Here's Lizard-Man where we left him outside the church. The game doesn't really tell you what to do from here. The intro let us know that the Meka Dragon has the power to curse, but there's nothing there about how to break the curse. Luckily, I have the manual, so I know that I need to find the Salamander Cross. Where? Who knows! I'll just have to explore.
Let me just take another look at my stats:
Holy hell! My stuff! Apparently somewhere in my escape I dropped the legendary gear. I guess I also ran across an elephant and took its tusks? At a guess I'd say this is supposed to be bone equipment, implying I took it from the skeletons I fought on the way out of the castle, and it didn't survive the translation (although this version of the game wasn't released in Japan (I think it didn't come out there until the PC Engine/Game Gear versions), I'm pretty sure it was made there). Or maybe the ivory in question is the lizard-man's fangs? Anyway, my stats now suck.
I take a look around town.
The nurse is pretty inexpensive, but I have no cash and full health, so I don't need her just now. If you're wondering what's going on in her portrait there, I believe those are her hands holding a chart. 2020 comment: just her right hand and arm, I think.
This door is locked.
I need to go out and get some money. The question mark at the top is an item that this guy won't sell me. My charm is too low (presently 3). Maybe he knows about the elephant. Personally, I think Lizard-Man is very charming.
A chest!
Sweet! My health is doubled!
Before I go back, here's a little secret:
A hidden store! Too bad I'm too ugly for this guy to deal with! Whatever this stuff is, it's pretty expensive. The other items cost 160, 360, and 640 gold.
I take the lower door back up, and exit through a door that only exists when it's opening.
I take the last door left in town. It leads to a room with a well. I go for a swim. Actually, Lizard-Man can't swim, but he can hold his breath for a very long time.
Off to the left is a dead end. The chest you see there is the one I just got a heart out of. I head right and find myself at the base of another well. Unfortunately I can't climb out of it, being unable to swim.
I am able to breathe fire underwater, which I have to say I find more impressive than swimming anyway. You can only have one fireball on screen at a time. If you hit the attack button again, the one on screen will disappear to make way for the new one. If you're like me and you tend to mash attack when threatened, this can be kind of irritating.
I take the steps and head out into the seaside area of the game.
It's pretty much business as usual: cross some platforms, kill some snakes.
These little crabs can't be hit while standing, you have to duck. This is actually a big weakness of the Lizard-Man form.
As you can see.
A little while later I meet a roper.
It hits me.
This little hut leads to an underwater dead end. It's how you get out again if you fall during the earlier platforming bits, since Lizard-Man can't swim.
These green crabs take two hits. All the palette-swapped enemies have the same pattern of strength: red ones are weakest, green intermediate, and blue the strongest.
I carry on for a bit and score an arrow from one of the crabs. They're a somewhat useful item that you can fire straight upwards. Good for flying enemies, but it's usually pretty hard to actually hit things.
Luckily I'm a crack shot.
Or not. These clouds zip around from side to side following you and dropping fire. They aren't much of a problem on their own, but when you're trying to fight other stuff at the same time they don't make things any easier. That was my only arrow, so I'm just gonna have to deal with it.
Clouds are especially problematic when you have to duck (i.e. stop moving) to be able to hit things.
I'm not really sure how this happened, though. Guess I wasn't quick enough on the trigger. There goes my revival potion! This isn't the huge setback it would be in Monster Land though. Potions are easier to come by, you can carry up to three at a time, and they aren't as useful anyway. In WBiML a potion would restore all your health, but in WBIII the amount you get back is random, often as little as one heart.
I manage to kill the crabs, though not before taking another hit. I quickly go through the nearby door and find a shop that won't sell me anything and a room with a treasure chest containing the key I need to get through the door back in town.
I set off back to town, but miss a jump and wind up underwater.
Off to the left I find a room with a treasure chest.
It drops a few coins, and one of each magic. Could've used that thunder dealing with the cloud a few minutes ago.
I head back to the right and find the door to the surface, then promptly fall back into the water.
There's a way out straight away, but I might as well take a look around while I'm down here. No way into that lower passage at this point.
Here's the boomerang in action. It's probably the most useful of the weapons, since even if you only have one of them if you catch it on the return you get to use it again.
I reach a dead end, so I head back to the right and make my way out again.
Turns out it's not a dead end if you go into the water at the far left of the area. I head across and find:
Another dead end.
The door at the start of the area takes me back to town. Now that I've got some cash, I pick up the mythril armour and shield.
Equipping them gets me a significant defence boost, and the change of clothes improves my charm. I head back into the store:
And the guy will now sell me the sword. With all my stats quadrupled, it's time to put my new key to use:
I squeeze in a heal, too. Note that with my increased health limit the nurse has quadrupled her price.
With the key I can reach the next level of this tower, and from there the door in the sky that leads to the desert. This game has pretty good level design, but it doesn't always make a lot of sense.
Anyway, that's it for today. I was planning to do Lizard-Man in one go, but I'm halfway through and this is the third post of this update.
Oh, and here's something I forgot in the first update:
It's the opening castle map. Much simpler than the same area in the previous game. See if you can spot where I drew the map wrong and corrected with copy-paste after scanning!
Here's the town. It's not really to scale very well.
And here's the seaside area. This is where my maps get really inaccurate. There should be more islands than I've put in, for one thing, and the door at the top right is in a separate building from the big curvy thing. Still, I think you get the gist.
Next time: boss fight.
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