_ _ ______ ____ _ _ ____ | \ | | /\ |___ / / __ \ | \ | | / __ \ | \| | / \ / / | | | | | \| | | | | | | . ` | / /\ \ / / | | | | | . ` | | | | | | |\ | / ____ \ / /__ | |__| | | |\ | | |__| | |_| \_| /_/ \_\ /_____| \____/ |_| \_| \____/ __ __ _ _ ___ _ ___ _ __ __ ___ _ ___ _ _ | \/ | | | | _ \ /_\ / __| /_\ | \/ | __| _ | |/ _ \| | | | | |\/| | |_| | / / _ \\__ \/ _ \| |\/| | _| | || | (_) | |_| | |_| |_|\___/|_|_\/_/ \_\___/_/ \_\_| |_|___| \__/ \___/ \___/ The Mysterious Murasame Castle FAQ/Walkthrough by Chauzu Copyright 2013 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to my guide to one of the forgotten classics of the NES era; the Japan- only Nazo no Murasame Jou, translated as The Mysterious Murasame Castle in english, but in this guide we will be using the japanese name. This is the first guide I've ever written so there will surely be flaws to correct, so do feel free to point these out and I will give proper credit for it. Hope you enjoy the game and that my guide will be of some use to you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================================== | TABLE OF CONTENTS | =============================================================================== I. Legal Notice II. Version History III. Background Story IV. Gameplay a. Basic Mechanics b. Game Screen V. Enemies a. Ninja b. Ninja Commander c. Other enemies d. Hazards e. Bosses VI. Items a. Weapons b. Weapon upgrades c. Special techniques d. Power-ups e. Recovery VII. Walkthrough a. Aosame Castle Town b. Aosame Castle c. Akasame Castle Town d. Akasame Castle e. Ryokusame Castle Town f. Ryokusame Castle g. Momosame Castle Town h. Momosame Castle i. Murasame Castle j. Inner Sanctuary VIII. FAQ IX. Fun Facts X. Thanks To ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Legal Notice ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. This is nothing personal; it is just that I've always used GameFAQs privately and I have no interest in having to track my work over several websites. So please respect that I'm not interested in publishing this anywhere else. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Version History ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 : Completed version of this FAQ. Reread once after completion. Added complete background story, finished gameplay section as well as the enemy and item ones. Walkthrough is preliminary finished but can surely use some more tactical tips on which item to take, when to use them and such. 1.0.1: Fixed a margin error of the guide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- III. Background Story ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1986 was the year when many iconic game titles got their first games. The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Nazo no Mura... Or wait, scratch that last one. Nazo no Murasame Jou was planned to be released together with the Famicom Disk System but got delayed, and was instead the 2nd original game released for it, after The Legend of Zelda. Nazo no Murasame Jou didn't reach the heights that the other mentioned titles did, however, and never got released outside of Japan. The game is set during the Edo period, during the 4th shogun, Tokugawa Ietsunas, rein. During this time there was a castle known as Murasame, and inside the castle people were praying to a stone statue holding the same name. The castle and the town built around it were spending their days peacefully until a stormy night when a golden glittery object dropped down on Murasame castle, together with a sound of thunder, so powerful it sounded like it could tear up the heavens. People could hear odd screams coming out from the castle. The mysterious object that had earlier dropped was in fact aliens from outer space and they used their power to give the stone statue of Murasame life, taking control of the castle. The aliens didn't stop their either - they also seized the castles of Aosame, Akasame, Ryokusame and Momosame by taking control of the castle lords and giving each and one of them a mysterious ball. The castle lords, who were being controlled by evil powers, used the powers of the balls to manipulate armies of ninjas and monsters, and the people were suffering. The Tokugawa Shogunate, who had heard rumours about the happenings at Murasame castle, decided to secretly send the young sword instructor and warrior Takamaru to investigate if the rumours were true and if so destroy the root of them; Murasame. But unfortunately, Murasame was made aware of this secret mission. While leaving Edo Takamura was attacked by assasins sent by Murasame. But Takamaru, who also were the Tokugawa Shogunat's greatest swordsman, disposed of them and arrived at one of the four castles defending Murasame; the castle of Aosame. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Gameplay ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personally speaking, Nazo no Murasame Jou was hard to adapt to, since I - and I'm sure many with me - like to defeat every enemy I face when playing a game. Although certainly doable (if you're good enough!) it's certainly not advice- able. During the game, enemies keeps coming at you from every angle of the screen and whilst this is very much manageable in the beginning of the game, the difficulty increases by each castle. The enemies grow more and stronger, sometimes combined with fire-shooting devices which can't be defeated. In this section of the guide, I will go through every aspect of Nazo no Murasame Jou that you will need to know for your journey. ******************************************************************************* a. Basic Mechanics ******************************************************************************* In Nazo no Murasame Jou you take control of Takamaru, the greatest swordsman of the Tokugawa Shogunate. At his disposal Takamaru has but his katakana and shuriken, as well as a number of upgrades which you can find during the course of the game. All upgrades are lost when Takamaru loses a life, however (except for the special techniques). Takamaru starts the game with 2 lives and 3 "hearts", or "chikara" - power - as they are called in the game. You should all understand the meaning of this though - three hits and you are dead and lose a life. The game in many aspects reminds of the original Legend of Zelda game. It is played in top-down view with no scrolling, and like in the original Zelda, you move around freely within a vast world. That's were the similarities end, though. Whilst Legend of Zelda is an adventure game, Nazo no Murasame Jou is a fast-paced action game, and you are also imposed with a time limit on each level. The game follows the same pattern throughout it; you start at a castle town and fight (or run, really) your way through to the castle, whilst picking up various weapons, special techniques, power-ups and scrolls on the way. After that you play a castle level, where you fight (or yeah, run) through it until you make it to the castle lord (who are the main bosses of the game). After you've cleared all four castles you will then make it to the Murasame castle to deal with Murasame and the mystical life-forms that have invaded Edo Japan. As I've mentioned, most of the time you will be running through the level, wanting to get to the next area as soon as possible, only defeating the most urgent enemies. The reason for this is simply because there's little merit in defeating the enemies, and the cost is great for taking damage. The power meter only consists of 3, so you can take only two hits before being in real danger. Recovering the power meter is also not something you can count on doing regularly, as the only way to recover it is by clearing a level or finding the rare white medicine case. Since you lose your weapon, weapon upgrade and all power-ups when losing a life, avoiding that at all costs is the core of the game. Sometimes this can be challenging though; since the best items often are put so you have to take a detour, often having to past several areas and enemies in the process. So while the reward is great, you often have to risk a lot as well. Being an old Famicom/NES game, the controls are like you would expect. The control pads lets you control Takamaru. The A button works as both your katakana and shuriken. If you're close enough to an enemy to cut it, or if there has been shurikens thrown at you, Takamaru will use his katakana to hit the enemy, or block the shuriken. The B button lets you use one of Takamaru's hidden techniques. There are two of these; the invisibility technique, that you start the game with, and the thunder technique. Both of these can only be used three times before running out of use so use them visely. To summarize: Control Pad : Move A Button : Close to enemy or projectile: Katana slice Not close to enemy or projectile: Projectile throw B Button : Use special technique Start Button : Pause, choose option at the Game Over screen Select Button : Choose if you want to Save or Quit at the Game Over screen ******************************************************************************* b. Game Screen ******************************************************************************* On the upper part of the screen, you find all information that is available to you. Unfortunately there are some information that is unavailable to you. You can't see what power-ups you have collected, for one. But since you lose all weapon upgrades and power-ups each time you lose a life, you should be able to keep track of it. ---------- Life Meter ---------- On the upper left corner of the screen you find the life meter. You start the game with two lives, but you can find extra lives during the game (although hard to come by). When the power meter is emptied, you lose a life. Losing a life also means you lose all weapons and its upgrades, but you keep any special techniques (the ones which uses the B button) that you've found. The scroll meter also stays the same, and the time meter is reset. When you lose a life it's game over - don't worry though, you'll be able to continue from the start of your current area, and also be able to save your game. You can hold a maximum of 99 lives (but getting that much require several reruns). ----------- Point Meter ----------- Below the life meter you find the point meter. This meter, as you can hear, displays how many points you've collected. You gain points from defeating enemies, reaching a princess in a castle, and clearing a level. When you clear a level, all your remaining time points will be converted into points. You keep your points if you die, but if you get a game over, they are lost. As in most old Famicom/NES games, points are purely used for high-scores and such and have no in-game purpose. Also important to note is that you get twice as much points for defeating an enemy with a katana than using a projectile. --------------- Special Display --------------- To the right of the life meter and point meter you find the special display. It's easily visible by the four white marks enclosing it. This display shows your current special technique, and if you currently have none, it will be blacked out. You start the game with the invisibility technique, which has the mark of a blue muffler with engravings, but during the game you can also find the lightning technique, which is marked by a lightning bolt. Once you get a special technique you can use it three times before it runs out, and you also keep it even if you lose a life. ------------ Scroll Meter ------------ To the upper right of the Special Display you find the scroll meter. Each time you use a weapon - apart from the shuriken - you decrease the scroll meter by 1. When it reaches 0, you lose your weapon and go back to the shuriken. When you start the game, the meter is at 30. You can fill the meter in two ways. The first is by picking up a new weapon - this adds 3 to the meter. The 2nd is by picking up scrolls, which defeated enemies regularly drops. This adds 10 to the meter. It's very important to always keep an eye on the meter, and if it drops below 50 or so, you will need to start filling it up. ----------- Power Meter ----------- Below the scroll meter you find the power meter. The power meter shows how much power you have - if you've played Legend of Zelda, power works like hearts. You start with 3 and each time you get hit, you lose a one. When the power meter is emptied, you lose a life. You can fill the power meter by finding the white medicine box throughout the game. They're rare though, and not something you can rely on finding. ---------- Time Meter ---------- Following to the right is the time meter. The meter consists of the chinese character for time in between []. The numbers written inbetween are how many seconds you have left to complete the current level. If the meter falls to 0, you die. -------------- Castle Display -------------- Finally, to the upper right corner of the screen you have the castle display. It simply shows in which castle area you're currently in. Seriously, though, this display might just be the most uncessesary addition to the game. Keeping track of which castle you're in isn't hard to begin with, and even if it was, it's not like it's anything important to keep track of. Instead, they could've added a display for everything you currently have picked up or something. Ah well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- V. Enemies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are several types of enemies in Nazo no Murasame Jou, and some of them only appear either outside the castle or inside them. In this section we'll go through every enemy that appears in the game, including hazards and bosses. ******************************************************************************* a. Ninja ******************************************************************************* Ninjas are the common enemy of this game and they are everywhere, and come in different colors as well. Its important to note that even if ninjas of the same color share the same moveset and such, they don't share movement patterns. Also, they are all very frail and die by any attack that touches them. Later in the game they will start using black robes to disguise them. ----------- Black Ninja ----------- The first enemy you face in the game, the black ninja throws shurikens and runs around the field. At the beginning of the game they don't target Takamaru directly; instead, they run around and throw shurikens pretty randomly. In later levels they will target Takamaru, though. ----------- White Ninja ----------- The white ninjas are famous for trying to surprise Takamaru. Sometimes they hide in the water, to jump out when Takamaru is close. Sometimes they jump out four at a time, trying to get Takamaru cornered. They can swith between shurikens and fire balls as well, all in an effort to surprise. --------- Red Ninja --------- The red ninja might just be one of the more dangerous enemies - or at least one of the more annoying. Fire is the one thrown object you can't block with your katana, and your only option is to avoid it. A bit into the game you will probably find yourself running around pressing the a button all the to stop shurikens from hitting you, but fire balls shot at you will force you to change direction as well. ---------- Blue Ninja ---------- Blue ninjas are mainly found in the woods, where they like to hide in the trees, throwing shurikens at Takamaru. As with all enemies, they are easy to handle when few but when many, the barrage of shurikens can be tough to handle. If the blue ninja leaves their safe habitat in the trees, you will see them running around, not throwing any shurikens. ----------- Green Ninja ----------- Green ninjas are just unpredictible. Some of them move in groups, other hide and throw shurikens, and those who run around run at different speeds as well. Be careful when they jump down as well as they can jump pretty far. ------------ Purple Ninja ------------ Unlike other ninjas, the purple ninjas doesn't just give up when they've run past you. They keep coming at you until they're dead. Like some of the other ninjas, these can also stay hidden and throw shurikens at you. --------------- Sparkling Ninja --------------- Since it very closely resembles the black and white ninjas - since it's basically switching colors between white and black - it's important to always be on the lookout for the sparkling ninja. If it touches something, it explodes, and if you happened to have touched it with your katana, you get hurt. It can also drop red bombs, creating another obstacle. Defeating a sparkling ninja also explodes any red bomb in the area. ******************************************************************************* b. Ninja Commanders ******************************************************************************* Ninja commanders are, well, bigger ninjas. They usually appear when you try and enter the next area, blocking the path. While looking difficult they all have a set movement pattern and if you nail it, they should be no trouble. -------------------------------- Ninja Commander 1 - Bomb Thrower -------------------------------- Appears in: Castle Town The bomb thrower loves to hide by area exits, and appear just when you think you're safe. He'll then start throwing bombs, which Takamaru needs to avoid. He's simple to hit or run by in between the bombs though. -------------------------------- Ninja Commander 2 - Fire Thrower -------------------------------- Appears in: Castle Town The fire thrower is essentialy the same as the bomb thrower, but he throws fire balls. Unlike the bomb thrower, he can also walk around a bit. Watch the pattern and you'll be ok. ------------------------------------ Ninja Commander 3 - Bomb Thrower (3) ------------------------------------ Appears in: Murasame Castle As the other bomb throwers, this bomb thrower also throw lightning balls that explode at impact but out from them, evil spirits appear so it's important to take them out quick. ------------------------------------ Ninja Commander 4 - Fire Thrower (2) ------------------------------------ Appears in: Murasame Castle The same as the first fire thrower, the only changes are cosmetic. --------------------------------------- Ninja Commander 5 - Magician --------------------------------------- Appears in: Castle The magician summons five fire balls which works as a shield which guards him from projectiles, and you can forget getting in a hit with the katana (unless you want to get hit). The barrier has a small hole though, which is open to projectile fire. Take advantage of this and you can defeat him. Be aware though that the magician at the same time will be shooting fire balls at Takamaru at irregular intervals, which you need to avoid. Also, he can move around a bit, but not too far of from his starting position. ------------------------------------ Ninja Commander 6 - Bomb Thrower (2) ------------------------------------ Appears in: Castle Like the first commander, this bomb thrower throws electric balls at you which explodes. The only difference is cosmetic. ----------------------------------- Ninja Commander 7 - Halberd Swinger ----------------------------------- Appears in: Castle As the name implies, the halberd swinger swings his halberd around, which deflects any projectile thrown at him. Or well, not really - weapons upgrades like king along with white feather arrow will usually be too much for him to cope with. Otherwise, you can also slice him down with your blade. The halberd swinger always swings his blade seven times so if you keep your distance and time it right you can move in to get the kill while he cools of. ******************************************************************************* c. Other enemies ******************************************************************************* There are more enemies in the game than the ninjas. These enemies usually appear in special environments, like in the woods or the mountains. ------ Bandit ------ Appears in: Castle Town, Mountain parts Only appearing in the mountains, bandits come through the holes, go a bit forward, throw an axe and move back to the hole. It moves slowly too so bandits are usually no problem. -------- Musasabi -------- Appears in: Castle Town, mainly Mountain parts, but also in subsequent areas Musasabi is a giant flying squirrel in japanese, and if you don't know what that is is, look it up and you'll know why. Musasabi usually appears in the mountains, but later in the game he can also be in other areas outside the castle. It's espescially difficult to face in the mountains due to it being able to move across the entire screen while Takamaru doesn't have much room to move. Musasabi can hurt in two ways; either by touching Takamaru or by throwing shurikens. ----- Tengu ----- Appears in: Castle Town, mainly Forest parts Coming from japanese religion, directly translated tengu means "heavenly dog". In this game, the tengu usually appear in the forest, throwing wind that moves in a circle while moving around. To defeat it, you need to keep a close eye on the wind he attacks with and move accordingly to expose him. -------------- Ground plucker -------------- Appears in: Castle Town This mystical enemy hides in the ground and appears together with a gastly sound. It will then throw three shurikens before moving back into the ground. In order to defeat it, you need to attack it just before or after he throws his shurikens. ------- Samurai ------- Appears in: Castle While sounding like a pretty strong foe, the samurai is probably one of the easiest enemies in the game. He will move vertically according to Takamaru's movement, and when Takamaru is close enough, he will rise his blade, to then slice when you are precisely beside him. This just means though that you don't move THAT close to him. Keep your concentration, move until the Samurai lifts it blade and then slice. Note that you won't be able to hurt him before he lifts the blade. -------------- Gatekeeper (1) -------------- Appears in: Castle These guys will annoy you a lot, espescially later in the game, when they will be covered by fire blasters as well. They guard the way to the castle lords room, and you need to defeat all of them in order to proceed. They come in groups of 3-5, where some are placed on the right and left side of the room, moving vertically, and some are placed in the middle of the room, moving hori- zontally. While moving up and down, or left and right, they will be throwing ropes at you (no, not thunderbolts, although they do look like it!) so it's a tricky opponent. -------------- Gatekeeper (2) -------------- Appears in: Murasame Castle The gatekeepers at Murasame castle are a bit special. There are always two of them standing to both sides of a raised bridge, and to lower it, you need to defeat both of them. They shoot light balls at you, which divides into eight pieces, which is similair to the attacks that the Momosame castle lord uses. These balls, however, doesn't explode, they just divide into pieces. They might seem difficult at first but really, they're easier than you think. They only attack one at a time and they won't attack directly after one and another, which gives you room to act. Also, by standing still by the entrance, you avoid almost all attacks, and you can easily dodge the few that might hit you. So wait until one of them attacks, run up and fire a projectile at it (the katana won't work), run back, and then repeat one more time and you're set. ----- Hanya ----- Appears in: Castle In buddhism, hanya means wisdom. In Nazo no Murasame Jou, hanya appears as a demon that sometimes is dressed as a princess in the castle. Defeating him gives a whooping 8000 points - which is the same as the princess too - but he needs to be striked around 20 times to be defeated. If you stand too close to him when he appears, you get hit, as well. Also important to note is that he won't stop following you until you've defeated him, even if you leave the room. Seeing hanya appear is the most depressing moment this game has to offer. ----------- Evil Spirit ----------- Appears in: Murasame Castle The evil spirit appear instead of ninjas at the Murasame castle, but they're basically the same, just faster. They can throw both shurikens and fire balls. They also appear as tanukis at the Murasame castle level. ******************************************************************************* d. Hazards ******************************************************************************* Not exactly enemies per-say, these hazards still hinder Takamaru through his journey, either physically or by simply hindering his movement. ----- Water ----- Appears in: Castle Town Water hinders Takamaru from walking normally, unless he has the blue straw sandals. ---------- Blood Pond ---------- Appears in: Murasame Castle Water colored in red. But unlike water, the blood pond makes you sink into it, which damages you. The only way to cross it unharmed is by having the blue straw sandals. ---- Door ---- Appears in: Castle Doors are basically locked exits, and to open them, you need to defeat 1-3 enemies, usually samurais but sometimes ninja commanders as well. Once defeated the door opens. --------- Staircase --------- Appears in: Castle Staircases appears in rooms with the gatekeepers in the castles, and they work like the door. Defeat all gatekeepers in the area and the staircase is lowered. ------ Bridge ------ Appears in: Murasame Castle The bridge appears in rooms with the new gatekeepers at Murasame castle, and they work the same as the previous one - defeat the gatekeepers and the bridge is lowered. --------- Red Bombs --------- Appears in: Any area Red Bombs are either placed at the beginning of an area, often blocking the road and needing to explode in order to pass, or can also be placed by the pesky sparkling ninjas. You can explode them by either defeating a sparkling ninja, or by moving close to them, which causes them to start its timer. Make sure to get away afterwards though. ------------ Fire Blaster ------------ Appears in: Castle The fire blasters are very though, since the only way to stop them is by using the lightning technique. Otherwise, they will keep shooting as long as you are in the area. --- Lightning Blaster --- Appears in: Inner Sanctuary Being the only "enemy" you face in the final level, the lightning blaster is special in that aspect. It pretty much works as the fire blaster, except it gives some forward notice of where it's going to shoot next, giving you time to prepare your route. As with the fire blaster, the lightning technique removes the lightning blasters as well. ******************************************************************************* e. Bosses ******************************************************************************* Welcome to the boss section. As in most games, the difficulty of the game's bosses will increase for each one. In general, though, it's important to keep a distance from them and the windmill sword is perfect for that with their range. As with most enemies in the game though, the key for winning is to grasp each bosses pattern and act accordingly. ------------------------- The Lord of Aosame Castle ------------------------- The castle lord of Aosame will start by immediately throwing four thunder balls at you, which explode when it drops at the ground (or hits you). These thunder balls are also aimed at Takamaru, so it's important to keep moving. Wait until the fourth bomb has detonated to try and either get closer to him to hit him with the katana, or to hit him with a projectile. Then retreat and repeat this until he's defeated. -------------------------- The Lord of Akasame Castle -------------------------- The Akasame castle lord is the only boss who doesn't directly target you, which is easily abused by moving up next to him, and then just go at him with the katana. He attacks by throwing thunder balls in a set order while moving horizontally. Also, each time one of the bombs explode, a white ninja will appear, and these guys are the biggest pain of this fight really. The Akasame castle lord is also a user of the invisible technique, which will results in him being temporarily invincible. But really, just move up next to him, continue hitting him with the katana while taking care of any storming white ninjas, and there should be little problem defeating him. ---------------------------- The Lord of Ryokusame Castle ---------------------------- The lord of Ryokusame castle uses the partition technique - he "splits" his body into four, but three of them are fake, with the fourth one being his real body, which you can hurt. He will be teleporting around the room, throwing projectiles at you. While this could look to be a hard battle, you can actually kill him within seconds with the fire balls. At the start, the lord of Ryoku- same will be the third from the left, so what you do is run forward, throw a fire ball, avoid the incoming fireballs by circling them and then hit him two times with your sword. Game, set and match. --------------------------- The Lord of Momosame Castle --------------------------- This is the only female castle lord, but easily the hardest of them. She throws a purple flower at you which does not only explode, but also splits up in eight pieces; avoiding it is really difficult and really needs some practise. Otherwise, the best weapon combination for this boss is the bishop and windmill sword. If you have them, you can keep your distance while being able to shoot projectiles at her without having to move into her line of sight. Also, two hits of the fire ball should be able to take her out. I also want to note that using the katana is useless unless you also have the invisible technique; you'll just get hit by her and she'll teleport away. -------- Murasame -------- As you can expect - formerely being a stone statue, and all that - Murasame won't be moving around. At all. Instead, he uses two attacks. The most prominent one is the Devil Mask Technique, as it's called, in which Murasame fires a green ball at you - which of course injures you if it hits - which divides when hitting the wall, firing of three projectiles at you. The other attack is a white ball which keeps bouncing of the walls once fired, and continues to do so until it hits Takamaru. Now, on to the strategy. The only way to hurt Murasame is by striking the head, but when he grabs a new ball he will be invulnerable, so you need to strike him in between the balls he throws. Well, it's easier said than done, and this might take some practise. The fire ball is the best projectile for hitting him, as it should take him out in three hits or so, but just before here you can find the windmill sword and king, and they should do nicely. The invinsible technique won't do much good here - instead, the lightning technique actually hurt Murasame but strangely not as much as the fire balls. Eitherway, be quick as the green balls past you and run past him, only stopping to fire your projectile, and keep moving around in a sort of clockwise manner and you should be fine. ---------------------- The Mystical Life-Form ---------------------- Depending if you have any lightning technique here, the difficulty of this boss will vary greatly. Because in this level, lightning balls will be fired at you constantly, but by using the lightning technique, you permanently remove them! With them gone, you only have to focus on the mystical life-form itself. It's basically just a floating head but it can only be hurt by firing a projectile at it when it opens its mouth. Beware though since shortly after opening it he'll fire four consecutive bombs at you, so you need to move quick and smart. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. Items ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As mentioned a couple of times before, items and how they are handled are one of the more challenging parts of the game. In this guide, I've divided the items into five parts. If Takamaru loses a life, every item he holds is lost, except for special techniques. So the point of the game is moving forward, collecting items, while preferably not getting hurt. Tough call, eh? If you lose a life, you will need to start hunting for items again. Before moving on to the various items you can find, I will list the various means to find items in this game. -------------- Visible Tanuki -------------- The visible tanuki is the orange thing moving around that has eyes and tail. It contains weapons and you open it by either walking over it or hitting it with the katana (shuriken and such won't do). The visible tanuki also appears at the end of Castle Town stages, but the ones there don't move. Note: At the Murasame castle level the tanukis will take the form of the evil spirit enemy. ------------- Hidden Tanuki ------------- The same as visible tanuki, only that this one is hidden. The only way to find it is to hit it or step on it, or using the lightning technique to reveal it. It's constantly moving around, so you usually need to search around for it. The reward is huge though, as the hidden tanuki is the only way to get Takamaru's special techniques. -------------- Treasure Chest -------------- The treasure chest works like the hidden tanuki in that it's hidden, so you need to hit it with the katana or walk over it to see it, and then do it one more time to grab the item. Unlike the hidden tanuki though, the treasure chest is stationary. It usually contains power-ups. ---------- Enemy drop ---------- Defeating an enemy sometimes makes it drop an item, and in almost all cases, this item is the scroll, which you need to use other projectiles than the standard shuriken. ******************************************************************************* a. Weapons ******************************************************************************* These are weapons that replaces the standard shuriken Takamaru start the game with. -------------- Windmill Sword -------------- Found in: Visible Tanuki Effect: Takamaru is able to throw double-edged swords Looks like: A double edged sword, resembling a windmill The windmill sword is one of to weapons you can find to replace the shuriken. The windmill sword has two things going for it. Firstly, it has the largest reach of all weapons. When thrown, it will continue to the end of the screen. Secondly, it will pierce through other projectiles, even bombs, and possibly hit another target on the way! --------- Fire Ball --------- Found in: Visible Tanuki Effect: Takamaru is able to shoot fire balls Looks like: A ball of fire Picking up the fire ball lets you, well, shoot fire balls. Together with the windmill sword, fire balls are one of the two items you can replace Takamaru's standard shuriken with. So what's so special about the fire ball? For one, it increases Takamaru's power. It's also the fastest item, and you can basically shoot them without any pauses between each one. On the downside, it has shorter reach than the windmill sword so they can't hit far-off enemies. ******************************************************************************* b. Weapon upgrades ******************************************************************************* Weapon upgrades are all found in treasure chests, and they are also all formed as shogi pieces, with the name of the upgrade named after the name of the shogi piece. The upgrades are for Takamaru's projectile; shuriken, windmill sword or fire ball. Takamaru can only have one upgrade at a time and he keeps the upgrade even if he changes his projectile weapon - but as with his weapon, he loses any weapon upgrade he has if he loses a life. ------ Castle ------ Found in: Treasure Chest Effect: Splits the projectile in four directions; up, down, left right Looks like: A shogi piece The castle weapon upgrade splits Takamaru's projectile in four different directions - up, down, left and right. ------ Bishop ------ Found in: Treasure Chest Effect: Splits the projectile in three directions; forward, upper right and Looks like: A shogi piece upper left The bishop weapon upgrade splits Takamaru's weapon in the different directions. The first one goes straight forward, while the other two is split diagonally beside it. ---- King ---- Found in: Treasure Chest Effect: Fires three projectile close to each other straight forward Looks like: A shogi piece The king weapon upgrade is fired straight forward, but instead of the standard single projectile, it's now accompanied by two more, all three sticking close to each other. It basically works the same as before, but the projectile has more width now, giving a larger margin of error. ------------------ Blue Feather Arrow ------------------ Found in: Treasure Chest Effect: Decreases the time you have to wait when firing projectiles Looks like: A blue feather with an arrow The blue feather arrow doesn't give any extra fire balls, and only fires one projectile at a time (and even if you had collected other weapon upgrades earlier, you'll revert to only being able to shoot one). That's the downside; the upside is that you'll be able to shoot more projectiles faster with this item, which is particularly useful with the windmill sword, which is very slow in this regard. ******************************************************************************* c. Special techniques ******************************************************************************* Special techniques are used by pressing the B button, and your current special technique is showed on the game screen between Takamaru's extra life meter and his scroll and power meter. There are two techniques in total and each of them has a limit of three uses before being used up. Due to this, these items are best saved for bosses, or tough situations. ---------------------- Invisibility Technique ---------------------- Found in: Hidden Tanuki Effect: Grants Takamaru the invisibility technique Looks like: A blue muffler with engravings Being with you from the start of the game, the invisibility technique temporarily renders Takamaru invisible... And invincible. During this short time Takamaru takes no damage, and he can also use his katana (not any throwing objects) to deal damage during this time. ------------------- Lightning Technique ------------------- Found in: Hidden Tanuki Effect: Grants Takamaru the lightning technique Looks like: A flash of lightning The lightning technique is truly powerful as it instantly kills every enemy on the screen, and even stops hazards like fire blasters! Not only that, it also stops further enemies appearing on the screen while you're at it (except for ninja commanders). It will also show any hidden items on the screen when used. Only downside is that it won't hurt most bosses. Well, despite that, this is probably the best thing you'll find in the game. ******************************************************************************* d. Power-ups ******************************************************************************* All power-ups that Takamaru has are lost when he loses a life. ----------------- Red Straw Sandals ----------------- Found in: Treasue Chest Effect: Increases Takamaru's moving speed Looks like: A pair of red straw sandals By picking up the red straw sandals, Takamaru is able to move faster. Very useful. ------------------ Blue Straw Sandals ------------------ Found in: Treasure Chest Effect: Takamaru is able to walk normally in water Looks like: A pair of blue straw sandals Water is usually one of Takamaru's greatest enemies, hindering his movement and making him easy pray for enemies. The blue straw sandals though grants him the power to, like a true samurai, run on the water as if it was land. Small spoiler warning now; they also let you walk normally on the blood ponds at the Murasame castle. ------------------- White Feather Arrow ------------------- Found in: Treasure Chest Effect: Increases the speed of Takamaru's projectiles by 1.5 times Looks like: An arrow with a white feather Takamaru's projectiles are very useful and the white feather arrow makes them even faster. They also work together with all weapon upgrades, except for the blue feather arrow. ------ Helmet ------ Found in: Treasure Chest Effect: Renders Takamaru invincible for a short period of time Looks like: A helmet The helmet temporarily renders Takamaru invincible, taking no damage from any enemy attacks. Also, the less you walk around, the longer the effect last. Also, unlike the invisibility technique, Takamaru is still able to use projectiles with the helmet (which also lessens the need to move around too much). ----- Armor ----- Found in: Enemy drop Effect: Grants Takamaru the windmill sword the king weapon upgrade. Looks like: An armor A highly secret item that isn't even mentioned in the game manual (and I haven't seen it personally), so let's call it a legend. The legend says that if you defeat many enemies in a very short time they can drop the armour, which immediately grants Takamaru the windmill sword and the king weapon upgrade. ******************************************************************************* e. Recovery ******************************************************************************* Here I'll list all items which has some connection to recovering something, let it be health or scroll meter. ------ Scroll ------ Found in: Enemy drop Effect: Replinishes the scroll meter by 10 Looks like: A scroll Each time you use any weapon but the shuriken, the scroll meter drops by 1. Defeated enemies regularly drops scrolls which replinishes the meter by 10, so make sure to pick them up regularly. ------------------- White Medicine Case ------------------- Found in: Treasue Chest Effect: Replinishes the power meter to full Looks like: A snowmen... Black hat, white body. But really, it's a white medicine case. Being the only recovery item you'll be finding out on the actual field, the White Medicine Cases are truly valuable. By picking one up, you fill your power meter to full (3). ----------------- Red Medicine Case ----------------- Found in: Visible Tanuki (at the end of Castle Town stages) Effect: Grants an extra life Looks like: A red snowmen... Yeah, that was bad. When you come to the end of a castle town stage, there will always be four tanukis placed there. Two of these will contain the red medicine case. Each red medicine case increases your life by 1. -------- Princess -------- Found in: None (only appears in Castles) Effect: Grants an extra life Looks like: A helpless princess In the castle, there are special rooms which are hard to get to which contain either the princess or hanya. If you are lucky to get a Princess, you not only get a whooping 8000 points for nothing, but you more importantly also get an extra life. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VII. Walkthrough ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before we get started, I'd like to explain how I've designed this walkthrough. Because of how the game is designed - that Takamaru loses most items when he dies - you will want to take some detours from time to time to get items. However, if you're already fully equiped, you often won't need to take these detours. So before every detour, I will mark clearly what you'll find and if you're not interested in taking it, you can skip it. All items you find throughout the guide are clearly marked out as well, which is useful for when you die and want to see what items you can find around you. Also, at the end of every level I'll also write a quick guide on which way you need to go to complete the area, for those who want to adventure on their own but want to know which way to go. Finally, on GameFAQs I can recommend checking out the maps made by ASchultz and Kefka83 for the game, since, well, sometimes a picture says more than 1000 words... And all that. Now on to the guide! ******************************************************************************* a. Aosame Castle Town ******************************************************************************* You start off in an empty area in the Aosame castle town. The starting area in all castle towns look the same so you will be seeing this alot. I also want to remind you that you start of with the invisibility technique, so by pressing B you become invisible (and invincible) for a few seconds. This can only be used three times though so use them wisely. In any case, head to the left for the next area. The road continues to the left in this area, and as soon as you enter the first enemies of the game will come jumping out - the black ninjas. Remember that the key rule in Nazo no Murasame Jou is to run rather than fight, so try and avoid seeking out enemies. You will also see the first tanuki of the game in this area - these creatures, when visible, contains a weapon. This tanuki holds the |FIRE BALL|, which transforms your shuriken into fire balls. Sweet! Remember to keep an eye on the scroll meter too; you start of with 30 scrolls but for every time you use a weapon (except the standard shuriken) the number drops by one. Enemies regularly drops scrolls though, and these adds 10 scrolls to your total. Eitherway, pick up the fire balls and move on to the next area to the left. At the bottom left of the lake here you can find the |BLUE STRAW SANDALS| - these make it so you can walk normally on water. Like all items though you lose them after you've lost a life - one of the facts that makes this game so challenging. The tanuki here holds the |WINDMILL SWORD|, which has better range than the fire ball but isn't as powerful. From here you can go either up or right - each area holds the same items so take a pick. Choose "up" or "left" depending on where you go. Up is a bit harder, but has the bishop, which is the first weapon upgrade in the game. Left is the easier option. Of course, you can go through both if you want to! Make sure to get the blue straw sandals if going up in any case; that place is full of water. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: White Medicine Case, Fire Ball, Bishop Welcome, you who chose to go up! You've chosen the dangerous road of water. When entering you will probably notice something moving in the water. This would be the first white ninja you face in the game. By the sign that shows left, there is a treasure chest that contains a white medicine case, which replinishes the power meter. Grab it if needed and move on to the left. More watery goodness in the area here. To continue to the next area you need to stand on the shore to the upper left corner - you can't if you stand on the water! The tanuki here holds the |FIRE BALL|. Move on to the left. By the sign pointing down on this area, you will find your first weapons upgrade! It contains the |BISHOP|, which shoots three projectiles at once! Grab it and continue down. ---- Left ---- Items: White Medicine Case, White Feather Arrow Welcome, you who chose to go left! You're getting a nice stroll through the forest. Go past the puddle of water here and continue down. The forest maze continues here, and for the first time you will face the blue ninjas. These hides in the woods, throwing shurikens at you. Keep moving through the maze to the left exit. Just before the exit, if you enter the opening to the right and cut the tree, a |WHITE MEDICINE CASE| will be revealed, which replinishes the power meter. Head on to the left. Head on to the left here, and if you look around by the farming in the middle, you will find a treasure chest which contains the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. This nifty item increases the speed of Takamaru's projectiles by 1.5 times! Take it and move on to the left. ------------- MERGING POINT ------------- Whichever way you went, you should now be at a small road going from down on the screen to the left, with a tree at the right end of it. Unless you want to explore the road you haven't gone to yet, head on to the left here. The road here continues to the left, but don't be fooled by the looks here. Before entering the next area, the first ninja commander will appears, the Bomb Thrower! Although looking imposing, the key to defeating the ninja commanders - and all bigger enemies really - are to learn their movement pattern and attack - or run past them - when they show an opening. In the case of the bomb thrower, wait until he throws his bomb (and make sure to stay clear of it!) and then run up to him and slice him. Then, move on to the left. You'll now enter an area that reminds a lot of where you started the game. If you need to, you can find the |BLUE STRAW SANDALS| by slicing the 2nd folding screen to the right. Otherwise, head on to the left. Another crossroad! If you want to take an item detour, to get great items like the lightning technique, go up. If you want to continue to the end of the level, go down. In either case, at the bottom right of this area, you will find your first |HELMET|! The helmet render Takamaru temporarily invincible, and the effect lasts longer the less you move around. The music will also change when you grab it, and as the music reverts, you will know that the effects of the helmet will revert as well. Grab it and continue up or down. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: White Feather Arrow, Windmill Sword, Red Straw Sandals, Fire Ball, Lightning Technique Welcome to your first real item detour! If you're planning to grab the lightning technique by the end you can use this opportunity to try out the invinsible technique, since it will be lost when picking up the new one. The only enemies in this area are the blue ninjas, and if this is your first time seeing them in the woods, they stay there and shoot shurikens at you. At the first wood passage at the left of the small lake you will find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|, that boost the speed of Takamaru's projectiles by 1.5 times. Head on to the left. Continue on to the left in this area, and grab the |FIRE BALL| that the tanuki holds if you need to. In this area, you need to go around the trees to get to the next area below. On the way, at the upper left of the forest in the middle, you should find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. These sandals boost Takamaru's moving speed! Grab it, and move on down. Water again! The sign here tells you to go down, but ignore it, and continue on to the right. The tanuki here holds the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Now, this is what you've been waiting for... The |LIGHTNING TECHNIQUE|! All special techniques are placed in hidden tanuki's - basically normal ones, just invisible. This means that they ARE moving around, so finding it can be a bit tricky, but keep moving around and you should find it. The lightning technique is the most powerful attack in the game and when used, it defeats every enemy on the screen! Neat. Move on down to end this little item hunt. ---- Down ---- Items: None If you chose to go down, simply continue moving through the arena until you get to the left exit. The only enemies in this area are the blue ninjas, and if this is your first time seeing them in the woods, they stay there and shoot shurikens at you. Move on to the next area. ------------- MERGING POINT ------------- Whichever way you chose, you are now at an area with a big pond of water with a tanuki hovering under it. The tanuki holds the |WINDMILL SWORD|. We're going left from here but as you can see, there's a bomb-like red thing blocking the road. And yep, that is a bomb - called the red bomb. To get rid of it, move close to it until it starts twinkling, and get out of the way until it explodes. Afterwards, continue on. Just above when you enter this area you can find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. This is another weapon upgrade, and it lets you shoot your projectiles much faster, but at the same time, you lose any other weapon upgrade you had. Useful if you're using the pretty slow windmill sword but if you're using fire balls and have a good upgrade, you might as well stick to it. Keep walking to the left exit. The bomb thrower will appear by the north exit but since we're not going there, we might as well continue moving to the left. In this area, move towards the left exit again. Another bomb thrower appears by it. Run or fight, you choose. Head to the next area afterwards. Now, to the final boss of this area! Dissapointedly, it's just another Bomb Thrower. There are many black and blue ninjas coming at you as well though, so whatever you're going to do, don't wait too long. Continue on to the left exit and we're done with the first level! At the end of each castle town area, you will be granted with 4 tanukis. One of them will always be a dud, and if you pick that one, you won't be allowed to pick anymore. Two of them will always contain the |RED MEDICINE CASE|, which grants one extra life (!), and the last one will hold a scroll (pretty underwhelming, yeah). The upper right one here is a dud, so take the other ones and then hit the dud. We're on our way to the Aosame castle! =========== QUICK GUIDE =========== Left - Left - Left - Down - Left - Up - Left - Left - Down - Left - Left - Left - Left ******************************************************************************* b. Aosame Castle ******************************************************************************* As soon as you enter the castle, a couple of red ninjas will jump out! These annoying ninjas throw fire balls instead of shurikens and, as you will soon find out, fire balls are the only projectile Takamaru can't block with his sword. Instead, it will just hit him. Your only option is to avoid it or... Yeah, get hurt. Continue on up. Up we go and... Another new enemy! This time it's the samurai. Despite his mighty name, he's easy enough. He will follow you vertically as you move, and when you get close enough, he will raise his sword, waiting for you to move closer so he can slice you. Well, instead of moving closer and letting him do that, you can just slice him yourself instead. The two tanuki's contain both weapons; the |FIRE BALL| and the |WINDMILL SWORD|, so take your pick. By defeating the samurai you open the upper door, which means we have another crossroad here, and going up we have another - pretty safe - item detour, which holds the 2nd weapon upgrade, castle. If you want to continue moving on, just skip the next section. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Bishop, Castle, Princess In this room, you will find two samurais, facing each other. To open the door to the next room you need to dispose of both of them. We also have two items in this room. If you walk to the upper left corner you will find the |BISHOP| weapon upgrade and in the upper left corner, you will find the new |CASTLE| weapon upgrade. Castle allows you to fire your projectiles in four directions at once - up, down, left and right. Pick which- ever one you prefer and move on to the next room. This is the |PRINCESS| room. If you move towards the princess, you will learn if you got lucky and that she is a real princess - thus granting you an extra life - or if she is hanya in disguise, who, although not so dangerous, does require quite a lot of hits to defeat, and will keep following you even if you leave the area. If you move to close to him as he appears, you will get hit as well, so be careful. After you're done, head back to the room we were in before the detour, and now head to the right. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ This next room has another samurai, as well as red and blue ninjas that run around, as annoying as always. Defeat the samurai to open the door. We then have another small detour to the right, where we can find the last weapon upgrade, king. As always, take the detour or move along, it's your choice. If not, go up. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ----- Right ----- Items: White Feather Arrow, King I did say a small detour, right? It's just one room. Another samurai is here, so dispose of him. Fairly quickly I should add, because soon you will experience the first white ninja surprise attack of the game. Four white ninjas will at the same time jump from up, down, left and right and move into the middle, throwing shurikens at you. At the same time some black ninjas will be running around as well so be careful. Eitherway, both items are at the right side of the room, right next to the wall. At the upper part you'll find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|, and at the bottom right you'll find the final weapon upgrade, |KING|. It shoots three projectiles at once straight forward, next to each other, giving your projectile incredible width. Head back when you're done, and then proceed upwards. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ Going up, we have two samurais facing each other. If you took the item detour earlier, you'll know what to do - chop them both down and the door will open. At the same time, some blue ninjas will appear though, starting to throw shurikens, so be quick, and continue up. Entering the room, you will see the castle lord fleeing upward with his cursed ball in hand. These rooms appear in every castle and they'll be a real pain later, but at this point, they're still manageable. The three enemies in this room are called Gatekeepers, and you'll be seeing a lot of them as well. They will be moving up and down on the sides, and left and right in the middle, while throwing ropes at you. (Yes, ropes, not thunder- bolts, although they very much do look like it). If you have the windmill sword you can easily take care of the gatekeeper in front of you right away (fire balls have too small reach), otherwise, you will need to dodge the ropes he throws while waiting for an opening to attack one of the two side enemies. It shouldn't be a problem though. When they are defeated the stairs to the next floor will appear. Proceed. You're greeted to the 2nd floor by another samurai, and make sure to dispose of him quick, since soon the white ninjas will appear. You'll remember it if you did an item detour earlier - they jump forward from all four angles, moving to the middle, to then throw shurikens at you. They will repeat this pattern for around five times or so and during this time, it will be hard to move safely across the room. Instead, stand in the lower right corner, face forward, and just spam the A button - you should block all shurikens and slice any foolish black ninja who dares to attack you. When the coast is clear, you can choose to do another very small item detour to the left, or continue upwards. Be quick though, since the white ninjas will return after a while. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ---- Left ---- Items: Blue Feather Arrow You enter an empty room which seems peaceful enough, but just wait for it... Oh, there they are, the white ninjas. You can repeat the previous strategy to wait them out, or just leave the room if you don't need, or want, the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. You find these in the very bottom left of the screen. After you're done, head back out and then go up. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ You're greeted by another samurai in this room, but this time, you don't even need to defeat him, unless you want (or need) to do another item detour. If not, just continue to the left. For the detour, defeat the samurai and head upwards. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- Items: White Feather Arrow, Windmill Sword, Princess Immediately after entering, head into the small space to the right for the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Then, defeat the samurai, and head into the right area. You'll find another two samurais here, and another locked door. You know what to do - defeat them and the door opens. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Oh, and be careful of those annoying red ninjas. Head on up. Here we find another |PRINCESS| room. See if you're lucky or not, and if you're not, you will face hanya again. Head back to the room we were before the detour, and then head left. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ Be prepared when you enter this room, because you will be facing a fire barrage. This is the hazard I've chose to call the fire blasters - they simply keep shooting fire balls at you, non-stop, until you leave the area. The only way to stop them is by using the lightning technique, but otherwise, they can't be harmed. In the next area you will find a white medicine case, so unless you're really hurt, you can afford to take a hit here. Otherwise, if you have any of the special techniques left, this might be a good time to use it. If you want to come through unhurt without using them, your best bet is to keep moving forward from the beginning, only stopping to slice down the two samurais. Be careful to not get too over-enthusiastic though, since moving to close to any of the samurais will result in getting hurt. The tanuki here contains a |FIRE BALL| but really, unless you use any of the special techniques, just let it go. There are two samurais in this room, but make sure to defeat them quickly, since the group of white ninjas will be appearing shortly. This time, the white ninjas fire off both fire balls and shurikens, so you need to be on your toes. To the bottom left part of the screen - to the left of the left folding screen, by the wall - you will find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE| that I mentioned earlier. In between the two folding screens you will also find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|, and if you've forgotten, these items increases Takamaru's speed. When you're done, move up. And we're in another room with the castle lord fleeing, leaving the gate- keepers to guard him. They're 5 now and as earlier, you need to defeat them to get the ladder down. If you don't have the windmill sword you have to give up the upper gatekeeper for now, and focus on first getting rid of the gatekeepers on the sides. Pick them of one of the time and you should be ok. Climb up the stairs to confront the Lord of Aosame Castle. ---------- BOSS FIGHT ---------- Aosame Castle Lord Being the first boss of the game, this castle lord isn't too difficult. He will go down after around 3-5 hits, depending on your weapons. Generally for boss battles, where it's important to keep distance, the windmill sword is brilliant. But if you're keeping calm you should be able to beat him even with basic equipment. I also want to remind you that the castle lords are the only enemies who aren't hurt by the lightning technique and even though it temporarily removes anything the boss has thrown at you, it's really not worth using. The castle lord will start with immediately throwing four thunder balls at you, which explode when it drops at the ground (or hits you). These thunder balls are also aimed at Takamaru, so it's important to keep moving. Wait until the fourth bomb has detonated to try and either get closer to him to hit him with the katana, or to hit him with a projectile. Then retreat and repeat this until he's defeated. Congratulations! Pick up his blue ball and you'll be heading to the Castle Town of Akasame. =========== QUICK GUIDE =========== Up - Right - Up - Up - Up - Left - Left - Up - Up ******************************************************************************* c. Akasame Castle Town ******************************************************************************* Welcome to Akasame Castle Town! This town is dyed in red (which fits well with the name; "aka" is japanese for the color red) and the first area is the same as in Aosame. Head to the next area to the left. As you can see, the surroundings have changed a bit in this area. You will immediately spot a new enemy - the sparkling ninja. This guy explodes at impact, so if you hit him with the katana, you'll take damage. If you have to take him out, do so from distance. Also worth noting is that the black ninjas will stop throwing shurikens randomly now; instead they will start aiming at Takamaru. The tanuki ahead holds a |FIRE BALL|, and at the bottom of the screen - between the two bushes - you can find the |BISHOP| weapon upgrade. Keep moving to the left. At the bottom right of this area, you can find a |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|, so pick it up if you've been hit. This might also be a good time to mention that you can always come back to an area with treasure chests and pick up the item again if you need to! This doesn't work with hidden tanukis, though. We're at another crossroad, which means another item detour, which includes the 2nd lightning technique of the game! It's pretty long though. For the detour, head up, otherwise, skip the next section and head down. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Lightning Technique, King, Fire Ball We've entered the woods! Run through this area, as the blue ninjas will start throwing shurikens at you. In the next area we face another new enemy - Tengu! Tengu throws wind at Takamaru, and also changes position if Takamaru is hurt or too far away. Otherwise, he will stand completely still, throwing wind, so just learn the pattern and you'll be able to get a hit in or be able to sneak by. It's in this area that we find the hidden tanuki with the lightning technique in, too. If you're quick you should be able to spot it in the lower left area; otherwise, just keep looking around. Obviously, if you happen to have some lightning left, you can use it immediately to take out all enemies and find the hidden tanuki, and get an instant refill. Either way, you can't use the lightning technique more than three times after picking it up. Head down when you're done. Another tengu will appear in this area, so be careful. To the lower left below the tree, in the bush, you'll find the |KING| weapons upgrade. If you've forgotten, it's the one which sends three fire balls straight ahead. Pick it up if you want/need and continue down. A couple of sparkling ninjas appear immediately in this area, so you might just run straight ahead. The tanuki here contains the |FIRE BALL|. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ For those of you who didn't take the detour, you'll notice we're in the woods now. Below the sign straight ahead you can find the |BLUE STRAW SANDALS|, so if you don't have them, get them. Continue down. Those who didn't take the earlier detour will have their first encounter with tengu, the wind thrower. Simply avoid his wind and he's open for attack. Don't move too far away though, as this causes the tengu to teleport around. Below the sign in this area as well, you can find an item - this time, the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Grab it if you don't have it, and move on. The way to the next area is blocked by red bombs, which will be a common occurence from this point on. Either hit a sparkling ninja - which instantly detonates them - or get close to them, but make sure to get to safety afterwards. Move on to the next area. Another empty-looking area with a road - as always, it's not as simple as it looks. Blue ninjas will start throwing at you, and blocking the road is the bomb thrower. There's some power-ups here as well. At the middle right of the screen, in the bush just beside the road, you can find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. In the lower left of the screen, but not by the bushes, you can find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. Grab what you want and move on. Rejoice if you need to replinish health - at the folding screen by the entrance to the area you can find a |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|. Get the red bombs out of the way and proceed forward. The next area contains a new ninja commander - the Fire Thrower. As last time, he's not as dangerous as he sounds, though. Avoid the fire ball and attack or run past him. Head on to the next area. A few red bombs are placed here, but they are of no concern. You can easily remove the lower once by hitting a sparkling ninja with a projectile, too. In this area you can find the |INVISIBLE TECHNIQUE| as well - it's in the lower left area, so start looking there. The lightning technique is more powerful, of course, but if you're low on it, you might as well pick this one up. There's another small item detour up ahead. As always, take it, or move down and skip to the next section. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Castle, Blue Straw Sandals The two items are placed by the two scrolls by the upper wall. The left one contains |CASTLE|, and the right one contains the |BLUE STRAW SANDALS|. Take whichever one you wish and move back to the last area, and then continue down. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ The fire thrower will appear right away in this area, so take care of him and move on to the next area. A bomb thrower will be stationed at the other end of the screen. Be careful moving, and keep an eye out for the black ninjas. As you can see, we're at another crossroad, and this time, you're able to pick whichever one you like. The upper one is more challenging but has better items than the left one, which is easier. It all depends on what items you have at this time, and if you're willing to take the chance. Of course, feel free to go through both roads if you wish. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Windmill Sword, Helmet, Invisible Technique, White Feather Arrow, Red Feather Arrow, White Medicine Case Welcome, you who chose to go up! You're in for a challenge. As you can see, we're going to be finding the invisible technique soon, so if you're currently stocked on it, feel free to make use of it now. You start by the lake, and the tanuki to the upper right contains the |WINDMILL SWORD|. If you chose to take a quick detour to the area to the left you can go to the lower left of that screen to pick up the |HELMET| to be granted temporary invincibility. After that, continue up from the starting area. All of a sudden you're in the forest, with a tengu appearing. There's nothing here so move on. The next area is a bit tricky. The |INVISIBILITY TECHNIQUE| is found here and if you want it, you might as well get the tengu out of the way. Once out of the way, get the bombs away, and start looking. It's usually in the lower left area of the screen. Grab it if you wish and move on. Welcome to the first mountain area of the game! They all look the same: two bridges, on the upper and lower side, that connects to the two entrances. This time you'll only face the bandit - he throws an axe at you, but at slower rates than other enemies you've faced so they're usually no problem. The lower bridge leads to the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|, while the upper bridge leads you to the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. Grab the items you want and move on. We're back in the forest and a surprise attack by the white ninjas. At the lower right side of the lake you can find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|, so grab it if you need to, and move on down. ---- Down ---- Items: Windmill Sword, White Medicine Case, Bishop, Helmet Welcome, you who chose to go to the left! You start by a lake, and at the middle of it there's a tanuki holding the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Move on to the left. The white ninjas will do one of their famous surprise attacks here, so be careful. At the middle of the field though, you can find the |WHITE MEDICINE CAE|, so grab it if you need to and move on up. By the sign at this area, you can find the |BISHOP| weapon upgrade. If you take a quick detour to the area to the right, you can find the |HELMET| on the lower left area of that screen. Grab it if you wish, return to the previous area and move on up. ------------- MERGING POINT ------------- The two roads merge here, and lead to the left. Also, in the lower left corner of the screen, you can find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. A fire thrower will block the road to the left, so get rid of him and get the bomb out of the way to proceed forward. You've now arrived at another castle wall area. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Up ahead we have another small item detour, and if you want to take it, go up. Otherwise, remove the red bombs, go to the left and skip the next section. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Invisible Technique, Bishop The |INVISIBLE TECHNIQUE| is hidden in the right side of this area, so look around if you want it. Get rid of the red bombs and continue to the next area. In this area, the |BISHOP| is found by the first folding screen to the right. Grab it if you want and head down, but look out for the bomb thrower that blocks the exit. Head back to befor the detour started and continue up. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ At the upper left corner of the screen you can find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. Grab it if you wish and head down. In this area, you can find the |CASTLE| weapon upgrade by the folding screen here. A red bomb also blocks the exit. Head on to the right. The tanuki in the next area contains the |FIRE BALL|. Remove the red bombs and head down. At the next area, you'll be ambushed by two fire throwers - run or fight, your choice. By the folding screen here you can find the |KING| weapon upgrade. Head on to the left. Another fire thrower will greet you here and lurking somewhere behind him, there is a hidden tanuki holding a |LIGHTNING TECHNIQUE|. What a nice end-of- the-level-present! Grab it if you want and head on. It's the end of the level! The upper left one contains the dud, so grab the other ones first. We're headed for the Akasame Castle! =========== QUICK GUIDE =========== Left - Left - Down - Down - Left - Left - Up - Left - Down - Left - Left - Left - Up - Up - Left - Up - Left - Down - Down - Right - Down - Left ******************************************************************************* d. Akasame Castle ******************************************************************************* You start in a very quiet room, so move along before it gets crowdy. You're greeted by a new enemy here! It's another ninja commander; he's called the Halberd Swinger. As the name implies, the halberd swinger swings his halberd around, which deflects any projectile thrown at him. Or well, not really - weapon upgrades like king along with white feather arrow will usually be too much for him to cope with. But don't fret if you don't have any of them right now - he's pretty easy to read once you get to know him. The halberd swinger always swings his blade seven times so if you keep your distance and time it right you can move in to get the kill while he cools of. To the right of you by the entrance to this room you can find the |CASTLE| weapons upgrade. When you're done, you can choose to do a lengthy item detour to the right, or move on to the left and continue on the adventure. Skip the next section if you do so. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ----- Right ----- Items: White Feather Arrow, Windmill Sword, King, Bishop, Helmet x2, Princess Welcome to quite a lengthy detour, with an extra detour included in it! You start of in a room which is another crossroad. It's quiet at first but just wait for it and red and sparkling ninjas will come jumping out. At the upper right part of that thing in the middle of the screen, you can slice to find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. If you want the windmill sword and king weapon upgrade, you can go up, but be warned that it will be tricky. If so, continue reading. If not, just skip the next paragraph. You'll probably get a shock when you enter: five gatekeepers coupled with a bunch of fire blasters! Trust me, this will be something you'll have to get used though. Luckily, the fire blasters won't reach you by the entrance, so the best strategy is to just stay there and take out as many enemies as you can, which should be easy if you have enough weapon upgrades and power-ups. If not, it will be hard to get out of this undamaged - you'll have to do like before, starting with the side ones and moving up, but this time watching out for fire balls as well. When you're done, continue up, and you'll see the ninjas showing of their new skill - disguising themselves. You can still hit them. The tanuki is holding the |WINDMILL SWORD| and to the left side of it you can find the |KING| weapon upgrade. Head back to the crossroad when you're done, and head on to the right area. Be careful as you enter as you'll immediately be greeted by a samurai, so just slice him straight away. Get rid of the other samurai and you can take a breather; no ninjas to attack you here. To the very bottom right corner of the screen you can find the |BISHOP| weapon upgrade, and the tanuki holds the |FIRE BALL|. Grab what you want and move on up. Next, we have another room with two facing samurais. Take out the left one, and in the very upper left corner of the room, you can find a |HELMET|, so grab it to become invincible for a while. Laugh at the pitiful ninjas trying to hurt you for a while and move on up. Next we're at another |PRINCESS| room, so see if you get lucky or not. Also, behind the princess, you can find another |HELMET|! Strange. Grab it, but it will probably run out by the time you get back. When you're done, head back to where you were before the item quest started. If you've forgotten it's: Down - Down - Left - Left. When you're back, head to the room to the left. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ In this room, there'll be a samurai and a halberd swinger. Move to the bottom of the screen to get the samurai away from the other, and slice him. Then take out the halberd swinger to get the door open. Quite a few red ninjas will be throwing shurikens at you while you're at it so be careful. Also, by the bottom left and right side of left folding screen, there are items. The left one is the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|, and the right one are the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. Head on up when you're done. You who didn't take the item detour will probably get a small shock by the next room. Four gatekeepers coupled with a bunch of fire blasters! Trust me, this will be something you'll have to get used to. Bear with me those who took the detour, as I'm going to post the exact same explanation here. Luckily, the fire blasters won't reach you by the entrance, so the best strategy is to just stay there and take out as many enemies as you can, which should be easy if you have enough weapon upgrades and power-ups. If not, it will be hard to get out of this undamaged - you'll have to do like before, starting with the side ones and moving up, but this time watching out for fire balls as well. Head up the stairs when you're done. You who didn't take the earlier detour will also face the ninjas new trick now - disguising themselves. You can still harm then when they're all black ball looking though, so they're no problem really. Eitherway, between the two obstacles you'll see as you enter the room, you'll find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Grab it if you want and head on to the right. There's a samurai in this room, and as always, you need to take him out to be able to proceed. At the upper left of the lone folding screen you can find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. Continue up. The next room is quite difficult, with two halberd swingers being close to the entrance. To fight them, it's easiest to get to the lower left part of the screen and wait until they've stopped swinging. It's best to just run past them though, or maybe use one of the special techniques if you have any. The left exit leads to an item detour, and you know the drill. Continue reading for it, or head up and skip the next section. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ---- Left ---- Items: Red Straw Sandal, Princess, Invisible Technique In this room, defeat the samurai to open the door. No other enemies here, so catch your breath. In the upper left corner of the room you find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. Continue on. Two samurais here, so defeat both of them to get the door open. Move on. Another |PRINCESS| room, so see if you get lucky or not. Behind the princess you can find the |INVISIBLE TECHNIQUE|, so grab them if you want. Return to the room you were before the detour and head up. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ Defeat the samurai here and move on to the next room while watching out for the fire balls the red ninjas throw. The tanuki has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. In the next room, the white ninjas will for the first time spring their surprise attack while being disguised, so watch out. Some black ninjas will jump out as well. Below the lowest obstacle to the left, you can find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. At the bottom right corner of the room, you can find the |BISHOP|. Move on down. As always, defeat the samurai in this room. In the upper left corner you can find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|. The tanuki here holds the |WINDMILL SWORD| and with the boss soon approaching, it might be worth picking up. Continue on. Two halberd swingers here and you need to defeat them to move on through. Don't worry though; if you get hit, you can go back to the last room and just pick up the white medicine case again. Neat huh? Continue up. Another room with gatekeepers here, and with the fire balls, escaping unharmed is hard. But if you get hit, you still can go back for the white medicine case. Continue up the stairs to confront the Lord of Akasame Castle. ---------- BOSS FIGHT ---------- Akasame Castle Lord Well, I told you to pick up the windmill sword earlier but really, it's not needed. The Akasame Castle Lord is the only boss who doesn't directly target you, which is easily abused by moving up next to him, and then just go at him with the katana. He attacks by throwing thunder balls in a set order while moving horizontally. Also, each time one of the bombs explode, a white ninja will appear, and these guys are the biggest pain of this fight really. The Akasame castle lord is also a user of the invisible technique, which he'll use which results in him being temporarily invincible. All in all though he's very much manageable and once defeated, pick up his red ball and move on to the Castle Town of Ryokusame. =========== QUICK GUIDE =========== Up - Left - Up - Up - Right - Up - Up - Right - Down - Right - Up - Up ******************************************************************************* e. Ryokusame Castle Town ******************************************************************************* Welcome to Ryokusame castle town, the town painted in green! As you might've figured out, "ryoku" is one of the readings for the chinese character for green in Japan. As always, start by heading to the left. Well, the green disappeared quickly enough, and instead we're in a winter wonderland. Be extra careful of the white ninjas in these setting as they blend in - which really is the point of ninja outfits in the first place, eh? Watch out for the bomb thrower who'll appear by the upper exit. Defeat him, and then take the very quick item detour to the left or head on up. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ---- Left ---- Items: Windmill Sword, Lightning Technique This detour is just the one area, but it has the |LIGHTNING TECHNIQUE|, so it's really rewarding. If you still have any special techniques left, just use them to ensure you don't get hurt. White ninjas will be appearing in their surprise attack, and a new enemy will also appear - the Ground Plucker. The ground plucker hides in the ground, to appear and throw a shuriken before going into hiding again. Just hit the shuriken he throws and be quick and he's an easy kill. The hidden tanuki here is in the lower left of the screen so grab it. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Move back to the right area and head up. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ Another crossroad here, and a bomb thrower will appear by one of the two exits. White ninjas will also be moving around. At the upper left corner of the area you'll find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. The left exit is the way to the item detour, so take it if you want, or head on up and skip the next section. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ---- Left ---- Items: White Medicine Case, Helmet This item detour is built up so whichever way you go, you'll end up back here in the end. In the lower right part of the lake, you'll find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|. To be frank, the rest of the detour only holds the helmet, so you can skip it if you want and head back to the previous area and up. If you want to stay and check out the whole area, continue up. White ninjas will be appearing here, but the lack of obstacles make them easy to handle. A ground plucker will appear as well, and if you didn't take the earlier detour, this will be the first time seeing one. Continue to the right. No enemies in this area and you can find the |HELMET| here if you just go down between the snowy passage as soon as you enter the room. Continue down after you've grabbed it. A lot of white ninjas as well as a ground plucker will attack you here but you should be fine with the helmet. Continue right and you'll be back where we started, so grab the white medicine case if you're damaged, and when you're done, head to the right area and then continue up. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ You'll be assaulted by a bunch of red ninjas at this area, and if you haven't taken any of the earlier item detours, you'll see the ground plucker for the first time. The ground plucker hides in the ground, to appear and throw a shuriken before going into hiding again. Just hit the shuriken he throws and be quick and he's an easy kill. Or you can just avoid all enemies, go over the water and continue to the right. We're still in winter wonderland, and we have three snowy passages we can take to the right. The upper one has the |BISHOP|, and the middle one has the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. White ninjas will start doing their surprise attack so be quick and continue up. The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALL|. Continue to the left and a bomb thrower will appear. Take care of him and move on. For you who haven't seen it before, we're now at the game's 2nd mountain area! They all look the same - two bridges, one up and one down, connecting the two exits. Immediately as you enter you will probably be ambushed by a new enemy, the Musasabi. These guys fly around the screen and can be really annoying, espescially here in the mountains were Takamaru's movement ability is limited. From the caves bandits will appear, but they're easier to handle - they just walk out of a cave, move forward a bit before throwing an axe forward, and then heading back into the cave. Uh, ok. Take the lower bridge for some items. On the way to the you'll find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|, and by the lower left cave, you'll find the |KING|. Head on up and exit to the left. We're back in winter wonderland. If you hit the post you'll find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Continue to the left, while watching out for the white ninjas. The tengu will appear here, as well as quite a few white ninjas, and the general thumbrule in this game is to keep moving, so don't waste time but try and take out the tengu as fast as possible. No sparkling ninjas around here so you need to explode the red bombs yourself. At the bottom right corner you'll - oddly - find another |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Continue on. Another tengu appears, and the lake (if you don't have the blue straw sandals left) coupled with the annoying red bombs by the exit and the white ninjas here throwing fire balls makes this area quite annoying. Try and take the tengu out as soon as possible, and then get the red bombs exploded, all while keeping an eye out for the fire balls. If you have any special techniques I recommend using on of them here, since it's hard to get out unharmed. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Move on to the left. We're back in the castle town, and the first crossroad for a while. The 2nd folding screen from the left has the |BLUE STRAW SANDALS|. (Thank you very much for being placed the area after they were the most useful.) You can choose to go either left or down here, with the left side being the bit harder but more item rewarding route. Choose your preferred route and head on. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ---- Left ---- Items: Bishop, Fire Ball, Red Straw Sandals, Blue Straw Sandals, Blue Feather Arrow, King Well, as you can see when you enter, the blue straw sandals will be useful here. Head over the water and pass the snow passage. At the upper right corner here, you find the |BISHOP|. Remember, to come to the next area, you have to stand on the shore, not on the water. Continue left. Another crossroad here, but we're going left next to return here later. The tanuki has the |FIRE BALL|. Keep moving. A tengu will assault you here, and once again, the road is blocked by red bombs. Really, you can just grab the |RED STRAW SANDALS| at the bottom right of the lake and head back to the right. The path to the left is a dead-end and dissapointedly, all they hold are the blue straw sandals. If you want to go there, take the tengu out and remove the bombs from the road, while watching out for the red ninjas and go to the left. Here, white ninjas will do their surprise attacks while shooting fire balls. The |BLUE STRAW SANDALS| are all the way to the upper left part, to the left side of the upper snow obstacle. Grab it if you want and head all the way back to the crossroad by the water. Back here, we're now going down. Be careful of all the white and sparkling ninjas jumping out though before going through. No items in this area, and if you take the right exit, you'll be at a big river. If you cross it and go to the middle, you'll find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW| so grab it if you want and head back to the previous area. There, continue down. Another water area. By the grass in the middle of the water you'll find |KING|. Head on down. ---- Down ---- Items: Red Straw Sandals, Blue Feather Arrow, White Medicine Case, Bishop At the upper right corner of the screen here, you'll find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. If you want you can take a quick detour by taking the left exit, where you'll be at a big river. If you cross it and go to the middle, you'll find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|, so grab it if you wish and head back to the previous area. There, continue down. Be careful as you enter this area as a white ninja will jump at you. By the grass in the water you'll find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|. Grab it if you need to and continue down. Continue to the left exit here. The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALLS|. Continue straight ahead in this area. In the lower middle part of the river you'll find the |BISHOP|. ------------- MERGING POINT ------------- A bomb thrower will be at the left exit in this area, which is where we want to go. Before that though, we have the |RED STRAW SANDALS| hidden in the bottom right corner of the screen. Take the bomb thrower out and head on to the left. The amount of white ninjas here makes it a bit difficult so be careful. We're back at a snow area again, and the road continues to the left. There's also a hidden tanuki here, containing the |LIGHTNING TECHNIQUE|. It keeps moving between the bottom right and upper right corners of the screen, so if you keep walking at any of these places, you should find it eventually. Grab it if you wish and move on. The exit here is guarded by a bomb thrower. There's a fire thrower here, and two pair of |BLUE STRAW SANDALS| to be found (uh, ok). The first one is by the 1st folding screen to the left, and the second one is by the middle one. Get the red bombs out of the way and you're headed for the Ryokusame Castle. The upper left tanuki here is the dummy so grab the others first and then hit it to be on your way. =========== QUICK GUIDE =========== Left - Up - Up - Right - Up - Left - Left - Left - Left - Left - Down - Down - Down - Left - Left - Left - Left - Left ******************************************************************************* f. Ryokusame Castle ******************************************************************************* Welcome to the Ryokusame castle! As always, the first area has nothing of value, so head on up. There are two samurais here, so get rid of them if you wish. A new enemy will appear as well - the green ninja! These guys are just unpredictible. Some of them move in groups, other hide and throw shurikens, and those who run around run at different speeds as well. To the upper right side of the green folding screen, you can find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. Continue on to the right. Another crossroad here, and the item detour is to the right. It's pretty hard but it has the lightning technique. Take it if you wish, or head on up and skip the next section. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ----- Right ----- Items: White Feather Arrow, Lightning Technique There's a samurai in this room that, and you know what to do. In the upper right corner of the screen you can find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Move on up. We're in a gatekeeper room now and, as always, you need to defeat all the gatekeepers to move forward. If you still have any special techniques, now is a good time to use them, since if you're trying to get through here, it's for the lightning technique in the next room. Otherwise, the fire balls here won't reach you by the entrance so take out the side enemies with projectiles (or the central one if you have the windmill sword) and pick them off one by one. Head on up the stairs. When you enter this dead-end, the hidden tanuki is placed just behind the folding screen so if you're quick, it should be around there. Or, if you have some lightning technique left, just use it to reveal it (and taking out all those pesking black ninjas running around). Grab the |LIGHTNING TECHNIQUE|, head back to where we were before the detour afterwards, and head up. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ When you enter, you'll notice a new enemy - another ninja commander, the Magician! Well, that's not really his name (he doesn't have one) but what else do you call someone who summons five fire balls that circles him - guarding him from projectiles - whilst firing of fire balls at you? That's magic to me, and the hardest normal enemy yet has appeared. If you look closely at him you will notice that there's a little hole in his barrier - you will need to expose it by firing projectiles in that hole. Easier said than done though, as he'll shoot fire balls at you at irregular intervals and, as you know, with fire balls you have no choice but to avoid them. Weapon upgrades helps a lot when dealing with the magician, espescially king in my experience. Eitherway, be careful. When you're done, you can continue on, but as you see, it's another crossroad. The item detour is up, or if you're continuing the adventure, head on to the left. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Princess, King Getting through the first room here is pretty tricky, as you'll be flanked by two samurais (the right one also being behind an obstacle) as well as a halberd swinger ahead of you, and to top it of, a couple of red ninjas will run out, throwing fire balls at you. First and foremost, get rid of the left samurai at least, to give you some degree of moveability. Then, wait for the halberd swinger to stop swinging to take care of him, and then quickly avoid the fire balls that the red ninjas will be throwing. Finally, take care of the right samurai and move on. It's a |PRINCESS| room now, so see if you're lucky or not. Behind the princess here, you can find the |KING|. Head on to the room before we started the detour and head to the left. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ A lot of disguised green ninjas will jump at you at this room, so be careful, since they're pretty hard to read. Continue on up to the next room. Another room with gatekeepers and fire blasters follow here, but there's no real difference since last time we saw such a room, so handle it in the best way you can and head up the stairs. Remember, that it's for times when you really fear getting hurt that you should use the special techniques. The next room is really annoying as well since you have so much too look out for - the fire balls the magician shoots at you, the opening in his barrier and then those pesky black ninjas running around, throwing shurikens at you. Thankfully, no fire ball throwing ninjas here though, because that would just be too much. Be patient, keep an eye out for projectiles and you should make it. Then, continue on to the left. Two samurais here, and disguised red ninjas. Take out the samurais, as usual. In the bottom right corner you can find the |BISHOP|. And then, we have another item detour, which is the bottom exit. Take it if you wish, or head on to the left and skip the next section. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ---- Down ---- Items: Windmill Sword, Princess, Blue Feather Arrow, Invisible Technique You'll notice something odd when you enter - no enemies, not even someone jumping out? Where's the catch? None really. And if you continue down, there's another completely empty room. Strange. Continue left from here. This room has a halberd swinger, but he's all alone, and you should have little problem with these guys now. The tanuki has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Go on up. It's another |PRINCESS| room. See if you're lucky, and then we have to items here. Behind the princess you can find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. Also lurking around in the room is a hidden tanuki with the |INVISIBLE TECHNIQUE|. Take any item you want/need and head back to the room before the detour, and continue left. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ A samurai in this room, and another locked door. Pretty silly that the door is locked if you ask me, since the only way to get past the samurai is to defeat him (or get hit...). Disguised white ninjas will do their surprise attack and throw fire balls, so be careful and move on up. The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALLS|. Another room with gatekeepers. Handle them as usual and head up the stairs. As you'll notice, this castle is a bit bigger than the others, and we still haven't catched up with the castle lord. To the right of where you begin, below the most upper right obstacle, you can find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. Then, on to the magician. This time you'll actually be able to avoid him, by running past behind him when he has moved forward. Do as you wish and head on right. Another samurai to take out here. To the left of the upper obstacle, you'll find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. Head on to the right. Another halberd swinger here and if you want to take the item detour which is the upper exit, you'll need to take him out. Otherwise, continue to the right and skip the next section. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Windmill Sword, White Medicine Case, Blue Feather Arrow, Princess, White Medicine Case Another halberd swinger here, which you need to defeat. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Head on. Two samurais here who you need to defeat, and some green ninjas who hide and throw shurikens at you. Two items in this room. To the bottom right corner you find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|, and in the left bottom corner, you find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW| (again...). Take what you want and head on up. Another |PRINCESS| room, so see if you get lucky or not. Behind her, you'll find another |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|. (First time you'll be dissapointed to hear that.) When you're done, head back to before the detour started and continue right. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ Another room full of fire blasters, and I don't even know if it's possible to get through this room unhurt without any special techniques. So you better have them or this is going to get ugly. If you have no other choice, start by running straight down as you enter and then... Well, good luck really. To the bottom right you'll find the |KING| weapon upgrade. Head on to the right. There's another magician in this room, and running past him will be tight, so it's best to just take him out. Not so easy this time though, since the magician's movement means he'll be able to avoid projectiles which past through his barrier, so be prepared for it to get a bit dragged out. Don't forget the samurai (like you'd even need to hear that). The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALL|. Head on up. Another gatekeeper room, and now there're five of them! Shouldn't change much, though. The easiest way to get out of this unharmed (except for using special techniques) is to run straight up, take out the upper gatekeeper, and then head to the left and then circle the room until you've taken out them all. Continue up to face the Lord of Ryokusame Castle! ---------- BOSS FIGHT ---------- Ryokusame Castle Lord The lord of Ryokusame castle uses the partition technique - he "splits" his body into four, but three of them are fake, and the fourth one is his real body, which you can hurt. He will be teleporting around the room, throwing projectiles at you. While this could be easy, you can actually kill him within seconds if you have the fire balls (due to them being the strongest weapon, but you knew that). At the start, the lord of Ryokusame will be the third from the left, so what you do is run forward, throw a fire ball, avoid the incoming fireballs by circling them and then hit him two times with your sword. He'll be defeated, so grab the green ball and move on to the Castle Town of Momosame. =========== QUICK GUIDE =========== Up - Right - Up - Left - Up - Up - Left - Left - Up - Up - Right - Right - Right - Right - Up - Up ******************************************************************************* g. Momosame Castle Town ******************************************************************************* Welcome to the castle town of Momosame! Momo is the chinese character for peach, and as a color, it's pink (although this town more looks like purple if you ask me). Head on to the left, for the biggest level of the game so far. A bunch of sparkling ninjas will jump out here so take one of them out if you want to head up and the first item detour. Otherwise, continue down and skip the next section. The tanuki here has the windmill sword. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Fire Ball, King The tanuki in this area has the |FIRE BALL|. Take it if you wish and head on left. In the very left corner of this room you'll find the |KING|, so grab it (because why are you if not for this?). Head back to before we started and continue down. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ Two fire throwers will be here, so slice the first one in front of you before he has time to react. If you want to take another item detour head left - defeating the 2nd fire thrower - or continue right and skip the next section. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ----- Right ----- Items: Castle, White Feather Arrow, Lightning Technique By the folding screen right next to you, you'll find the |CASTLE|. Get rid of the red bombs and continue up. To the upper left corner of this screen you'll find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. The grand prize is hiding on the right side as you enter, so look around to find the first |LIGHTNING TECHNIQUE| for a while. When you're done head back to before the detour and continue to the right. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALL| but really, you won't have time grabbing it, as soon white ninjas throwing shurikens and fire balls will appear, and it will get crowded. Quickly get rid of one or both red bombs and head on down. To the upper right corner here you can find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. That's it here, no enemies. Continue to the left. There will be a fire thrower here, and another one of them will be guarding the exit. Also, by the folding screen to the left, you find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|. Continue on. Another set of red bombs here and by the folding screen by the upper right of them, you'll find the |BLUE STRAW SANDAL|. Grab them if you don't have them and be careful, because a lot of white ninjas will come at you here (none throwing fire balls, luckily). There's also a fire thrower guarding the exit. Head on. Another crossroad here, and the left leads to a small detour where you can find the |BISHOP| by the lower left corner. Go and grab it if you wish and then head on up. By the folding screen here, you'll find a pair of |RED STRAW SANDALS|. The upper room has a tanuki with the |FIRE BALL|, so go grab it if you wish. Head on to the left. A fire thrower will be in the water here, and take him out just to be safe. Remove the red bombs while watching out for the red ninjas here. After removing them, another fire thrower will appear, so watch out. Move on up. The white ninjas here will be throwing both shurikens and fire balls. A fire thrower will guard the exit, so take him out. Also, by the lower left of the screen, you can find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Move on. Another mountain area here, which means bandits and musasabi. To the bottom right cave, you'll find the |HELMET|, which is very useful this time, in this and the following areas. Take it and quickly move on to the left. For the first time, musasabi will appear outside the mountains. They can be hard to read so the helmet comes in handy, so hurry on, unless you want the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|, which is placed at the upper left part where you enter the area. If you've been fast enough, you should be able to run through this area as well. In any case, don't stick around, as red ninjas and a tengu will appear. The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALLS|. Move on. Another mountain area and by the lower left cave here you'll find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Watch out for the musasabis and head on. If you continue on the road here and stop by the first rock obstacle you see, you can slice the most upper stone for the |BISHOP|. Be quick since it'll get crowded here soon. Continue down. We've enter some purple forest now! The last crossroad of the level awaits you. No enemies here and on top of that, two items to grab! To the right side of the left tree you'll find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE| and on the left side of the right tree you'll find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. Head down for the chance to get the invisibility technique, or continue on to the right and skip the next section. The white medicine case means you don't have to worry about getting hurt so if you want it, go grab it. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ---- Down ---- Items: Invisible Technique Be quick here, since as you'll see, a tengu appears along with a bunch of ninjas. You should be able to keep momentum, dodging projectiles as you go, slicing the tengu and heading on to the left. Watch out for the white ninjas surprise attack here. You'll find the |INVISIBILITY TECHNIQUE| around the left part of the screen. When you've grabbed it, head back to where you were before the detour and head on right. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ Tough section here and you'd better just try and remove the red bombs as quickly as possible. A tengu will appear along with a bunch of fire ball shooting white ninjas, and you know what that means. Cut down anyone who stands in your way while moving around and head on down. Also, in the bottom right corner you'll find the |BLUE STRAW SANDALS|. The next area is more manageable. Just get rid of the red bombs and avoid the red ninjas. Head on down. Quickly run and take out the tengu here, and then hit one of the sparkling ninjas to open the road. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Head on to the left. By the sign in this area, you'll find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Grab it if you want and then you can just run past everything since the red bombs aren't placed by the exit this time. Another mountain area here, and a very rewarding one. If you take the upper bridge you should find a hidden tanuki lurking around, holding the |LIGHTNING TECHNIQUE|! Also, if you head towards the left cave on the bridge you'll find the |KING| weapon upgrade. Move on to the next area. At the bottom of the small lake as you enter, you can find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. Hurry on up as the musasabi will overrun this place. Even then it can be tough to get on unhurt, though - wait a bit before running up since you'll otherwise get hit by one of them. Right next to the upper right corner of the screen here you can find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. Grab it if you wish and just run through here. The bottom right corner in this area has another |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Grab it if you want and head on to the next area, while avoiding musasabi. The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALL|. As you approach the upper exit here you'll be attacked by a bomb thrower. Defeat him and head on up. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Continue on the road, and look out for the fire thrower and the white ninjas surprise attack. Two fire throwers here, as well as white ninjas hiding in disguise, throwing fire balls. Tough - but as you can see, the red bombs are placed here so you can go around them. Take out only the most urgent enemies and head on to the end of the level. Also, by the 2nd folding screen to the right you can find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. We're on to Momosame Castle! The lower left tanuki here is the dud. Take the rest, hit the dud and we're on our way. =========== QUICK GUIDE =========== Left - Down - Right - Down - Left - Left - Left - Up - Left - Up - Left - Left - Up - Left - Left - Down - Right - Down - Down - Left - Left - Left - Up - Up - Right - Up - Left ******************************************************************************* h. Momosame Castle ******************************************************************************* As always, just move on to the next area, nothing to find here. Quickly take out the samurai here, as white ninjas soon will be jumping out there. Then, you can decide if you want to take out the left samurai and head up for an item detour, or if you continue on to the right. You know the drill now. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Red Straw Sandals, Windmill Sword, Princess, Helmet As you enter here, you can find the |RED STRAW SANDALS| below the folding screen. Take out the samurai and continue on. Next we have two samurais and a locked door... You know the drill. Be careful though as we'll encounter another new ninja here - the purple. These guys don't give up if they run past you but keep coming until they're dead. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Another |PRINCESS| room, so see if you're lucky or not. You can grab the |HELMET| behind the princess if you happen to face hanya to make things easier. Head back to before the detour started when you're done, and continue to the right. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ Disguised ninjas will jump out in this room, a few red ones but mainly the new type: purple. For you who didn't take the detour just now, purple ninjas doesn't just give up when they've run past you. They keep coming at you until they're dead. Or until you've left the area, which I advise you to do quickly. Head on up. The magician awaits you here, along with red ninjas; one of the more annoying combos of the game. Luckily, the magician is placed so you can sneak past him if you time it right. Do as you want and head on up. Another gatekeeper room here, and you can use the earlier strategies this time as well. To recap; run straight up and take the one in front of you out, and then circle anti-clockwise, taking one enemy out at the time. Head on up. Two tanukis here; the lower right has the |FIRE BALLS|, and the upper left one has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. From the right side a couple of purple ninjas will run at you and guarding the exit is a newish enemy, the Bomb Thrower (2). He looks a bit different but moves the same; just watch out for the purple ninjas. Move on. A samurai's in this room, so take him out. Disguised red and purple ninjas will be jumping at you here so be careful but quick and move on up. As soon as you enter this room, fire of your projectile (if you've got any weapon upgrades) and you'll hopefully take out the first halberd swinger in this room - if not, quickly go and take out the samurai instead and be quick to strike either halberd swinger as they have their cooldown period. Defeat all three of them and the door up opens, so head on to continue your journey. To the left though we have an item detour, so take it if you want. I want to note here that this is the last place where you can find the bishop, which is very useful when you face the boss of this castle (which is a lot harder than the previous ones). ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- Items: White Feather Arrow, Red Straw Sandals, Bishop, Princess, Blue Feather Arrow ---- Left ---- Only two samurais in this room, so take them out. Two items here, both to the left side of the two obstacles here. To the bottom one you find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|, and by the upper one you find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. Take them and head on. There's a halberd swinger here and a locked door, so take him out as soon as you can, because soon the purple ninjas will start throwing shurikens like crazy at you. To the bottom left corner here you can find the |BISHOP|. Continue on. Another |PRINCESS| room, so see if you got lucky or not. Behind here you can find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. Quite a few red and purple ninjas will run around here but not throw anything at you. Head back to before the detour and head up. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ Another gatekeeper room, but follow the same tactic before and you should be fine - we've had some practise, after all! Continue up the stairs. Very tough room this with two halberd swingers, a samurai and a bunch of shuriken throwing purple ninjas. Well, before deciding to take them out and open the door, you need to know that it leads to an optional item detour, so if you feel properly stacked up already, you can just continue to the left. Otherwise, take the enemies out and continue up. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: Fire Ball, Red Straw Sandals, Windmill Sword, White Feather Arrow, Princess, King, White Medicine Case This is the biggest detour yet which even splits in the next room. The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALL|, and on your way to the next room, you will find the |RED STRAW SANDALS| in the middle of the room. Watch out for the two purple ninjas jumping at you though. Head on. A crossroad here, but lets continue left for now (unless you're very injured, in which case you head up - careful for a gatekeeper room though). The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Some disguised ninjas will be hanging around here, but they're of no concern. To the upper left corner you can find the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW|. Head on up. Two samurais will face each other here, so take them out to open the door. Watch out for the ninjas running around and continue up. The tanuki here has another |FIRE BALL|. Another |PRINCESS| room, so see if you're lucky or not. Behind her you find the |KING|. Watch out for all the purple ninjas here, too. Go back to the earlier crossroad now if you're interested of getting healed. Head on up. You'll enter another gatekeeper room but hopefully you should be able to get through these unhurt now. Continue up. Alright, your target here is in the upper right corner, where you find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|. Grab it, run out of here and back to before we started the tour, and go left. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ The exit here is blocked by another bomb thrower, and since quite a few ninjas will jump at you its best that you don't drop momentum; quickly dodge the bomb and slice with the katana, and move on. Another room with fire blasters, and to top it of, a bomb thrower. Plus some ninjas. Geez. You can get through here unhurt but its hard on the first try (and even if you get in some practise), so if you have any special techniques, I urge you to use them. Otherwise, keep running straight ahead until the bomb thrower appears, and quickly dodge down (not up, since this will hit you with a fire ball), slice the bomb thrower and try and maneuveur out of the room. A couple of disguised ninjas in this room, but you can just ignore them and continue up. We're now in another hard room. A disguised sparkling ninja will be jumping right at you in the beginning so take cover before taking him and the samurai out. This won't be the last sparkling ninja here though and with the magician hanging around as well, you can't really expect getting out of here unhurt, so either use a special technique if you have any left, or run straight at the magician, get hurt, and quickly slice him before you get hurt again. Or try your luck by fighting normally, your choice. I warn you though, the upcoming boss is pretty tough. Continue up. Another gatekeeper room, so do your thing, and continue up to face the Castle Lord of Momosame. ---------- BOSS FIGHT ---------- Momosame Castle Lord This is the only female castle lord, but easily the hardest of them. She throws a purple flower at you which does not only explode, but also splits up in eight pieces; avoiding it is really difficult and really needs some practise. Otherwise, the best weapon combination for this boss is the bishop and windmill sword. If you have them, you can keep your distance while being able to shoot projectiles at her without having to move into her line of sight. Also, two hits of the fire ball should be able to take her out. I also want to note that using the katana is useless unless you also have the invisible technique; you'll just get hit by her and she'll teleport away. When you've defeated her, grab the purple ball and of we are to the Murasame Castle. =========== QUICK GUIDE =========== Up - Right - Up - Up - Up - Right - Up - Up - Up - Left - Left - Left - Up - Up - Up ******************************************************************************* i. Murasame Castle ******************************************************************************* Well, this area has no name but it is clearly either the castle, or its castle town, or both. Instead of contemplating on this lets just say it's the castle and get started. You start of in an area covered with skulls, which works as obstacles here. Immediately a new enemy will appear - the Evil Spirit. These guys work as ninjas here, but they're real quick and throw both shurikens and fire balls. Hit what comes in your way and continue on. In this area, you can actually find all of the weapon upgrades. The upper path between the skull obstacles has the |BISHOP|, the middle one has the |CASTLE| and the bottom has |KING|. The evil spirits here will start hiding and shooting projectiles as well now so be careful. If you quickly head to the left area I can explain one of the special features of the Murasame castle level; it has divided screens. This means you cannot directly go through an entire area which is divided, but you need to enter from the other exit to explore the 2nd part. Absolutely no items here at all though so head back, cross the river and go up to the next area. Another big river here so be very careful if you don't have the blue straw sandals. To the bottom right area here - between the skulls - as you enter, you should be able to find an... Uh... Hidden tanuki spirit? Let's just keep calling them tanukis, eh? Well, this one has the |LIGHTNING TECHNIQUE|! I want to make it clear now how incredibly valuable this one will be at the end of the game. Make sure you have at least one left. The right exit here leads to an item detour so take it if you wish or continue to the left. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ----- Right ----- Items: Blue Straw Sandals, Windmill Sword, King In this first area, you can find the |BLUE STRAW SANDALS| by the lower right skulls by the big chunk of four skulls in the middle. Take it if you need it and carry on up. We've got gatekeepers at Murasame castle as well. There are always two of them standing to both sides of the raised bridge, and to lower it, you need to defeat both of them. They shoot light balls at you, which divides into eight pieces, which is similair to the attacks that the Momosame castle lord used. These balls, however, don't explode, just divide. They might seem hard but really, they're easier than you think. They only attack one at a time and they won't attack directly after one and another, which gives you room to act. Also, by standing still by the entrance, you avoid almost all attacks, and you can easily dodge the few that might hit you. So wait until one of them attacks, run up and fire a projectile at it (katana won't work), run back, and then repeat one more time and you're set. Continue on. The evil spirit moving to the bottom left corner is, as you might have guessed, a tanuki and this one contains the |WINDMILL SWORD|. To the upper right part of the right lake you can also find the |KING|. Head back to before the detour started and continue to the left. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ You will find a new hazard in this area - the Blood Pond. Unlike the water, the blood pond makes you sink into it, which damages you. The only way to cross it unharmed is by having the blue straw sandals, which you could pick up in the earlier detour. The evil spirit-looking thing to the left is actually a tanuki, and all tanukis at Murasame castle will look like this. You can hit it with your katana from this side and inside it you find the |FIRE BALL|. Continue up. Another crossroad, and another blood pond up ahead. The left exit leads to an item detour - you know the drill by now. Take which way you wish. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ---- Left ---- Items: White Medicine Case, Windmill Sword You enter an area which has a divided screen, but there's nothing to find here. Head on down. As soon as you enter the room you can go right to find the |WHITE MEDICINE CASE|. Two exits here, but the right one leads to where you found the fire ball in a previous room, so no need to go there. A new ninja commander will appear when you approach either exit; the fire thrower (2). The changes are merely cosmetic and he will attack as before. Go on down. Another divided screen here so nothing to find, so continue to the right. You'll now be in the room where you saw the divided screen for the first time, and on this side you can find the |WINDMILL SWORD| in the tanuki. Go back to before the detour started and head up. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ New enemies here and for those who didn't take an earlier detour I'll post it again. We've got gatekeepers at Murasame castle as well. There are always two of them standing to both sides of the raised bridge, and to lower it, you need to defeat both of them. They shoot light balls at you, which divides into eight pieces, which is similair to the attacks that the Momosame castle lord used. These balls, however, don't explode, just divide. They might seem hard but really, they're easier than you think. They only attack one at a time and they won't attack directly after one and another, which gives you room to act. Also, by standing still by the entrance, you avoid almost all attacks, and you can easily dodge the few that might hit you. So wait until one of them attacks, run up and fire a projectile at it (katana won't work), run back, and then repeat one more time and you're set. Continue on. In the upper most skeleton passage here, by the very end of it, you can find the |RED STRAW SANDALS|. Grab them if you don't have them. On the way there though, the last ninja commander will appear - Bomb Thrower (3). He moves as you'd expect him though but from his bombs, evil spirits will appear, so be quick to take him out. Continue to the left. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. Grab it if you want and continue left. By the upper left area here you can find the |BLUE STRAW SANDALS| and as these guard you against the blood ponds, make sure to grab it if you've lost it. There's a very small detour up ahead so take it if you want or continue down. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- -- Up -- Items: White Feather Arrow The item you're looking for is at top at the screen, by the end of the skeleton passage. There will be evil spirits firing shurikens at you but they should be no problem. Grab the |WHITE FEATHER ARROW| and head back to the previous area and continue down. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ At both exits here, a bomb thrower will be placed, so be careful. If you continue down - not by going through the blood pond, but by the skeleton path - you'll find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|. The right exit leads to a dead end with no items so continue down. The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALL|. The left leads to a very large detour that only brings you the |WINDMILL SWORD|, but if you want, you can quickly enter the first area there and go through the lower skeleton passage there, which has the |HELMET|, and head back. Afterwards, let's continue down. The skeleton passage here has a |WHITE MEDICINE CASE| so grab it if you're hurt, and continue down. Look out for the bomb thrower at the exit though. A fire thrower here, which is guarding the way forward. If you want you can take a small detour to the right where you can find the |INVISIBLE TECHNIQUE| in a hidden tanuki in the lower area where there's a skull passage. As I mentioned earlier though you really want the lightning technique this time and the invisible technique won't be nearly as useful at the end. Return to the previous area and continue past the fire thrower. A lot of blood ponds in the next area, and you can find another |HELMET| by the bottom left corner. Watch out for the fire thrower by the exit. Nothing here and with the helmet you should be able to easily continue on up. Same here, nothing to find, hurry on until the helmet runs out. A crossroad here, and a fire thrower that guards either exit. For the last item detour of the game, head on down, or continue up. ----------- ITEM DETOUR ----------- ---- Down ---- Items: Windmill Sword, Blue Straw Sandals Well, it's just one room really. The tanuki has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. In the middle of the water you can find the |BLUE STRAW SANDALS|. Go back when you're done and continue up. ------------------ END OF ITEM DETOUR ------------------ We're getting closer to the end now. Two items here; both below the blood pond. To the left of the two skeletons you can find the |BLUE FEATHER ARROW|, and to the right side of them you can find the |KING|. As you can expect, a fire thrower guards the exit here. The tanuki here has the |WINDMILL SWORD|. A bomb thrower guards the exit, so watch out. Continue up. Little room for maneuveur in this area, so watch out for fire balls. Also, a fire thrower will guard the exit but be quick and you can slice him before he fires. Continue up. Two gatekeepers here, so take them out as we've done before and continue up. Murasame awaits you! ---------- BOSS FIGHT ---------- Murasame As you can expect - formerely being a stone statue, and all that - Murasame won't be moving around. At all. Instead, he uses two attacks. The most prominent one is the Devil Mask Technique, as it's called, in which Murasame fires a green ball at you - which of course injures you if it hits - which divides when hitting the wall, firing of three projectiles at you. The other attack is a white ball which keeps bouncing of the walls once firing, and continues to do so until it hits Takamaru. Now, on to strategy. The only way to hurt Murasame is by striking the head but when he grabs a new ball he will be invulnerable, so you need to strike him in between the balls he throws. Well, it's easier said than done, and this might take some practise. The fire ball is the best projectile for hitting him, as it should take him out in three hits or so, but just before here you can find the windmill sword and king, and they should do nicely. The invinsible technique won't do much good here - instead, the lightning technique actually hurt Murasame but strangely not as much as the fire balls. Make sure you save one lightning technique though. Eitherway, be quick as the green balls past you and run past him, only stopping to fire your projectile, and keep moving around in a sort of clockwise manner and you should be fine. Approach Murasame as he is defeated and reverts into a stone statue once again to enter the final level of the game; the Inner Sanctuary. =========== QUICK GUIDE =========== Left - Up - Left - Up - Up - Up - Left - Left - Down - Down - Down - Down - Left - Left - Left - Up - Left - Up - Right - Up - Up - Up ******************************************************************************* j. Inner Sanctuary ******************************************************************************* No quick guide needed for this area since we're only going up until the end of it. As you enter the final area here you'll notice that you'll get fired by the walls. These are the Lightning Blasters and they work like the fire blasters before; you have to dodge them. However, they usually show in advance which is going to fire so you should be able to plan your route as you go. The tanuki here has the |FIRE BALL|. Move on up. The door closes as you enter, and this will be reaccuring for the rest of the level. No items here so go up while avoiding the lightning balls. Rejoice if you're hurt; there's a |WHITE MEDICINE CASE| here just to the lower left of the next exit. Continue up for the final boss of the game; the Mystical Life-Form. ---------- BOSS FIGHT ---------- The Mystical Life-Form Depending if you have any lightning technique left, the difficulty of this boss will vary greatly. Because in this level, lightning balls will be fired at you constantly, but by using the lightning technique, you permanently remove them! With them gone, you only have to focus on the mystical life-form itself. It's basically just a floating head but it can only be hurt by firing a projectile at it when it opens its mouth. Beware though since shortly after opening it he'll fire four consecutive bombs at you, so you need to move quick and smart. Also, the two tanuki boxes here hold the fire ball and windmill sword, so use the one you prefer. Once defeated, all the balls will flow up to the sky, and peace once again returns... Only for you to return to Aosame castle again for a 2nd playthrough! Well, the game might not give you much credit so let me personally say - congratulations for beating Nazo no Murasame Jou! I hope I've been of some during this, well, pretty short but challenging quest. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIII. FAQ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This guide is new, so I haven't got any questions yet! If I get any I will be updating this section. Feel free to send them to chauzu.gamefaqs@hotmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IX. Fun Facts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this section I've listed some fun facts that haven't really fit any other place in this walkthrough. ----------------------- Permanent Invincibility ----------------------- The total amount of life that Takamaru can collect is 99 and once collected he will become permanent invincible! As you might expect I haven't tried this out myself, since this requires multiple playthroughs and, well, getting so good at the game that you almost never die. I haven't been able to find a video of this either so yeah, really just a fun fact and something that gives further playthroughs some additional meaning. ------------ Castle names ------------ Every castle has the kanji (chinese character) for "rain" in it, which is pronounced as "same" in all castle names. Other than that, every castle (except for Murasame castle, where "mura" stands for village) has a color in the name. - Aosame Jou = Blue Rain Castle - Akasame Jou = Red Rain Castle - Ryokusame Jou = Green Rain Castle - Momosame Jou = Pink Rain Castle ("momo" can also mean the fruit "peach" in japanese) - Murasame Jou = Village Rain Castle (but the word can also mean rain that is very harsh and reoccuring.) -------------------------- Names of enemies and items -------------------------- Not all names used in this guide are official (i.e. taken from the manual), and instead I've made up a fitting name for case of simplicity. For example, the ninja commanders have no names but are listed after number, which isn't very useful to quickly reference something. Other things that lacks a name are all hazards and the armour item. -------------------------- Takamaru Cameo Appearances -------------------------- Despite in many ways being a forgotten character from a forgetten game, Takamaru has recently figured in many recent games in one or other way. He appeared in the 2008 action-adventure game Captain Rainbow, starring a fallen action hero. It also stars several other forgotten Nintendo heroes. He appeared in the 2009 hack and slash game Samurai Warriors 3 as an exclusive character in the Wii version. In it, you can play as Takamaru as he fights his way through the Murasame Castle mode, but you can unluck him for other modes by collecting 33 tanukis in the castle. A Nazo no Murasame Jou stage involving Takamaru also appeared in the 2010 WarioWare D.I.Y., a mini-game compilation, in which you have to use the invisibility technique to avoid enemy attacks. His most recent appearance is in the 2012 Wii U release title Nintendo Land, which has an entire stage named after him: Takamaru's Ninja Castle. In this, you battle through several castle levels while throwing shurikens at enemy ninjas. Takamaru also appeared as a sticker in the 2008 game Super Smash Bros. Brawl. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X. Thanks to... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...GameFAQs for being there and I'm happy to finally contribute something myself. ...Nintendo for giving me so many memories over the years, and still giving me new ones every year. ...Banjo2553 for his FAQ/Walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It was a huge inspiration, and is the best guide I've read up to date. ...ASchultz and Kefka83 for their very useful maps for the game. ...Nintendo Wikia for having a quick reference for all games which Takamaru has been in. ...The Super Smash community which got me interested in Takamaru and Nazo no Murasame Jou in the first play. Here's hoping he will be in the new Super Smash games for 3DS and Wii U!