll be at a fork in the road. Going south from here will take you back towards the village. The King will tell you to go to Stonefield east of Cherry Tower if you talk to him and to watch out for Cyclopus if you talk to him. He will also give you the two magic charges of both types as usual.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Witch Class) - Part 3 of 8

In this entry, we enter all new areas and take on new bosses as we strive to beat the game with the Witch class.

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Inside the dungeon, you'll meet a princess in a jail cell. If you approach her, she will introduce herself as Princess Aki and tell you to save her from imprisonment from Grimrose. There's nothing more that you can do here, so go south and go up the stairs.

The old man in the house that you see will tell you that if you destroy the statue guards, you'll be able to get past a sealed door. Head west. You'll see a castle, but you'll also see enemy generators lining the perimeter of the castle. The bugs and worms are pretty fast, and the worms will shoot at you, but your strength and attack should be high enough to take them down as long as you line yourself up with the enemy generators. The spiders will drop black magic charges, while the worms will drop the white magic charges and even gold rings. The worms' projectiles can also poison you. When that happens, your HP will be purple, and you'll have to wait for the poison to dissipate in order to get rid of it.

Eventually, you'll be able to go into the castle. The center door leads to the boss, but you'll have to go through the side doors and take out the statues first. The pots contain blades that bounce around the room, and you'll also have to take out some soldiers, too. If you need black magic charges, the soldiers may drop a few, and the blade-like enemies (which look more like bugs, now that I think about it) may drop white magic charges when destroyed.

If you find a mirror off of an enemy and pick them up, your attacks will bounce off walls. This can be a pain in your side at times, though, as they make your shots stick around just a little bit longer, forcing you to wait longer for your shots to disappear before you can attack again.

Once you take out all of the statues on both ends of the castle, you'll be able to go through the center door in the center of the castle. If you need to go back to the town and heal at the tavern, do so now; you now have shortcuts that allow you to skip the dungeons you had to go through and beat the bosses in to get to the destinations you've reached in the first place, and the Ruvis Statue in Melba Village should be gone by now, anyway.

Once you go through the center door, you'll need to go up stairs and destroy even more statues. The gray soldiers here throw axes at you, so you'll need to take them out as quickly as possible. Once you destroy the statues here, you'll be able to open the doors at the top and take the stairs leading up to the boss battle. To beat Grimrose, focus solely on Grimrose's three roses. You'll fire through everything and rip them to shreds soon enough, then you'll be able to increase one of your stats and become a little bit more powerful. Leave the castle and head back to where the Princess was. You'll find a note from Princess Aki thanking you, and gives you a password: JBBNJ-HDC0G. If you insert it after turning the game on, you'll be able to play as Princess Aki. You've unlocked a class for this game!

You can also move to the other side of this area, where you'll meet a little guy in blue that you saw earlier. Beware: this guy is pretty powerful and takes a lot of hits before he finally goes down. When you do defeat him, you'll get the gem that you get from the bosses to increase one of your stats and he goes down for good, and that is reflected in your password. From here, you can destroy the rest of the rocks around him and go up the stairs ahead.

You're in a new dungeon. Take out all the monster spawners, as some of them spit rocks forwards at you in an attempt to end your quest. The purple demons are pretty fast, so take them out as soon as you can. They can drop boots of agility if you're lucky, in addition to black magic charges.

The flashing green seed will bring you back to full health no matter how much health you have.

The flying pink enemies just slowly fly towards you. They can drop white charges randomly, but they can also poison you if they touch you.

You'll eventually face a giant caterpillar. This is the Catakiller. Run away from it in a circle (square?), and fire at the head from as far away as you can. You'll slowly take it down, so don't be surprised if it takes a while. After the battle (and the stat boost), Judas congratulates you on defeating the Catakiller, then says he doubts that your luck will continue before running away. Follow him to go through several flights of stairs upwards into a new area. The woman in the house nearby to the east will tell you that the Hermit House is nearby, and that the Hermit is not there. Since we're not playing as the Bard, we won't be seeing the Hermit, anyway. If you go east from the house that tells you about the Hermit House, you'll find the Hermit House. If you come here with the Bard and only the Bard, you'll be able to get a password that lets you play as the Hermit.

If you go west from here, you'll head back to Axis Castle. Here, the king will tell you to head west to the Water Castle and watch out for the Tigerbeast before giving you a White magic charge and a Black magic charge. From here, go west of the castle.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Witch Class) - Part 2 of 8

Now that the hard part of getting the game started is behind us, getting further into the game is a little bit easier.

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Now that you can access the other staircase at the start of the first dungeon, you can now push the rock to the left to access it. You'll find an ax and a crown for your stats along the way, and you'll eventually be at Melba Village.

The people of Melba Village are happy that you have beaten the Bullbeast, but warn that the Gutworm lurks below. You'll also find out about the Ruvid Statue that you'll have to destroy to get to Baron Castle.

To the south of the village is several blue slime generators as well as the nearby Ruvid Statue. You'll have to go down the stairs near the blue slimes; the Ruvid Statue will have to wait.

In this dungeon, there will be plenty of flamethrower statues that you'll have to keep your distance while destroying them. This is where your ability to aim your attacks diagonally will be put to the test for the first time. Also, the gaping spiral-shaped openings that open and close are enemy generators.

The winged boots increase your speed.

Some floors may move you slowly in a certain direction. These floors act like conveyor belts, so watch where you're going. Thankfully, you can move against them, though it will take some effort, depending on how high your agility is. If it's not high enough, you're not budging at all.

Aside from the soldiers (the red ones of which shoot projectiles at you). there are also gray pillbug-like enemies that will fire at you and also drop white potions.

Flames hurt. Be careful when grabbing stuff near the flames moving in a circle, and definitely be careful and get rid of the flamethrower statues from an angle whenever possible to take them out safely at this point. If your agility is high enough, you can skip the ones near the end entirely.

The blue potion will give you some health back.

To beat the Gutworm, get the most distance you can between you and the boss as you shoot at it. If it gets closer to you, move elsewhere and start attacking again. 

Now that you've taken care of the Gutworm, there are two stairways you can take at the end of the dungeon. One takes you to the Ruvis Statue so you can destroy it (destroying it is tied to your password) and the other one takes you to uncharted territory. Take out the Ruvis Statue first, then go back through the tavern and then through the dungeon again to get to the new land if you have to. Otherwise, just go back through the stairs you came out from and go to the new land. Also, some of the people of Melba Village will have new things to say once you defeat the Gutworm and destroy the Ruvis Statue.

If you decide to do the former, the King will tell you to go through Melba Village and enter Baron Castle to defeat the Grimrose before giving you a Black magic charge and a White magic charge.

If you see a stream with two bridges, then congratulations! You're in the new land! Continue east and go through the stairs for another dungeon.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Witch Class) - Part 1 of 8

Long long ago, there was a small and civilized country named Oddesia. This was a land of peace and harmony where people helped their neighbors and life was happy and tranquil.

The symbol of Oddesia's prosperity was the ancient and mysterious ORA Stone. The ORA was special because it controlled the power of the people's will. Whoever held the stone ruled the country and its citizens.

One day, unfortunately, aliens from another world heard of the stone's magic. These were wicked men with evil powers of their own. They wanted the stone so they could dominate the people. However, one man saw this danger and hid the ORA Stone so no one could ever find it. Terror reigned as the aliens became master of the dungeons and vented their aggression on the people.

The King of Oddesia saw the ruins of his once proud country and made a desperate plea for someone brave enough to defeat the aliens and retrieve the stone.

One day a visitor came to town and offered the trouble King his help. The King and his country placed their fate and only hope in this brave and gallant stranger. Thus the search for the ORA Stone begins...

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If you let the game's attract mode run past the story, you can see all of the eight character classes, their attacks, their magic and their starting stats.

Here, we'll be playing as the Witch. The Witch's White Magic is Magic Curing, which is a partial heal that also heals allies in multiplayer. The Witch's Black Magic is Alleviator, which does a random amount of damage to all on-screen enemies. I use the White Magic a lot more often as the Witch.

When you press Run to start the game, you'll see the opening cutscene of some of the playable characters looking over the land where the adventure will take place. You'll then be in the town's tavern. Hold the Run button until the number of times the word "OK!" appears matches the number of players you want to play with shows up. (We'll just be doing one-player mode for this Let's Play.) From here, you can choose your character class, or inputting a password. We'll be playing a new game as as the Witch. Button I confirms, Button II backs out, and the Control Pad chooses. You'll then have your character.

The Control Pad lets your character move in eight directions. Button I lets you use your currently equipped magic (assuming you have a charge for it), Button II does your regular attack and can be aimed by holding it down with a direction on the Control Pad (you cannot attack and move at the same time), and Select lets you switch between the White magic and the Black magic with a red arrow pointing downwards showing which one you currently have equipped. Pressing Run pauses the game and lets you choose between the current password, your current status and your current status level with the Control Pad and Button I. The password changes as you do things, so always make sure to check your password and write it down (thankfully, it's ten letters) for later use in case you have to turn the TurboGrafx-16 off.

The tavern is the inn, and is the place you go to if you need to heal, as healing your character is hard to do in-game. You'll always start here when you start a new game or continue a previous game. Once you leave the tavern, you'll be in the town. Unlike other games, you only talk to people as soon as you enter their house, and they only have one or two lines of dialogue. By talking to people, you'll find out that the King wants to see you in the rear room of Axis Castle to the north. You'll also learn about colored crystals that increase your stats, treasures that will help you fight, and that the devil himself Natas (which is "Satan" backwards) is looking for the ORA Stone.

The side rooms of the castle aren't of much use...yet. There is a multiplayer battle mode in the side rooms if you go north after entering them, but I cannot show it off due to playing solo. Instead, enter the bigger opening in the center, then go north and meet the King. Press Button I to go through the text slowly, or press Button II to go through the text more quickly. The King will tell you to go to the Loch Dungeon south of the castle, and that his man Judas (yeah, this sounds ominous) will be waiting there for you. He will then give you one charge of White Magic (signified by a white bottle with a W on it) and one charge of Black magic (indicated by a gray skull with a B on it). Be sure to talk to the King when you complete a task, as he will always give one charge of each magic when you get your next task.

From here, leave the castle and go south. The slime here can be defeated easily, and the man in the house will tell you that Melba Village will be to the west from the dungeon. Enter the stairs to go into the dungeon. Judas will be there, and will tell you that the King has sent him to tell you that Bullbeast is near and that he is mad. From here, you're on your own. Be ready to destroy anything that monsters come out of, as those are enemy generators. If it isn't obvious at this point, you're playing a clone of Gauntlet...but a rather good one. From the slime generator, go down the stairs going down to move further.

From here, you'll meet guys in gray armor who are a little bit faster than the slimes, but not impossible to deal with. Be careful when fighting enemies from a distance, as they can drop items. Unlike Gauntlet, where only one errant hit can destroy an item, it takes a few hits to destroy one, but even then it can be easy to destroy an item in this way. The blue potion briefly repels monsters away from you for as long as your character is flashing, and the blue winged boots increase your Agility. The gold ring refills your HP and give you a few extra HP beyond your maximum to work with.

It is possible to get a gold ring. It will refill a little bit of your health, and if you're at maximum health when you pick one up, you'll go slight above your maximum.

Thankfully, the dungeon layouts are pretty linear, and you can easily tell where you need to go and you are easily able to find your way to where you need to get to. 

The purple floating eyeballs go down in one hit, and there is a chance they can drop White Magic charges. The axe will increase your Attack. Rocks can be destroyed with your regular attack, and in the case that they can't, they can be pushed by just walking into them. 

If there are too many enemies on-screen and you're spending too much time near enemy generators, a blue fireball will eventually appear. It can go through walls and wreck your health if it hits you, and while you can destroy it, it does take a little bit of work to do so. Thankfully, you can off-screen enemies that come out of the generators to get rid of them if you need to.

The green lizard men tend not to move towards you, and it is really easy to off-screen them and have them disappear. They have a chance of dropping a White Magic charge. The crown increases your Intelligence.

You'll eventually meet Bullbeast. Stay on the move and run around the room in a circle, don't get cornered, and remember that the Bullbeast can only attack in diagonal directions. As far as hitting him goes, hit him when you have a bit of distance between yourself and the Bullbeast. As the Witch, you'll want to keep your White Magic ready, as you'll need all the heals in this battle that you can get. When you beat him, a magic crystal will show up and switch between four different colors. Orange is Agility, light blue is Attack, purple is Strength and green is Intelligence. Match the color up with the stat that you want, and grab the crystal while it is that color. Keep this and the colors of the status gauges in mind if you want to increase a specific stat. When you pick up a crystal, you'll not only refill your health, but you'll also increase your level, change your password and get some extra health to build on what you already had. You'll then be able to return to the first room of the dungeon after a little more exploration and head to Melba Village with the staircase to the west.

In case you die, you do have a few continues, which are indicated by the icons that look like torches (flowers?) at the top of the heads-up display at the bottom of the screen. Once you use them all, it's game over and you'll have to put in a password and get back to where you died. Keep in mind that any stat-boosting items that aren't crystals (such as crowns, axes, etc.) will not be saved to your password, and that you will have to get them all over again if you continue from a password.

If you go back to the King after beating Bullbeast, The King will tell you about Melba Village and the terrible Gutworm that lives nearby in addition to giving you a Black magic charge and a White magic charge.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Bishop Class) - Part 8 of 8

...and with that, we've beaten this game for the fourth time!

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At Axis Castle, enter the doorway to the west of the one leading to the throne room. Go south, then go down the stairs. From here, you'll be in a very alien-looking dungeon. Be ready to tear through enemies and the enemy generators that spawn them, including brown bugs that just charge at you in non-diagonal directions. If you're lucky, you can get some rings off the yellow pillbug enemies that are here as well as the purple enemies.

You'll then face Judas. Stay on the movie, run around the room in a circle, and keep as much distance as possible while attacking Judas and avoiding the multiple boomerangs he throws. Make sure you are not right up on the wall, or else you can get caught on the spaces between the pods that make up the walls, which can get you trapped and vulnerable to taking a whole bunch of damage. After the stat boost, you'll be in Ciria Village, where the villagers will be cheering you on while telling you to head east to Balamous Tower. East of Balamous Tower is a path leading to Melba Village, so if you need to heal up at the tavern, you can do that.

You'll have some very narrow areas to move and shoot through in the tower, so getting the reflect mirror that will let your attacks bounce off walls is a must. Also, be ready to blaze a path to a staircase and then get right to it, as you will be overwhelmed if you try to fight all the enemies at this point.

You'll then face Natas himself. Move from one lower corner of the room to the other while aiming diagonally north, and stay away from the hands. You'll take out the hands and even a few projectiles coming out then be able to aim at the ORA Stone, and while the hands will re-spawn, taking out both hands will make things easier. If all else fails, you may have to go up to an upper corner and aim at the ORA stone while absorbing all the damage in one last-ditch effort. Once you beat Natas, you'll be able to take the ORA Stone and beat the game! You've just beaten Dungeon Explorer!

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Bishop Class) - Part 7 of 8

We finally get the ORA Stone...but somebody has been pulling the strings behind the scenes...

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If you talk to the king at Axis Castle, he will tell you to go north of the castle and enter Ratonix, and to watch out for Octopolus. You'll also get the magic charges, as usual.

Here, you'll have a dungeon with some of the darkest color schemes I've ever seen in a video game...and you'll also have a staircase maze. The skeletons drop White charges, while the mud creatures drop the Black charges.

Start by going west and going downstairs. From there, take the stairs that are further to the east. Go down the next flight of stairs, then go up the stairs to the north. Take the next set of stairs that you see, then take the stairs to the north. Take the stairs to the north, then grab the seed if you need to replenish your health and take the stairs to the north again. Take the stairs to your immediate east, then do it again. Go south to the next set of stairs, then go up another flight of stairs to the east. Go east down some stairs, then take the stairs going down to the south. Get the stuff to the north, then take the stairs to the south. Take the stairs to the west from here. Go down the lower set of stairs to the east, then go up the stairs to the immediate east afterwards. Take the next set of stairs that you see, do it again, then take the stairs to the east. Take the stairs to the south, then follow the path and take the stairs at the end. You'll face Octopolus.

To beat Octopolus, stay to one side and keep aiming at the eye in the center. You'll take out all the other eyes surrounding Octopolus' weak point before decimating the weak point itself before anything re-spawns, even though you don't need to do this and you can just destroy enough of them to get a clearer shot on the eye int he center. After the stat boost, you'll find out that you're on the way to Mistos and that you'll have to go underground and face Halatos. Follow the path to another dungeon.

Here, the ground is red and the enemy generators blend in with the floors rather easily, so watch for any part of the floor that is flashing. Despite the massive amounts of staircases here, it is easy to get to where you need to go. Just watch out for the massive amounts of blue eyeballs flying around, the flamethrowers and the orange demons that are very fast.

Near the end of this dungeon, you'll be dealing with enemy generators that spawn blue flames. If you see the blue flames, off-screen them immediately as you make your way to the south. You'll eventually face Halatos.

To beat Halatos, stay in one of the lower corners and fire diagonally to the north. You'll take out any flames that are shot at you while also slowly dealing damage to Halatos. Keep in mind that you can be poisoned during this battle. Once you beat Halatos, head all the way east and you'll find the ORA Stone! Grab it, then take the nearby stairs. You'll meet Judas, who tells you to head to Axis Castle. Just go east when you leave the house and you'll be there.

Of course, once you go to Axis Castle, you'll notice that the music in the castle is slower. When you talk to the king, you'll find out that he is Natas himself! The soldiers will tell you to go under the castle thru Roterroad to head to Balamous Tower, and to be careful of the plant pods.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Bishop Class) - Part 6 of 8

We're getting close to the end of the game as the Bishop, but the worst is yet to come.

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Once you go back to where you got back into Axis Castle from, go east. You'll eventually come across a wall of fire that cannot be passed through; turn back and go north as soon as you are able. Go east, then go north. You'll eventually find stairs leading up; take them. After another room, you'll be in Cursoka Village.

Watch out for the dwarves, spiders and worms and take them out on sight before they get you. Head to the northwest corner and enter the house you find there, then go down the stairs for another dungeon area. The skeletons with the purple shoulder pads are fast, and the fly enemies will bounce off the walls.

You'll eventually encounter the Splatter Slime. Keep your white magic ready, move around the room in a circle to avoid the Splatter Slime and the slime enemies that it spawns (in three new colors!) and hit the Splatter Slime when you get enough distance. The Splatter Slime will go down in no time, and once you increase one of your stats, you'll be able to go back to Axis Castle by going west, but if you go south, you'll head towards Raraport and face yellow pill bugs, gray soldiers, orange soldiers and red dwarves, the last of whom will overwhelm you if your strength isn't high enough and you're not using White magic.

To beat the Gargon, stay around the southeast or northeast corner and keep firing at the Gargon. You'll be hitting fireballs while trying to attack the Gargon, but at the same time, you'll be able to clear a path. The Gargon may move back and forth every so often, so be ready to change your aim if you need to. If you have the reflect ability for your attack, this is even easier. If you can heal with your magic, you can stay at the top center and keep firing from there. It may take a while, but the Gargon will go down long before you do.

You'll then go through yet another dungeon. Push the rock, go up the stairs, and you'll be east of Axis Castle.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Bishop Class) - Part 5 of 8

Well, whaddya know? This video was even easier than the last.

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From here, head back to the fork in the road with the house that was near Cherry Tower. From here, take the path on the right to the north. From here, take out the enemy generators, the purple spiders (which can drop white charges) and the dwarves (which can drop black charges) who throw maces and the barbarians (who look like the Elf) as you head east. Sometimes, the evil dwarves will drop blue potions. You will eventually find a path to the north; don't take it yet. Instead, continue east. The man in the house you find here will tell you that the nearby stairway will take you to Karma Castle; from here, you can head to Stonefield.

The purple pillbugs are even faster than the silver ones, but they still drop white charges on occasion. The green guys in the armor are also fairly fast, and they can drop black magic charges.

The oval shaped balls that bounce off the walls come out of generators that cannot be destroyed.

You'll eventually face Cyclopus here. The boss here will chase after you and will only fire diagonally, much like Bullbeast. Get a good distance away, hit him a few times, wait for him to teleport, then keep away from him and repeat the process.

You'll end up back outside, and you'll be able to head to the nearby Karma Castle. Go into the castle. You'll meet Judas, who tells you to go underground through Rallymaze.

The glowing white balls that shoot out damaging white orbs of light cannot be destroyed, and neither can the white orbs. At this point, you should have enough agility to run through rooms very quickly; it may just save you in case you lose a lot of health. Also, the purple enemies here can drop the occasional black magic charge and the occasional blue potion.

You'll soon face the Reaper of Death. He will split into four and have himself and his clones go after you; keep your distance and take them out one at a time. They'll all fall before you know it, but one of them takes for damage than the clones. You'll need to find out which one is real, then take out two of the clones so the clones can't be brought back. and you'll soon be back at Axis Castle. From here, you can go to other areas and also go to the castle proper. The side door areas are now open, so you can skip a good amount of the game in case you have a password that takes you this far.

The side entrances of the castle lead to the multiplayer arena, where you and a bunch of friends can fight each other. Also, talk to the King. The King will tell you to go to Cursoka Village east of Karma Castle - and beware of the Splatter Slime - if you talk to him at this point. Yes, you still get the magic charges.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Bishop Class) - Part 4 of 8

Compared to the Warlock Class playthrough, I had a much easier time here.

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You'll now be in a very linear maze-like area. There will be purple soldiers coming out of the enemy generating holes, but there will also be purple worms that will come out of them, and they will be waiting to fire at you. You'll especially want to be careful against them, as they can poison you. If you're poisoned, your HP will slowly drain for some time as long as your HP is purple. Thankfully, you can fire over the rock walls, making getting rid of the enemy generators around here easier.

You'll be going between above ground and underground as you go through the maze. The red slimes are very easy to take care of. Once you get back above ground, go west. If you went here at the beginning of the game, you wouldn't be able to cross this river, but now that you have, you can walk onto a bridge and go west to the Water Castle. Be sure to take out the brown soldiers on the islands, as they can throw projectiles at you. You'll eventually come across a big opening in a castle to the west; this is where you go.

The gray pillbug enemies are a little faster than the ones you've seen earlier. There are also gray bug-shaped enemies that fire short-range beams; be sure to get rid of them too. There is also a lot of fire and conveyor belts around here, too, so watch your step.

Thankfully, the purple enemies here that are fairly fast have no projectile and only move towards you.

The dark purple lizards are slightly faster than the green ones you've seen at the beginning of the game.

You'll eventually meet the Tigerbeast. Hope you have a high agility stat! From here, outrun the Tigerbeast, and when you reach the bottom of the screen, turn around and shoot. When the Tigerbeast gets close, run south again to the bottom of the screen. Be ready to heal, too. Keep repeating this until he dies. From here, you can keep moving south until you find a staircase in the floor. Enter it. You'll soon be able to get out of this castle. Sadly, you don't get a gem to improve a stat after beating the Tigerbeast, although I have noticed while making these blogs that you do get more health.

Once you're back outside, you'll start seeing zombie heads that come out of the ground and head straight for you. Kill them on sight as soon as you see them; as they are fast and can be trouble. You'll also start seeing metal slimes. Thankfully, they're the easier enemy here. You'll need to head west, where you will eventually come across a tower. The nearby house tells you that this is Cherry Tower, and not to fall for Alexis' beauty.

As you make your way up the tower (which has very nice walls that look like dice), you'll have to deal with more enemies, including cyan zombies, guys in green with white beards who shoot projectiles at you, yellow floating eyes with green irises who will poison you and sap away your HP if they touch you (your HP will be in purple if you are poisoned), spike ball spitters, a blue gnome much like the guy we saw near Princess Aki's prison cell who will also net you a stat-increasing gem and full health if you defeat him, and eventually Alexis herself. The yellow eye enemies will drop white charges, while the guys in green with the beards will drop black charges and the occasional crown of intelligence. 

As the Bishop, you'll want to use your White magic charges to stay healed up whenever you can.

To beat Alexis, stay on the move and keep shooting when you can, always walking around in a circle and avoiding the black fireballs she shoots out that will follow you around. If you don't have reflective projectiles, you can stand in one of the upper corners and keep firing away, moving when you need to in order to take out projectiles. You may need to run away eventually, and if you do, just keep moving around the perimeter of the room. You'll eventually be able to improve one of your stats and level up. 

Once you're back outside, go southeast. You'll be at a fork in the road. Going south from here will take you back towards the village. The King will tell you to go to Stonefield east of Cherry Tower if you talk to him and to watch out for Cyclopus if you talk to him. He will also give you the two magic charges of both types as usual.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Bishop Class) - Part 3 of 8

In this entry, we beat Grimrose and the Caterkiller as the Bishop.

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Inside the dungeon, you'll meet a princess in a jail cell. If you approach her, she will introduce herself as Princess Aki and tell you to save her from imprisonment from Grimrose. There's nothing more that you can do here, so go south and go up the stairs.

The old man in the house that you see will tell you that if you destroy the statue guards, you'll be able to get past a sealed door. Head west. You'll see a castle, but you'll also see enemy generators lining the perimeter of the castle. The bugs and worms are pretty fast, and the worms will shoot at you, but your strength and attack should be high enough to take them down as long as you line yourself up with the enemy generators. The spiders will drop black magic charges, while the worms will drop the white magic charges and even gold rings. The worms' projectiles can also poison you. When that happens, your HP will be purple, and you'll have to wait for the poison to dissipate in order to get rid of it.

Eventually, you'll be able to go into the castle. The center door leads to the boss, but you'll have to go through the side doors and take out the statues first. The pots contain blades that bounce around the room, and you'll also have to take out some soldiers, too. If you need black magic charges, the soldiers may drop a few, and the blade-like enemies (which look more like bugs, now that I think about it) may drop white magic charges when destroyed.

If you find a mirror off of an enemy and pick them up, your attacks will bounce off walls. This can be a pain in your side at times, though, as they make your shots stick around just a little bit longer, forcing you to wait longer for your shots to disappear before you can attack again.

Once you take out all of the statues on both ends of the castle, you'll be able to go through the center door in the center of the castle. If you need to go back to the town and heal at the tavern, do so now; you now have shortcuts that allow you to skip the dungeons you had to go through and beat the bosses in to get to the destinations you've reached in the first place, and the Ruvis Statue in Melba Village should be gone by now, anyway.

Once you go through the center door, you'll need to go up stairs and destroy even more statues. The gray soldiers here throw axes at you, so you'll need to take them out as quickly as possible. Once you destroy the statues here, you'll be able to open the doors at the top and take the stairs leading up to the boss battle. To beat Grimrose, focus solely on Grimrose's three roses. You'll fire through everything and rip them to shreds soon enough, then you'll be able to increase one of your stats and become a little bit more powerful. Leave the castle and head back to where the Princess was. You'll find a note from Princess Aki thanking you, and gives you a password: JBBNJ-HDC0G. If you insert it after turning the game on, you'll be able to play as Princess Aki. You've unlocked a class for this game!

You can also move to the other side of this area, where you'll meet a little guy in blue that you saw earlier. Beware: this guy is pretty powerful and takes a lot of hits before he finally goes down. When you do defeat him, you'll get the gem that you get from the bosses to increase one of your stats and he goes down for good, and that is reflected in your password. From here, you can destroy the rest of the rocks around him and go up the stairs ahead.

You're in a new dungeon. Take out all the monster spawners, as some of them spit rocks forwards at you in an attempt to end your quest. The purple demons are pretty fast, so take them out as soon as you can. They can drop boots of agility if you're lucky, in addition to black magic charges.

The flashing green seed will bring you back to full health no matter how much health you have.

The flying pink enemies just slowly fly towards you. They can drop white charges randomly, but they can also poison you if they touch you.

You'll eventually face a giant caterpillar. This is the Catakiller. Run away from it in a circle (square?), and fire at the head from as far away as you can. You'll slowly take it down, so don't be surprised if it takes a while. After the battle (and the stat boost), Judas congratulates you on defeating the Catakiller, then says he doubts that your luck will continue before running away. Follow him to go through several flights of stairs upwards into a new area. The woman in the house nearby to the east will tell you that the Hermit House is nearby, and that the Hermit is not there. Since we're not playing as the Bard, we won't be seeing the Hermit, anyway. If you go east from the house that tells you about the Hermit House, you'll find the Hermit House. If you come here with the Bard and only the Bard, you'll be able to get a password that lets you play as the Hermit.

If you go west from here, you'll head back to Axis Castle. Here, the king will tell you to head west to the Water Castle and watch out for the Tigerbeast before giving you a White magic charge and a Black magic charge. From here, go west of the castle.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Bishop Class) - Part 2 of 8

In this entry, we take on another boss, then we open up the path between the two villages further before heading towards more of the land of Odessia.

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Now that you can access the other staircase at the start of the first dungeon, you can now push the rock to the left to access it. You'll find an ax and a crown for your stats along the way, and you'll eventually be at Melba Village.

The people of Melba Village are happy that you have beaten the Bullbeast, but warn that the Gutworm lurks below. You'll also find out about the Ruvid Statue that you'll have to destroy to get to Baron Castle.

To the south of the village is several blue slime generators as well as the nearby Ruvid Statue. You'll have to go down the stairs near the blue slimes; the Ruvid Statue will have to wait.

In this dungeon, there will be plenty of flamethrower statues that you'll have to keep your distance while destroying them. This is where your ability to aim your attacks diagonally will be put to the test for the first time. Also, the gaping spiral-shaped openings that open and close are enemy generators.

The winged boots increase your speed.

Some floors may move you slowly in a certain direction. These floors act like conveyor belts, so watch where you're going. Thankfully, you can move against them, though it will take some effort, depending on how high your agility is. If it's not high enough, you're not budging at all.

Aside from the soldiers (the red ones of which shoot projectiles at you). there are also gray pillbug-like enemies that will fire at you and also drop white potions.

Flames hurt. Be careful when grabbing stuff near the flames moving in a circle, and definitely be careful and get rid of the flamethrower statues from an angle whenever possible to take them out safely at this point. If your agility is high enough, you can skip the ones near the end entirely.

The blue potion will give you some health back.

To beat the Gutworm, get the most distance you can between you and the boss as you shoot at it. If it gets closer to you, move elsewhere and start attacking again. 

Now that you've taken care of the Gutworm, there are two stairways you can take at the end of the dungeon. One takes you to the Ruvis Statue so you can destroy it (destroying it is tied to your password) and the other one takes you to uncharted territory. Take out the Ruvis Statue first, then go back through the tavern and then through the dungeon again to get to the new land if you have to. Otherwise, just go back through the stairs you came out from and go to the new land. Also, some of the people of Melba Village will have new things to say once you defeat the Gutworm and destroy the Ruvis Statue.

If you decide to do the former, the King will tell you to go through Melba Village and enter Baron Castle to defeat the Grimrose before giving you a Black magic charge and a White magic charge.

If you see a stream with two bridges, then congratulations! You're in the new land! Continue east and go through the stairs for another dungeon.

PrinceWatercress plays Dungeon Explorer (Bishop Class) - Part 1 of 8

Long long ago, there was a small and civilized country named Oddesia. This was a land of peace and harmony where people helped their neighbors and life was happy and tranquil.

The symbol of Oddesia's prosperity was the ancient and mysterious ORA Stone. The ORA was special because it controlled the power of the people's will. Whoever held the stone ruled the country and its citizens.

One day, unfortunately, aliens from another world heard of the stone's magic. These were wicked men with evil powers of their own. They wanted the stone so they could dominate the people. However, one man saw this danger and hid the ORA Stone so no one could ever find it. Terror reigned as the aliens became master of the dungeons and vented their aggression on the people.

The King of Oddesia saw the ruins of his once proud country and made a desperate plea for someone brave enough to defeat the aliens and retrieve the stone.

One day a visitor came to town and offered the trouble King his help. The King and his country placed their fate and only hope in this brave and gallant stranger. Thus the search for the ORA Stone begins...

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If you let the game's attract mode run past the story, you can see all of the eight character classes, their attacks, their magic and their starting stats.

Here, we'll be playing as the Warlock. Their White magic is the Stunner, while their Black magic is the Silencer. The Stunner briefly stuns all on-screen enemies, while the Silencer attacks all on-screen enemies. The Warlock has pretty even stats.

When you press Run to start the game, you'll see the opening cutscene of some of the playable characters looking over the land where the adventure will take place. You'll then be in the town's tavern. Hold the Run button until the number of times the word "OK!" appears matches the number of players you want to play with shows up. (We'll just be doing one-player mode for this Let's Play.) From here, you can choose your character class, or inputting a password. We'll be playing a new game as as the Bishop. Button I confirms, Button II backs out, and the Control Pad chooses. You'll then have your character.

The Control Pad lets your character move in eight directions. Button I lets you use your currently equipped magic (assuming you have a charge for it), Button II does your regular attack and can be aimed by holding it down with a direction on the Control Pad (you cannot attack and move at the same time), and Select lets you switch between the White magic and the Black magic with a red arrow pointing downwards showing which one you currently have equipped. Pressing Run pauses the game and lets you choose between the current password, your current status and your current status level with the Control Pad and Button I. The password changes as you do things, so always make sure to check your password and write it down (thankfully, it's ten letters) for later use in case you have to turn the TurboGrafx-16 off.

The tavern is the inn, and is the place you go to if you need to heal, as healing your character is hard to do in-game. You'll always start here when you start a new game or continue a previous game. Once you leave the tavern, you'll be in the town. Unlike other games, you only talk to people as soon as you enter their house, and they only have one or two lines of dialogue. By talking to people, you'll find out that the King wants to see you in the rear room of Axis Castle to the north. You'll also learn about colored crystals that increase your stats, treasures that will help you fight, and that the devil himself Natas (which is "Satan" backwards) is looking for the ORA Stone.

The side rooms of the castle aren't of much use...yet. There is a multiplayer battle mode in the side rooms if you go north after entering them, but I cannot show it off due to playing solo. Instead, enter the bigger opening in the center, then go north and meet the King. Press Button I to go through the text slowly, or press Button II to go through the text more quickly. The King will tell you to go to the Loch Dungeon south of the castle, and that his man Judas (yeah, this sounds ominous) will be waiting there for you. He will then give you one charge of White Magic (signified by a white bottle with a W on it) and one charge of Black magic (indicated by a green skull with a B on it). Be sure to talk to the King when you complete a task, as he will always give one charge of each magic when you get your next task.

The Bishop's White Magic is Mortal Bless, which is a full heal. The Bishop's Black Magic is Vaporizer, which has a random chance of eliminating enemies. I use the White Magic a lot more often as the Bishop.

From here, leave the castle and go south. The slime here can be defeated easily, and the man in the house will tell you that Melba Village will be to the west from the dungeon. Enter the stairs to go into the dungeon. Judas will be there, and will tell you that the King has sent him to tell you that Bullbeast is near and that he is mad. From here, you're on your own. Be ready to destroy anything that monsters come out of, as those are enemy generators. If it isn't obvious at this point, you're playing a clone of Gauntlet...but a rather good one. From the slime generator, go down the stairs going down to move further.

From here, you'll meet guys in gray armor who are a little bit faster than the slimes, but not impossible to deal with. Be careful when fighting enemies from a distance, as they can drop items. Unlike Gauntlet, where only one errant hit can destroy an item, it takes a few hits to destroy one, but even then it can be easy to destroy an item in this way. The blue potion briefly repels monsters away from you for as long as your character is flashing, and the blue winged boots increase your Agility. The gold ring refills your HP and give you a few extra HP beyond your maximum to work with.

It is possible to get a gold ring. It will refill a little bit of your health, and if you're at maximum health when you pick one up, you'll go slight above your maximum.

Thankfully, the dungeon layouts are pretty linear, and you can easily tell where you need to go and you are easily able to find your way to where you need to get to. 

The purple floating eyeballs go down in one hit, and there is a chance they can drop White Magic charges. The axe will increase your Attack. Rocks can be destroyed with your regular attack, and in the case that they can't, they can be pushed by just walking into them. 

If there are too many enemies on-screen and you're spending too much time near enemy generators, a blue fireball will eventually appear. It can go through walls and wreck your health if it hits you, and while you can destroy it, it does take a little bit of work to do so. Thankfully, you can off-screen enemies that come out of the generators to get rid of them if you need to.

The green lizard men tend not to move towards you, and it is really easy to off-screen them and have them disappear. They have a chance of dropping a White Magic charge. The crown increases your Intelligence.

You'll eventually meet Bullbeast. Stay on the move and run around the room in a circle, don't get cornered, and remember that the Bullbeast can only attack in diagonal directions. As far as hitting him goes, hit him when you have a bit of distance between yourself and the Bullbeast. As the Bishop, you'll want to keep your White Magic ready, as you'll need all the full heals in this battle that you can get. When you beat him, a magic crystal will show up and switch between four different colors. Orange is Agility, light blue is Attack, purple is Strength and green is Intelligence. Match the color up with the stat that you want, and grab the crystal while it is that color. Keep this and the colors of the status gauges in mind if you want to increase a specific stat. When you pick up a crystal, you'll not only refill your health, but you'll also increase your level, change your password and get some extra health to build on what you already had. You'll then be able to return to the first room of the dungeon after a little more exploration and head to Melba Village with the staircase to the west.

In case you die, you do have a few continues, which are indicated by the icons that look like torches (flowers?) at the top of the heads-up display at the bottom of the screen. Once you use them all, it's game over and you'll have to put in a password and get back to where you died. Keep in mind that any stat-boosting items that aren't crystals (such as crowns, axes, etc.) will not be saved to your password, and that you will have to get them all over again if you continue from a password.

If you go back to the King after beating Bullbeast, The King will tell you about Melba Village and the terrible Gutworm that lives nearby in addition to giving you a Black magic charge and a White magic charge.

PrinceWatercress plays Bonk III: Bonk's Big Adventure - The Longplay

It's longplay time again! Here, I play through the whole game in one sitting minus commentary.

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It's time for the third game in the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 trilogy, and in this one, King Drool III has taken part of the moon for himself...again. It's up to Bonk to get it back.

Unlike the first two games, this game has a simultaneous two-player mode, and the Player 2 Bonk is a darker shade to tell both Bonks apart. Both players share lives but have independent score totals.

Round 1-1

Left and Right let you move, Button I lets you jump and Button II lets you attack in form of a tough caveman headbutt. If you headbutt in the air, Bonk will dive head-first into the ground to headbutt enemies from above. If you keep mashing II in mid-air, you can glide.

The butterflies and fruits will give you points, so collect as many as you can. You'll get your first extra life at 20,000 points.

For some reason when you start, the first boss from the first game comes back in a hypnotized state, telling you that something is very wrong very early in the game.

The blue candies will make Bonk large in size, while the red candies will make him small. To return to regular size, just take damage from an enemy. Thankfully, that doesn't take away from your health.

Your health is in the upper-left corner, while your current number of lives and points is in the lower-left corner.

By hitting certain power-up plants, you can get certain pick-ups. The yellow ones act as springboards that can take you places, and if you press the jump button just before you go up, you'll bounce higher. The pink flowers can turn into life-filling fruit or evil flower enemies that leap at you. The orange ones give you meat which act as extra hits that protect your health meter and make you invincible when you eat three piece of meat quickly enough. The blue ones give you cool stuff like extra lives, health extensions and even a full health restore in the form of a big heart. The green ones will have the candies inside of them.

While mad from eating meat, you can shoot stars that stun enemies out of your head in addition to having extra hits, and if you eat three in quick succession, you can become invincible and spit fire instead of headbutting. The levels of meat madness last for a short time or until you get hit by an enemy.

The flowers with the smiley faces take you to bonus areas. There are eight bonus area in the game. "Catch The Butterflies" has you grabbing as many butterflies as you can, and the more you get, the more smileys and points you get. 

The seed with the face gives you a flower that allows you to fly. Just hold Up on the D-Pad to keep flying. You can sometimes find cool things this way, such as extra lives! If you get hit or fall into the 

There are guys with egg helmets sleeping around here, and you can headbutt them in mid-air to kill them.

The rock floors can be destroyed with mid-air headbutts.

Watch out on the bridge near the end, the parts of the bridge will tip downwards and drop you. Headbutt the piranhas so they don't bite you and sap away at your health. If they do, mash the D-Pad and buttons until you get free.

Sometimes, you can latch onto a wall with Bonk's teeth. If that happens, you can keep pressing the jump button to keep climbing upwards. You'll jump back up eventually, but you can re-connect to the wall and keep climbing until you reach the top. If you do nothing for a while, you'll drop back down.

Round 1-2

Watch out for the lava! The bone platforms will sink into it if you stand on them long enough.

Be sure to explore all of the level that you can.

The green flowers contain the candies. You won't know which one you'll get until you jump on one.

Pressing Up and Jump while jumping in front of a waterfall to latch on, then keep jumping to climb up the waterfall. Stop climbing at anytime to slide and eventually drop off.

If you get caught on the spider web, keep mashing Button 2 to break free. The web will sap your health away if you don't get out of it.

If you get crushed, Bonk will turn into a crab. Pressing Button I allows you to attack upwards at a short range. If you get hit, you won't lose health, but you will return to your regular form.

The red candies can let you go through narrow passages you could not normally enter.

"Smash The Building" has you destroying a building fully before time runs out. If you can do that, you'll get 10,000 points and ten smilies. You'll need the smilies to play the bonus games after completing a round.

The gray square blocks will split when you stand on them.

You can latch on the palm tree platforms from underneath. Hold Up and jump to vault yourself upwards. You can also latch onto some from the side. Left and Right let you switch sides, while Up and Down let you climb. You can jump off with the jump button.

If a pink flower is not moving, it's an enemy.

The big meat will give you invincibility immediately, while a big heart will refill quite a bit of life.

Round 1-3

The guys on scooters take one hit to kill, as do the seagulls.

The fishing enemies make for a fun way to get out of the water, but you'll have to jump off and hit the guy once you reach the top.

The schools of fish give you points if you grab them.

When underwater, watch out for jellyfish and crab arms. The crab arms shoot bubbles at you, and the bubbles will home in on you.

The "Springy Flower" area is a good place to get smilies and health-replenishing food if you know how to jump off the moving flowers and glide through the air to get everything.

Eventually, you'll have to get into the ship by turning small or into a crab with the crusher as far down and to the left as you can. As you go through the ship, you can break the crates with your attacks. Watch out for water droplets, as they will hurt to the touch. 

You'll eventually find an elevator that leads to the first boss. Wait to the left at the start, then let the boss crush you so you turn into a crab. Get under the boss' mouth and keep attacking. Just stay on the move so you don't get stomped on, and you'll take out the boss in no time.

At the end of every round, you'll head to the bonus stage screen. Here, you can choose between one of eight different mini-games which you can randomly play throughout the game at the cost of sixteen smilies. If you're good, you can get the maximum of ten smilies as well as 10,000 points, and if you're good at a couple of bonus game attempts in a row, you can earn yourself some bonus chances. You'll run out of smilies eventually, though. Here are the mini-games:

Jet Roller Pipe: This is a pipe maze where you have to walk into pipes to go through them and find a way through the exit. To go down the pipe, stand in the middle of it. If Bonk goes down it, he will go through it to the other end automatically. If you can collect all the items and get to the exit in time, you'll get the maximum reward.

Building Smash: This is the building smash mini-game that we've seen before where we need to break a building with our head before time runs out. For best results, position yourself between two tiles to break more of the building in less time. I find this one the easiest to play and I play it all the time for extra points and lives as a result. Unlike most of the mini-games, this one is all or nothing.

Flower Copter: This is the one where you have to collect all the butterflies before they disappear (which we've seen before. The more you collect, the better the reward.

Head Banging: Head Banging has you banging off your heads off walls in order to wall bounce your way to the top before time runs out. This is another "all or nothing" bonus area.

Miracle Maze: This is a maze in a pyramid. You'll have to change sizes with the red and blue candies in order to get through it in time. This is another "all or nothing" bonus area.

Spin Climb: In this mini-game, you spin around tree branches and take out all the enemies with your spinning momentum as you make your way to the top. If you take out all the enemies and get to the end before time runs out, you'll get the maximum reward.

Springy Flower: This is one we've seen before. You're racing against the clock as you bounce off yellow flowers that move back and forth in mid-air to collect everything. If you collect everything before time runs out, you'll get the max reward. This is one of two mini-games where you can heal yourself if you need to.

Sky Diving: It's the mini-game from the first two games where you jump off the top of a tower and repeatedly press the attack button to glide while grabbing as many pick-ups as possible. The more things you get, the better the rewards. This is the other of two mini-games where you can heal yourself if you need to.

Round 2-1

If you're still in crab form, grab a candy to turn human again.

If you haven't played the pipe maze mini-game from earlier, just walk onto the center of a pipe. If Bonk goes down it, he will head to the other side of it automatically. 

Be careful against the scorpions; their tails can hurt. Thankfully, you can headbutt the front of them to hurt them.

If you pause the game at any time, you can see how many smilies you have.

The big creature in the water with the big lips will eat you, and you'll have to explore the inside of its body and find a way out, which is a rather short affair. Be careful in the digestive juices; they will sap your health away.

You'll eventually be in the sewers. You'll have to make your way upwards to get out, but if you get to the right of the pipes that bring you down here, you can get your hands on a blue heart. This is a health extension that increases your maximum health by one. The maximum amount of hearts you can have is six.

The woman with the long nails is very large, but is easily defeated.

Round 2-2

There is a giant fish in the aquarium where you start; you can headbutt it from underneath to defeat it.

If you can keep an enemy in the air long enough, you'll get 200 points per hits for a while before you eventually stop getting points.

If you can get your hands on a flower, you can use it to go to places you couldn't normally get to and find things you could have missed, such as some smilies and a few extra lives.

Don't fall into the coffee cup; you'll get hurt. You'll have to be small to get the flower pick-up above the handle of the cup; this will help get a few lives. When you're inside the yellow cake, you can get your health refilled briefly.

The green guy carrying what looks like a fork will slowly approach you before running straight into you. You can 

The giant baby can be easily defeated much like the giant fish from earlier.

The yellow and brown striped pterodactyls will fly around before diving at you, so watch them when they are nearby.

Round 2-3

Be careful in the beginning; unless you defeat the purple guys at the beginning with anything other than an aerial headbutt, they will keep multiplying.

The hooks can be used to slide down the zip lines. You can also walk on the ziplines, too. Also, the way Bonk hangs onto the hooks with his teeth looks really painful.

The guys with the helicopter heads can be easily defeated with an aerial headbutt.

Yes, those are eggshell heads with towels on their head in hot tubs throwing microphones at you.

Some of the elevators are fake and just fly into the air like a space rocket when you approach them. The one at the very end is the only one that does not do this.

The blue triceratops takes two aerial headbutts to defeat. Just don't hit the horns.

The boss here is a giant stone statue. You'll need to hit the crown repeatedly with multiple aerial headbutts, and unless you're dead center on the crown, you'll keep taking damage. If you lose all your health, press Button 1 to revive yourself when you fall to the ground.

Round 3-1

Here, we're in the jungle where plants will want to eat us. We've seen them before in Round 2-1, and you'll see one again here. Again, try not to get eaten.

The guys with the spears move back and forth. Hit them from above.

You'll also be doing a lot of climbing around on trees here. Take your time and look around to find everything that you can.

Round 3-2

During this round, the sky will go from day to night. During the first night transition, you'll see the moon split apart and reveal King Drool III's underground moon fortress underneath the top half, which flies away. Yep, King Drool has part of the moon again, and we've gotta get it back.

The pterodactyls and their babies are back in this round.

The stag beetle blocking the underground path is invincible. Just open the path leading underground and stay away from him.

Getting big and going all the way to the left after going all the way down leads to a 1-Up.

Round 3-3

Watch out for the rocks. You'll need to ride on top of one to avoid some spikes.

The sand dollar-looking enemies just jump up and down. An aerial headbutt will take care of them.

Be sure to look around near the end of this section; you'll find two bonus areas this way.

The mummy dinosaurs can be killed off, but the zombie dinosaurs keep coming bac no matter how hard you try.

The boss is a big orange pterodactyl robot. You'll need to repeatedly hit the head with aerial headbutt without hitting the horn on the back of the head itself to take it down.

Round 4-1

In this area, there will be quite a few volcanoes around here. Be ready to jump from platform to platform and also ride on rock platforms just above the lava that rocket upwards to take you to higher areas.

Watch out for the lava waterfalls; lava will fall from them at regular intervals, and they will hurt if you touch any of it. Watch out for the droplets, too.

Round 4-2

In this stage, you'll be jumping your way up a mountain. When you reach the more blue parts of the area, you'll be sliding around due to the ice physics, and you'll also have to deal with enemies that throw snowballs at you and take two hits to kill.

Round 4-3

And the ice physics continue!

Once again, the fish that eats you and forces you to go through its body appears again here.

There are multiple paths through here, and you'll want to take them all in order to get everything. You may have to either turn tiny or get squished and turned into the crab form in order to go through the more narrow areas. 

If you can get the flower that allows you to fly and take it all the way back above the start of the stage, you can get four smilies and two extra lives. 

None of the red flowers near the end contain anything; they all turn into enemies when jumped on.

The boss is a mollusk. It will advance just enough if you are close enough to it while in mid-air so you can hit it with an aerial headbutt. There are spikes on the right side, but if you're patient and you know how to move around, they won't be much of a problem.

Round 5-1

This is a rather fun area. While you could just walk around at ground level, you can also walk on the roofs of the buildings (which will convince you that YOU LOVE BONK 3) and you can also drop down where the subway stations are to enter the subway tunnels (just hold Down on the grey platforms above the pits). Jumping on the subway car will make it move around. You can also hit the sewer pipes with an aerial headbutt to enter the sewers, where you can swim around for some secrets. Wherever you go, you can find a ton of secrets and a ton of useful items. Make sure you explore this area thoroughly, even if that means having to time your jumps on the springy flowers in the sky above.

Have I ever mentioned that I love this level? Because I kinda do.

Round 5-2

Here, you'll be on a lot of gray platforms that make up the many bridges of this level while the volcanoes in the background erupt. If there is a thicker border of dark gray on any parts of the bridges, those parts of the bridges will act as trap doors if you stand on them for a second. Keep that in mind while moving around to grab all the pick-ups that you can.

There is plenty of meat that you can grab in this level to stay invincible as you explore this place and grab everything that you can. Just watch out for the lava at the bottom and you'll be fine.

Round 5-3

The extra life at the beginning of this level is the hardest one to get in the game, as you have to leap onto the flowers and then get past the block that splits in two when you stand on it. Still worth getting, too.

After climbing on trees on top of bones that act as spikes, you'll see a bunch of waterfalls. Watch out for the dragonflies as well as the rolling enemies that they drop.

The boss is a turtle tank. It will send enemies at you, then it will expose its head - which you have tp hit - as it moves back and forth for a little while before hiding its head and sending enemies at you again.

The jellyfish just follow you, but the crabs stay to the ground and jump at you. The squids will float downwards and jump at you, while the octopi will home in on you.

Round 6-1

For some reason, some of the bosses from Bonk's Revenge show up here as normal enemies who are a fraction of their original size. This includes the Round 2 boss (with its petrifying beams), the Round 4 boss (the ice skating enemy) and the final round mini-boss (the gold armored guy with the giant rocket fists).

There is a health extension in this level. While you can explore and find a way to jump from tree too tree to get to it, the ability to fly in one of the underground tunnels here makes it easier.

Round 6-2

Not only is this a maze, but a maze full of ice physics. This means that you'll have the usual problems of losing control on ice slopes, sliding upwards and unable to control yourself until you go back down and face the opposite direction. Also, the snowball-throwing enemies will be as annoying as ever.

If you know where to look, you can find a health extension. You'll have to be tiny to get it, but it is worth it.

Round 6-3

You'll be going in all sorts of directions with this level, as there are plenty of those green guys who will steal your smilies and those pterodactyl enemies flying around everywhere. Also, there are plenty of cloud platforms to bounce on that have plenty of candies and smilies.

Just below the beginning of the level, you can find a health extension and a flight flower. This flight flower will make it easier to get to the exit.

The red dinosaurs with the big heads are back, and they take two aerial headbutts to kill.

The boss here is a giant mechanical crab. You'll need to keep hitting the center of the robot crab with aerial headbutts, and you'll want to land dead center on it to avoid taking damage. If you land on the floor, get off of it; it is quicksand and the spikes below hurt. Once you beat this boss, it's on to King Drool III's undersea fortress for the final level.

Boss Rush

There is a Springy Flower bonus area in the lower-right corner of the stage. There is also a pipe that you need to break to get to the elevators, as well as a big heart in the top center. The big heart and the bonus flower replenish with every boss that you fight.

As for the elevators, they all lead to one of the first four bosses in the game. I save the first one, which leads to the first and easiest boss and is located in the lower-left corner, for last. Same strategies apply.

Final - 1

Once you beat the fourth boss, you'll be platforming in one big castle hallway while avoiding lava and lava waterfalls. There is a top path and a bottom path, and both path are worth exploring to find everything.

Final - 2

This area starts out with an icy floor, but as you go through, you'll be going through what looks like a giant sized house. There are several rooms here, such as a kitchen (with balls of lava jumping in and out of the stove), a bathroom (with dangerous water droplets coming from the shower head) and a bedroom, and some large enemies such as the giant baby and the purple dinosaur woman with the large fingernails return. There are two flowers in this level that will allow you to fly. You'll be in the sewers near the end; once you swim through this section, you'll be in the final level.

Final - 3

Once you dig your way down from the start, you can grab a hidden blue candy to make your way up. From here, you can climb on the yellow columns, or you can use the flight flower to keep going up and to the right to avoid much of the enemies in this stage. While you can climb the walls to make your way to the upper-right, the flight flower is the best way to do it, as it can help you get a few extra lives and one last health extension if you need it.

When you make it to the elevator in the upper-right, you'll face King Drool III. For the first part, you'll need to hit the center of his crown with aerial attacks, and you'll want to be dead center while doing this. King Drool will eventually shrink and fly back and forth. Hit him with aerial headbutts as he moves back and forth, and be careful that you hit him dead center so you don't take damage.

When King Drool gets super tiny, you'll have to be on the mark to hit him with an aerial headbutt. After a few aerial headbutts, King Drool will get giant. Hit him dead center in the crown with aerial headbutts until he turns to normal size. This starts the attack process over, and you'll have to go through it a second time. Once you do that, though, you'll beat King Drool III again and return one-half of the mon to where it belongs. You've beaten Bonk III!