Wow... this is WAY better than the first Monster World game... For one thing, money isn't limited anymore so you can actually save up and buy all the best equipment in the game. The exploration is similar to the first game, but it's somewhat easier to backtrack and see what all the different paths lead to now.
I started playing the Turbographx-16 port of this game, which seems like the definitive version since it has save files. (EDIT: This is no longer the case, the definitive version is now the HD remake on Steam/Switch)
It starts right from where Wonder Boy in Monster Land left off... In fact the first part of the game is kind of a redo of the final part of the previous game.. after killing the Meka Dragon, Wonder Boy gets cursed and turns into a Dragon. Then you escape the castle and enter the town where the real game begins...
I played all the way through up until I defeated the 2nd boss and transformed into the "Mouse-Man" form... I can now walk along certain walls and ceilings and get through small passages that I couldn't before...
After exploring some more the game presented me with an easy shortcut back to the beginning town... This is telling me that the game doesn't have points of no return like Monster World 1 did, and that I'll be able to go back and buy the really expensive equipment eventually... stopped there for now.
Also I just found out what the "CP" points are... Charisma points... collecting red stones and equipping certain armor gives you more CP and lets you purchase the more valuable shop items...
After getting the mouse form from the mummy dragon in the desert world, I noticed a couple new paths from the town are now opened up... there's the upper part of the tall building, that leads to the desert/pyramid, which just has a shop with a bunch of expensive items that I don't have enough charm for... and then there's the path to the west of town... That way leads to the forest. it's a long easy path (made even easier when you have the boomerang, an item you can use infinitely as long as you re-catch it), and then a long mouse climbing section with slightly harder enemies... then you get to the zombie dragon, and beating him gets you the Piranha-Man form.
With this form, you can swim in the water instead of just walking slowly. There's an underwater section in the desert with some extra stuff to find... and then there's the water/island section to the east of town which I explored before as the dragon to find the key to the desert tower... a bunch more stuff here that I need to come back for later... I'm a lot more powered up, but now where do I go from here? Oh yeah, there's that path to the east of the desert, which I was way too weak for when I was the dragon...
Now I can get through this rocky lava pit area easily... found a shop with a "Dragon Armor" which is weaker than my current armor, but it protects you from lava, which is needed to make further progress... then I got to the first "Form-switching room" in the game. I switched to the mouse in order to get up to a treasure containing a sword powerup... not equipment, but an actual ability that lets you destroy the breakable blocks... great I totally forgot where those are.
Back at town, I found there's an easy access form-switching room you get get to by breaking a block... explored some more to find some more shops/treasure, and then eventually found a new path in the island beach area leading to a sunken ship level... this place was very easy with all the new armor I've got.. then I killed the very easy pirate dragon boss, and got the Tiger-Man form.
The very obvious new path that is opened with Tiger-Man is some breakable blocks you can only hit with the Tiger's vertical sword swing, which goes to a path below the town with another shop, some stuff I need to come back with the mouse form for, and a long tunnel leading to an old style Japanese manor in the forest. This series of hallways inside the house is the longest and toughest part of the game yet... it's not too bad if I have a boomerang with me, but without that I get destroyed by the blue samurai enemies and ninjas... I had my first death of the game on the way through this area...
Made it to the 2nd last boss in the game, the samurai dragon... this one is actually really hard! You have pathetic horizontal attack range in the Tiger-Man form, and the samurai dragon always hits me whenever I try to go into attack... so I'm guessing I have to really quickly go to attack it just before it does its projectile attack? Died against this boss without even getting a hit in.
A theme I'm noticing with this game is VERY long repetitive corridors... I guess they're supposed to be like the linear stages of the normal Wonder Boy. By the time you're at these linear parts, you pretty much already know where to go and you just have to deal with the "action" part of the game to finish that "world" consisting of several "stages" and get to the boss... it's a pretty clever way of blending the classic Wonder Boy gameplay with the nonlinear metroid style gameplay...
1/23/2016
I had to resort to a guide to figure out the strategy to beat that samurai dragon boss... also I only had 4 hearts at this point, and was supposed to have 6... one of them was the really easy one to find, right near the town with the tiger.. I guess I just forgot to save or something after I picked it up the first time? The other one was a bit further right near that sunken ship level.
Also used a guide to figure out how to get the Mouse-Man-only thing in that area that looked like you could only go with the tiger... didn't realize there was a mouse wall you could use to break a golden block while facing down towards the ground. This lead to a new sword item which enables you to create golden blocks out of specific backgrounds that only show up in this area and one area near the end.
Now I've got the Bird-Man transformation, and pretty much the whole game is open to me now... I quickly went back across the islands, desert, lava, and forest regions with the bird as far as I could go, to confirm there was nothing else left in those areas to get... and then I found 2 new shops with items I need more money for... by this point I have enough CP to buy every item in every shop, it's just money I need...
How the hell will I get enough money to buy the rest of the shop items? I guess maybe just grind the enemies in the castle? The Bird-Man is the weakest form it seems like, so I'll probably be needing the stat boosts...
At the upper-left of the town in the skies, there's a door surrounded by gold blocks, and inside is just a room full of tiles where you can use that new sword to create gold blocks. not sure what to do there... the path to the upper-right of town which I couldn't go before, is the only other path I can see is made available. It leads to the castle that I started at in the beginning of the game (and end of the last MW game)... I wandered around in there for a bit and found a the best armor and weapon in the game...
hmm, so technically I don't need to buy the rest of the shop items... I probably will anyway though...
oh wait, just found out in the guide that you can go back to the room where you got the legendary sword, and there will be a ton of money there now! I easily have enough to buy the 2 best shields.. now I just need the stuff in that mouse shop.
First attempt at trying to beat the final stage... It has a section for each of the 4 forms.. and actually gets ridiculously hard by the time you're on the tiger form... also all of these room exits are one-way only, so there's no way to respawn the enemies to grind for hearts and stuff... the bird form's part isn't that bad, but then you have to fight the Vampire Dragon... he has a 2nd face on his stomach, and he flies back and forth around the room shooting fireballs in an unrecognizable pattern...
This final boss is tough... I lost to him even with 2 potions and the Hades armor.
okay so the guide says you have to hit this dragon in his stomach-head.. not his main head.
2nd attempt at fighting the final boss... Got through the last level much more easily this time, after stocking up on all the weapons and potions. Now that I know what to expect I barely had any trouble at all...
The Vampire Dragon was still a pain though... I used the strategy of just staying on the ground, following the dragon and trying to jump slash his stomach whenever he lowered to the ground... whenever I got hit it would usually bounce me around a lot before letting me gain control again. I just barely managed to beat him after using up my last potion...
(oh yeah, and it seems you can't get the Hades armor again after you've lost it... but apparently once you've died with the Hades armor on, the regenerative property of it is set to whichever armor you're using... I dunno, fortunately it never came to that so I'll never find out)
The only other piece of equipment I was missing was one of the swords... in a hidden shop somewhere on the Daimyo dragon path that I've never been to. but it's close enough that I can consider this game 100% completed.
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