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NOTE: Do not contact me asking for the ROM, I won't reply and I'll probably ignore all future mails. There's something called MetaCrawler, y'know. Try a phrase search, and don't be surprised if you have to muck about a foreign site to get it. Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Controls 3. Items 4. Transformations, Level Advancement 5. Walkthrough 6. Help Wanted (missing information) 7. Credits 1. Introduction Majyuuou is a Castlevania-ish platformer that never made it out of Japan. I first heard of it when looking through a big list of SNES games, and Majyuuou was on it with the comment "Contains nudity and violence". To make a long story short, I find that both are rather mild, but it's a fine game anyway. 2. Controls Quite simple, really. X shoots, Y jumps. You can double jump as well. Holding down and pressing Jump lets you dash, jumping and pressing Down+Shoot lets you stomp. Press Down to pick up items. Supershot: To do a high-powered but short-ranged attack, hold Shoot down until the bar beneath your health bar goes into flames. Useful for bosses and things that need destroying quickly. 3. Items Again, quite simple. Blue Crystal: A blue egg-shaped crystal that restores a good amount of health. Red Crystal: A round red crystal that destroys all onscreen enemies. Only one known. Helper Fairy: A greenish aura of a fairy. Upon pickup, acts as an option or a familiar, depending on whether you liked Gradius or Castlevania:SOTN better. But wait, there's more. If you get hit by an enemy and die, the Helper Fairy will restore your life. If you die by other means (timer, crushing or falling in a pit) you die, but get to keep your fairy. Transformation Crystal: Found at the end of most levels. Changes color from red, to green, to blue. To stop it, shoot it on the color you want then pick it up. The color determines which transformation you take. 4. Transformations There are three transformations in Majyuuou (four if you count the beginning guy). Transformations are determined by the color of the Transformation Crystals you pick up. Unlike other games, you keep your transformation after you die and even after you continue. Red Crystal: Mutant Of the three transformations, the one that looks most like the default hero. With wings and talons, that is. The Red Mutant's weapon is a crescent-shaped shot that goes in a looping pattern, and his Supershot is a large fireball that packs a wallop. On the downside, his regular shot sounds like one of those annoying alarm clocks designed to rupture eardrums. Green Crystal: Caped Avenger Stands a bit taller than the Mutant. Fires a green beam that does a fair bit of damage, and his supershot has the shortest range of any of the transformations. He does a slow teleport rather than a dash, which makes it less useful for evasion than any other transformation's dash. Blue Crystal: Dragon My personal favorite transformation. Has a nice powerful breath shot, a killer supershot, and just looks cool. The Dragon's biggest drawback is that it stands twice as tall as the Mutant, making it a bigger target. Level Advancement: Every 5000 points, your life bar grows a bit. Every 10,000 points you earn an extra life. Careful, if you have to continue, your life bar goes back down to what it was in the beginning. 5. Walkthrough STAGE 1-BRIDGE You start out on a bridge, with a nice dramatic sky behind you. Go right, and you'll run into a blue and grey Demon. After a brief exchange in Japanese, he'll rush at you and kill you. After the resurrection scene, just jump and shoot at him. He'll run off after a pathetic amount of damage. Go pick up the Helper Fairy and head into the Caves. CAVES Nothing too terribly difficult about this part. The little blue imps don't pose much of a threat, and the Helper Fairy will, well, help a lot here. Just make sure you don't linger in one spot too long, or that giant grub will catch up to you. Giant Grub? After you run into a dead end in the cave, the Grub will break the floor and you'll drop into the Sewers. SEWERS Easy peasy. The zombies are pretty much a walking shooting gallery, blow their heads off, shoot one more time and that's it for them. The only real threats are the frogs and the spikes. The zombie girls fire three shots, and are vulnerable while reloading. And the corpses on ropes... I'm not sure if they can actually hurt you or not. Either way, they're fun to shoot. Eventually you'll get to the end, enter an elevator and fight... ENCOUNTER: SPIDER This guy killed me many, many times before I figured out his pattern. He zips up offscreen, and two eye-blobs fall from the suggestive-looking mass on top of the elevator. A few seconds after the eye-blobs fall, he comes falling down on you and grabs you for heavy damage. How do you take care of him? Here's an easy way: Stand in the left-hand corner of the elevator. When they eye-blobs drop, shoot twice quickly to get rid of them, then start charging up a supershot and DON'T MOVE until it's almost finished charging. Walk to the right and the Spider should fall right behind you. Wait a split-second for his legs to close, then turn around and let him have it. Seven more times and the Spider's candy. Once you kill the Spider, you'll come out into a hallway. Go left and you'll meet the Giant Grub face-to-face. ENCOUNTER: GIANT GRUB Incredibly easy compared to the Spider. The Grub alternates between vomiting little balls and a mouth attack. Three or so supershots into the Grub's mouth should take care of it. The Grub drops a key. After you pick it up, go right and fight your way through a hallway full of eye-blobs and Bull Demons. The Bull Demons will use a jump attack if you're not careful, so quickly kill them before they get the chance. At the end of the hall, a door will open and you'll go into a chamber floored with human skulls, and a strange looking creature comes out to attack you. BOSS: MINOR DEMON For an end-of-level boss, this is incredibly easy. It has two attacks, a three- shot spread and a purple tongue attack. Try not to get hit with either as you shoot the nude woman's torso that serves as this thing's head. Won't take much effort. After you ice the Minor Demon, pick a transformation, then it's off to the outside. STAGE 2-OVERGROWN CITY Wow, there's a lot of plants here, aren't there? Don't worry about waiting for the flowers to open, just shoot them before they get a chance to shoot at you. Before too long, you'll find a pod-like growth in the ground. Wait a few seconds and a fairy will come out and start attacking you. If you kill this fairy, you'll notice it leaves a corpse. Try to pick it up, and you'll start EATING it, restoring a goodly amount of health. You can only get two fairies from a pod, and if your life is already full, just destroy the pod and move on. Before too long, you'll run across a building. Try to kill the green bugs hanging from it from as far away as possible, because they fire in eight directions. Go a little further and the Bug will burst through a wall. ENCOUNTER: BUG He's a long one, isn't he? The Bug will attack you in swoops of various lengths. The trick is to find safe spots in the pattern and shoot the Bug in the head, preferably with supershots. Occaisonally, it goes across the screen in very tight loops, in which case nail it with supershots, then jump through it with a stomp attack whenever it gets too close for comfort. Sooner or later the Bug'll give up the ghost and you're free to move on. OVERGROWN CITY, PART TWO Much the same as the first part. Black areas in the floor with thin green stuff across the top are pits, be careful not to fall in them. There's a Blue Crystal here that only Avenger can take, other than that just use common sense until you reach the second building, in which you'll find... ENCOUNTER: DEATH EYE The Death Eye will first try to shoot you with its laser. When you see a thin purple beam pointing at you, dash two or three times under the Eye and it'll miss you. You WERE charging up a supershot during this time, right? After it's had enough of that, it'll start teleporting around. Simply charge up, look to see where it'll appear and nail it when it does. It shouldn't be able to so much as get a shot off. Eight rounds of that, and it'll shrink down and start zipping around the room like an immature superball. Every time you shoot it, it'll stop and rotate, then zip off again. Immediately after you take care of Death Eye, you'll be taken to the chamber of the... BOSS: PLANT QUEEN Another easy boss. She stands in a tall, throne-like flower, and has three attacks. Vine Whip: Grows her arm out as a giant vine, then whips it at you. Dash towards her to dodge, then counter with a supershot. Flower Crush: Simply falls forward. Hard to defend against, just dash away and hope for the best. Plant Laser: Least effective attack of the Plant Queen. She shoots lasers at four different heights, and they're all higher than you are. Wait for her to fire the fourth one and blast her. Without too much effort, she'll go down. This time, pick your transformation carefully. STAGE 3-GRAVEYARD TRAIN Yep, it's a train. And we all know what happens when you fall off a freight train in Hell: You die. Therefore, try to avoid falling off. The Skull Guns here are annoying, but they're predictable. Just stay away from the edge and you're OK. Almost immediately, you'll come to a flat car and deal with... ENCOUNTER: BONE SCYTHER The Bone Scyther's blades do a lot of damage, but they're fairly easy to avoid: When he throws them, jump back and they'll go to where you were, hover and return. He can't take much damage, just keep up a steady stream of fire and don't bother with supershots. After you take the Bone Scyther down, check out the graffiti on the car (!) and move on. Right after the Scyther, you'll find the game's only Red Crystal, and to keep it from being entirely pointless, they supply you with two V-patterns of Blue Imps to kill with it. Right, that was fun! Next, you're confronted with several tricky jumps on short cars, and to make matters worse, there's a tentacled eye- thing over each one waiting to blast you with a flare when you walk under them, knocking you off the car. Take care of them before you jump. Then, even more jumping, with blue imps to knock you out midjump. Just jump as low as possible and you might make it. After that, you're on easier ground...er, cars. There are boxes stacked on these cars, and take note of those with bombs on them-- they can be shot, and sometimes hold Blue Crystals. Next, there are some cars with a split-level design, and they're infested with... midget cavemen? Tiny cyclopsi? Whatever the hell they are, they don't really pose a threat unless you smack into one whilst jumping from car to car. There's another Helper Fairy available here (wheee!), don't miss it. Now, there are some cages filled with those little cavemen. I don't think they can hurt you, but I always hop across them just to make sure. Then, you'll come onto a flat car with a flag on it, along with two giant horse-headed men, beating on a woman in a business suit, tied to a cross. Oy. Just shoot, they'll die after a few measly shots. Immediately after that bit of strangeness, you'll find out exactly what's making this train go... BOSS: IRON TERROR Yet another easy boss. It has an obvious weak point: the big, pulsating, scrotal, exposed heart. The mouth will spew out green shots that blow back. Just get close to the big thing, duck, and shoot, and most of the boss's shots will miss you. Once you kill the Iron Terror, its legs will snap off, and you'll crash the giant, skidding corpse through the gates of the Inner Circle. Also, you won't get a chance to transform here. Hope you're happy with your form... STAGE 4-INNER CIRCLE This is a very cold-looking level. Immediately you'll be bombarded with large snowflakes that shatter on impact. These hurt. The other things to look out for are the large ice crystals. Try to take them out from afar, because once they close in they have a nasty tendency to circle under you and hit you from behind. After a brief encounter with the Demon you ran into at the beginning of the game, you'll go to a large area of floor that acts as an elevator. Dodge more ice, then move on as soon as possible. Your next challenge is the... I don't know what it is. Whatever it is, it's frozen, has lots of pointy things, and moves up and down. And yes, you have to go under it. You know the drill, find a safe spot, run to it, and then duck. If you're using the Dragon, don't worry too much about the head, it doesn't seem to register damage when ducking. After that bit of unpleasantness, it's time to go onward. There's a bridge here, and it's another familiar hazard: The crumbling bridge. If you just constantly dash across it, you'll go faster than the bridge can fall AND the flying monsters will miss you. Easy. Now, it's time to face off with the Icy Demon. BOSS: ICY DEMON The Icy Demon has a consistent pattern: Belch 7 fireballs, form a giant ice dagger, throw it, repeat. To avoid the fireballs, go to the left-hand corner and duck. When the dagger's forming, you have just enough time to dash over and nail him with a supershot. To avoid the dagger, dash to the left JUST as it starts to move. If you're pressed for time, you can shoot him before AND after he throws the dagger, but you're likely to get hit by a fireball as you run to safety. Lookee there! A transformation crystal! Now, it's time to go to... STAGE 5-HELL TOWER A quick note: Fire hurts. Lava hurts. Stay out of it. Anyway... first thing you'll run into is a stone pillar rising out of the ground. Break it. Don't touch it, it's hot. Now why would they put such a lame-o obstacle so far into the game? Hmm... After that, you have another series of tricky jumps. Note the grey flying monsters... shoot 'em, they leave a corpse. You know what that means! Dinnertime! You also have to deal with big, snaky lava monsters. Aim for the head and there's no problem. At the end, there's a split: up or down. Go up. Once you go up, head immediately to the right (past that spiky shelled thing) to get a Blue Crystal, then go back and over the top, then right to... ENCOUNTER: WALL WYRM No real threat here. The Wall Wyrm just bobs up and down and occaisonally shoots something at you. Dodge, shoot, it's all in the mind. Head right, negotiate the bloody ribcage, and get the key. Now back to the left and down the way you came. There's another blue crystal now where the path splits, pick it up and head down. Now that you have the key, the wall will open up and you can go into the tunnel. Charge up a supershot and head in. Here, you'll be chased by lava, and you'll find out why they showed you the pillar in the beginning-- there's lots of 'em in here. The best strategy is to destroy them with supershots, and start charging as soon as you destroy a set of them. You also have to watch out for the flame pillars which pop up periodically. Thankfully, this won't last too long and you can move into the next section. This is a longish side-scrolling section. Kill, eat what you can, move, you know. Watch out for bridge sections with white roots in them, they fall apart when walked on. You'll encounter Mr. Bix along the way. ENCOUNTER: MR. BIX Mr. Bix is a large robot with clawed hands. He's actually very similar to the Bone Scyther, except that he jumps around more often. Use the same basic strategy and he'll fall apart with a little effort. After that, there's more of the same until the end. Then, it's time for a REAL End Boss. BOSS: MAJOR DEMON Now here's a challenge. The Major Demon starts off rooted to one place. From each hand, he drops fireballs that hit the ground, split, and run across the ground. Watch the pattern: he drops three from each hand, and then there's a little lag before he drops the next set. So if you do single jumps over the first two, then double-jump and hit the hand with a supershot, you shouldn't take much damage. Each hand takes three supershots, and it gets easier after the first one. Once you've broken his hands off, the Major Demon breaks loose from his base and starts teleporting around. He'll teleport to where you are, then throw a two- stage lightning shot: One straight down, then two at 45-degree angles. You have to move away from where the main strike is, but if you dash you'll get hit. After he does the lightning, you have a little time to hit the giant eye in his torso with a supershot. Be careful to not touch the eye, because it will hurt you. Keep plugging away and you'll beat it eventually. And now, the final level. Pick your favorite transformation, you'll need it. STAGE 6-THE GAUNTLET Mmm... nice muscly textures, eh? Get going, and you'll run into... the Spider? ENCOUNTER: SPIDER Yes, it's the same Spider as in the first level. There are a couple of differences, though... four eye-blobs drop instead of two, and his reaction time's increased, so you'll have to dash to avoid his dive. After you watch his legs fly off for the second time, keep on going and you'll find a fairy pod, just like in Stage 2. Eat a fairy or two as needed, then move on to the next chamber... ENCOUNTER: BUG It's the Bug again. Use the same tactics as before, and be careful when he extends his fangs: He'll pick you up and thrash you about. Another kill, another fairy pod, and then... ENCOUNTER: BONE SCYTHER Once again. Same tactics, watch out for his three-shot spread. Kill. Pod. Next chamber.... ENCOUNTER: ???? Hm. We've never run across this guy before. No matter, he's fairly easy: Duck to avoid his steady stream of snakes, keep shooting, and dash if he tries to jump on you. After you take him down, you'll have to kill the snakes he leaves behind. One more fairy pod, and then it's SHOWTIME! LAST BOSS: DEMOGORGON After your conversation, the background will fade away, revealing a HUGE demon. Demogorgon's face will change into a more suitably demonic visage, and then you have a fight on your hands. Demogorgon has three attacks: A ball-lightning attack which comes from his horns, flame breath, and if you walk under his eyes, tears of lava come down on you. The only attack you really have to look out for is the ball lightning, because it causes a large spread when it hits the ground. Stand within supershot range of his head and wait for him to shoot a ball lightning. When it's about halfway to the ground, double-jump up and let fly with the supershot. If you jump too early, you'll come down right on the lightning. If Demogorgon opens his mouth, head for the edge of the screen and wait for the fire to subside, then take advantage of the lag and nail him one with a supershot. Once you've killed both of Demogorgon's eyes and his horns, he'll start to use his almost-dead head as a hammer on you. Really, you've got to make an effort to get hit here. Just keep shooting and his head will die. After you've killed the head, it'll come to rest on the ground... and then, a little girl demon will come crawling out of a hole in his forehead? LAST BOSS: TRUE DEMOGORGON Good luck. She's small, fast, and she really packs a wallop. She has several attacks, and fortunately, you can predict them. SPREAD SHOT: Concentrates an energy ball over her head, then lets go with three shots straight forward and two at angles. Stand a good distance away and jump over them. STOMP: Double-jumps and comes down on your head. Dash, but only if you're sure she double-jumped, because she likes to fake it and you're likely to dash into her if she faked. MAD DASH: Squats down, kicks up a leg and flies across the room, causing major damage. Double-jump as soon as you see her take the position. If you can manage to defeat her, enjoy the ending and relax as the credits roll... 6. WANTED I need any information about Majyuuou: character names, enemy names, back story, translated manual, anything you can offer that I don't have, I want. Also, is that the only ending? I've never been able to keep a Helper Fairy long enough to reach the woman on the train or Demogorgon. Maybe that could affect the ending? Send everything to the email address at the top of the FAQ. 7. CREDITS To KSS for making this game, and to myself for playing it and writing this FAQ.