Round 8 – Village of Cacti
Oh great. MADMAN.
Here’s the trick with these guys: When they’re in the ground, you can hit them from the side.
Sweet, delicious money.
14G? Lame! And there’s another MADMAN just around the corner!
This guy at least has the decency to drop 31G.
Yet another RAT. Let’s get out of this place.
Now this looks like a cacti village.
Jumping around like a moron fails to uncover any hidden cash. Town looks pretty much deserted, too. I guess as we get closer to the dragon’s lair, the influence of the monsters is stronger.
Looks like not everyone has cleared out. Commerce will find a way!
That’s just silly. Dragons can fly for themselves.
I attempt to find some hidden money, and take a hit from that GHOST.
A GOLDEN MIRROR and LIFE HEART for my efforts to rid the world of EEL WHIPS and ROHPAHs.
Looks like at least one more brave soul has stuck on in this town.
Oh no! It’s Mr WIZARD!
I am immediately hit by a fireball. A proud moment.
Mr WIZARD is surprisingly agile for a man clearly advanced in years. He jumps around, easily avoiding my attack. I decide to close in for the kill.
Oh, come on!
Yes!
No!
Aha! Take that!
Then I miss again.
I manage to block a fireball with my shield.
Then I walk into him again.
I finally manage to hit him as he lands. The fruits of my labour:
A supply of LIGHTNING FLASH! magic. And the satisfaction of having avenged the Village of Cacti. Although, come to think of it, all those cacti outside looked fine.
I get hit immediately on exiting, because I didn’t push that GHOST back before going in.
On the plus side, I was thrown in the direction I was going anyway. And, since I’ve been hit already, the ROHPAH projectile passes straight through me.
Once again I’ve been sucking up the place so bad that this heart is a welcome drop.
I forget, is this round 8 or round 2? Apparently building a town just outside a large cavern is standard practice in Monster Land.
MINI-COIN COLLECTOR! Despite the name, these guys steal regular-sized coins when they hit you.
I leave him behind (but lost 5G to him) and take on this BAT. Like a lot of the BATs in this game, this one doesn’t swoop to a level where you can hit him on the ground. He can hit you, though. Notice that I lost a quarter heart between the second and third shots. Luckily, it drops a whole heart, so I come out ahead.
I encounter another MINI-COIN COLLECTOR. I’m a little more successful in dodging this time. Just like in Round 2, someone be beyond the wall here.
It’s MEDUSA! Note that at this point, the game is no longer holding your hand. Unlike in Round 2, there’s no pop-up notice to say that there’s a door hidden on that platform. You don’t even get a question mark. You just have to have figured out by now that you should press up all over the place if you want to finish Round 8.
Yep, I’m in top form today. Anyway, MEDUSA throws snakes all over the place. They can get kind of overwhelming. Luckily, I have a gift from Mr WIZARD.
LIGHTNING FLASH! The screen goes white, and all the little snakes die (yes, that is a screenshot in the middle). For some reason I still have 9 more shots of the spell. I guess Mr WIZARD must drop 10. You can accumulate more than 9 of a spell, but 9 is the most that will show on screen.
Probably the best way to handle this fight is to attack with your sword, and just use lightning if you miss a swing or if there’s too many little snakes on screen. Instead of doing this, I just blow all my lightning at once.
As a result, I have to actually fight her once I run out. I take a hit.
I manage to get her damage indicator into the red, then get hit by a snake. How embarrassing!
I get 10 points for killing this snake. Maybe I should just grind here for a while.
I finish the job and load up on cash. If I hadn’t already been flashing from the snake hit I just got, I would’ve taken a hit from the snake underneath me in the second shot when I landed. They don’t disappear immediately.
My initial attempt to get the jump on this bat ends in failure, but I again abuse hit invincibility to kill him, and again the equation works in my favour. He drops more life than he takes.
I guess they put a moving platform here so that you can get back to the first part of the stage if you missed MEDUSA.
Another epic BAT battle ends in victory for me. Note that I got the first kill with a BOMB. This was either because I’m super awesome, or because I threw one accidentally at a lucky time.
Awrighty! Now only my shield sucks!
Look how high I can jump!
I spend a little time jumping trying to find cash before the BATs start to respawn and I decide that this must be the first rooftop in the game with no money on it.
I’m pretty sure that respawned BATs don’t drop hearts, so I’m forced to finish the stage in less than perfect health.
BONUS MATERIAL:
Here's the fight with Mr WIZARD.
My MEDUSA fight perhaps needs a little explaining. Each time the screen flashes and she's thrown back, that's the lightning. Actually, watching the .gif, I think I might've used the magic too quickly. I'm not sure that all the shots connected. What a waste!
And here's the map.
tl,dr:
But wait, there's more!
Perhaps you noticed something odd about the map? Well, Round 8 is pretty short, but it has a trick up its sleeve: a branching path!
You might remember this intersection from the main run. In that, I went to the right. Had I gone down the hole:
I’d’ve found a GOBLIN.
I’ve left out the shots where he hit me. Let’s pretend that never happened.
Although that makes my walking on spikes here hard to explain (in fact, if you look closely, you’ll notice that I took some damage between the second and third shots. That’s what comes of standing on spikes).
Since you guys were so nice about ignoring those hits before, I’m gonna let you see me get hit by this MINI-RED KNIGHT.
Uh, twice.
He drops a MYSTERIOUS MANTLE, which is actually pretty useful. These are big jumps for a guy in leather boots.
I’m flashing here because of the MANTLE. This dude was the one enemy in this area that didn’t hit me. Also, remember back in Round 3 when I said that the conveyor belt there was the only one in the game? Yeah, I don’t take this path very often.
I make my exit, and find myself in the same cavern I would’ve gotten to anyway, except I bypassed the Village. That’s no fun! Who’s gonna deal with Mr WIZARD if I don’t? And how will I defeat MEDUSA without my LIGHTNING FLASH!es? We’ll never know, because none of this ever happened! I always take the high road. That said, if you clean out the enemies in the first area, and then take the low road, you'll come out ahead financially, since none of the enemies in the village drop any money.
In keeping with tradition:
Next: Round 9
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