Ganbare Goemon DS playthrough log part 3/3

So, the guide isn't helping much on where to go at chapter 5, and when I checked this part in the video walkthrough, this is where they started going back to all the previous areas and doing sidequests...

I definitely won't 100% this game... there's so much dialog I'd be missing out on, and I'd have to follow this walkthrough so closely there'd be no point. even Goemon 3's sidequests weren't as tedious to do without a translation as this game's sidequests are.

I've stopped trying to pay attention to the story around chapter 5... the boss there is a dragon that jumps out of the water and sends out mini-enemies on a bridge... next there's a part where you have to knock on a mansion door exactly 4 times to talk to the person inside, and he gives Ebisumaru a fart stomp ability, that is used for pressing certain switches.

Next I have to find a bunch of dieties who are hiding in obscure places, like inside a bamboo log, etc.. there's a part where I have to use the stylus to draw the japanese character that's shown on the ground, it's very hard because the game is bad at detecting the correct pen strokes... and a part where you have to play whack-a-mole with an old man who pops up out of the ground.

Ganbare Goemon DS playthrough log part 2/3

Next there's a part where we find the imposters again, having lunch, and Ebisumaru goes and eats all their food and turns into a giant round ball. The imposters run away, and now I have to roll Ebisumaru across this narrow path, it's just as annoying as the watermelon stage in Mario Sunshine. If Ebisumaru falls in the water, he'll be warped all the way back to the start.

Eventually, we find a doctor who is able to turn Ebisumaru back to normal, and we also run into Yae, who joins the group, and get to a ninja town. There's this one guy inside a house filled with mushrooms who gives us a bit of exposition.. then someone dresses Ebisumaru up in a tutu.. this gives him the ability to drill into the ground. Using this ability, you can into this fortress level...

This place is really annoying. It's a sidescrolling platforming area, if you fall off once you die and have to start over from the beginning. One thing I noticed at this point, is that Yae's katana has ridiculously bad hit detection, you can't hit an enemy at all unless you are standing directly inside it after taking damage..

Ganbare Goemon DS playthrough log part 1/3

Full Title: Ganbare Goemon: Toukai Douchuu Ooedo Tengurigaeshi no Maki

This is the last game in the Goemon series that was ever made. It's more of an adventure style game, like SNES Goemon 3, except it's a lot more puzzle-y. The game controls with the d-pad and buttons, but you also have to use the touch screen to interact with the environment in various ways to get passed obstacles.


Goemon and Ebisumaru get thrown in jail after Omitsu comes and warns them that some imposters dressing up as them have been going around robbing people. Yae busts you out, and then you get a tengu mask from Omitsu which lets you avoid fighting the Edo guards. Then you come to a temple, the first action area of the game. it's very simple, all of the touchable things have a glowing outline around them. The first boss is a walking candle that shoots flames at you, it's very easy to dodge. After that, you find the imposters, they're a couple of fat guys wearing barely passable disguises. They get away.. and then you have to go on a journey chasing them down. Also Goemon gets power gloves allowing him to push/pull big blocks.

Next there's a town where everyone is wearing tengu masks.. and to get passed one of the guards, you need to bring him a pot from the pottery shop, but you have to make the pot yourself in a touchscreen minigame. it's kind of difficult.

Goemon: Shin Sedai Shuumei (PSX) playthrough log

Wow, the graphics in this are certainly a step up from the previous game... Wait a sec, these characters are completely different!

Except for Sasuke, these are all entirely new characters who have replaced the main cast. This game takes place in the future, and these are the new versions of the Mystical Ninja cast. Goemon 3 also took place in the future due to time travel, but I think that was a lot farther in the future than this is. The opening cutscene actually older classic Goemon, with a broken arm and his face partly obscured by shadow, talking to the newer Goemon... So I guess what's happening here is people are asking older Goemon to help fight the new villains that have invaded Japan, but Goemon is now old and past his prime, so Goemon Jr. is now taking his place, using the pipe passed down from his grandfather... I dunno I'm just making this up.

The kid who took Ebisumaru's place is a little girl named Ebisu. Yae is replaced by a blue haired girl named Yui... and I assume Sasuke is still the same Sasuke, or maybe this is a different one made by the wise man's ancestor, who knows.

The gameplay is the same old formula of 2D platforming stages with the map style of Goemon 2... but there's a lot of differences. For one, obviously it takes place in the modern era, so the whole fuedal Japan aesthetic is gone. Inns are now large hotels, shops now have a cash register, etc.. Almost all of the iconic themed stuff like fortune dolls and tanooki statues have been replaced by stuff that looks like it's from a Megaman game.

Ganbare Goemon: Ooedo Daikaiten (PSX) playthrough log

This is one of the last of the classic-styled 2D Goemon platformers. This game feels just like a carbon copy of SNES Goemon 2 and 4 and Goemon's Great Adventure... It doesn't try to do anything new at all, it's basically just more of the same, which is great. It's graphics are pretty good for a 2D PSX game with 3D polygons, but not quite not as good looking as the N64 games.

Each world follows the formula of 2 stages, then a town, then another stage, followed by a castle stage with a boss at the end, and every odd world has an Impact battle. Also the stages are timed, and there's no health pickups laying around or dropped from enemies. The difficulty is toned down a bit compared to GGA, and is more in the area of Goemon 2's difficulty level.

The towns all have guards blocking the exit, and you need to complete a menial NPC quest to get the pass needed to progress. Usually this just involves going into a certain house and completing a minigame or getting an item for a character in another house... it's just a pointless way to extend the length of the game which is already very short.

Bouken Jidai Katsugeki: Goemon (PS2) playthrough log

Ugh... this game is so boring. I could hardly get through it. I think it took like close to 10 hours to beat, and that's with ignoring all of the untranslated story.

This is the 3rd (and last) fully 3D Goemon game. Goemon is a teenager in this, and he doesn't yet have his trademark pipe weapon, instead he has various swords and magic spells that can be equipped.. The combat system is kinda like a worse version of Zelda OoT's combat, with lockon targetting and simple sword swing attacks, but there's no way to block or dodge. There's a leveling up system where you can choose which stats you want to focus on.. The platforming in this game is very awkward, ranging from easy to annoying.. Goemon has a double jump and can grab onto ledges, but the mechanics are very unpolished, sometimes it's very picky about when you can grab onto something.

It's basically a hacknslash action RPG with really poorly designed platforming and puzzle elements. At least graphics are nice, it kinda reminds me of Wind Waker with more of a Japanese look to it. The best thing about this game is the towns, they really nailed the whole fuedal Japan atmosphere here.. it's really too bad the game is untranslated, I think I really would have enjoyed exploring the towns and taking in the story. The game feels really barebones and empty without knowing what's going on.

The field areas in this game are just generic landscapes with enemies littered all over them. Some places have a teahouse where you can heal.. The overworld seems much bigger and more maze-like than Mystical Ninja 64's world, but it's not nearly as interesting.

Ganbare Goemon: Hoshizorashi Dynamites Arawaru!! (GB) playthrough log

This game is pretty basic, but good... It's gameplay is in the style of the SNES Goemon games, but the platforming is much simpler and more generic. It has an overworld map like SNES Goemon 2, and a few towns between levels to rest/save/shop.. the graphics are actually decent for a GBC game.

You only play as mostly Goemon and Ebisumaru in this. There's one section with Yae where you're swimming up a waterfall while shooting/avoiding incoming enemies, and another section with Sasuke where you fly and shoot horizontally, but the main game is only Goemon/Ebi.

The story starts off with Goemon and Ebisumaru separated, they both happened to be on a trip to different parts of the continent. Then, a cat-shaped UFO appears, and the villain Seikuushi Dynamite sends out his robot cat army to try and conquer Japan. You can choose to start with either Goemon or Ebisumaru and do their separate stages in a different order depending on which you choose, but you end up doing both of their stages anyway.. Ebisumaru's weapon in this game is a dust pan, but otherwise he controls exactly the same as Goemon.

Yae and Sasuke see the enemy attacking, but they don't do anything because Goemon isn't there... lmao so Goemon is like Goku now basically.

Goemon's Great Adventure (N64) playthrough log part 3/3

The 5th world, Floating Castle, has some really insanely cool looking levels. Took the bottom Sasuke-only path through Cloud Fortress, which lead to Sky Garden.. this stage has paths that twist around so much I have no idea which direction I'm going in most of the time.. Again I just kept to the bottom-most path with Sasuke, and found an underwater section that has tons of money pots. This is a great place to grind money for the last few passes or to stock up on lives. I dunno what else I'm missing with this level's other paths, but there's no alternate exit here anyway, only reason to go through other paths is to check out more of the level's scenery.

The other exit from Cloud Fortress leads to Wind Castle Wall. This stage involves going overtop of a castle wall, and has some windmill platforms that you can only land on while they're on a certain part of the Z axis. There's also a gold fortune doll near the end that Goemon can get, a convenient way to prepare for the last castle.

Then got to Floating World Town... That's a very silly name for a town. I like the music here... This is another huge town that's easy to get lost in. It has a really long circular outer path that borders the whole town and leads to a dead-end place with a tree.. and if you go there at night there's a ghost merchant who wants to sell his last item, a pass, so that he can move on from the earthly world.. Also there's a dumb sidequest where you have to deliver lunch to a speedy messenger guy who runs almost as fast as you.

Goemon's Great Adventure (N64) playthrough log part 2/3

This 3rd world... this is where I started having a lot of trouble with this game... The main thing that's causing me to get game over multiple times per stage is the new enemy introduced in this world, the lantern ghost.. These jerks start charging towards you as soon as they appear on the screen, and if you try and attack them like you normally would on reflex, they'll explode and damage you. It's the most unfair bullshit in this game so far. It seems the way you're supposed to deal with them is by jumping back out of the way to avoid their explosions.. But I usually get killed often enough by these things that I eventually memorize where they are and just shoot them from offscreen.

The 3rd town is "Spook Village", there's a cutscene with Wise Man.. he tells us about the great demon Dochuki who nearly destroyed the ghost world. Dochuki has been sealed for 300 years, and now Bismaru is trying to revive him. There's also a bunch of weird Iguana people in this town who give you a pass for doing a trading quest with them, and at night there's a fireworks minigame just like the one at the beginning of Goemon 3.

This world has 2 stage-based sidequests. One of them you're hunting roadside guardian statues and putting hats on them, but if you put a hat on a "fake" statue you'll lose. The "puzzle" to figure out which statues are fake is really dumb, but the main difficulty in this challenge is the time limit and the fact that enemies get in your way a lot here. The other sidequest involves hunting mushrooms in a stage with all enemies removed, and it's just a matter of figuring out the best route to take to get all of them in the time limit.

Ganbare Goemon: That other 3D platformer that isn't as good

The full title of this game is Ganbare Goemon: Kurunara Koi! Ayashige Ikka no Kuroi Kage

This is the 2nd 3D platformer in the series, after Mystical Ninja 64. This game pretty much pushes the PSX to its limits in order to try to look as good as the N64 game, but obviously fails and doesn't look anywhere near as good.


At least the opening looks really cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBRn4fq0ONg

Also the cutscenes also have full voice acting, and some of the music tracks are pretty good.

You can't instantly switch between characters any time in this, instead you have to go into a certain building in towns to switch characters. There's not much difference between each character anyway. They each have their main weapon attack plus a kick attack, and they can also learn individual combo moves later on (they are really hard to execute, I've only managed to do them by accident). Ebisumaru now has a frying pan as his weapon... I've noticed for a while now but I don't think I've mentioned it, it's kind of neat how Ebisumaru uses a different weapon every single game. He's a really indecisive ninja who can't decide on what weapon to use.

Goemon's Great Adventure (N64) playthrough log part 1/3

This is reminding me a lot of SNES Goemon 2, except it starts off a LOT harder. I'm getting game overs even in world 1. The movement is entirely 2D sidescrolling, but sometimes the 2D path twists and turns through the environment in 3D, which adds some depth to the stages.. I think the main thing that's making this harder than I'm used to is that the screen is way zoomed in, so I have to constantly take my time inching forward when I don't know what's coming up, otherwise I get ambushed by enemies and die right away. Also there seems to be some lag with your jumps and it's really easy to miss a jump and die.. It takes some getting used to this unforgiving difficulty, but it's very fun and each level is satisfying to beat.

Ganbare Goemon: Kurofune Tou no Nazo (GB) playthrough log

The North American version of this game was titled "Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon", but I don't like calling it that because this game is so bad, it's an insult to the N64 game that shares the same title.

This game is entirely in top-down perspective, just like the first GB Goemon game. However, it's worse than the first GB game in pretty much every conceivable way. The platforming is almost non-existent. Some screens just have a few holes on them which you can jump over without any problem.. most of the gameplay involves killing/avoiding enemies and playing minigames.

Also, you can't enter any houses other than shops/inns. All the NPCs are just standing outside their houses. Why? The first GB game let you go inside houses, this is some lazy shit.

Here's the intro story: "A mysterious group of bandits calling themselves the Black Ship Gang appears in a black ship and begins committing indiscriminate thefts."
Goemon: "Blast that Black Ship Gang! They're committing indiscriminate thefts!"
the first NPC you talk to: "Have you heard? The Black Ship Gang comes from the Black Ship!"

...yep, we're off to a great start.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64) high playthrough log part 3/3

After beating the 2nd level, the kidnapped kids return to Folkypolk Village and Zazen Town, and everyone in these towns has something different to say, but none of it's really all that interesting or funny, just weird...
That dog at Zazen Town creek though
"Do you want to know who I really am, arf?
In fact, I come from a Dog Star far, far away! I am none other than that famous dog movie star... Quick, follow me, there is a kid stuck down a well...
Just kidding, arf!"

One of the kids who returned to Zazen Town tells me that the door to Chikogu Region has been stuck all this time because of a magical door-stopper that he put there. But now the door-stopper is out of batteries, so the door can open.. wtf is with these weird locked door explanations

The first area of Chigoku Region is [Bizen / Kurashiki] This place still looks just like a town, with buildings and walls everywhere, but none of the buildings are enterable, and instead enemies roam the area... Isn't it weird how most of this game's environments are all surrounded by walls? Like, is this what feudal era Japan was really like, with every town and road being walled in, making it feel like you're in a building with no ceiling?

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64) high playthrough log part 2/3

After beating Benkei, he gives you a dead Sasuke with no batteries... The door behind Benkei leads to [Yamato], a large open area with no enemies and one of my favorite music tracks in the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQcV3s6_Mm8
For how big this area is, there's very little going on here. There's a tall house in the middle that you can't go in yet, an underwater tunnel that you can't go in yet, and 2 split paths leading into the forest. One of the paths leads to "Turtle Stone - Bamboo Forest", with a weird four directional rock puzzle. Pushing the rock in each of the 4 directions yields: money, a fortune doll, the key to the tall shrine in Yamato (which is a large platforming area with a couple fortune dolls in it), and a warp that leads to a tiny island out in the ocean with a fortune doll on it...

The other path in Yamato leads through the Bamboo Forest to [Kii - Awaji Island], which has another teahouse, and a travel agency that takes you to the next town by flying dragon. But the flying dragon has another of those Peach Mountain guys ontop of its head controlling it.. Beating that boss, the dragon transforms to her human form and introduces herself as Koryuuta. She says that the hot springs are where she took the children to when she was being controlled, and gives you a flute so you can call her any time to travel to any town or teahouse.

The place that you landed off the dragon is [Kompira Mountain], a huge stairway with a teahouse on the way up, and a shrine at the top.
- some guy: "I've got a really gloomy past, you see. Drifting for years, I've finally come to this place, you see.
...
...
Does that make me a nihilist?"

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64) high playthrough log part 1/3

This was actually one of the earliest 3D platformers I played, shortly after I finished with SM64 and before Banjo-Kazooie came out. So obviously I have a nostalgic soft spot for this game, and can easily overlook its early 3D era flaws... like for one thing, the camera control is awful, it likes to fight you all the time, and sometimes if you try to force the camera to move a certain way, it will just suddenly spaz out and circle around you constantly until you move somewhere else... I must've been used to these kind of flaws back then, but now that I've played so many other 3D games this flaw definitely sticks out now.

I can deal with the camera, though, because know mostly everything else about this game is amazing. For the most part I just try not to move the camera unless I have to, or just use the look around mode instead.

Here's the opening theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NQKAsvlKcE

In the intro cutscene, a shopkeeper yells at a half-naked Ebisumaru for trying to seduce him into giving a discount. Then suddenly a giant flying peach shows up in the sky, these 2 mysterious characters talk about their ominous plan, and zap Edo Castle, and turn it into a European style castle. After that, the game starts, and the first thing you'll want to do is talk to every villager, because the NPC commentary in this game is hilarious.

- some woman: "Just now, Oedo Castle was hit by a mysterious beam, turning it into European Castle. If that beam hit me, would it turn me into a model EU citizen?"
- some old guy: "What? A UFO? What do you mean? I'm 85 years old you know!"
- some guy: "That huge peach that just came flying... What in the world was that?! Who in the world is going to eat such a huge peach!"
- some kid: "The officer's duty is to defend the peace of this town. By the way, I have no job!"

Ganbare Goemon: Kirakira Douchuu (SNES) playthrough log/review

This game has the same world map format as the 2nd SNES game, but it's WAY harder, and a lot weirder too. It's also the first game where the main characters all get voice acting. It also carries over some things from the 3rd game, such as fortune dolls being health upgrades, and chain pipe grappling and other unique character abilities.

Story: Impact has his own planet now, and it's being invaded by a group of villains lead by Seppukumaru. Everyone agrees to help him, and the characters split off and go to each of the 4 moons of Planet Impact.

Most towns have fetch quests you need to do in order to get the character's special ability. There's this one weird part where Ebisumaru meets his rival, Obisumaru, and they have a competition where they have to collect the cute women around town while avoiding the old women. Yae's town sections are really annoying to do when you don't know Japanese.. There's a part where you have to become someone's "slave" and do his grocery shopping for him, literally impossible to do without knowing what he's saying or using a guide.

The action stages are all very challenging, mainly because of how unique and varied they are. This game just constantly throws insanely weird gimmicks at you all the time, you never know what to expect. These stages also have hidden fortune dolls, and some stages you can't get all the fortune dolls in until after you've beaten all 4 moons then you can freely switch between characters and use all the abilities.

Ganbare Goemon 3 (SNES) playthrough log

This 3rd SNES game is the first to emulate the Zelda-style overworld exploration gameplay. The game consists of two different styles, an interconnected overworld in top-down view, with towns and a maze-like path structure, similar to LttP. And 2D sidescrolling/platforming stages, but even these parts are much more non-linear and puzzle focused rather than the pure linear action style of the previous 2 games. The sidescrolling sections are more like Zelda II or Shantae-style dungeons.

You can now switch between characters on the fly, with the select button. Goemon's pipe weapon as good range, Ebisumaru is the slowest but has a hoola hoop attack that damages everyone around him, so he's the most useful to play as when there's a lot of enemies around. Sasuke is the fastest but his attacks are very short range, and his bombs are useless for offense... and now Yae is playable for the first time in this game. She's almost as fast as Sasuke and her katana has better range, so she's usually the best one to play as when exploring. She has the bazooka as her secondary weapon, but it's not as good as Goemon's coins or Ebisumaru's shurikens.

Also this game introduces the special abilities for each character that were carried onto the N64 games. Goemon has his Sudden Impact, where his hair turns gold and has increased damage. Ebisumaru has mini-Ebi for getting into small areas. Yae can turn into a mermaid... Sasuke's ability is just an attack that shoots out in all directions, which isn't really that great.

Also, this is the first game where the cat/fortune dolls are used as health upgrades, rather than weapon upgrades. The fortune dolls are well hidden in the overworld and sidescrolling section, encouraging you to explore all the side areas.

Ganbare Goemon: Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu (PSX) playthrough log part 2/2

The 2nd half of this game was unexpectly really hard. Maybe not as hard as SNES Goemon 4, but the longer stages in this made it seem harder. I kept getting gameover at the bosses, and had to redo the whole stage again after grinding for armor/rice balls.

The bosses themselves aren't that hard once you know their patterns, but they do take a lot of hits even when you're maxed out on experience. Once you learn the bosses patterns they become more of a test of endurance, just repeating the same actions over and over.

I managed to find all but 3 of the fortune dolls in the game. The walkthrough on gamefaqs doesn't even say where all of them are.. hmm that's weird, oh well.

The last stage is brutal.. especially the parts where you have to grapple with Ebisumaru and there's electric moving obstacles that make you fall if you touch them... fortunately this level actually has a save point before the boss, so I didn't have to worry about redoing the stage.

Ganbare Goemon: Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu (PSX) playthrough log part 1/2

This game is similar to Goemon 3 on SNES, overworld exploration mixed in with large sidescrolling stages. However it's a lot more straightforward, there's usually only one linear path that can be taken, with a few side paths here and there. This is definitely one of the more Zelda-like Goemon games though.

The character sprites look good, but the rest of the graphics look kind of ugly. Two of the playable characters in this are new, and I think this game is their only appearance. That green haired guy is Goruku, he punches, smashes rocks, and pushes boxes, his attack range is better than anyone else's making him the best to use against bosses. I'm not sure why he joined Goemon's party, but he's there... That old looking guy with the glasses is Baban. He's a space pirate who crash landed in Japan, and is the main focus of this story. He can hover in midair for a bit, so he's usually the best one to use for platforming.

This game starts off really easy. The fortune dolls are permanently missable, but not hard to find. There's an experience points system, that goes up as you kill enemies.. as far as I can tell, I think gaining levels makes your attacks stronger. Sometimes the bosses take a LOT of hits to kill so I'm wondering if I'm supposed to be grinding to level up first?

Ganbare Goemon 2 (SNES) playthrough log

Wow... I LOVE this game's art style. It's so vibrant and pretty. I just couldn't stop taking screenshots while I was playing. Even though I couldn't read any of the text, this game does a great job of telling its story through graphics alone.

Gameplay wise, this has a lot of improvements over the first SNES game. Here's the main things that are different.

- Goemon can now charge up coins to turn them into flaming coins.
- Goemon's pipe weapon can now get upgraded to the chain pipe, instead of the dumb yoyo.. and Ebisumaru has his own attacks now that are wider ranged.
- This game introduces various giant robot vehicles, including the village-destroying Goemon Impact! At the end of some levels is an Impact section where you rampage through a village, followed by a first-person boss battle.
- Sasuke the robot ninja is added as one of the main playable characters, he has a shorter range attack but is more mobile.
- Goemon, Ebisumaru, and Sasuke all have different play styles. Sasuke is the most agile but his weapons have lower range and attack power. Ebisumaru has the strongest attacks but can't jump very well. Goemon is the well rounded character.