Monster World IV playthrough log

This game is quite a bit different from the previous one... Monster World 3 was linear, but this game is even more linear. There are very few junctions that you have to decide between, and most of them are just small side paths that lead to a dead end with a chest. there's only one central hub town, and doors that lead directly to the 4 main "levels" of the game. There's no interconnected overworld like the previous games.

The RPG mechanics are also very simplified...there's still weapons, armor, and shields you can buy in town, and little blue gemstones that are scattered around the levels and town that increase your hearts by 1 for every 10 you collect... but that's it. There's no magic abilities, and it doesn't seem like there are any metroid style things where you need to backtrack when you have some new ability...

I kinda like it though. The levels are much longer and more difficult in exchange for being more linear. The blue "pepe" thing that follows you around can be used to glide, double jump, or activate switches or do other stuff to help you get around obstacles, and often you NEED to make use of these abilities to progress.

All the pepeloos in town are yellow... and when I hatched a special blue one, the villagers commented and said this one is very rare... one of them even said this blue pepe is a bad omen...

The library in the palace has some interesting references to the heroes of previous games in the series...

Wonder Boy in Monster World playthrough log

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...

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap playthrough log

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...

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?

Wonder Boy 1 playthrough comments

This is one of those extremely simple old platformers. I love this kind of simplistic, but tight platforming. Every obstacle is designed so there's a relatively easy way to avoid everything even when you don't have the hatchet attack... but if you do have it you can make things easier, or screw up and die while trying to do so...

The skateboard powerup is always useful to have when you can get it... You are way more likely to die by getting hit than by falling in pits in this game, and while the skateboard makes it more likely for you to fall off if you aren't careful, it also protects you against a single hit.

The Tawna bonus rounds you get from the accessories only appear once, and if you restart the level from a continue they're gone.

The bosses at the end of each level are all exactly the same, it's just a matter of hitting their head a variable number of times while avoiding their slow attacks.

This game starts out very easy but it ramps up in difficulty very consistently through the 10 worlds (called Areas). Area 4 is where I had to start being more careful. I was still keeping most of my lives at that point though... Area 8 is where the game starts to get serious.