The 3rd game in the Monster World series, and the 5th game in the Wonder Boy series... This starts off very similar to Wonder Boy in Monster Land. It's the same starting area with the tree stump houses and everything... there's an old man in the first house that tells you about the town up ahead that is being attacked... you can buy faster boots at a shop... like in the 2nd Monster World game, the monsters give infinite money if you just keep respawning them, and in this game they respawn much faster so it takes no time at all to buy everything in every shop that you come across.
The next screen has a castle wall with the door blocked by guards... passed that is the familiar water platforming section... then you get to the first town which has mushroom monsters roaming around everywhere and all the villagers are hiding in their houses. The girls of this village all seem to have fairy wings, and one of them tells you to press UP in between the two fairy statues to go to where the fairy queen character is...
The fairy gives you a helper fairy named Priscilla, but you can only use it as long as you stay in this village. It doesn't seem to do much except sometimes make hearts appear when you kill enemies... One of the villagers says that the cave where the monsters come from have doors that are sealed by music, and she lost the ocarina in that cave... you can find it easily as soon as you go in there... then you bring the ocarina back to that person and she teaches you 3 songs that you have to memorize in order to open up all of the cave doors.
At the end of the cave is the first boss, a giant mushroom monster who jumps around and spawns little mushroom monsters.. it was really hard, because he jumps right on you and your current boots aren't fast enough to dodge him usually. I barely managed to beat it using the spear after using both my elixer and potion. I don't think there was any reason to go with the weaker sword and shield for more defense instead, since the spear can kill him that much faster.
After you defeat the mushroom boss, the village becomes safe again and all the villagers now have different dialog.. if you go back to the fairy queen's place, there's now a passage opened up in a hollow tree, and that somehow leads to an underground sewer passage... this game's geography makes no sense at all but whatever...
This sewer area has jumping ball enemies and bats.. very easy to deal with, didn't even take any damage here... at one point the path splits off into a lower path and a west path... I tried west for now and that lead to a boss fight against a knight enemy who you can only damage by attacking his head. After beating him, the Princess thanks you for rescuing her and invites you to the castle. the next door leads to the bottom of a tower. There's another door in that tower that is currently locked, and the top of this tower has a door leading to the ground level of the castle area... again the geography is nonsense...
There's not much to do in this castle area except talk to the princess and the other NPCs. But after you talk to the princess, that other door inside the tower gets unlocked, and that leads outside to the main ground tower entrance.. To the east of here is a desert, and west is another village with a bunch more equipment and stuff to buy. I got a new sword that is as strong as the spear I currently have, new armor, and "Ladder Boots" that are the same speed as my current boots except I climb ladders faster...
This 2nd village has 2 west exits, an upper exit that leads back out to that castle wall from the beginning that was blocked by guards earlier, and is now free to use... and a lower west exit to a forest area, which is likely my next destination according to what the villagers are telling me. But first I want to check out what's up with that other path in the sewer... it leads to a path with some slightly tougher enemies and breakable bricks, and there's a chest with a heart container and another chest that is too high up for me to get.. and an exit to the east that leads to some snowy area where a giant glacier blocks the way forward...
10/01/2016
On the way through this forest area, there's a temple that has its door blocked off by monsters. After that there's Lilypad village. Some kid from this village was kidnapped by monsters, and the path to the right is just a very short dead-end path where you go to save that kid. That path has some kinda tough-ish monsters that are like hammer bros that move around more. I grinded here in order to by all the stuff in Lilypad's shops because it seems unlikely I'll ever need to come back here again...
The kid that you saved turns out to be a helper that you can bring along with you. He smashes the door to that temple and allows you to get inside. This place is kind of like a Zelda 2 palace... the enemies here aren't very hard but there's a lot of them and they respawn a lot. I found a hidden room with a heart container thanks to the kid that is following me... and also found a chest with an elixer. I eventually found the way to the exit, but I think there were a few other paths I could've gone, so there might still be stuff in this place that I'm missing I dunno.
Hmm... that exit just leads back outside the temple where I came in... am I missing something important here? Well, I did get that lamp that lights up areas at least...
It turns out I was missing something important there.. instead of going through the door to the exit, I went down a pit and got to a new area with arrow shooting traps everywhere.. found a chest with a hard shield, and then found a switch puzzle where I just had to brute force the solution, and that opened the way to the boss... a couple of golems on two sides of the room. This boss was very easy... they shoot projectiles that can be jumped over from the platform in the middle or blocked with your shield.. and they have a very predictable pattern of rolling a boulder in and out of their mouth. it's just a matter of going in and hitting them a couple times when the boulder goes back in their mouth.
Got the trident, which according to an NPC is the item that is needed to swim in the ocean. Also beating that boss opened a tree stump doorway in Lilypad that is a shortcut back to Purapril village, so you don't need to go all the way down that forest path ever again.
The well at Purapril Castle is connected to the sea by an underground waterway.That makes a bit of sense I guess, but I still find the geography really weird.
The NPCs in Purapril village all make it obvious that the sea is my next destination. Also that desert area east of the tower makes my health go down so I can't go there yet.
Holy cow this ocean area is huge... I'm just exploring the surface for now.. found a house on an island where some green haired woman tells me about the shrine at the bottom of the sea that you need the amulet to get into, and asks me to trade my ocarina for info on how to get the amulet... says there's a door hidden between 4 trees.
Despite how huge this ocean area is, I found both the amulet and the shrine very quickly, both at the right-most side of the area. The shrine itself is just a very easy dungeon with lots of zora-like enemies and wind currents that you have to turn off by finding a switch.. there's also an above water part where you can fight these annoying jumping enemies and find some hearts and money... I found all of the treasures in this shrine, including the Oasis Boots which are needed to survive the desert.
Then I went back to the ocean and explored around there and got a bunch more treasures... the ocean itself is more of a maze than the shrine area. I also explored that water area near the beginning of the game, which is a different part of the ocean. I think I found all of the treasures I could for now, but there were some treasures I couldn't get to. I think there are hidden doors in here somewhere but I have no idea...
also, now the 2nd weapon shop in Purapril village is open and I'm able to get the steel shield and the excalibur.
10/16/2016
The desert level is very boring... just a straight linear path with no platforming or exploration at all... snake enemies that move toward you very fast, and scorpion enemies that take 3 hits and will shoot fireballs at you if you don't attack them right away (and even then you can block the fireballs with your shield)...
Actually there was a couple side areas below ground on this linear path. The first one was just a long drop down to the bottom of a pit with bats flying around... there's nothing down here, it's just a punishment for falling. To get back up, you have to destroy all the bats which make some tiny moving platforms appear and get back up with those. The 2nd side area was a ladder going down to another underwater section. Switched to the trident and went down into the water to find the Sun key... oh and there's a door here that leads to a dead end room inside of a pyramid..
After a couple screens into the desert I get to the outside of the pyramid, which looks like it was taken straight out of SMB3... Further east of the here is just a dead end, with a cliff up above. There's a door in the middle of the pyramid that you needed the Sun key to get into.
The pyramid itself is surprisingly linear. There is literally nowhere for you to go but forward and no way to get lost. There are some ghost enemies and mummy that are taken out easily with the excalibur.. I found a treasure with the Moon key, then encountered some big shield/sword wielding mummy enemies. I just cheesed through them with fire storm because my health was getting low. then I encountered the 'boss' door... That leads to a talking sphinx, and instead of a battle it challenges you to a quiz. The first time I got here I answered all the questions incorrectly and got gameover just to see what would happen... it's not like it takes that long to get here again. The questions are all things relating to the towns, bosses, and NPCs you've encountered in the game so far.
Answering all 5 questions correctly, the sphinx lets me pass, and I get the Star key and an exit. Two more doors have appeared outside of the pyramid now, due to collecting the Moon key and Star key. The door on the right side of the pyramid is just a single room with a chest that had lightning magic... the left door leads to another path up the pyramid, and I find a warp pad that leads to the upper section of that cliff I encountered east of here.
This is just yet another linear, straight section with some easy enemies.. further right I get to the Dragon village... I went east of the village right away just to check out what's there, and there's a house with another door in it, and a dragon NPC who says I need the 4 pieces of Pygmy equipment to get through that door and into the volcano... and further right there's a tiny door I can't fit into... come to think of it there were a few tiny paths in the pyramid as well that I couldn't get through too.
I have 2 of the Pygmy items already but still need 2 more. All the shops in this dragon town are closed... the elder dragon says I need to go to the Ice World and get the Old Axe, and he gives me a bracelet that allows access into the Ice World.
oh yeah I remember that alternate sewer path that leads to a giant ice glacier... now I can get through that. there's another straight path with nothing but enemies, and no platforming.. just these giant penguin enemies that jump at you... easily defeated with two hits from the excalibur... and also these flying enemies that shoot a cold gust of wind at you and also turn the ground into ice.
the ice world village is full of magician people. the shop here has some more expensive equipment, but none of the Pygmy items I needed... I just went back and forth across that penguin path a few times to grind enough money to buy everything. The new spear weapon isn't even as good as the Excalibur, it's the same strength but with less defense.
anyway, one of the ice village people gave me a flying familiar thing for the ice castle level coming up. it occasionally shoots weak scythes at enemies..
The ice castle is entirely made of ice, that means having to deal with the ice physics that I was already introduced to by those ice shooting enemies before.
This level is more like what I expected out of this game. it's a Zelda 2 style dungeon with a lot of different ways to go, both vertically and horizontally. the ice yeti enemies here are really tough to avoid.. and sometimes I encounter giant yeti enemies at an optional area, and killing them rewards me with money or elixers or stuff like that... I'm using my magic attacks a lot more now in this level.
One of the rooms here has some platforming that makes use of the ice physics that make you go faster than normal. I found another one of the Pygmy items here and another heart container (it looked like I was already at max heart containers, but it squeezed another one in somehow)..
at the end there's a snowman boss that's pretty easy..., and then I got the old axe and an exit back to the village...
back at the dragon village, the shops are now open. I can get some new armor/shield.. the elder dragon gives me his grandson as a companion.. and the swordsmith dragon says he needs another item that he lost in order to make a sword from the old axe.
okay... damn now I'm stuck... still missing one of the Pygmy items needed to enter the volcano. No idea where to go from here.
Checked a guide and found out that I missed the Pygmy Sword at the ocean, near where I found the amulet. There was a land section I hadn't been to yet. okay fair enough...
10/30/2016
Now that I have all the Pygmy equipment, I can get through to the shrink machine needed to get into the volcano... but first, I remember there's a few things in that pyramid that I needed to be small to access.
I'm a bit weaker while small and my attacks have less range, so these enemies at the cliff area and in the pyramid are more of a threat now... also I held right while falling down the cliff back to the desert, and found a hidden chest with the "Shield" magic... Inside the pyramid I found a bunch of chests with money, a chest with a gemstone (that extremely expensive item that's available at one of the shops for like 500k or something), and a well hidden heart container that I almost missed. I just happened to find it when I walked into a fake wall on accident.
In the volcano is a bunch of fireball-throwing enemies, who you can easily block with your flame shield if you are facing them, giant snake enemies that are a bit of a pain due to their unpredictable jumping patterns, and fire bird enemies who are mostly pretty easy as long as you time your attack well so you hit them right before they swoop at you.
It's just a straight linear path... one of the lava pits hid a treasure chest with a heart container in it... I got to the boss which is a dragon that jumps around and breaths fire at you.. none of my magic attacks do very much damage, but it's pretty easy to attack him normally with your sword, because every attack stuns him for a second. it's just a matter of jumping to hit his head, while being close enough to hit him without getting hit yourself.. I still had tons of health here so this boss was no problem at all.
The Fire Urn I got from that boss was what the dragon village blacksmith needed to turn the Old Axe into the legendary sword... now I just need to go to the bell tower at Purapril Castle, and point this sword up in the air to get to the final level.
There's still this one treasure chest inside the pyramid I never found out how to get to though... I'm gonna check a guide for that cuz I'm curious.
I see.. there's an invisible door right near that spot that leads to the chest.. and the chest contains a whole bunch of capacity upgrades for all of your magic spells...
I don't know if I have 100% or not... I have 11 heart containers, 9 Fire Storms, 9 Quakes, 6 Thunders, 4 Powers, 6 Shields, and 1 Return... and I've bought every single item in every shop (excluding the 500k gemstone, which I found another one of in the pyramid anyway)...
The Princess is there at the bell tower to see me go... the first part of the stage feels a lot like the last stage of Monster Land. a maze that repeats when you take the wrong path.. at least the enemies are stupidly easy..
then there's a weird puzzle where you can't progress any further until you find the hidden door that leads to a shrink machine...
then some pretty tough enemies that are like stalfos nights.. you have to either duck and attack their feet or jump and attack their head.. then there's a really fast mid-sized dragon that takes like 20 hits to kill, followed by a very tough platforming section where if you fall you have to refight that dragon again...
finally after that is the boss... it's literally that swappable head monster from Wonder Boy 1... this time, each of his heads that you kill start floating around the screen constantly attacking you... for most of this battle i'm like trapped in a corner getting hit constantly. I managed to beat him just through brute force.
then he turned back into his true form, the Prince of the Dark World... and I was teleported back to the beginning of the final area... now the path to the left has opened up. of course first I gotta go back and save and restock on potions/elixer...
found a couple more heart containers during this level, now have 13 in total..
that left path to the left leads to a space ship, which takes you to an area where you have to refight all 4 bosses again. they are extremely easy with all the legendary equipment on... and that opens up the path to the real final boss...
wtf this boss is impossible... even after the prince shows up and helps you out to make the boss "possible" to beat, I just can't beat it... the conveyer belt, the unkillable saw moving along the floor, and the infinite respawning laser guns that take two hits to kill... and the fact that 80% of the time when I go to try and hit the boss in its eye, I get damaged and knocked back instead because the conveyer belt is always moving and it either sends me into the boss or into the saw... there's like no safe strategy to dodging all of this stuff.. how is this even possible?
I managed to barely beat him after like the 10th try... It's mostly a matter of using Thunder a lot to instantly take out the guns that appear, and only use Power when it's clear and you have a chance to go in for a few hits before more guns show up...
No comments:
Post a Comment