Tashiro Masashi no Princess ga Ippai
FAQ/Walkthrough by Seth0708

 ______________
| Introduction |
|______________|
Tashiro Masashi no Princess ga Ippai is a short action title
released on the MSX and NES in 1989. GameFAQs has the developer
of the NES version listed as Hal, while for the MSX version
they have Epic Sony Record. The two versions are essentially
the same, although the MSX version is more colorful.

This guide was written as part of the NES FAQ Completion Project.
The status of the project can be found here:
http://faqs.retronintendo.com/

From the title screen the player is given the choice of saving
one of four princesses. In a playthrough you will be saving all
four, but the order does not matter. This guide is divided up
by the placement of the portraits on the stage select screen.

Each princess is in a two-part level. The first part is a trek
to the castle she is being held in. These stages only have one
way to go. At the end of each stage is a palette-swapped boss.
Beating this and moving inside the castle will begin the second
stage, which is a small maze. The boss at the end of these are
reaper creatures.

Upon rescuing all four of the initial princesses, a fifth and
final level will unlock. Bizzarely this last stage plays in a
totally different manner from the previous stages. It becomes
some sort of cross between a scrolling shooter and a Zelda
style adventure, although the sequence is just way too short
to have much of an impact.

The player character is Masashi Tashiro. Tashiro is actually a
member of the band Rats and Star, which plays a song during the
end credits. He went on to become a stand-up comic as well. He
has been arrested multiple times for drug and weapons charges.

Each stage has a member of Rats and Star in it. To get the
"best" ending, which changes the dialogue box at the end of
the game, you need to find all eight members and choose the
third dialogue choice offered by the final boss. The first
stage of each princess level will have a member walking or
swimming along the path. You cannot miss them. Simply touch
them to cue the dialogue event. The second stage of each has
one hidden in a room. This walkthrough will direct you to
each in the course of the stage.

A youtube user named 838861dq4 produced a run through of the
game in five parts. Although I played through the game to make
this guide, I did refer to his videos to verify the solutions
to the maze sequences when I wrote all of this down.

 ___________________
| Top Left Princess |
|___________________|
Stage 1
The first stage only has one path, although it is strewn with enemies.
Bats swoop downward at you as you pass. Mushrooms hop back and forth,
spewing spores as they do. Pumpkin-looking things will sometimes
appear from the left side of the screen and dash at you. Snowmen will
hop towards you, stopping to spit ice out of their mouths. Ice-looking
creatures will simply charge at you until it dies.

A red snake composed of skulls serves as the boss. It will move back and
forth, spewing three small fireballs every few seconds. You will see a
gap between two of the three that is larger than the gap between the
other two, so try to jump through this. The projectile only seems to hurt
the topmost skull.

Stage 2
This one is a maze. Go down the bottom left hole. On the second screen
take the bottom right door. On the third screen go up the upper left
hole. Take the immediate bottom left door on the fourth screen and move
to the bottom left door on the fifth screen. Continue to the bottom
left door on the sixth screen. There will be some dialogue and then
you can move again.

Go back to the bottom right and work your way back to the fourth screen.
Drop back down through the bottom left to the third screen and then 
drop down again through the bottom left hole. The door in the bottom
right with the skull on it has the boss.

A blue reaper serves as the boss. It will fly overhead, trying to get
right above you. It will drop blue orbs down on you when it does. It
also can dive at you, although it seems this is just part of the way
it moves instead of a deliberate attack.

Once you beat it, the princess will burst from the portrait and you
need to escort her back to the entrance. Thankfully all the enemies
will be gone, so this is not too bad. Getting back there ends the
stage.

There are three types of enemies as you work through the second stage.
For starters, the bats are back. Silver knights will move towards you.
If they're below, this means they will try to move directly underneath
you. Flying knights do the same thing, except they also periodically
shoot fireballs from their crossbows.

 ____________________
| Top Right Princess |
|____________________|
Stage 1
This is the obligatory underwater level. You can swim all over the
screen, but it is still a straight shot to the end. The enemies are
a little different here because of the changed setting.

Dead fish are the most common, swimming straight across the screen.
Simply swim above or below them to avoid contact. Seahorses are the
inverse of this, swimming up and down, and can be shot pretty easily
as they appear. Blue octopus function the same way, except shooting
one will make it turn into two smaller ones. Kabuki mask wearing sea
snakes can be found in the cave sections. These spin in circles until
you get close, then they try to swim at you.

The mid-boss is a giant gold fish. It will swim at you, but then
stop at your location and spew fire from its tail. Hovering around
its mouth will allow you to shoot it with impunity. Once it goes down,
enter the mouth of the whale to continue on. Inside the whale you
will find white blood cell enemies that float about.

A sea snake composed of white barnacles serves as the boss. It will
move back and forth, spewing three small fireballs every few seconds.
You will see a gap between two of the three that is larger than the
gap between the other two, so try to swim through this. The projectile
only seems to hurt the snake head. In case this sounds familiar, yes,
this boss is exactly the same as the other stage's first boss.

Stage 2
There's no swimming in this maze. Take the lower left hole on the
first screen. Take the upper right door on the second screen. Take
the lower left hole on the third and fourth screens. Take the upper
right door on the fifth screen. Take the lower left door on the sixth
screen to go back to the fifth screen on the lower floor and now take
the lower left door. This will take you to the dialogue event screen.

Return to the sixth screen and take the upper right door. Take the
lower left hole on this next screen and enter the lower left door on
the following screen to face the boss.

A red reaper serves as the boss. It will fly overhead, trying to get
right above you. It will drop red orbs down on you when it does. It
also can dive at you, although it seems this is just part of the way
it moves instead of a deliberate attack. It's the same as the previous
reaper boss, only red now. Killing it frees the princess from the
portrait. Escort her back to the entrance to finish the level.

Enemy-wise you get bats, mushrooms, flying knights, and silver knights
again. There are also now lizards that slink across the floor and a
flying knight helmet that moves erratically and shoots at you.

 ______________________
| Bottom Left Princess |
|______________________|
Stage 1
This stage is another straight shot. Bats and mushrooms are back, along
with some new enemies. Green ducks will slide on their bellies across
the ground, moving back and forth on the platforms they start on. There
are grey hedgehogs that do the same, except when you get near they will
stop and puff up their quills. In the cave sequences there are also
large centipedes that will fall from the ceiling and burrow straight
down. Just go slowly and stop when one falls in front of you. Bees fly
overhead and drop bombs on you. There is also a creature that looks
like a swamp hag that will leap out of the ground when you get near it.

The boss of the stage is just like the skull snake, except now it has
a bird head and snake-like body. It will move back and forth, spewing
three small fireballs every few seconds. You will see a gap between two
of the three that is larger than the gap between the other two, so try
to jump through this. The projectile only seems to hurtthe bird head.

Stage 2
Another maze level. Go through the upper right door on the first screen.
Drop through the lower left hole on the second screen. Drop down the
lower left hole on the third and fourth screen as well. Take the upper
left door on the fifth screen. Take the lower left door on the sixth
and the lower left hole on the seventh screens. Take the lower left
door on the eighth screen to find the prisoner and trigger the event
dialogue.

Return to the fifth screen and take the upper right door. The lower
right door on the next screen leads to the boss. This time it is a
red reaper, but it fights exactly the same as the others.  It will
fly overhead, trying to get right above you. It will drop red orbs
down on you when it does. It also can dive at you, although it seems
this is just part of the way it moves instead of a deliberate attack.
Yes, the programmers didn't even change the color of the boss here.

Once the boss goes down the princess will be released from the
portrait. Work your way with her back to the entrance to finish the
level. Again there are no enemies, so this is not too bad.

The enemies you will encounter are all familiar to you. The silver
knights, flying crossbow knights, flying knight helmets, and ducks
return for this stage. There are no new enemies here.

 _______________________
| Bottom Right Princess |
|_______________________|
Stage 1
This stage offers about what you should expect at this point. Your old
friends the bats and ducks are back, but nothing else is, not even the
boss. Killer apples will drop from the trees in this level and move
towards you, although they can only change direction immediately after
a fall. There are also these mirror robots that will teleport in on top
of you. If you keep moving they won't be able to damage you. Skeletons
are also added to the mix. These rise from the ground slowly, but they
toss bones that can hurt you once they fully emerge. There is no boss
here, so just enter the castle when you get to the end of the stage.

Stage 2
This maze is just like the others. Take the lower left hole on the
first screen. Take the upper right door on the second screen. Go
through the lower left door on the third screen to go back to the
second screen on the bottom floor. Take the lower left door here to
access the dialogue screen.

Return to the previous screen and drop down the lower left hole. On the
next screen, take the lower left door and drop down the lower left hole
on the screen it leads to. Take the lower right door on this screen.
Drop down immediately in the lower left hole and you will be in the
room with the boss door, down on the lower left.

This reaper is grey. It will fly overhead, trying to get right above
you. It will drop grey orbs down on you when it does. It also can dive
at you, although it seems this is just part of the way it moves instead
of a deliberate attack. Kill the boss to release the princess and then
guide her back to the start to finish this stage.

There are no new enemies in this stage. You will encounter the silver
knights, flying knights, bats, and turtles again, but that's it.

 ________________
| Final Princess |
|________________|
The game changes styles on you. Now you play from a topdown angle and
move to the north, shooting enemies as you go. The enemies here share
their sprites with earlier enemies, although they all function more
like scrolling shooter foes.

There is a maze aspect to this. Periodically you will come to the end
of a tract and have multiple doors to pick from. The first time this
occurs, take the right door. This will play a little video and you
will find yourself in a floating palace. Now we're more like Zelda. Go
west, south, west, and then north four times to get to the boss. You
are given three dialogue choices, which apparently affect the ending
text after the boss. The third choice is the one for the "best"
ending.

The boss is a dark queen of some kind. She will float around the room,
opening her robe to fire shots at you. You can only hurt her when she
opens her robe, so time your attacks for that. After a few hits, she
will transform into a large dragon.

The dragon will hover around, taking up most of the screen. It is
constantly raising its claws and shooting fire out. You need to hit
it in the mouth when it fires to damage it. Just keep firing as you
move and you will pretty much do this automatically as it is always
firing at you.

Once the dragon is destroyed the game will end. Our hero will awaken
from his sleep and have some dialogue with a fairy. After that we are
treated to Rats and Star playing a short song during the credits.

 ____________
| Copyrights |
|____________|
Tashiro Masashi no Princess ga Ippai is (c) Epic Sony Record