Wonder Boy in Monster Land playthrough log

Starting playing this while high... first read through the manual... it shows a drawn world map and names all the areas..
- Rack up points to get extra heart containers...
- an hourglass timer starts to remove health if it runs out...
- pause has Zelda-style status screen.. has slots for the hint items "Scroll to Catherine" and a "Letter to Betty" that you can find
- Guantlet and Helmet are like Link's Awakening powerups.. Wing Boots are like the Kid Icarus wings, guessing potion works like fairies..
- Flute, Star Charm, Hero's Emblem, Bell, and Ruby I don't know, the manual is very vague on what those do
- Shops become harder to find later in the game, and some shops become traps, some are even invisible to hide from the villains
- Boot upgrades allow faster running and higher jumping
- Some bosses have sword upgrades instead of the level exit
- Taverns flip the hourglass over to give you more time if you're running out... and something happens if you have 2 drinks apparently?

Playthrough attempt #1
Round 2.. found a guy hidden in the wall who tells me that the Emblem is needed to defeat the dragon... and he tells me to give a letter to Catherine in Boroboro.. that hint shows up as a reminder in the pause screen

wait really...? I died at round 4? the enemies there get kind of fast and hard to hit... your sword has very weak range.. and items/upgrades are expensive given what little money you are able to get (money doesn't respawn but enemies do)... I guess that was 1/3rd of the game?

Playthrough attempt #2
oh man, this game got REALLY frustrating near the end. The 2nd half started having a lot more one-way paths where you could miss out on lots of money if you fall too early. I started using a guide just to make sure I wasn't missing out on the trading quest stuff at least.

Level 9-11 was where the difficulty started getting ridiculous. It's a good thing I had found all the sword powerups and got the 3rd best of each equipment. I managed to buy the best shield somewhere around here, and happened to find the 2nd best boots from a random drop...

The last level was just a straight up maze with tons of enemies.. thanks to a guide I knew there were no more shops, but in the last level I managed to buy the best shield in the game.. so now I have the best everything except boots.

Before this maze level started, there was a guy that let you take either the ruby or the bell. The ruby makes the final boss easier, but the bell makes the maze easier by ringing when you are headed the right way. I took the bell... the only thing really hard/frustrating about this maze was this one part where I had to jump up a vertical shaft on rising/falling platforms for several screens, and because of the input lag issue with this game it was very easy to fall and have to start all over from the beginning of the maze again.

Here's where I said fuck it and put a save state. The timer makes it so you eventually die if you take to long and don't find any hearts, and you only get 1 life for the whole game... if it weren't for that input lag issue at this one part it'd be totally reasonable to beat this legit with enough patience... but that issue just put me over the edge and forced me to use savestates... oh well.

Now I got to the dragon boss.. this guy is much harder than all the other bosses in the game. Theoretically you just have to do the same thing over and over to dodge his fireball pattern and get a couple hits on his head.. but the slippery physics cause me to get hit and take damage over time... the 2nd phase caused me problems but I managed to beat it on like the 3rd or 4th try, with a save state right before the boss door, and I had all my hearts and a potion going into it.