Part nostalgia-bomb, part note-taking and part FAQ, what started in GameTrailers as a video game blog is now on Blogger. This blog is a look back at video games, both popular and obscure, from the video game industry's infancy all the way to the previous console generation.
Now to see what the Mayor knows about the Five Scrolls...
When you go to the inn, remember that the more money you have, the more you'll be able to heal up.
Now that you've rescued the dog, go back to the mayor's house. He'll tell you about a man near the exits to the forest, and tells you to go to him for more information about the Five Scrolls, since the mayor doesn't really know much about them after all.
Go to the center exit to the forest and you'll meet the man in the stocks. He'll thank you for saving his dog, and ask you to bring some bread and water. Thankfully, you can find some bread in the bakery. As for the water, press Square at the well next to the church. (If you bring him one item but not the other, you'll hear his thoughts if you talk to him.)
Once you have both items, talk to the man in the stocks again. He'll tell you his name is Jon, and that he's a treasure hunter. Musashi comes to the conclusion that he's a thief, but Jon tells him that he has a secret...but only if he sets him free. You'll have to find the key first, but he tells you that the key is hidden in a grave in Meandering Forest. There's a spell cast on Meandering Forest, so he tells you to take his dog Leno - the dog you just saved - with you. He got lost trying to find the key before and ended up in Meandering Forest, but this time hopefully won't be a repeat. Just go in the direction he barks and don't let him get hurt so he doesn't run away.
Due to Ye Olde YouTube Limits, this is split into two parts. Here's the first one.
Here's the second one.
The door with the jar and the cone above it is the grocery. Here, you can buy healing items that can replenish your HP as well as cure status ailments.
The door with the bread is the bakery. The various breads here will replenish your Bincho Points (BP). Your BP will slowly dissipate by the hour (in game time) and when it's down to zero, your health will go down. I'm guessing that Steward Ribson was right in saying that you have a temporary Bincho field surrounding you since you were summoned. Be careful with the items that are here, however, as the milk can spoil after a few days and the bread products can soon get moldy. When that happens, these items become far less effective to the point that they're absolutely useless.
If a door is not open, you can knock on it. During the daytime, you can knock on doors to talk to more townspeople and get some more information.
One of the homes has an awning next to the entrance as well as a weathercock on the roof. This is the mayor's house. When you talk to him, he'll figure out who you are pretty quickly. He'll ask you to find the neighborhood dog, and if you bring him back, you'll be made a citizen of the town and you'll get some information on the Five Scrolls. Accept the task. You'll find out the dog is in Twinpeak Mountain, but access is forbidden and even he can't let you in.
Leading out of the village is a series of entrances to the Somnolent Forest. One of the paths lead to a short area. The green soldier carries a spear, the little white lump of an enemy tries to eat you and the ghosts will try to shrink you down to fun size (if they aren't teleporting somewhere nearby when they see you, that is). The Bincho Field that you'll find here will have your first rescuee: Guard Lumpwood, who returns to the entrance to Twinpeak Mountain to guard it. If you talk to him there, he'll let you pass through to Twinpeak. (Before you find him, Macho will be guarding it and will then head home at 20:00, leaving the path unguarded and giving you the earliest opportunity to sneak over there.
Whenever you free somebody from a Bincho Field, your max BP will increase by 5 points. These will definitely add up over time, so it's best to free everybody.
There are four stats in the game, and these stats increase as you play through the game. They are as follows:
Body: Musashi's strength. This increases as you defeat enemies.
Mind: Reduces the amount of damage you take from enemies. This increases as you run around throughout the game, so this is obviously the easiest stat to increase.
Fusion (Fus): Fusion's attack power. This increases as you attack with Fusion.
Lumina (Lum): Lumina's attack power. This increases as you attack with Lumina.
There is a limit to the amount of levels you can power up to in every chapter, and once you reach it, you won't be able to level up anymore until you beat the current chapter. When you reach the last chapter, you'll be able to reach the maximum level of 30.
Head back up to the gondola and talk to Guard Lumpwood. You'll be able to enter Twinpeak Mountain.
When you enter, you'll get some pretty epic music and the sound of a waterfall. When you see the sign, go left. Break the Bincho Field you see to free Soldier Lardwick. He'll ask you to free his brother, Knight Lardwick, who is located somewhere else on the mountain.
You'll see the dog on a small island, but a white blob with teeth blocks your path. Find one of those ghost enemies and assimilate his powers to get Shrink. Use it on this blob, then walk on it to flatten him and get it out of the way. Thankfully, it doesn't re-spawn once you beat it.
To rescue the dog, hold the Control Pad towards the dog and press Square or Triangle to pick him up. You'll have to throw the dog over the river in order to keep the dog from getting wet and respawning back at the island. You can't fight enemies while you're carrying him. If he falls into the river, he'll return to the island where the bone is and start chewing on the bone again.
Once you head back to the gondola area, the dog will instantly head back to the village. Mission accomplished!
For the third part of the boss battle, stay away from the Steam Knight's shadow when the Steam Knight jumps around so you don't get squashed. Whenever its Bincho Crystal is exposed, strike the crystal. You'll still be avoiding the ball and chain attacks from the first two rounds. Use Lumina to do more damage per strike.
When you beat the Steam Knight this time, it'll be for good. The ball from the ball and chain will come off, and after the Steam Knight is thrown through the town wall, Musashi will crush the steam knight with the ball to destroy it once and for all. Musashi then falls asleep as he wonders where Rootrick took Princess Filet.
Chapter 2: A New Journey
Musashi then wakes up in a guest room in Allucaneet Castle. Steward Ribson and Butler Livers. You'll obviously have to find the Princess to go back home, but you'll also have to take down the Thirstquencher Empire as they want Lumina. Once it absorbs the Scrolls of Earth, Fire, Water, Wind and Sky, the bearer of the sword will have extraordinary powers.
You'll then find out Seer Bevealy, the only person who knows where the Five Scrolls are, was kidnapped along with everyone else in the castle and sealed in green Bincho Fields. These Fields can only be broken with Lumina.
You'll then receive the Rescue List, which shows all the people you have to rescue. You'll also receive the Sensor Watch. In case you're near a Bincho Field, the circle around Lumina will glow red.
You'll learn that Grillin' Village is at the foot of the castle. You'll also find out that the guest room can be used as a free inn, just in case. You'll also have to head to the library to meet Scribe Shanky, who can read any info you might be interested in having.
The info in Scribe Shanky's books will tell you about the Legend of Musashi, Binchotite, the Allucaneet Kingdom, the Thirstquencher Empire, and...Shogi? I guess that will come in handy later.
Scribe Shanky will tell you the gondola is out, so you'll have to glide along the zip line with Fusion and Lumina.
When you head to the village, you'll get an interesting cutscene of Musashi zipping down to Grillin' Village.
Now that the main game has finally begun, you'll notice the day and time under the money and ability that you have. There are day and night cycles in the game, and as time passes, it'll transition from morning to afternoon to evening to night as you play. Since you're in a simple village, the stores are obviously going to close in the later hours. The time cycles are not real-time, as they pass every few seconds in fifteen minute intervals.
If a store has closed, you can always press O on the door to see what the hours are. They all have different hours, and some stores will be closed on different days.
The seven days are Skyday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
If you need to move the camera around in the overhead view, use L2 and R2.
There are signs for all of these stores located above the entrance that shows what services they provide. The bed indicates the inn. Unlike the other shops in town, the inn will always be open even in the middle of the night if you need to heal.
Now that Spiral Tower has risen from some sort of body of water, let's go up it!
Now that Spiral Tower has risen from the water, it's time to go up the tower. Hug the tower wall and keep heading to the right, and avoid the rolling wheels that come down the hill to squash you. They'll alternate from one side of the spiral pathway to the other, and even though the camera pans upward as you run up the path, you'll still be able to dodge them without a hitch.
You'll eventually find the entrance to the tower at the top. Go in.
When you enter the tower, you'll get another hint: "When the Guardian Flame is blanketed with darkness, a light will lead you above." To do this, climb up the spiral path. You'll eventually see a bell above a flame, and Musashi will get the idea of covering the fire with the bell to put it out.
Aside from the soldiers, you'll also see bats fly at you in groups of three. When they come at you, strike them with your sword. They leave plenty of power-ups, especially money that you'll really need.
Use the Gunshot ability to shoot at the rope near the door at the top. To do that, just face the rope and press Circle to use Gunshot. This will cause the bell to drop onto the flame, and cause light to flood the inside of the tower. The doors that were blocking your path earlier will now open for you. Step into the light, and you'll be teleported to the top of the tower.
Now that you're at the top, all you have to do now is to get Lumina. There's just one problem: that stone head that you had to deal with earlier is here at the top of the tower, and this time the jewel on its forehead has formed a barrier that protects Lumina. Meanwhile, a whole bunch of red soldiers with swords are pouring out of the doors.
There is a plate in front of Lumina, and if you stand on it, the barrier surrounding Lumina will disappear. Of course, when you step off, the barrier is reformed. You'll have to get one of the enemies to do the work. To do that, hold R1 and press Square when you're facing one of the red soldiers. When the sword latches on, keep mashing the Square button to get the Stun ability. Stun one of the soldiers, then move them onto the plate and get Lumina before the soldier you stunned comes to. Lumina is now yours.
Of course, when you do that, the stone head will have a mind of its own and shoot its eye beams at the platform leading to Lumina, blowing all the soldiers away in the process and causing Musashi to fall. This causes the stone head to topple down the side of the tower, causing Musashi to run down the side of the tower away from it. Jump when Musashi gives you the prompt to do so, and you'll be back at the bottom of the tower...but the stone head will still roll towards you!
At this point, dodge any boulders that are in your way, and jump over the pillars in the ground when you see them. Don't worry about the soldiers, as they'll try in vain to run faster than you when they see the stone head coming their way. Near the end, you'll get one last prompt from Musashi to jump. Do it so you can clear the stream. At the end, you'll reach a doorway in a wall that the stone head can't break through. You'll be back at Allucaneet (pronounced "All you can eat") Castle.
When you enter the castle, you'll find Princess Fillet...but a man in an iron mask is holding her hostage! This is Rootrick, and he wants Lumina in exchange for the Princess. Musashi isn't going for this, and when he advances towards Rootrick, a flame trap drops from the ceiling, surrounding Musashi with flames. The Princess tells you to use Lumina. This leads to a tutorial on Lumina Rotation.
To use Lumina Rotation, hold R1 until the gauge on the lower-left is full. Keep R1 held down after this and press Triangle, which is the button you'll be pressing to use Lumina. This will cause Musashi to spin around with Lumina in front of his, taking out anything or anyone near him. If this attack reminds you of the spinning sword attack from the Zelda games, give yourself a pat on the back because I'm pretty sure this is what it's lifted from.
By performing the Lumina Rotation, Musashi is able to extinguish the flames, but Rootrick knocks Princess Fillet out and teleports away with her. You'll then fight your first boss of the game: the Steam Knight, which stomps through the roof of the throne room and lands a couple of yards away from Musashi.
Thirstquencher Empire
Steam Knight
You may remember this as the Easy Mode mission on the demo version for this game.
When you fight the Steam Knight, you'll see arrows pointing at the legs of the Steam Knight. Wait for the steam to stop coming out of the legs, then pound on the legs with Fusion. When the steam stops shooting out, however, you'll have to deal with the ball and chain that the Steam Knight swings at you, which homes in on your current position at the time it throws it out. Stay on the move and this won't hurt you.
Sometimes, you'll see chandeliers come down during the battle as the Steam Knight attacks with the ball and chain. Stay away from them so they don't fall on you.
If you need to, press the Triangle button to swing Lumina and do some more damage. Unlike Fusion, a short, thin blade that has fast strikes and can lead to combos that do wicked amounts of damage, Lumina is a large sword that just does one vertical strike and has no opportunities for combos. However, since you can perform Lumina Rotation to deal even more damage (and on multiple nearby enemies, at that), the sword's not all bad, so using both swords is essential for beating the Steam Knight as well as the entire game.
As you do damage to the legs, the legs will show wear and tear. When you complete destroy one of the legs, the Steam Knight will then be temporarily stunned. Tear off the flag underneath the torso by attacking it, and you'll expose the Bincho Crystal in its core. While it's exposed, attack it repeatedly with Lumina until the Steam Knight gets back up. This will cause the Steam Knight's life bar to go down. From here, you'll have to use the same strategies of waiting for the steam to subside and avoiding the ball and chain before attacking the other leg. Remember that the steam will damage you and knock you into the air if you run into it.
The Steam Knight can also shoot out fire that can turn into a flame ring when it hits the ground around you, similar to the one you extinguished when you confronted Rootrick. Like last time, use Lumina Rotation to put it out. You'll have to be faster than last time, though, as the ring of flames will soon try to converge on you and damage you if you can't perform it in time.
When the Steam Knight's life bar is emptied, it will be knocked to the other end of the throne room, unable to move. Go up to the center of the Steam Knight (where you attacked the Bincho Crystal) and pick it up with the Square button. Press Square again to toss the Steam Knight through the wall. This starts the second part of the fight.
Stay away from the Steam Knight after you throw it into the wall, as it will crush you while turning around and exposing its other two legs. From here, you'll be using the same strategies to fight the Steam Knight once again, but this time you have the additional dangers of falling pillars, as the Steam Knight will attack them with its ball and chain, causing the pillars to come down and potentially squash you if you're under them before they land. The Steam Knight can also grab them and throw them at you, but the Steam Knight lifts it up for a moment before tossing it, giving you enough time to run to the other side of the path to avoid them.
When you destroy the other two legs, you'll be able to toss the Steam Knight the same way you tossed it out of the throne room.
This RPG doesn't get enough love. That's too bad, really.
The game begins with Princess Fillet, Steward Ribson and Butler Livers. escaping deep into the castle to the Binchotite Crystal, which is larger than usual. Alchemist Leanman tells the Princess she must perform "Hero Summon." Scribe Shanky is also there, waiting to meet Brave Fencer Musashi.
The Princess successfully casts the spell, and everyone is disappointed that Musashi is not who they expected him to be. Musashi is asked to go to Spiral Tower to get Lumina before the enemy does. Musashi gets a samurai's blade known as Fusion. When it pierces an enemy, it absorbs and assimilates an enemy's power. You'll also get Lumina's sheath, which you'll need for Lumina.
Chapter 1: The Journey Begins
The controls are pretty simple. Press X to jump and Square to swing Fusion. If you hit an enemy, keep mashing Square and you'll be able to perform a four hit combo with it. Sometimes you can stun enemies, too. If you press Square while you're right on top of an enemy while it's stunned, you can pick them up and carry them around. Press Square again to throw the enemy forwards. Any enemies in the trajectory of the throw will also be bowled over.
As you fight enemies, you'll be able to pick up items. Coins will give you money, which are known as Drans in game. The larger the coin, the more it's worth. Hearts will restore some of your health, while the translucent yellow spheres will refill your Bincho Points, or BP. This is used for the abilities that you absorb from enemies with Fusion.
Your path will be blocked by three rocks. Move into the center rock and use the Control Pad to push it out of the way.
Watch out with some of the traps that the enemy soldiers have. Jump over the column lying on the ground that the three soldier push towards you, and keep going forward when the soldiers push the columns to your right down in an attempt to flatten you when you're near the end.
You'll come across a stream that's too wide to jump over. You'll soon learn the Assimilate ability at this point. To use it, hold R1 until the speed gauge at the lower-left corner of the screen is full, and press Square when you're facing the enemy you want to assimilate the ability of. Keep tapping Square repeatedly after the sword makes its mark, and you'll soon get the ability when the lower-left gauge is run. Here, you'll practice this against a blue soldier, who gives you the Gunshot ability when you assimilate him. Use Gunshot to hit the logs at the other end of the stream, and you'll knock the logs down to form a bridge. Strike the statue that blocks your path soon afterward with your sword to get rid of it.
You'll soon be at Spiral Tower, but there's no tower. Destroy the four statues surrounding the perimeter, and avoid being shot at by the rotating statue in the center. When you destroy a statue, a floor switch will be uncovered. Step on all four of them to make Spiral Tower rise up.
Yes, you can destroy the statuettes in the background. It takes a bit of doing, but it can be done.
You'll meet the small white robots here again. When you reach the end of the stage, you'll meet up with two robots...one is the gold one you've been seeing throughout the game, while the second one is a crimson recolor of the gold one.
This section isn't very long at all, as you'll fight the bosses soon afterwards. You'll see Benglar, but he'll run away and leave you with two bodyguards of his. They look like the first boss, but they have an even more robotic appearance to them. One is blue, the other is gold.
If these guys aren't jumping around and trying to punch you, they'll usually try to surround you at any given time. Comboing into your blaster power-up is a must here, since the chances are about 50-50 that they'll block your regular combo attack. They also have a nasty slide attack that can not only take you off guard but also works as an embarrassing way of taking your blaster power all the way down if you get hit while it's less than full. If you can stay at one side of the screen and fend these two guys off, you'll have a much easier time as they won't be able to get behind you.
Stage 7
Apparently the red and blue guys also have a white-clad cousin. At least he looks interesting, since he almost blends into the snow and looks like one of those guys from the Battle of Hoth.
You'll also meet a white version of the robot. Nothing much interesting here, except you have two motorcycles you can throw at it to make destroying it easier. By this point, you'll see missiles falling from the sky...again. It won't be long until you come across another base, where you'll fight off some more robots as well as more big guys.
In the next section, you'll meet a new enemy: some red-headed alien people in yellow spandex. As you fight them, they'll turn a bright white, which keeps you from putting them in a throw attack. They'll try to knee you and rush straight at you with a sliding kick.
You'll then fight four robots at once afterwards. Throw one into the other for your best bet at survival. If you can somehow get them to accidentally destroy one another with their lasers, that's great.
After taking down the four robots, you'll be making your way onto a freight elevator, where you'll be fighting enemies on your way through the horizontal shaft. You'll then be making your way towards another elevator, where you'll face some more enemies (including a few purple-jumpsuited aliens) and a big ugly green guy in a mechanical onesie who serves as the next boss.
He'll jump onto the roof of the escalator and bring it all the way down. If you stand under him, you'll be primed to get the first strike on the guy. He has a two-punches-followed-by-a-lunging low kick combo, an extending arm, and a nasty standing low spin kick. If you can fill up your blaster, do that and use it on everyone on screen. The more damage you can do on this guy at any possible time, the better. Of course, if he's blocking a lot of your attacks, don't be afraid to combo into your blaster.
Your air attacks will work quite well here, as well, since he'll try to move and/or jump towards you.
He sends a lot of henchmen after you, including the robots and the aliens. Throw people into him, combo into your blaster, use your full screen attack...whatever you can. Because this guy's nuts.
Final Stage
Go to the right at the beginning, because you can't go left unless you want harder enemies. Derp. Beat everyone up and you'll go to the next section.
At the end of the second section, you'll fight four big guys at the same time. If you stay at the right side of the screen here and combo into your blaster, you shouldn't have a hard time at all.
The third section is a control center with a jet in the background. After fighting a bunch of enemies, you'll fight two burly guys and two large robots. Take down the large robots first by throwing the burly guys into the robots.
After beating those guys up, you'll be doing some more fighting before you fight another clone of the Stage 1 boss.
Once you finish him off, you'll be in the next section...and so will Benglar! He'll run away again, so go towards the crate and destroy it for a full power-up. You'd better take it before you destroy the last normal enemy, otherwise you won't be able to have access to it.
The boss battle is Benglar. He'll be in some sort of battle mechanism in the forthcoming elevator. Throw the enemies into him, and watch out for the lasers that come out of the ceiling panels next to him. There are three on each side, and you can easily tell where the lasers are coming from. It's always center, right, left. After three laser attacks, all six lasers will fire at the same time, so either stay right under him or walk all the way to the nearest wall before they all fire!
When you knock Banglar off of that machine, you did it! Enjoy the ending, which I'd rather not spoil for you!
