Sorry for the delay, gang. Let’s do this thing!
There it is, the dreaded MEKA DRAGON.
I’m off to a good start.
Wonder Boy freezes in place and the DRAGON sparkles a bit. This is the RUBY taking effect and doing some damage for me.
The DRAGON’s damage indicator has darkened after all that sparkling. It’s a good thing. I move to get some distance as it jumps.
Here’s the DRAGON’s main attack: It throws fire at you. It’s usually not too hard to dodge as long as you’re far enough away to have some time to move.
I throw a fireball of my own. I don’t think these do a lot of damage, but it’s much safer than trying to close in for a hit.
I take another shot, but the DRAGON takes to the air and it sails past harmlessly.
After a narrow dodge I make another hit with my third FIREBALL.
A THUNDER FLASH! appears in my magic queue, and I take advantage of it for an easy hit.
Well, that’s that. The DRAGON’s kind of a wussy final boss when you have the RUBY. But then!
The screen goes black, and it is revealed that the dreaded MEKA DRAGON was... a MECHA DRAGON!
It still has basically the same attack, though. I’m not 100% on this, but I think that the first form only throws fire when it’s in the air, not on the ground like it’s doing here.
I fire off another FIRE BALL, but find myself in a sticky situation. How’m I gonna get out of this one?
Ah. The usual way. At least I got in a hit.
And another. Note that the DRAGON’s damage indicator is still in the green. I’m not doing a lot of damage here.
I fart out another fireball, but this one for some reason doesn’t do any damage. Maybe he’s invincible when he’s attacking? It is a mystery. Anyway, I’ve come up on LIGHTNING FLASH! now. Can’t miss with that.
What? H4X!
I pull a pretty sweet dodge here, jumping over that fireball.
I get some distance, throw a bomb, and take its next shot on my shield. Yeah, I’m pretty badass.
Uh... I send off another FIRE BALL, anyway.
The FIRE BALL connects while my BOMB bounces harmlessly past the DRAGON’s feet. That sort of thing is why I tried to waste my TORNADO and BOMB shots during the stage. They’re no use here.
This fireball manages to connect, even though the DRAGON is attacking.
As does this one. Sadly, I’ve got a TORNADO up next.
I throw it out, and fire off a LIGHTNING FLASH! while I’m at it. This is enough to knock the boss’s health down to yellow.
It soon recovers, and I have a near escape.
Another flash of lightning gives no apparent effect.
The TORNADO remains completely useless, but I get in another FIRE BALL hit.
This is a pretty sweet move on my part, if you’ll allow me to say so. The main difficulty of the DRAGON is jumping at it at the right time to avoid its fireballs. My usual way around this problem is having enough health to just get all my hits in during the invincibility window after getting hit. If you don’t have enough health, the other way is to pull off shots like this repeatedly, which for me usually means not beating the boss. This fight I’m mostly bypassing the difficulty by having so many fireballs, allowing me to damage the DRAGON without taking the risk of getting close to it.
I don’t know why the DRAGON’s fireball is so small this time, but it’s still just as efficacious. Luckily, I get a hit in too.
This time the fireball doesn’t hit ‘cause I’m still flashing from the previous hit. I don’t know why the DRAGON is unharmed by my fireball, though.
This is pretty poor performance on my part.
Apparently in the arcade version of the game, if you stand right up under the DRAGON, the fireballs will miss you. Not so on the SMS, where it can fire right through itself. Luckily, I’m again invincible, so I get in another fireball hit.
We both miss this time.
Another hit.
I’m not sure if I was still invincible here or if I got extremely lucky with my shield, but I didn’t take a hit either way.
Unlike this time. That’s not even a fireball hit, that’s me jumping on the DRAGON’s head.
I get in a couple quick FIRE BALL shots, so it’s not all bad.
Now this is just unlucky. The tail of the DRAGON’s attack is just too long to make it over this time. And to make it worse, my own attack misses!
So this is the tactic I was describing earlier: jump at it while it can’t hit you.
This one’s a lucky shot.
Again my attack is ineffective.
And again!
Alright! I get it down to red health. Only one more hit, and I can finish this overly pedantic account of the fight! Just in time, too, as I’m down to my last FIRE BALL.
And I miss. Great. The good news is, that’s put a shot of LIGHTNING FLASH! into the queue. Can’t miss with that!
You know what, though? That’s a lame way to fight. Even if I have managed the fight so far with wussy ranged attacks, I’m gonna finish it properly.
Boo-yah. Even though this was probably the easiest shot at this boss I’ve ever had in this game, thanks to all the magic I had, at this point I leaned back in my chair and raised both fists to the ceiling. I’m glad no-one else was in the house at the time.
A screen appears!
The ending speculates on the origins of the DRAGON and tells us that the people will live happily. Not happily ever after, mind you. Maybe even worse is yet to come. What a cheery note to end on!
The game congratulates me, then converts my remaining money to points, then my remaining life, then restores me to full health.
Night falls.
So long!
Extra Material:
Here's the .gif of the fight:
And the ending in motion:
And that's it! I hope you've enjoyed my LP of Wonder Boy in Monster Land. Now that you've seen what you need to know to get through this game, maybe you'd like to play it? It (was) on the Virtual Console, and I know it was worth every penny for me. Or, if you'd like to see how the story continues, check out Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, also for the Sega Master System and also (formerly) available on VC.
Anyway, thanks for reading, thanks for your comments, and thanks especially for your patience. This took a lot longer than I expected.
Good night, Monster Land...
There it is, the dreaded MEKA DRAGON.
I’m off to a good start.
Wonder Boy freezes in place and the DRAGON sparkles a bit. This is the RUBY taking effect and doing some damage for me.
The DRAGON’s damage indicator has darkened after all that sparkling. It’s a good thing. I move to get some distance as it jumps.
Here’s the DRAGON’s main attack: It throws fire at you. It’s usually not too hard to dodge as long as you’re far enough away to have some time to move.
I throw a fireball of my own. I don’t think these do a lot of damage, but it’s much safer than trying to close in for a hit.
I take another shot, but the DRAGON takes to the air and it sails past harmlessly.
After a narrow dodge I make another hit with my third FIREBALL.
A THUNDER FLASH! appears in my magic queue, and I take advantage of it for an easy hit.
Well, that’s that. The DRAGON’s kind of a wussy final boss when you have the RUBY. But then!
The screen goes black, and it is revealed that the dreaded MEKA DRAGON was... a MECHA DRAGON!
It still has basically the same attack, though. I’m not 100% on this, but I think that the first form only throws fire when it’s in the air, not on the ground like it’s doing here.
I fire off another FIRE BALL, but find myself in a sticky situation. How’m I gonna get out of this one?
Ah. The usual way. At least I got in a hit.
And another. Note that the DRAGON’s damage indicator is still in the green. I’m not doing a lot of damage here.
I fart out another fireball, but this one for some reason doesn’t do any damage. Maybe he’s invincible when he’s attacking? It is a mystery. Anyway, I’ve come up on LIGHTNING FLASH! now. Can’t miss with that.
What? H4X!
I pull a pretty sweet dodge here, jumping over that fireball.
I get some distance, throw a bomb, and take its next shot on my shield. Yeah, I’m pretty badass.
Uh... I send off another FIRE BALL, anyway.
The FIRE BALL connects while my BOMB bounces harmlessly past the DRAGON’s feet. That sort of thing is why I tried to waste my TORNADO and BOMB shots during the stage. They’re no use here.
This fireball manages to connect, even though the DRAGON is attacking.
As does this one. Sadly, I’ve got a TORNADO up next.
I throw it out, and fire off a LIGHTNING FLASH! while I’m at it. This is enough to knock the boss’s health down to yellow.
It soon recovers, and I have a near escape.
Another flash of lightning gives no apparent effect.
The TORNADO remains completely useless, but I get in another FIRE BALL hit.
This is a pretty sweet move on my part, if you’ll allow me to say so. The main difficulty of the DRAGON is jumping at it at the right time to avoid its fireballs. My usual way around this problem is having enough health to just get all my hits in during the invincibility window after getting hit. If you don’t have enough health, the other way is to pull off shots like this repeatedly, which for me usually means not beating the boss. This fight I’m mostly bypassing the difficulty by having so many fireballs, allowing me to damage the DRAGON without taking the risk of getting close to it.
I don’t know why the DRAGON’s fireball is so small this time, but it’s still just as efficacious. Luckily, I get a hit in too.
This time the fireball doesn’t hit ‘cause I’m still flashing from the previous hit. I don’t know why the DRAGON is unharmed by my fireball, though.
This is pretty poor performance on my part.
Apparently in the arcade version of the game, if you stand right up under the DRAGON, the fireballs will miss you. Not so on the SMS, where it can fire right through itself. Luckily, I’m again invincible, so I get in another fireball hit.
We both miss this time.
Another hit.
I’m not sure if I was still invincible here or if I got extremely lucky with my shield, but I didn’t take a hit either way.
Unlike this time. That’s not even a fireball hit, that’s me jumping on the DRAGON’s head.
I get in a couple quick FIRE BALL shots, so it’s not all bad.
Now this is just unlucky. The tail of the DRAGON’s attack is just too long to make it over this time. And to make it worse, my own attack misses!
So this is the tactic I was describing earlier: jump at it while it can’t hit you.
This one’s a lucky shot.
Again my attack is ineffective.
And again!
Alright! I get it down to red health. Only one more hit, and I can finish this overly pedantic account of the fight! Just in time, too, as I’m down to my last FIRE BALL.
And I miss. Great. The good news is, that’s put a shot of LIGHTNING FLASH! into the queue. Can’t miss with that!
You know what, though? That’s a lame way to fight. Even if I have managed the fight so far with wussy ranged attacks, I’m gonna finish it properly.
Boo-yah. Even though this was probably the easiest shot at this boss I’ve ever had in this game, thanks to all the magic I had, at this point I leaned back in my chair and raised both fists to the ceiling. I’m glad no-one else was in the house at the time.
A screen appears!
The ending speculates on the origins of the DRAGON and tells us that the people will live happily. Not happily ever after, mind you. Maybe even worse is yet to come. What a cheery note to end on!
The game congratulates me, then converts my remaining money to points, then my remaining life, then restores me to full health.
Night falls.
So long!
Extra Material:
Here's the .gif of the fight:
And the ending in motion:
And that's it! I hope you've enjoyed my LP of Wonder Boy in Monster Land. Now that you've seen what you need to know to get through this game, maybe you'd like to play it? It (was) on the Virtual Console, and I know it was worth every penny for me. Or, if you'd like to see how the story continues, check out Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, also for the Sega Master System and also (formerly) available on VC.
Anyway, thanks for reading, thanks for your comments, and thanks especially for your patience. This took a lot longer than I expected.
Good night, Monster Land...
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